Previous lowest price was $835.
Was checking FB marketplace for iPad and decided to price check to notice that a brand new is selling as much as a used iPad Air M2.
Edit: Added membership Costco iPad Air M3 link.
JB Hi-Fi listing $837
Officeworks listing $837
Costco listing $829.99 Membership required
The RRP for the magic keyboard is $499. That is offensive !
its worth the price tag though there isn't any keyboard for the ipad that is any better than the apple official one. i have tried to look for something better found nothing.
I would hope not, but at the same time there are surely alternatives that are decent for 1/4 of that price? I haven't looked into it recently, but it feels like a big gap in the market if not.
@Arsenal: there are very few options that use the smart connector with a decent tract pad and keyboard most of the third party ones need to be charged externally and are bluetooth.
@Arsenal: Most of them have shitty trackpads. Someone gifted me one from amazon, can’t remember the brand but the A key was hard to press, and the trackpad tracks very poorly and is basically unusable. Other reviews on that product (and similar other products) also speak about trackpad woes.
Actual branded, non Chinese ODM ones might be better like the Logitechs, but those are also ~$200-300.
Why would you need a cheaper alternative to be better? just needs to be fit for purpose and way cheaper to be a winner.
Its like a $120 apple watch band vs a <$5 aliexpress watch band
@noise36: the thing with keyboards is for them to be useful you need low latency, bluetooth adds latency and issues you don't' get with a hard wired connection solution like a smart connector. It means you can touch type with out worrying about the keyboard loosing connection even for a second. in 1 second you can stuff up an entire word just because the keyboard couldn't' keep up with you. obviously if you don't' care about typing well then any old keyboard will do. Also the shortcuts are well integrated on the apple keyboard, with all the supported gestures on track pad much like a mac has. and it adds an 2nd usb c port to the ipad, with out any charging for the keyboard because it powered directly off the ipad battery. There hasn't been a third party out there that does all this for the ipad.
@noise36: Buy a separate bluetooth keyboard and mouse. They’re infinitely better than cheap keyboard cases, somehow.
@jpeg-jpg: you could but then its not an all in one. You don't take a desktop with you with a mouse and keyboard you take a laptop with you when you travel.
the all in one solution apple provides is perfect without compromise which makes it worth it.
The Logitech combo touch is worth considering for its price (especially on sale). Trackpad is not Apple level, but decent if you just do office tasks or browsing. It's also detachable, more flexible than the all-or-nothing design of the Magic keyboard. Also have Smart connector so just plug and play, no delay 🤣
Different model
Yeah specifically that's the normal iPad with the a16
No they won’t because you have to pay for a Qantas membership
Kinda feel that the Air sits in a bit of a no-mans land between the iPad and the Pro.
No it sits in the Goldilocks land between the iPad and the Pro.
Mind elaborating why it's worth the extra dollars over a regular ipad?
As of today the price differences are $587 vs $837 so $250.
For that you get a better screen, anti-reflective coating, much better faster processor, better Pencil support and an extra 2GB of RAM.
If Apple (or Google or someone else) ever gets their AI together on the iPad the specialised M3 processor should be a good bonus.
I don’t like using this term, but you are future proofing to some extent.
But I do agree the A16 iPad is a compelling offering for the average user especially when you can get it in the low $400s.
@Grok: Might not matter to everyone, but 60hz on an $837 tablet is a dealbreaker for me. It's only just about okay at the ~$400 mark.
I recently also comparing the A16 iPad, Air and Pro, because I likes to learn Procreate digital drawing on an iPad. Decided on an Air 256GB model as it can be paired with the Apple Pencil Pro. A16 iPad can only pair with the older Pencil Gen 1. Pro is just too expensive for my hobby use. So yeah Air (with 8GB RAM) is worth the extra dollars over the A16 iPad for me.
How do you use an M3 chip to its full potential on an iPad ?
I guess gaming or rendering videos but in that case, you might as well get a Macbook.
Apple will be updating the iPad OS for more functions and capability in the newer version.
I thought that was only for newer unreleased versions of iPad. Will it be released for older versions as well? I mean the features that will make it more useful like a desktop?
Yes.
Is it worth going from an Ipad Pro M2 to this? I'm a teacher so can salary sacrifice one ipad or laptop a year, so it will cost me about $500 out of pocket. I could easily sell my Ipad Pro for more than that too, maybe even more, so would, in a way cost me nothing.
I use it for Lightroom Photo editing and to run some midi apps. No gaming. What are people's thoughts?
Going from the pro to the air would be a downgrade in every way other than the m3, but the difference between the m2 and m3 isn't that significant and both are still way more power than you realistically need
I was disappointed to find Apple only gives a 1 year warranty on iPads. Got to be kidding me. I expect 3 to 5 years. Spare me the consumer guarantee talk. They just need to do better.
Has been 1 year warranty for years. What are you going to do about it? Don't buy them if you are not happy, simple.
Don’t forget the 2 year statutory warranty in Australia for items like this.
Just mention the words and Apple will sort you out within 2 years of purchase. Apple is so good they sometimes extend that even further under some circumstances.
Currently $829.99 at Costco too
will OW price beat Costco?
Unsure. Membership is required at Costco.
Was going to go for the M2 at BigW but non in stock in my area. Did a price beat at OW via centrecom if you dont mind blue, which bring down the total to $793.25. Also pick up a Magic Keyboard for $199 while i was at OW (box display apparently).
https://www.centrecom.com.au/apple-ipad-air-11-m3-wi-fi-128g…
are you able to share the receipt fort the magic keyboard?
OW is refusing to price beat amazon (and have to check with another team) because amazon doesn't have 'product code' even though it's the exact same product and specs. any thoughts?
yeah those iPad Air 11 inch M3's are solid I have the 1tb 11inch model with the white magic keyboard and ios 26 it works so good 100% worth it don't bother with the ipad pro.