Dealmaster: New low on Mac mini, Samsung 980 Pro, and Amazon Fire Kids; plus AirPods and iPad

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Enlarge / Apple's 2023 Mac mini. If you've seen one, you've seen them all, but it's what's on the inside that counts. (credit: Andrew Cunningham)

Today's best deals feature a $100 price cut on the 2023 entry-level Mac mini, a new record low. Samsung's high-performance 980 Pro internal SSD and Amazon's Fire 7 Kids tablet are also seeing the lowest prices we've tracked. Elsewhere on the web, we have deals on AirPods Pro, regular AirPods, and the latest iPad Air that all match their previous record-low prices. As always, we use tracking sites like CamelCamelCamel and Keepa to compare current sale prices to the typical street price to ensure the sales we find are good deals, too.

Apple Mac mini (2023) M2, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage for $500 ($600)

Apple's latest entry-level Mac mini desktop computer is seeing its biggest discount yet, down from $600 to $500. Equipped with Apple's M2 processor and 8GB of RAM, we found the Mac mini to be cool, quiet, energy-efficient, and packing enough power for almost any rich media content creation you'd do outside of a professional studio context. Folks who need more should look to the M2 Pro-equipped minis. This is a new record-low for the 2023 mini, so we don't expect it to last long.

Left to right: Apple's AirPods (2nd generation), AirPods (3rd generation), and AirPods Pro. (credit: Jeff Dunn)

Apple AirPods Pro for $200 ($250), AirPods for $150 ($170)

Apple's latest AirPods Pro are also at their lowest recorded prices, matching Black Friday lows, as are the base model AirPods. The Pro model adds noise cancellation and rubber tips to control outside sounds and provide a better fit. It's great for plane and train rides, but you can turn on Transparency Mode to tune in to your surroundings if you're out for a run in a busy area. Apple says this mode will also tune in to voices better, which one study found the AirPods Pro to do well enough to compete with some hearing aids. These features bring battery life down to about 4.5 hours versus the regular AirPod's six-hour life, but if these features are important to you, it could be worth the compromise. Both models are sweatproof, according to Apple, and they utilize spatial audio to tune the music to your unique ear shape. The Pro just does more to keep out (or let in) outside sounds and keep the buds snug in your ear.

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