Gadget

The 10th-gen Apple iPad hits a low of $300, plus the rest of the week’s best tech deals

It’s Friday, which means it’s time for another curated roundup of the week’s best tech deals. This week’s selection is highlighted by a new low on Apple’s entry-level iPad, which is down to $300 at Amazon with an on-page coupon. That’s about $50 less than buying direct from Apple. Beyond that, a new PlayStation sale has cut $50 off the PlayStation 5 — and if you already subscribe to Sony’s PlayStation Plus service, you can get a year of Netflix thrown in on top. We’re also seeing discounts on year-long Peacock memberships, various Sonos speakers, the newest MacBook Air and Roku’s Streaming Stick 4K, among other gadgets we recommend. Here are the best tech deals from this week that you can still buy today.

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

The 10th-gen iPad is down to $300 at Amazon, which is a new low for the base 64GB model and $29 off the tablet’s previous low. This deal applies to the blue and silver versions of the device, and you’ll need to clip an on-page coupon to see the full discount at checkout. If you need more storage, 256GB versions are also on sale for an all-time low of $450.

This is the budget pick in our iPad buying guide — by default, sure, but still. It has a similar design as the pricier iPad Air, it lasts 10-ish hours per charge and its A14 Bionic chip is plenty fast for media consumption and light work. If you can afford one of the new Airs — or even a last-gen Air — those are still better values: The latest one has twice as much storage by default (128GB), and each comes with faster chips and cleaner laminated displays. They also support better Apple Pencils and Magic Keyboards. Still, if you’re on a tighter budget, you won’t find a better tablet for $300.

Save $49 with $29.01 coupon

$300 at Amazon

PlayStation

Sony kicked off its annual “Days of Play” sale this week, and it’s knocked $50 off the PlayStation 5 for the occasion. That brings the standard “slim” model down to $449 and the all-digital version (which lacks a disc drive) down to $399. While these aren’t huge discounts, price drops of any kind have been fairly uncommon since the console arrived in 2020. The offers are available at several retailers, though if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber and order a PS5 from Sony’s PlayStation Direct store, you can get a 12-month Netflix Premium subscription thrown in for no extra cost.

The PlayStation VR2 headset is also on sale for $449, which is $100 off and an all-time low. The Netflix offer applies there as well. That said, we’re hesitant to recommend the PSVR2 more broadly given its relative dearth of hit games. (A potential PC adapter could change that equation down the road, though.) As for the console, it’s worth noting that Sony is widely expected to launch an updated “PS5 Pro” later in 2024, but the existing machines should remain worthwhile if you want to upgrade today. Sony says the Days of Play sale will run through June 12.

$449 at Amazon

Square Enix

Naturally, the Days of Play sale also includes a number of discounts on PS4 and PS5 games. To be candid, most of them aren’t anything we haven’t seen several times before, but at least a few are worth highlighting. For one, the mammoth and highly-rated action-RPG Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is down to a new low of $52.49, or $55 if you’d prefer a physical copy. The hit open-world superhero game Spider-Man 2 is $20 off at $50, while the smaller-scale Spider-Man: Miles Morales is back down to $20. If you don’t mind buying last-gen copies, the zombie drama The Last of Us II and the, let’s say, eccentric delivery game Death Stranding are also well worth checking out at $10 apiece.

There are technically deals on PlayStation Plus subscriptions as well, though they’re not great. New users can take up to 30 percent off a membership, but if you’re already a member, you can only get a discount by upgrading to a higher tier of service. Specifically, you can take 25 percent off the cost of upgrading to the middle “Extra” tier, or 30 percent off a jump to the top-end “Premium” plan. If you only have a short time left on your current subscription, though, the net savings won’t be that large.

$52 at PlayStation Store

Peacock

New and returning subscribers can get a year of Peacock Premium for $20. The discount should appear automatically at the link below, but if you don’t see it, use the code STREAMTHEDEAL at checkout. Normally, a year of service goes for $60. Note that, despite the “Premium” tag, this is Peacock’s ad-supported tier. For ad-free service, you want Peacock Premium Plus, which costs $120 per year but isn’t currently discounted. Peacock says this offer will run through June 30, but remember that your subscription will be set to auto-renew at the standard price by default.

Generally speaking, Peacock isn’t as rich with material as rivals like Netflix or Hulu, but if you’re looking to stream the upcoming Summer Olympics, WWE live events, next season’s Premier League matches or just old NBC shows like The Office, it might be worth adding to your rotation.

In other streaming deals, we’ll also note that Paramount+ is still offering a year of its “with Showtime” tier for $60, which is half off. That one is also for new or lapsed subscribers only.

Save $40 with code

$20 at Peacock

Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget

Sonos has rolled out another round of discounts for its various smart speakers and soundbars. The deals include new lows for the hefty Move 2 portable speaker, which is $113 off at $336, and Era 300 home speaker, which is $90 off and down to $359. Several other devices are at or near their best prices to date as well, including the compact Roam SL for $127, the Era 100 speaker for $199, the high-end Arc soundbar for $719, the smaller Beam (Gen 2) for $399 and the Sub (Gen 3) subwoofer for $639. All of those represent 20 percent discounts. The sale is available at third-party retailers like Amazon, Best Buy and B&H, and Sonos says it’ll run through June 16. It doesn’t include any deals on the company’s new Ace headphones, however.

We’ve given just about all of these devices favorable reviews before, and we highlight many of them in our guides to the best soundbars and best smart speakers. The sale is coming at something of a rough time for Sonos, however, as a recent overhaul of its mobile app gutted various features and majorly pissed off many of the company’s more ardent fans along the way. Sonos has pledged to address many of the concerns with future updates, but it’s not a great look. That said, the speakers themselves still pair easily with one another and generally sound great for their respective categories. They also support Apple’s AirPlay 2 protocol, so you can stream music directly from an iPhone, and most include some level of voice control. You just might want to avoid updating to the latest version of the app if you can.

$199 at Sonos

Photo by Devindra Hardawar / Engadget

Configurations of Apple’s newest 13-inch MacBook Air with an M3 chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD are down to $1,349 at Amazon and B&H. That’s the best price we’ve tracked, coming in $150 below Apple’s MSRP and about $50 below the typical street price we’ve seen over the past month. The larger 15-inch version is also on sale for a low of $1,499, which is $200 less than buying from Apple directly. B&H’s listings say these offers will end on 8:15pm ET on May 31, so they may not last through the weekend.

The 13-inch Air is the top pick in our guide to the best laptops, though the 15-inch model is effectively the same device, just with a bigger screen and better speakers. We gave both versions a score of 90 in our review earlier this year. Both could stand to have a couple more ports, but they run fast and look great, with crisp displays, comfortable keyboards and lengthy battery life. We specifically recommend starting with 16GB of RAM if you plan on using the laptops for anything more than the basics, but if you’re not going to push the device too hard, the entry-level configs with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage are also on sale.

It’s worth noting that the older M2 MacBook Air is still a great value if you want to save cash, but if you’d like the absolute latest — or just need the ability to connect two external monitors — this is a good chance to save.

$1,349 at Amazon

Will Lipman Photography for Engadget

The Roku Streaming Stick 4K is down to $34 at Amazon and Walmart. That’s not an all-time low, but it matches the lowest price we’ve seen for the tiny HDMI stick in 2024. We typically see the device retail between $40 and $50. We highlight the Streaming Stick 4K in our guide to the best streaming devices, as it’s simple to navigate and supports just about all the major apps and HDR formats (Twitch aside). It also supports Apple’s AirPlay 2 tech, so you can beam videos to it directly from an iPhone. You’ll still have to put up with some ads, though, and it’s not as adept at proactively recommending shows you might like as Google’s Chromecast.

$34 at Amazon

Photo by Jon Turi / Engadget

If you’re looking for a super-portable Bluetooth speaker ahead of the summer months, the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 3 is one of our favorites. Right now the manufacturer has it down to $60 with the checkout code WBMEMDAY. That ties the best price we’ve seen and comes in about $10 to $15 below the device’s average street price, depending on the colorway. We recommend the Wonderboom 3 in our Bluetooth speaker buying guide for getting impressively punchy and clear sound out of its tiny, barrel-shaped frame. It has an IP67 water- and dust-resistance rating, so you can safely use it in the pool or shower, and it lasts more than 10 hours on a charge. It needs an ancient micro-USB cable to charge, however, and you still shouldn’t expect much in the way of deep bass from something this small.

Save $20 with code

$60 at Ultimate Ears

Photo by Billy Steele / Engadget

The Google Pixel Buds Pro are on sale for $130 at Wellbots when you use the code ENGPIX70 at checkout. Again, that’s not the lowest price we’ve ever seen, but it’s the largest discount we’ve tracked since the holidays last year. Google normally sells the true wireless earbuds for $200, though we’ve seen them fall to $140 multiple times over the course of 2024.

This is the top Android pick in our wireless earbuds buying guide, as the pair integrates tightly with Google’s mobile OS and Pixel phones in particular. There’s wireless charging, multi-device pairing and a solid active noise cancellation mode on top of that, while the default sound profile should suit those who like hyped-up bass and bright treble. That said, the design may not be the best fit for those with smaller ears, and call quality isn’t great. We gave the Pixel Buds Pro a score of 87 back in 2022.

Save $70 with code

$130 at Wellbots

iFixit

iFixit has its Pro Tech Toolkit on sale for $60, which is a $15 discount. This offer is also available at Walmart and Best Buy. As the name suggests, this is a handy toolkit for anyone interested in repairing or modding their own gadgets. Its 64-bit driver set includes several bits you can use to open up gadgets that may not be easily accessible with more traditional screws, such as the Nintendo Switch or recent iPhones. There’s a range of tweezers, spudgers, picks and other prying tools beyond that, and its case doubles as a magnetic sorting tray. If you already know what you’re doing when it comes to fixing up gadgets, it should be a helpful way to avoid trekking to a repair shop.

$60 at iFixit

Samsung

A version of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage is on sale for $210 on Amazon. That’s only $10 off this config’s usual street price over the last couple of months, but it still matches an all-time low. This is the budget pick in our guide to the best Android tablets. It isn’t likely to wow you in any one area, but its 11-inch LCD display is solid for the money, with a 90Hz refresh rate that makes scrolling feel smooth. The Snapdragon 695 chip is quick enough for the basics, there’s a microSD slot for expanding storage and the battery should last through a day on average. Android still isn’t as well-suited to large screens as iPadOS, but Samsung says it’ll supply the tablet with OS updates through Android 16. Just note that there’s no fingerprint reader or formal water-resistance rating, and that charging speeds top out at a relatively meager 15W.

$210 at Amazon

Anker

Anker’s Lightning-based Nano Portable Charger is down to $12 with an on-page coupon, which is an all-time low and about $14 off its usual going rate. We recommend the USB-C version of this device in our portable charger buying guide, but the idea here is the same: It’s a tiny power brink that snaps directly into your iPhone’s charging port. It has a relatively small 5,000mAh capacity and only charges up to 12W, so it’s best viewed as a way to squeeze a little more juice out of a dying phone, not a full-on power bank. Still, it can be useful in an emergency, and the whole thing is small enough to fit in a pocket. Just be sure you won’t upgrade to an iPhone 15 anytime soon, as those charge over USB-C instead of Lightning.

$12 at Amazon

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