Apple’s four-day shopping event is still going on, and we understand If you’ve ignored it. Apple is giving away gift cards and most of the offers are on older products—the iPhone 14, Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra, M2 iPad Pro, and Apple TV 4K are all excluded. And for many of the products that are included, you can find better discounts elsewhere.
But there’s one device worth considering: the iPhone 13 mini. Apple is giving away a $50 gift card with the purchase of an iPhone 13 mini, a not-insignificant return on a $599 device. Unlike the other products in Apple’s sale, the unlocked iPhone 13 mini isn’t on sale anywhere else without needing to sign a long-term carrier commitment. We’ve been tracking deals all weekend and, in the US at least, have yet to find any discount on an unlocked iPhone that isn’t renewed or refurbished.
Of course, the iPhone 13 mini is a year old, but it’s still a great phone, with an A15 Bionic processor, dual 12MP camera system, 12MP front camera with Face ID, 5G support, and MagSafe. The base model comes with 128GB of storage, which should be enough for most users. And since Apple replaced the mini with the iPhone 14 Plus this year, it’s probably the last of its kind.
And since you probably can’t find an iPhone 14 Pro until next year, the iPhone 13 mini could be a nice stop-gap until the iPhone 15 arrives next year. So, if you’ve been looking around for a good iPhone deal without locking into a carrier, give Apple’s shopping event a consideration.
Author: Michael Simon, Executive Editor
Michael Simon has been covering Apple since the iPod was the iWalk. His obsession with technology goes back to his first PC—the IBM Thinkpad with the lift-up keyboard for swapping out the drive. He's still waiting for that to come back in style tbh.