Right now, one of the best roll-offs is $150 off on Apple’s 13-inch iPad Air with M3 chip and 128GB of storage (Wi-Fi only), which is $649.99. That’s a 19 percent discount from its $799.99 list price and ties the lowest recorded price, but you’ll have to clip the on-page coupon below the price listed and select purple.
And if you’ve had your eye on the larger Air for note-taking, creative work, or a more laptop-type scenario, this price shrinks the margin between it and smaller models — and undercuts similar Windows tablets once you start factoring in keyboards and styluses.
Why this iPad Air deal is special and worth considering
On the 13-inch Air, you get into all that real estate with a screen as big as Apple’s larger Pros but without the Pro’s quality OLED panel and cost. The $649.99 13-inch Air now dips awfully close to what the 11-inch goes for at full price, making that leap in screen size a heckuva lot more affordable than it normally would be.
The M3 chip also matters. Unverified benchmarks from those who have reviewed M1 Max and M1 Ultra show single-core and multi-core speed-ups of between 10 to 20 percent over M2, with larger gains in graphics performance as a result of hardware-accelerated ray tracing and Apple’s Dynamic Caching. Translation: more speed when exporting in apps like LumaFusion, smoother brushes in Procreate, and more overhead for Stage Manager multitasking.
Reductions this steep don’t often come around for current-generation Apple tablets. Price trackers that follow big retailers almost never report a 15 to 20 percent dip on the giant-screen Air, unless it involves a constrained coupon or seasonal sale event, thus making this drop notable.
Key specs and real-world performance of the 13-inch Air
The 13-inch iPad Air’s Liquid Retina display is combined with P3 wide color, True Tone, and a maximum of 500 nits brightness — more than enough for indoor editing and reading. The larger panel is a real boon for split-screen work and handwritten notes compared with the 11-inch size.
For the silicon, the M3 powers an 8-core CPU and up to a 10-core GPU on a smaller 3nm process, contributing to gains in efficiency and thermal performance beneath the surface of your favorite apps. In practice, day-to-day use means steadier performance when processing dozens of photos at once in Lightroom, faster AI filters in apps that rely on the Neural Engine, and responsive gaming without ramping fan noise — because there isn’t any.
Practical features complete the configuration: 8GB of unified memory, a base storage of 128GB, Wi-Fi 6E for low-latency networking, a 12MP landscape front camera with support for video calls with Center Stage technology, a capable rear camera system, and finally top-button Touch ID and USB-C charging and accessories. It works with Apple Pencil Pro for a natural and haptic-enabled writing experience, as well as the newest Magic Keyboard for a laptop-like typing experience.
Battery life was a strong suit when I got it two years ago, with Apple rating up to a full workday on Wi-Fi. Most reviewers are getting around 9 to 10 hours of mixed browsing, streaming, and note-taking depending on brightness and apps running.
Who should grab it and who will benefit most
Students and professionals who are seeking a light, larger-screen slate for note-taking, marking up, or working remotely will get the most out of this one. The additional space on the screen comes in handy with Stage Manager for side-by-side apps, and also when driving an external monitor for a desktop-like setup.
Short-form video editors, sketchers, and storyboarders will get M3 headroom and Pencil Pro support without breaking out the credit card like a Pro user would. As for the performance-boosting ProMotion 120Hz and Pro’s OLED contrast that your workflow may require (we are talking high-end color grading or reference monitoring), the 13-inch iPad Pro remains in another league (and price category), but otherwise, the Air sits in a sweet spot of performance for most people.
Price context and buying advice for the 13-inch iPad Air
At $649.99, the 13-inch Air undercuts many premium hybrid laptop models once you balance speed and battery life. Market trackers such as IDC consistently report the iPad line as having maximum share, and that explains why discounts on it are relatively rare and often short-lived.
Two quick notes before you buy: for one, be sure to claim the on-page coupon in your cart — that checkbox is the deal. Second, the discount seems to be attached to the purple colorway; other finishes may not show a price drop, though. Shipping windows tend to fluctuate, so verify estimated delivery if timing is of concern.
Later accessories can add up — the Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard are high-end — but this $150 discount effectively cancels out a decent chunk of that spend. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to move up to the larger iPad Air, this is one of those rare prices that makes it easy to justify the larger screen.
