A little more than a week before the holiday shopping rush, a handful of mainstream tablets have quietly begun to cost less, the first small signals of a season that trains people to wait for the lowest price. ZDNet's shopping team has gathered five devices from Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Amazon and Google, with savings ranging from $33 to $300, and has presented them as a map for buyers standing at the threshold of Black Friday on November 29. Beneath the discounts lies an old human habit: the wish to buy well, and the faith that patience will be rewarded before the calendar turns toward Dece
Early Black Friday Tablet Deals Live Now: iPad Mini, Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, Surface Pro and More
A little more than a week before the holiday shopping rush, a handful of mainstream tablets have quietly begun to cost less, the first small signals of a season that trains people to wait for the lowest price. ZDNet's shopping team has gathered five devices from Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Amazon and Google, with savings ranging from $33 to $300, and has presented them as a map for buyers standing at the threshold of Black Friday on November 29. Beneath the discounts lies an old human habit: the wish to buy well, and the faith that patience will be rewarded before the calendar turns toward December.
The discounts have started to appear earlier than many shoppers expect. ZDNet's shopping team has combed through Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy and gathered five tablets that cost less right now, with savings from $33 to $300.
The largest dollar drop is on Samsung's Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, which falls from $1,200 to $900 at Best Buy. Its 14.6-inch screen comes with an S Pen, useful for drawing, note-taking and turning handwriting into text. Apple's iPad Mini, the previous generation, is down $100 to $400 at Best Buy. ZDNet pitches it to students for its portability, all-day battery and support for the second-generation Apple Pencil.
The Surface Pro, Microsoft's 11th-generation model, drops $150 to $1,200 at Best Buy. Because it runs Windows 11, buyers can keep their existing workflows without hunting for workarounds. The Amazon Fire Max 11 has the steepest percentage cut, at $160 from QVC, down 42%, and it is the only Fire tablet that works with a stylus. The Google Pixel Tablet's $33 discount is the smallest, but its included speaker dock lets it serve as a smart home hub.
ZDNet says it chose these deals by looking for discounts of at least 20% or products rarely on sale, then checking price trackers and customer reviews. The calendar still matters. Black Friday falls on November 29 and Cyber Monday on December 2, and prices may move again before the sales end.
A little more than a week before Black Friday, the discounts have already started appearing. ZDNet's shopping team has gone through retailers including Amazon, Walmart and Best Buy and pulled together five tablets that are cheaper right now, with savings that run from $33 to $300.
The biggest dollar drop is on Samsung's Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, which falls from $1,200 to $900 at Best Buy. It has a 14.6-inch display and comes with Samsung's S Pen stylus in the box. The pen can be used to draw or take notes, to navigate the Android 13 interface, or to write in a text field and have the handwriting converted to digital text.
Apple's iPad Mini (6th generation) is down $100, from $500 to $400, also at Best Buy. Apple has just updated its smallest tablet, so this is the previous generation, but ZDNet notes it still has an A15 Bionic chip, landscape stereo speakers, a True Tone display and support for the second-generation Apple Pencil. The publication pitches it to students, citing portability and all-day battery life for note-taking, content creation and multitasking.
Microsoft's Surface Pro, the 11th-generation model, drops $150, from $1,350 to $1,200, at Best Buy. It runs Windows 11 rather than a mobile operating system, which ZDNet says means buyers won't need to hunt for apps or workarounds for their existing workflows. This generation also supports AI features through Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus chips and built-in Microsoft Copilot.
The steepest cut in percentage terms is on the Amazon Fire Max 11. At QVC it is $160, down $120 from $280, or 42% off. It is Amazon's largest tablet and the only Fire tablet that works with a stylus. ZDNet lists a 14-hour battery life, 128 GB of storage expandable to 1 TB with a micro-SD card, and an 8 MP camera, and recommends it for streaming and light work. The Google Pixel Tablet has the smallest discount, $33, taking it from $500 to $467 at Amazon. It earns its place, ZDNet says, because the included Charging Speaker Dock lets it act as a smart home hub, similar to a Nest Hub, when it isn't being used as a tablet. The dock's speaker boosts bass by 4x.
ZDNet describes how it picked the deals. It looked for discounts of at least 20% or for products that are rarely on sale, used established price comparison tools and trackers to confirm the sales are real and see how often prices drop, and read customer reviews from people who own the devices. Some recommendations also draw on the publication's own testing. The Pixel Tablet's $33 cut is under 7%, so that one falls into the category of a product ZDNet considers worth recommending on other grounds, though the article does not say which test it met.
The calendar matters for anyone deciding whether to buy now. Black Friday falls on Nov. 29, the day after Thanksgiving, and Cyber Monday, which is mainly an online event, is Dec. 2. ZDNet says deals typically appear the week before and run through the weekend, and that for some big brands Black Friday is the only time certain devices go on sale all year. It also says the year's biggest discounts on products like the iPad and Kindle tend to come then. With the main sales days still ahead, prices on these tablets may move again before the weekend is over.
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