Amazon’s October Prime Day sale is a great time to buy tech devices at major discounts — including tablets. Whether from Apple, Samsung, or Amazon itself, tablets are always a big-ticket item that you’ll find on major sale during the event. If you know where to look — on Amazon or elsewhere — you can find some excellent deals on tablets of all shapes and sizes, different specifications, and generations.
Also: The best October Prime Day deals right now
Even though Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days (also known as October Prime Day) doesn’t officially start until Oct. 8-9, you can already find deals on tablets ZDNET’s thoroughly tested and recommended. That’s why we’ve rounded up the best tablet deals on Amazon so you can start saving right now.
Our favorite Amazon October Prime Day tablet deals
- Apple iPad Mini (6th gen) for $380 (save $119): The iPad Mini is a powerful tablet packed into a small package, with features like support for the second-gen Apple Pencil, a slightly bigger screen size, and a USB-C port for charging and data transfer.
- Amazon Fire HD 8 Kids Pro Tablet for $75 (save $75): This top tablet for kids comes with a free, one-year subscription to Amazon Kids+ and an Amazon FreeTime Unlimited subscription, which grants access to thousands of kid-friendly, ad-free books, movies, games, and other kid-friendly and educational content.
- Amazon Fire Max 11 Tablet for $160 (save $120): Amazon’s flagship tablet has a vivid 11-inch display that’s ideal for mobile entertainment, web browsing, and productivity tasks.
- Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 for $790 (save $130): Listed as one of our top picks for the best Android tablets, this Samsung tablet is a well-rounded Android device that lets you take advantage of Samsung’s DeX platform.
- Apple iPad Pro 11-inch (7th gen) for $949 (save $50): Apple’s newest iPad Pro is faster than ever, thanks to the new M4 chip that can handle a diverse range of tasks, making it one of our top picks for the best tablets.
- Microsoft Surface Pro 9 (Refurbished) for $788 (save $312): With the Surface Pro 9, you’re getting a tablet that runs Windows 11 out of the box instead of a mobile operating system like Android or iPadOS. Note: This is a refurbished tablet.
- Wacom Intuos Pro for $290 (save $90): This drawing tablet feels like putting pen to paper, and artists can customize everything from the tablet’s ExpressKeys to the Pro Pen 2’s buttons, depending on your favorite shortcuts.
- Samsung Galaxy Tab A9+ for $173 (save $47): This tablet is great for entertainment purposes like streaming movies or games, and has an engaging 11-inch screen.
- Lenovo Tab M11 for $157 (save $60): At 26% off, the Lenovo Tab M11 is a very competent Android tablet and one that’s easy to recommend.
- Current price: $380
- Original price: $499
Apple’s smallest tablet comes with an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display, an A15 bionic chip, and compatibility with the 2nd-gen Apple Pencil. Of course, you’ll also get iPadOS 16 with features like shared tab groups, Stage Manager, and external display support if you ever need to see something on a bigger screen.
Review: Apple iPad Mini (6th Gen.)
- Current price: $789
- Original price: $920
The Tab S9 comes with 8GB or 12GB of memory and starts at 128GB of storage, which can be expanded by up to 1TB thanks to microSD card support. Inside the Tab S9 is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor.
The 11-inch LCD screen is compact enough to make the tablet portable. The tablet’s high resolution also ensures display clarity, so you’ll be happy watching your favorite shows or gaming on it.
Review: Samsung Galaxy Tab S9
- Current price: $75
- Original price: $150
This tablet is perfect for kids 6-12 years old and comes with safe web browsing with built-in controls and filters so kids can browse the web independently but with guardrails. It also has an impressive 13-hour battery life.
- Current price: $949
- Original price: $999
Even though it was recently released, you can already save on the new iPad Pro with the M4 chip. This chip consists of a new 10-core GPU, next-generation machine learning accelerators to handle a diverse range of tasks, and ProMotion technology, enabling variable screen refresh rates ranging from 10 to 120Hz.
The Pro also supports the new Apple Pencil Pro, which has a range of features, including a squeeze gesture for quick tool, color, and other changes.
Review: M4 iPad Pro
- Current price: $789
- Original price: $1,100
At a 32% discount, the Surface Pro 9 is part tablet, part laptop, since it runs on Windows 11 and has a keyboard. It also has a large, 13-inch display and up to 15.5 hours of battery life with typical usage.
Review: Microsoft Surface Pro 9
Note: This is a refurbished tablet.
More October Prime Day tablet deals
- Amazon Fire HD 8 Tablet for $55 (save $75): This small tablet is great for streaming or downloading your favorite shows and movies from Prime Video, Netflix, Disney+, and HBO.
- Lenovo Tab P12 for $340 (save $10): Lenovo’s 16:10 aspect ratio screen has plenty of room for four split screens, letting you write, play, and perform simultaneously on this tablet.
- Apple iPad (10th generation) for $300 (save $50): Apple’s base-line iPad is a formidable tablet if you only plan to use it for browsing, playing games, and streaming shows and movies.
- Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra for $850 (save $250): As a predecessor to the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 lineup, this large-screen tablet has plenty of specs worth considering.
- Apple iPad (9th generation) for $200 (save $129): Although not the most recent model, this iPad has a 10.2-inch Retina display, a powerful A13 Bionic chip, and an Ultra Wide front camera with Center Stage.
- Kindle Paperwhite Kids for $115 (save $55): This reading tablet is perfect for kids who love to read, and even includes a Vocabulary Builder and Word Wise to help young readers.
FAQs
When is Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days?
Amazon’s Prime Big Deal Days (a.k.a. October Prime Day) is a two-day sales event for Prime members. This year, sales are live from Tuesday, Oct. 8, through the end of Wednesday, Oct. 9.
Is October Prime Day a good time to buy a tablet?
Prime Day is a great time to look for deals on tablets that wouldn’t normally be on sale, such as iPads or Amazon-branded tablets like the Kindle. You’ll also get another opportunity for big sales during Black Friday.
Are other retailers offering high-quality tablet deals?
Prime Day isn’t the only game in town: Walmart, Best Buy, Target, and other retailers will all hold competing sales during the same week as October Prime Day. Shop around the different sites to compare deals and prices.
How did we choose these October Prime Day deals?
ZDNET only recommends the devices we can stand behind, so when we say you’re getting a good deal, we want to ensure your hard-earned money goes towards an excellent value. To choose the top deals, we comb through the best sales available and make thorough price comparisons with historical data, combined with our personal experience with these products, to determine which ones are worth buying.
Our hope is to help you make the best choice to stretch your dollar — think of all the extra smart home devices you can add to your cart with all these savings.
What are the best October Prime Day 2024 deals?
ZDNET’s experts are searching through Prime Day sales to find the best discounts by category. These are the best deals so far:
You can also find the best October Prime Day deals by price:
And the best deals from other retailers this week: