Amazon has set the date for the next Prime Day – it starts 16th of July – but in the meantime, the retailer has 4th of July deals. Best Buy has its own shopping holiday called Member Deals Day, which offers additional savings for members of My Best Buy Plus or Total. The most interesting deals we found at both retailers are on tablets, so let’s take a look.
Samsung has officially confirmed that 10th of July date for the big Galaxy Unpacked event, which will showcase the next generation of Galaxy Tab S flagship tablets. We haven’t heard much about it yet, but it doesn’t seem like there will be any big ones design changesThe Tab S10+ was also spotted on Geekbench with one Dimensions 9300+ chipset.
The Tab S9 generation is having a farewell party with discounts on Amazon – the Galaxy Tab S9+ and S9 are up to $200 cheaper. This generation will receive a total of 4 OS updates (ending with Android 17) and 5 years of security patches.
Amazon didn’t have a good deal on the Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, so we’re switching to Best Buy. By the way, Best Buy will match Amazon prices on the Tab S9+ and Tab S9, but only if you have a Plus or Total membership.
Anyway, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra starts at $1,050 for the base model with 12/256GB Wi-Fi. Plus and Total members get an additional $100 off, bringing the price down to $950.
All three tablets have microSD slots, so unless you need fast storage, don’t feel pressured to buy the higher capacity model. Note that the vanilla Tab S9 has 8GB of RAM on the base variant (128GB) and 12GB on the higher capacity options.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 FE and Tab S9 FE+ are the mid-range options. They use IPS LCD panels (90Hz) instead of OLED, and an Exynos 1380 chipset instead of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. They share the same IP68 water resistance rating, so you don’t have to worry about accidental water damage. While they do support DeX, it’s only available on the tablet’s own screen (the USB 2.0 port cannot do video output).
An even more affordable version is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2024). This is the third iteration of this model, and features a 10.4-inch LCD display, plus the same limited version of DeX as the FE slates (though there’s no water resistance, if that’s a consideration).
For Apple slates we go back to Best Buy. The 2022 iPad Pro 12.9 and 11, the ones with the Apple M2 chip, are $200 and $100 cheaper, respectively. My Best Buy members can get an additional $50 off the price. Both slates support Stage Manager, Apple’s take on tablet multitasking, including on external displays via video out.
My Best Buy members who want a keyboard with their iPad can use the link below instead. You’ll be taken to a “deal builder” page where you can pair the tablet with a matching Logitech keyboard and get 25% off the keyboard.
Finally, if you’re looking to buy a tablet for gaming, you might want to consider something like the Asus ROG Ally This version uses the same Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU as the original Ally, but includes more RAM (24 GB) and is faster (LPDDR5X-7500 instead of LPDDR5-6400), so there will be a performance boost. It also features a 1TB SSD, a (physically) larger M.2 2280 drive that’s easier to replace later if you need more storage space.
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