Today’s best deals: iPad Air, recommended board games and gaming mice

The time has come for another Dealmaster. Our latest roundup of the web’s best tech deals includes a hands-on deal for Apple’s latest iPad Air, which is up to $559 on Amazon and walmart. Outside of a very brief dip to $549 last month, this is the lowest price we’ve seen for the 10.9-inch tablet, which only launched in March and has a MSRP $600.

Like we have already notedthe new Air is a good compromise between the Cheaper 10.2-inch iPad and the Premium iPad Pro. It lacks the higher refresh rate, better speakers and larger storage (at 128GB) of the latter, but its M1 chip makes it nearly as fast, its USB-C port and front camera are improved over the previous generation, and its large screen and accessory support make it well suited for both media consumption and casual work. The base iPad is still the best value for most, but if you’d rather avoid this tablet’s more dated design and lower performance ceiling, the M1-equipped Air should be a better buy than the Pro. until the latter receives a refreshment. You can read our review for a deeper dive. Besides iPads, our roundup of deals includes a steep discount on Terraform Marsa popular board game we have already recommended in our ultimate board game gift guide. It is available for $38 at the time of this writing, which is the lowest price we’ve tracked in over a year. We’ve included this one in the “heavier fare” section of our freebies guide, so it’s likely to be a little too complex, time-consuming (over two hours per game), and challenging for relative beginners. But for more involved players, it should provide an engaging and deeply replayable card drafting game, a game in which players are tasked with turning the red planet green. Again you can take a look at our review for more details.

Beyond that, we also have deals on a bunch of well-reviewed gaming gear, a soundbar and hybrid streamer from Roku, an entry-level Wacom drawing tablet, various video games, chargers USB-C, SSDs, and more. You can find our full curated list below.

Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post via affiliate programs.

Featured offers of the day

• Apple iPad Air (64 GB) 10.9 inch tablet for $559 ($585) to Amazon, walmart
• Apple iPad mini (64 GB) 8.3 inch tablet for $409 ($460) to Amazon, walmart
• Terraform Mars board game for $38 ($55) to Amazon
• Razer Viper Ultimate wireless gaming mouse + RGB charging station for $80 ($95) to Amazon, best buy
• Origins of the HyperX 60 alloy compact gaming keyboard for $55 ($90) to Amazon ($5 coupon)
• Anker PowerPort III Nano 20W USB-C charger for $14 ($17) to Amazon
• Lenovo Legion 7 16 inch Gaming Laptop (Ryzen 9 5900HX, 2560×1600, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, GeForce RTX 3080 16GB) for $1,799 ($2,300) to walmart
• WD Black SN850 (1 TB NVMe) internal PCIe 4.0 SSD with heatsink for $150 ($170) to best buy
• $50 Nintendo eShop Gift Card for $45 ($50) to Amazon
• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Switch) for $49 ($60) to Amazon
• Ring of Elden (PS5, PS4) for $50 ($59) to Amazon, walmart, GameStop

Electronic offers

Deals on laptops and desktops

• Lenovo Legion 7 16 inch Gaming Laptop (Ryzen 9 5900HX, 2560×1600, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, GeForce RTX 3080 16GB) for $1,799 ($2,300) to walmart
• Acer Swift 3 13.5 inch Laptop (2256×1504, Core i5-1135G7, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) for $499 ($700) to walmart
• Dell S2721DGF 27 inch gaming monitor (1440p, 165Hz, IPS, FreeSync, G-Sync compatible) for $300 ($365) to best buy
• LG 32GN650-B 31.5 inch gaming monitor (1440p, 165Hz, IPS, FreeSync) for $267 ($330) to B&H
• LG 27GP850-B 27 inch gaming monitor (1440p, 180Hz, IPS, FreeSync, G-Sync compatible) for $347 ($400) to Adorama (discount at checkout)
• AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core/16-thread desktop processor for $310 ($345) to Amazon, B&H
• AMD Ryzen 7 5600X 6-core/12-thread desktop processor for $200 ($230) to Amazon, B&H
• AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 6-core/12-thread desktop processor for $179 ($215) to Amazon, B&H
• WD Black SN850 (1 TB NVMe) internal PCIe 4.0 SSD with heatsink for $150 ($170) to best buy
• SK Hynix Gold P31 (2 TB NVMe) internal PCIe 3.0 SSD for $199 ($215) to Amazon

TV and Home Entertainment Deals

Enlarge / It’s not ideal for board game beginners, but Terraform Mars is a deep and deeply replayable card drafting game that we recommend.

Game offers

Enlarge / The Razer Viper Ultimate has been replaced by the new Viper V2 Pro, but at today’s price, the former is still worth recommending for those who want a high-performance wireless gaming mouse. In addition, its design is ambidextrous.

Jeff Dunn

Video Game Deals

Enlarge / LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a typically silly and accessible dispatch of the nine major lines star warswith more open levels and a metric ton of collectibles that make it surprisingly expansive.

Interactive Entertainment Warner Bros.

Enlarge / The 2D action game Metroid Dread delivers a firm challenge and a delightfully tense atmosphere.

Accessories and various promotions