My Apple Black Friday Sales Tips: When to Buy or Skip – CNET

There’s a bunch of Apple products on sale right now because of the whole Black Friday shopping rush, and it can seem like a good time to shop because Apple products are rarely discounted, but the sales are usually for older models. So what’s actually a deal worth grabbing right now? I get asked this question a lot during the cyber. Month whatever we’re calling the sale season now, so I figured let’s make it a topic for this week’s episode. Before you add one more item to your shopping cart, let’s go over what I think are the best Apple products to snag now either for yourself or as a gift and what you might want to skip. I’m Bridget Carey, and this is one more thing. First off, you’re not going to see sales at the Apple store. The Apple store tends to give out gift cards to use on a later purchase when you buy something full price, but I like my discounts right away. So the sales I’m gonna talk about are at other retailers, and I’m not here to advertise for any particular store, so you might find a similar sales at a few places or prices may drop even lower after this video is made. I’m just here to help you generally navigate this year’s choice. OK. Let’s break it down by categories, starting with an often popular gift idea, headphones. The AirPods Pro 2 are not a new product, but these got brand new hearing health perks this year with a software update, so it can be used as a hearing aid if needed, and also it can better protect your hearing. If someone you know wanted AirPods, I’d grab these. If you want a better deal, look for discontinued products. About a A month ago, Apple discontinued my favorite Beats earbuds, the Power Beats Pro. Now these never fell out of my ear with a little hook, and it has a chip to work with Siri. It does not have noise canceling, and it still charges with a lightning port, but retailers are getting rid of their stock now because a new model is coming. It used to be $250 but I’ve seen some places cut $90 off the price. I’m thinking of picking up a spare in case I can’t find them again. Let’s look at Apple Watch. The brand new Series 10 has a discount at Walmart. OK, that’s cool. A brand new model on sale. That’s solid. But if you can’t get that, I am seeing last year’s model slightly cheaper. I saw the Series 9 listed for $316 at Best Buy. That’s saving about $80. But are you missing out on features if you go with an older model? No. No, you’re not missing out on much at all. The battery life is the same on both, and they both have the new sleep apnea detection, and they both do all the same health measuring stuff. The 10 is a little faster at charging. It has a slightly faster processor. It does eliminate background sound on a call, and it can play music on the speaker, but who is buying a watch to play music on it because I know you’re not, so it’s fine to be on the 9. The best Apple Watch deal though is on the cheapest SE model. It’s normally about $250 but Amazon has it for roughly $190 which is all you need for a gift for someone who’s just getting into the Apple Watch for fitness and maybe using it as a tool. Oh, here’s an important tip. If you are a parent wanting. To get an Apple Watch for your kid as a way to check up on them instead of getting them a phone, this part’s important. You need a watch that has the option for cellular. It will cost more. It is a different model. It says cellular. You will still find some discounts on that version of the Apple Watch, but I warn you, so you don’t go buying the wrong one. Let’s get into iPads. You can get an old 9th gen iPad for $200. An iPad for $200? It sounds wild. How could you pass that up? Yeah, you need to pass it up. Just let it drift on by. You could say, hey, that is a machine that gets you educational apps for kids and movies on planes, and it’s gonna work fine as a tablet. This is true. But the problem is longevity. It came out in 2021, but the processor is from 2019. It’s the A13 Bionic which first came out with the iPhone 11. How many years do you want to get out of this iPad machine? because at a certain point, it will not get all the operating system updates. Depending on what you want to do with it, it could be a good deal now, but your mileage may vary. You could pick up a discounted iPad 10th generation. It’s got the new design. It came out in 2022, so it’s got a USB-C port and a landscape oriented front camera, so your facetimes are going to be much better. It has an A14 chip, so it’s also a little better there. But if it was for me, for my kids, I’m going with the 6th gen iPad Mini that’s on sale. I saw it for $390. It’s not as cheap, but it has the A15 bion. Chip, which is also in the iPhone 1314 and still sold today in the iPhone SC and Apple TV. I think this iPad will be useful for longer. But whatever iPad you want to buy, remember, there are different Apple pencils, and each pencil doesn’t work with each iPad. I have seen some pencils on sale and I predict a lot of people are going to learn the hard way that the pencil they get as a gift won’t always be compatible with every model of iPad. If there is a Mac computer deal that’s worth looking at, then it’s the MacBook Air. Just a couple of weeks ago, Apple gave all MacBook Airs a boost with double the RAM to 16 gigs, so retailers are offering some heavy discounts on the older MacBook Airs that they have sitting around with the lesser 8 gigs of memory. Are you still watching? Great, I saved the best gift idea for last if you need a gift for people with iPhones. The answer is MagSafe charging stands because they are expensive, and if you get a deal, then go for it. Also, just get everyone a power adapter and their stocking. I saw some discounted as well. In fact, you might want to be brave and pick up a few of these. You might not see the audio adapter sold much longer. It’s the end of the dongle and the end of the video. Thanks for watching. Let me know what you got your eye on this year and I’ll see you next time.