The most cheerful tablet available from Apple just got a price cut that’s easy on the wallet. It is now offering the 11-inch yellow iPad for $299, the lowest price we’ve seen for a new model, down from Apple’s list price of $349. It’s among the most accessible opportunities to buy a modern iPad without sacrificing day-to-day performance or display quality.
That price falls right in the sweet spot for students, heavy travelers, or anyone who wants a colorful device that’s powerful enough to stream movies, game on, and write up notes while also light enough to see you through a day of content creation. Crucially, the discount even applies to the eye‑catching yellow finish — other more in-your-face colors can also be found at this level of markdown.
What you get for $299 with the 11-inch Apple iPad
This 11-inch iPad features a sharp Liquid Retina display and A16 chip, 128GB of storage, and 12MP cameras on the front and back. The screen features wide color (P3), True Tone, and high brightness for text that’s crackling and video that pops. The decision to put the landscape front camera — a change brought over from more recent iPads — is also good for making video calls that seem more natural.
The A16 this model uses is designed for efficiency and sustained responsiveness. It’s the sort of silicon that powers through multitasking, from dozens of browser tabs to photo editing and 4K video playing, without throwing noisy fans into a tizzy (because there aren’t any). You should see dependable battery life that’s sufficient for a full day of mixed use on a single charge, just like Apple’s 10-hour web and video benchmarks over Wi‑Fi.
A generous 128GB base storage is plenty for this tier — you’ll have room for big apps, downloaded playlists, and offline Netflix episodes. And if you manage cloud libraries, you can stretch it even further with iCloud, which many an iPad owner already uses to offload photos and documents.
Daily performance and creative headroom on this iPad
On a day-to-day basis, the A16’s 6‑core CPU and 5‑core GPU take graphically demanding Apple Arcade games and popular shooters in their stride at the native display resolution. Geekbench tests of third‑party A16 devices show consistent multi-core results, including solid single‑core scores as well — and that’s what you get in real life on the iPad: snappy app launches and UI animations being fluid.
For creation, this model gets on well with Apple Pencil (USB‑C) and a selection of keyboard cases — handy for turning the iPad into a note‑taking or drafting machine. Apps like Procreate, Affinity Photo, and LumaFusion are well tuned to Apple’s chips, so sketching, batch edits, and quick timeline cuts are very doable — great for students or social creators who don’t require the overhead of a pro workstation.
It’s not just “for FaceTime only” quality on the 12MP cameras.
Scanning papers, snapping quick product clips, or taking reference photos is almost graceful now, and the better front‑camera framing makes Zooming or Teaming less awkward.
How it compares to other iPads like Air and Pro
If you’re comparing this to an iPad Air or iPad Pro, the trade‑offs are clear. Heavy multitaskers and artists working on glorious pieces of digital canvas will appreciate the iPad Air’s M‑series chip and laminated display, and those features are accompanied by 120Hz ProMotion and color‑critical display tech with the iPad Pro. Those are real advantages, but so is the price gap: The Air usually starts in the mid‑$500s, and the Pro much higher.
For streaming, homework, cloud gaming, email, and a lot of creative play, this $299 iPad makes all the right choices with room to spare.
It’s compatible with Split View and Slide Over to pair with two apps — enough for research and writing, or reference and drawing.
Color options and storage choices for the 11-inch iPad
Yellow is the marquee, but this iPad also comes in vivid pink and blue. For larger 4K video files or extensive game libraries, you may want to opt for the pricier 256GB and 512GB configurations. According to research from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP), most first‑time iPad customers choose either a base or mid‑tier storage model and then let cloud services handle overflow — which makes sense when considering today’s streaming‑first habits.
Price context and buying tips for this $299 iPad deal
$299 for that setup is a very competitive price. Price‑tracking communities like Camelcamelcamel and Slickdeals have tracked occasional dips to this range, typically during flash sales — that said, it’s still a smoking deal versus the published $349 list price. Stock and color availability can always change quickly when eye‑catching finishes are in the mix.
If you expect to accessorize, budget for an Apple Pencil (USB‑C) or a compatible keyboard case. Educators and students may also wish to investigate institutional pricing: Apple and big‑box retailers regularly offer up seasonal deals, while discounts for tablets generally rise as high‑schoolers head back to class in the fall, but Thom says that such price cuts peak anew during the holiday season.
Bottom line: If you’ve been waiting to catch the iPad bug (or replacing an older model), the yellow 11‑inch iPad for $299 nails a rare intersection of price, performance, and personality.
It’s the ideal choice for most people who are looking for a fun, fast tablet that doesn’t feel “entry‑level.”
