Best Buy Introduces Record Low Prices Across Every 10th Gen iPad

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Especially when street price on the 9 is often $250ish. That's why I picked the 9 last year.

I wish there was a basic version of the Mini, too. I likely would have bought an iPad much sooner if it had been an 8 inch with similar specs as a 9, even at the same price. A smaller one is less likely to get dinged in my book bag, or in a kid's backpack, for that matter. Which makes me wonder if primary schools would really prefer 10 inch devices if they had another affordable option.

Schools prefer what they can afford.

Apple could easily offer something much better at the same price, as a special “education edition iPad”.

But a few dollars less earned per iPad is of course not compatible with Apple’s goals.

 

[magicschoolbus]

This iPad gets so much hate but works really well. I’ve never had an issue with mine. For the price it’s hard to beat.

 

[aParkerMusic]

All iPads offer the same experience using iPadOS.

It’s the arbitrary lack of Pencil 2 support that makes the low end iPads “only for consumption”

iPad 10 is very low value. But not because it’s actually that under-powered, but because Apple needs you to buy at least an iPad Air.

iPad 10 is just there to make you appreciate how much more you get from buying an Air or Pro.

Classic Apple up-selling trick.

Yeah, Apple wasted money on manufacturing iPad 10th Gens so that they could trick you into buying an Air 🙄

Also, lack of support for Apple Pencil 2 is hardly arbitrary if they couldnt fit the hardware inside due to the camera being moved.

Those are two conspiracy theories that only get tossed around on MacRumors.

 

[aParkerMusic]

Schools prefer what they can afford.

Apple could easily offer something much better at the same price, as a special “education edition iPad”.

But a few dollars less earned per iPad is of course not compatible with Apple’s goals.

BREAKING NEWS: Apple is a for-profit business.

Again, something only offensive to some people on MacRumors forums.

 

[ypanda]

I also believe it’s a very good price. In the end, most people use an iPad for web browsing, watching videos, etc.

The iPad 10 is excellent for that purpose and it does these tasks nearly just as well as an iPad Pro. For a fraction of the price.

Especially for you: you bought the device shortly after its release. You already got so much use out of it and it’s still the newest regular iPad out there.

I am with the others, what is so bad or weird about the iPad 10? I paid $400 for mine about a year and half ago. It is perfectly fine for traditional tablet use, ie. consumption and light productivity. Plus, it works seamlessly with my iPhone and MBA. It is part of a terrific ecosystem. I'll keep it for 4 years, so that's ~$8 per month or a little over 25 cents per day....not exactly breaking the bank. Do, I wish it was $349 or $299 when I bought it? Ok, yeah. But, I wish everything was less expensive.

In general, I prefer to use my M2 MBA, but the iPad 10 is fine for its purposes.

Whats so bad? Well lets start with the non-laminated display (just ridiculos) sometimes I think Apple internally bets on how bad you can make a product and people still buy it. Then there is the Pen, you have to use the Gen 1, but this Pen has a lighntning and the iPad has USB-C, so you have to buy an adapter to use your 100$ Pen with a product from the same company.

Back to the display, why 60Hz ? every Xiaomi, Oppo Tablet which starts from 200$ have 120 Hz Displays.
Still using USB 2.0, this is a standard released in 2000, 24 years ago

 

[MrMacintoshIII]

It’s still terrible value as there’s no spec or features that can’t be had at a much lower price with iPad 9th Gen., while all the meaningful RAM, display and Pencil 2 upgrades are, of course, exclusive to iPad Air and better.

The USB-C Pencil is the most feature-less Pencil Apple has ever put out despite Pencil 1 debuting almost 10 years ago, in 2015.

It retails for $79 without pressure sensitivity AND doesn’t even charge when attaching it magnetically on the side.

It’s like Apple set out to make a counterfeit iPad Air and Pencil 2 just to cash in on all the buyers who don’t have the means to buy an actual Air, who might have, wisely, opted for a tablet from another brand.

Apple’s perpetual pursuit towards more and more product segmentation with outdated, overpriced low-end versions of their hit products is embarrassing.

Just sell the baseline iPad Air with 128GB and stop screwing over consumers with a product that’s already way too expensive considering that it’s locked and blocked from ever being more than a huge iPhone.

Nobody needs three different versions of the same product. You’re devaluing the brand identity.

I can’t wait to see Apple’s upcoming ultra low-value AirPods USB-C that’ll have the exterior design of AirPods 3 or Pro but less features than AirPods 2nd Gen. But somehow they’ll still retail for $99.

Monopolies just can’t help putting out more and more trash products. Must be a byproduct of earning a million times more than the effort and capital you spend.

I think you hit the nail on the head with that last remark. Something must be physically happening in their brains that they think this is a good idea. It really is devaluing Apple.

Before you used to feel good buying an Apple device. Now you only feel good if you’ve done your research and didn’t buy a lemon-year release which can end up being a lemon-generation (see: butterfly keyboards, jelly iPad mini (barely noticeable I’ll admit), touch button SE in 2024…, etc)

 

[Mainsail]

Whats so bad? Well lets start with the non-laminated display (just ridiculos) sometimes I think Apple internally bets on how bad you can make a product and people still buy it. Then there is the Pen, you have to use the Gen 1, but this Pen has a lighntning and the iPad has USB-C, so you have to buy an adapter to use your 100$ Pen with a product from the same company.

Back to the display, why 60Hz ? every Xiaomi, Oppo Tablet which starts from 200$ have 120 Hz Displays.
Still using USB 2.0, this is a standard released in 2000, 24 years ago

All I can say is that I have owned an iPad 10 for a year and half and never once thought about the non-laminated display. The display looks good to me, and I would suspect most people would not notice the difference unless you pointed it out and made a big deal about it. As for the pencil, I use a Logitech Crayon. It works just fine, although I don't write on my iPad often. My daughter regularly uses the USB-C Pencil on her iPad 10 for work notes/journal. Zero problems. She is very happy with it. I have never had an issue with the USB-C port, but all I use it for is charging or earphones, which I suspect is true of 90% of the people that buy this iPad.

This is a basic iPad that can routinely be purchased on sale for between $350-$400, it is a good option for people that want a simple tablet that will last 4+ years. I don't get all of the negativity by people that don't even own or use one. BTW - check out the 5 star customer ratings at Target, Best Buy, etc.. from people that actual bought the iPad 10.

 

[spinedoc77]

These are the worst, weirdest iPads Apple has ever made...

IMO and experience they are junk, but a lot of Apple products tend to be this way once the OS is upgraded a few times. I have two for each of my kids and they are so slow and awful most of the time on the newest OS, I can only imagine how much worse they will be if they are eligible for iOS18. I know these run great for some, and maybe there is some sort of hardware issue (although to have two do the same thing seems low on odds), but I have not had a good experience with these at all.

It's not unique to these either, my mini 4 runs like complete crap, and a 2019 Macbook Pro with very high specs also ran like crap on Sonoma before I gave up and just sold it and got a M2 Mac Mini which runs great (for now). Apple seems to underspec these and they can't keep up with new OS features.

 

[Mainsail]

IMO and experience they are junk, but a lot of Apple products tend to be this way once the OS is upgraded a few times. I have two for each of my kids and they are so slow and awful most of the time on the newest OS, I can only imagine how much worse they will be if they are eligible for iOS18. I know these run great for some, and maybe there is some sort of hardware issue (although to have two do the same thing seems low on odds), but I have not had a good experience with these at all.

It's not unique to these either, my mini 4 runs like complete crap, and a 2019 Macbook Pro with very high specs also ran like crap on Sonoma before I gave up and just sold it and got a M2 Mac Mini which runs great (for now). Apple seems to underspec these and they can't keep up with new OS features.

Wow, it sounds like you have had a string of bad luck with a number of different Apple products. As for the iPad 10, it might still be within the warranty period. I would bring those iPads in for a check. I have had zero problems with mine and noticed no issues with OS updates. I haven’t heard of reliability or quality issues specifically related to the iPad 10, so it might be worthwhile to have yours checked out.

 

[spinedoc77]

Wow, it sounds like you have had a string of bad luck with a number of different Apple products. As for the iPad 10, it might still be within the warranty period. I would bring those iPads in for a check. I have had zero problems with mine and noticed no issues with OS updates. I haven’t heard of reliability or quality issues specifically related to the iPad 10, so it might be worthwhile to have yours checked out.

I've brought one in to a local Apple store, they said it runs perfectly and I should just expect that from an older product. I've hardware reset them both a few times and they just seem to bog down sometimes. It's odd, sometimes they work well, sometimes they bog down on simple things like simply navigating settings, it seems to be hit or miss. I've kind of given up on them, my poor kids, although my daughter has partially migrated to an old Surface Pro 3 I had lying around, 10 year old tablet and runs Win 10 like a champ albeit with crappy battery life.

 

[Mainsail]

I've brought one in to a local Apple store, they said it runs perfectly and I should just expect that from an older product. I've hardware reset them both a few times and they just seem to bog down sometimes. It's odd, sometimes they work well, sometimes they bog down on simple things like simply navigating settings, it seems to be hit or miss. I've kind of given up on them, my poor kids, although my daughter has partially migrated to an old Surface Pro 3 I had lying around, 10 year old tablet and runs Win 10 like a champ albeit with crappy battery life.

I agree this is a crappy response from the Apple Store. This is not an “older” product. The iPad 10 is still a new product. It was only released 1.5 years ago, so it is as new as anything else they have in the iPad line-up. Here again, I have had zero problems with my iPad 10, so this is unfortunate.