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CNET’s Cheapskate scours the Web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page. And find more great buys on the CNET Deals page.
Regular readers know how I feel about tablets: The $50 Amazon Fire is an outright steal, the Lenovo Tab 3 8 is the best mid-size Android tablet and the iPad is, well, the iPad. By which I mean it’s the tablet everyone wants, but not everyone can afford (or is willing to afford).
Of course, if you’re willing to be patient, deals do come along. Like this one: Daily Steals has the refurbished iPad Air for $239.99 shipped when you apply coupon code CHEAPSKATE10 at checkout. That’s an additional $10 off an already good price — and a Cheapskate exclusive.
This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the 16GB Wi-Fi version, in your choice of white and silver or black and space-gray.
Interestingly, this deal comes just a day after Apple officially discontinued the Air, lowered the price of the iPad Air 2 and introduced the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. But I daresay there’s a lot of value left in this model (see CNET’s review for all the highlights). And I don’t recall ever seeing it priced this low.
Finally, a really solid deal on an iPad Air.
Josh Miller/CNET
There is one caveat: Although it’s Apple-certified refurbished, it comes with just a 90-day warranty. For sake of comparison, Apple sells the refurbished iPad Air direct for $279 (plus sales tax, which you can most likely dodge here). And that includes a full one-year warranty.
As for Daily Steals itself, I’ll remind you that the company (which was on my blacklist for a long while) has a new owner, and I’ve not received a single complaint from a reader since I started sharing their deals again last month.
In fact, just last week I ordered a couple iPhone 4 handsets; they arrived in about four days and in mint condition. I’m not saying you’ll have the same experience with these iPads, merely that that was my experience. (Speaking of shipping, though, the product page does estimate five to eight days — so it could be a week or more until your order arrives.)
I’ll admit I’m a little on the fence. An iPad Air for $239.99 is a really solid deal, but just $40 more buys you a lot more warranty.
Your thoughts?
JBL
Bonus deal: The speaker dock is dead. Long live the speaker dock! Especially when they’re priced like this: JBL has the OnBeat Rumble Bluetooth speaker dock for $119.99 shipped. It originally listed for $399.95 and currently runs at least $166 elsewhere. This beefy speaker features a Lightning dock for your iPhone or even iPad, Bluetooth connectivity if you prefer to keep things wireless and an aux-in jack for old-school devices. Plus, it’s pretty cool-looking, sort of retro and modern at the same time.
I haven’t found any professional reviews to speak of, but over at Amazon it averaged 4.6 stars from about two dozen buyers.
