When to buy a tablet: the month and the launch count

Tablets have a launch calendar. The iPad usually gets a new generation in the first half of the year or around October, and the Galaxy Tab S line usually arrives in the second half. These are market habits, not guaranteed dates: each manufacturer changes the calendar from one year to the next.

What usually happens is that, with the new model on the shelf, the previous generation gets more deals and tends to get cheaper. People who don’t need the latest chip can gain from that. People who want the new model pay full price at the start.

Two dates concentrate sales in US retail: Prime Day, in the summer, and Black Friday, in late November. The tablet usually takes part in both, but the Radar doesn’t claim, without data of its own, that the price is lower on them than at other times. In many cases the price goes up before the date and returns to normal with a discount label.

To avoid falling for that, use the Radar’s rule: see how to tell if the tablet really dropped in price and the list of which ones are below the median.

The Radar of Tablets has been building a history since 14/10/2026, and the history is still being built: it doesn’t cover a whole year, so we can’t say, with our own data, in which month the tablet price goes up or down, or whether Black Friday drops more than another date.

Once there is enough data, this guide will show the behavior month by month. Until then, it doesn’t repeat another source’s numbers as if they were ours.

What the Radar shows with real data is today’s catalog: today there are 78 tablets, with a median price of $372.00 and the cheapest costs $80.00, at the check on 06/11/2026.

These numbers change every day. To decide whether today is a good day to buy a model, look at its page: the chart shows today’s price against that tablet’s history.

Without a one-year series, the benchmark the Radar uses is the median of the last 30 days of the same tablet. If today’s price is below it, it is below the usual price of the last month. To confirm, the tablet needs at least 14 days of its own history; before that the page shows today’s price with a note that the median is still being built, without the word "discount".

Whoever waits for the price to drop may go without the tablet when it’s time to study or travel. Whoever buys in a hurry may pay more than they would have. The safest decision combines three things: the right model for your use (see how to choose a tablet), today’s price against the tablet’s median and the store’s delivery time.