Amazon has initiated early discounts on a broad selection of Apple products, including AirPods, MacBooks, iPads, and Apple Watches, preceding its official "Prime Big Deal Days" event. These promotions, with several prices near or matching historical lows, indicate a strategic effort to drive consumer demand and secure early holiday season sales for Apple's ecosystem via a major retail platform.
Engadget has been testing and reviewing consumer tech since 2004. Our stories may include affiliate links; if you buy something through a link, we may earn a commission. Read more about how we evaluate products. The best early October Prime Day deals on Apple devices: Save on AirTags, iPads, Apple Watches and more If you don't want to wait for Amazon's big fall sale next week, you can get a few decent prices on certain Apple gadgets today. If you’ve been waiting for a discount before grabbing a new iPad, MacBook or Apple Watch, Amazon’s October Prime Day sale might be worth checking out. Prime Big Deal Days, as it’s officially called, doesn’t technically begin until October 7, but we’re keeping an eye out for the best Apple deals that are going on in the lead-up to the event. So far, we’ve found a few decent prices on iPads and MacBooks, along with a few modest but early discounts on the recent crop of Apple Watches. You can find our full roundup below, and we’ll be updating this post over the course of the week as more offers pop up. Best Prime Day Apple deals Apple AirPods 4 (no ANC) for $90 (30 percent off): Apple's entry-level wireless earbuds are the best AirPods for folks on a budget. They have an open-ear design that some will prefer over eartips that stick into your ears full, plus they have much improved audio quality and the H2 chip that enables features like Voice Isolation, Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking and Adaptive EQ. Apple MacBook Air (13-inch, M4, 512GB) for $999 ($200 off): The MacBook Air tops our guide to the best laptops. The latest model isn’t a major overhaul, but it’s still exceptionally thin, lightweight and well-designed, and the M4 chip is more than powerful enough for everyday use. This deal is just a few bucks below the best price we’ve seen for a configuration with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. Other configs with more memory are $200 off as well. Apple MacBook Air (15-inch, M4, 512GB) for $1,199 ($200 off): The 15-inch MacBook Air is essentially the same as the 13-inch version, only it has a roomier display, a more spacious trackpad and better speakers. This is another discount we’ve seen plenty of times before, but it’s only slightly higher than the all-time low for a model with 512GB of storage. Apple AirTags (4-pack) for $75 ($24 off): With its enormous finding network and ultra-wideband tech for accurately locating nearby items, Apple’s AirTag is the top pick for iPhone users in our guide to the best Bluetooth trackers. We saw a four-pack fall as low as $65 earlier in the year, but this is still a nice drop from Apple’s list price. If you’re not in desperate need for these, though, note that we may see an updated model later this year. The Pencil Pro is Apple’s premium stylus, offering pressure sensitivity, wireless charging, haptic feedback and unique gesture controls compared to the standard Pencil. It’s a dependably tool for sketching and note-taking; just note that it’s not compatible with the base iPad and most older models. This is another discount we’ve seen regularly over the past year, but it’s $30 off the pen’s list price. Apple iPad (A16, 256GB) for $399 ($50 off): The entry-level iPad earned a score of 84 in our review: If you mainly want a tablet for streaming, browsing the web, emailing or lighter word processing, it should do the job. It doesn’t lose out on the Mac-style productivity features introduced with iPadOS 26 either. We’ve seen this discount on the 256GB model fairly often in recent months, and it’s about $25 above the device’s all-time low, but it’s still $50 cheaper than buying directly from Apple. Apple iPad Air (11-inch, 128GB) for $449 ($150 off): The best iPad for most people, the latest iPad Air runs on the powerful M3 chip, has an improved display and supports the Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard. This model has better performance and multitasking capabilities than its predecessor, and it's available in both 11- and 13-inch sizes. Apple Mac mini (M4) for $499 ($100 off): This latest iteration of Apple’s tiny PC has a smaller footprint, a faster M4 chip, 16GB of RAM by default, two front-facing USB-C ports and an extra Thunderbolt 4 port. It can also drive three external displays, though it lacks USB-A ports entirely. We gave a higher-end config with Apple’s M4 Pro chip a score of 90 in our review. This deal is for the entry-level model with the base M4 chip and a 256GB SSD — it’s $30 above the all-time low but still a nice savings. Apple Watch Series 10 (42mm, GPS + Cellular) for $329 ($170 off): As a general rule, most people should buy the newest version of whatever Apple product they want. That said, the Series 11 is only a minor upgrade over the prior Series 10 — the glass is more scratch-resistant, the cellular model has 5G support, the battery is marginally bigger and that’s about it. If you’re mostly worried about saving cash, want LTE support and still need the more advanced health features the Apple Watch SE lacks, this is a worthwhile discount for a version of last year’s model with cellular support. Apple Watch SE (2nd gen, 40mm, GPS + Cellular) for $189 ($110 off): The Apple Watch SE 3 is a far more substantial upgrade over its predecessor than the Series 11, so we strongly recommend paying the premium to get the latest version. But if you’re sure you can live without the always-on display, faster charging, superior chip and other upgrades that come with the SE 3, the last-gen model can still get you most of the basic Apple Watch experience for less cash while it remains in stock. This is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen for the 40mm cellular model. The Series 11 is the top overall pick in our guide to the best smartwatches. It’s not as compelling as the SE 3 from a value perspective, but it has a bigger, brighter and more scratch-resistant display, slightly longer battery life and support for more advanced health features like hypertension alerts and an ECG app. We gave it a score of 90 in our review. Just note that there’s no pressing need to upgrade if you’re happy with your current Apple Watch. This is a slight $9 discount, but we note it since the Series 11 has been on sale for less than a month, so any bit of savings are welcome. Amazon is strategically initiating its holiday sales cycle early by offering significant discounts on a range of Apple products ahead of its formal 'Prime Big Deal Days' event. The promotions target both new and previous-generation hardware, such as the M4-powered MacBooks ($200 off) and the Apple Watch Series 10 ($170 off), with many prices approaching all-time lows. This dual-generation discounting strategy appears designed to maximize unit sales by appealing to different consumer segments: price-sensitive buyers can acquire last-gen models like the Watch SE (2nd gen) at near-record lows, while others are incentivized to adopt current technology. For Apple (AAPL), this sales event through a major retail partner serves to stimulate demand and manage inventory, particularly for products with incremental upgrades where the prior model remains competitive. For Amazon (AMZN), hosting these deals reinforces its platform's dominance in e-commerce, driving traffic and bolstering Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) for the quarter. The moderately positive overall sentiment and low market impact score suggest this is viewed as a beneficial but standard promotional activity, rather than a fundamental market shift.
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