The iPad Air is on sale for its lowest price ever just in time for back to school

Save $99.01: You can grab the iPad Air for just $499.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target as of Aug. 7. That's a 17% discount on the Apple tablet's $599 MSRP.

Back-to-school season is a prime time to pick up discounted tech, whether or not you're a student.

For those in the market for a brand new tablet, a particularly great deal has cropped up as of Aug.7 — the 2022 iPad Air with 64GB of storage is back down to its lowest price ever of $499.99 at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target. Between the three retailers, every single one of this iPad's five colorways are available.

While we've been longtime fans of the 2021 iPad for students (and most other people tbh), the iPad Air makes a great option for someone wanting a slight step up, spec-wise. It comes packed with an M1 chip, making it just as powerful as the still popular 2020 MacBook Air, and "and versatile enough for both casual users and professionals," as Mashable senior editor Stan Schroeder wrote in his review.

Even at full price, the iPad Air is the most affordable tablet with that chipset. In addition to the M1 processing power, you'll also enjoy 8GB of RAM, a 10.9-inch LED display, excellent battery life, and compatibility with the second-gen Apple Pencil (which also happens to be on sale at the time of writing).

Unless you need tons of storage, the iPad Air is by far the best high-powered Apple tablet you can get for the most affordable price.