The best iPad for students has hit a great price this Black Friday

Black Friday season is well and truly underway, and the TechRadar mobile desk is keeping a lookout for the best phone deals and best tablet deals around. As a recent graduate myself, I have to highlight this great discount on the best iPad for students – you can now get the iPad Air 11-inch (M3) for $449 (was $599) at Amazon.

• Shop Amazon’s full Black Friday sale

Today’s best iPad Air 11-inch (M3) Black Friday deal

The iPad Air is our pick for the best iPad for students for a few key reasons. With 11 inches of screen (measured diagonally), it’s portable enough to go anywhere with you, but it still offers enough screen space to make the most of iPadOS 26 (I know first hand as an 11-inch iPad Pro user).

What’s more, the iPad Air has the M3 chipset, a desktop-class piece of silicon that enables complex multitasking, scaled output to external displays, and heavy workloads. Students who need to edit videos, audio, photos, and other documents will have no trouble doing so on the iPad Air.

Then there’s the great accessories the iPad Air can use, including the Magic Keyboard for iPad Air and Apple Pencil Pro. While both are sold separately, this $150 discount gives you some headroom to pick up Apple’s first-party keyboard case or famously feature-rich stylus, should either take your fancy.

If you’re an iPhone user already, there’s no question that the iPad Air is a great buy for high school, college, postgraduate study, or indeed just as a personal device. Its looped in to the Apple ecosystem, and supports all the best apps (and games, for when you need some downtime). At $449, it’s still a considerable investment, but it’s the best tablet you can buy at this price. Be sure to check out our full iPad Air 11-inch (M3) review for more details.

Shop more of today’s best Black Friday sales

• Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
• Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $119
• Best Buy: $1,000 off TVs, laptops & headphones
• Dell: laptop deals from $249.99
• Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
• Lenovo: 45% off laptops & tablets
• Lowe’s: up to 30% off appliances, holiday decor & tools
• Samsung: up to $2,000 off appliances, TVs & phones
• Target: 40% off Christmas decor, clothing & furniture
• T-Mobile: up to $1,100 off latest iPhone 17
• Walmart: furniture, cheap TVs & vacs from $69
• Wayfair: 54% off Christmas, furniture & decor

Jamie is a Mobile Computing Staff Writer for TechRadar, responsible for covering phones and tablets. A lifelong tech-obsessive, Jamie began his writing career as a music blogger before studying journalism at Goldsmiths College, and joined TechRadar in 2024. He thinks the iPhone 5S is the greatest phone of all time, but is currently an Android user.

As well as reporting on the latest in mobile hardware, software, and industry developments, Jamie specialises in features and long-form pieces that dive into the latest phone and tablet trends. He can also be found writing for the site’s Audio and Streaming sections from time to time, or behind the decks as a DJ at local venues around London.