Apple's M3 iPad Airs with upgraded storage have never been this cheap before
SAVE UP TO $170: Two configurations of the 11-inch Apple iPad Air (M3, WiFi) are on sale for record-low prices at Woot as of Sept. 24. Get the 256GB model for $539 (normally $699) or the 512GB variant for $729 (usually $899).
We consider Apple's M3 iPad Air from early 2025 to be the best iPad for most people: It's thin, light, and offers MacBook-level performance in "a more affordable package," wrote Mashable's Samantha Mangino. It starts to get a little less affordable as you add more storage — its base model only has 128GB — but right now, two upgraded configurations are cheaper than ever before.
As of late September, Amazon's daily deals site Woot has the 256GB and 512GB variants of the 11-inch M3 iPad Air marked down to new all-time lows. (Note that they're only available in the blue hue.) The former is priced at $539, or 23% off its $699 sticker price, while the 512GB model is going for $729 — that's 19% off its $899 MSRP. Those prices beat their previous record lows on Amazon by $10 and $20, respectively, per the price-tracking site CamelCamelCamel.
I checked Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon itself to see if any of them were matching Woot's M3 iPad Air deals and came up dry. Both models were still stuck at $549 and $749 at all three retailers.
For reference, the iPad Air's M3 chip notched a multi-core score of 11,464 in Primate Labs' Geekbench 6 benchmark, our go-to performance test. That makes it almost as fast as the M3-era MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, which scored 11,998 and 12,057, respectively. This caliber of power, plus the new "windowing" system introduced in iPadOS 26, makes modern Apple tablets like the M3 iPad Air viable laptop replacements, Mangino said. (If you want a Magic Keyboard to seal that deal, it was $20 off on Amazon the last time I checked.)
Other notable specs you'll find on the M3 iPad Air include a bright anti-reflective Liquid Retina display, a 12MP Center Stage selfie camera, a 12MP rear camera, and a battery that lasted nearly 15 hours per charge in our testing. Our reviewer recommended it for anyone who's coming from an iPad that's at least two generations older: The M2 iPad Air is basically identical to it, chipset aside.
If you still need some time to mull over your purchase, just be aware that Woot's M3 iPad Air markdowns will be live for the next two weeks or until they sell out — whichever comes first.
Haley Henschel is a Chicago-based Senior Shopping Reporter at Mashable who reviews and finds deals on popular tech, from laptops to gaming consoles and VPNs. She has years of experience covering shopping holidays and can tell you what’s actually worth buying on Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. Her work has also explored the driving forces behind digital trends within the shopping sphere, from dupes to 12-foot skeletons.
