After some fairly disappointing offers from the big A over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, you know as well as we do that to find the best prices on Apple hardware you need to look to other retailers.
Though current-generation Apple products rarely feature huge discounts, older Apple gadgets can come at seriously tempting prices – and these are the products that are going to make the best gifts. Apple Watch Series 3 is a case in point, and now available for just £199 it comes at an ideal price point for slinging under the Christmas tree and making someone very happy indeed.
But scratching around for Apple deals can be a fool’s game, and a sure-fire way to lose time you probably can’t afford to spare. The good news is we’ve taken that hit for you, and you can put your trust in our team of Apple experts to bring you only the Apple deals worth knowing about.
What’s Apple doing for Christmas 2020?
As it happens Apple has not announced its plans for Christmas 2020, though we expect it will be more of the same we’ve seen before – which is to say, not a lot.
Over the Black Friday weekend we saw a four-day event offering gift cards worth up to £120/$150 with eligible gift cards, as it has done for several years now. There was no actual money off what you wanted to buy, but money off an additional Apple product. Sucks if you want only one.
Apple’s just not all that into Christmas it seems – even its 12 Days of Christmas promotion, which used to run from Boxing Day until early January offering a free app, game, song, TV show, book or movie each day, hasn’t seen the light of day since 2013. So it looks like you’re going to have to get your Apple Christmas kicks elsewhere.
Don’t worry, help is here…
Top Apple Deals right now
1. Apple Shopping Event
Now: Get a free gift card worth up to £120
View Deal
Apple’s Black Friday Shopping Event means you’ll get a £20, £40, £80 or £120 when you buy selected products over Cyber Weekend. Apple’s newest iPhones, iPads and Macs aren’t included, but if you’re after an older model this deal might be for you.
2. Beats Solo Pro Wireless Headphones
From: John Lewis
Was: £269.95
Now: £149 (£121 or 45% off)
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Pick up the Beats Solo Pro with a stonking £121 off right now. This deal is matched by Amazon on some colour finishes.
3. Virgin Media Ultimate Apple Bundle
Now: £75 per month
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This is a frankly wild deal that gets you a lot of great gadgets without having to fork out the cash right away.
For £75 per month (across 36 months) and no upfront cost, you can get your hands on four of Apple’s newest products – iPhone 12 Pro, iPad Air 4th gen, AirPods Pro and Apple Watch Series 6 – as part of Virgin Media’s Ultimate Bundle. Plus, that figure includes your 100GB data plan.
Note that, as with all long-term contract deals, you’ll end up paying considerably more than the total RRP of the products – and the data is 4G only.
4. Apple iPhone 12 mini
From: Currys PC World
Was: From £699
Now: From £679 (£20 off with code MINI20)
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The same offer is also available from Amazon, but you’ll have to wait up to two months for the phone to dispatch. See the best iPhone 12 deals for more bargains.
5. Apple 2020 M1 Mac mini (512GB)
Now: £854.05 (£44.95 off)
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KRCS has already discounted the M1 Mac mini with 512GB storage – that’s the £899 model.
They also have money off the entry-level 256GB M1 Mac mini – get that deal from KRCS here.
6. Apple iPhone 12 (with 20GB data)
Now: £99.99 upfront, £36.99 per month (£987.75 TCO)
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We’ve been scouring the comparison sites for iPhone 12 deals and this is the best out there right now, combining a manageable upfront payment with a low monthly fee.
It’s the deal we’d go for, but there are two ways you could get the total cost of ownership (TCO) slightly lower: go for Three’s cashback offer (scroll down to the additional deals, limit upfront cost to £200 and sort by Total Cost of Contract), or pay iD a huge upfront fee.
7. Apple AirPods Pro
From: Appliances Direct
Was: £249
Now: £195 (£54 off)
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The AirPods Pro are Apple’s ultimate in-ear headphones. They offer active noise cancellation and three sizes of soft flexible silicon tips for a customisable, comfortable fit. Right now you can get £54 off the usual price with Appliances Direct.
8. Apple MacBook Air, 1.1GHz dual-core, 256GB (2020)
From: Currys PC World
Was: £999
Now: £879 (£120 off)
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This is the early-2020 entry-level MacBook Air, which cost £999 at Apple before being replaced by the M1 model. Currys has it for £879, as does John Lewis.
9. Apple iPhone 12 Pro
Now: From £40 per month (with free AirPods)
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10. Fitbit Charge 4
From: Currys PC World
Was: £129.99
Now: £99.99 (£30 off)
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11. Apple iPhone 12 mini (with 20GB data)
From: EE
Was: £149 upfront
Now: £37 per month (No upfront cost with OFF150)
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Pick up the iPhone 12 mini with no upfront cost at all with code OFF150 at check-out. You also get free BT Sports for 3 months and six months of Brit Box bundled in. We’re separately gathering up the best iPhone 12 deals here.
12. Parallels Desktop 16 for Mac
From: Parallels
Was: From £69.99
Now: From £55.99 (20% off all tiers)
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Parallels Desktop is the best virtual machine software on the market, and the latest version (which works with Big Sur) now has 20% off. Students get 60% off with the code 3FK-6RV-7CD and those upgrading get 10% off, which drops the price to just £31.99. See our full coverage of this offer.
13. NordVPN two-year subscription
From: NordVPN
Was: £220.80
Now: £68.53 (£2.86 per month) (68% off)
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NordVPN is running its Black Friday promotion which adds a free three months on top of the already discounted two-year plan.
This deal runs until Cyber Monday so don’t miss it. Instead of the usual monthly price of £9.20, the discount means it costs you only £2.68 per month.
You pay for the first 24 months, then the remaining three months are free.
NordVPN tops our round-up of the best VPN services you can buy, and has just rolled out its NordLynx protocol (based on WireGuard) which offers up to twice the speed as before.
14. Adobe Creative Cloud – All Apps Plan
From: Adobe
Was: £49.94 per month
Now: £39.95 per month (£9.99 off per month)
View Deal
Adobe slashed 20% off its Creative Cloud All Apps plan for Cyber Monday. Ends 3 December.
15. Apple AirPods with Charging Case
Now: £124.49 (£34.51 off)
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16. Vodafone Unlimited SIM
Now: £23 per month (Free AirPods)
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Get AirPods thrown in as part of this Vodafone SIM-only deal. Apple’s AirPods would normally set you back £159 but you’ll get them for free when you buy this unlimited 5G data SIM on a 24 month contract.
It’s worth noting that Three is offering an unlimited 5G data SIM for £17 per month, so this deal is only good if you’re particularly interested in the AirPods and want to be on Vodafone’s network. The higher price will set you back £120 more than Three’s offer over the course of 24 months, which is £29 off the price of the AirPods themselves.
17. Apple 13in MacBook Pro, 2.4GHz quad-core 512GB (2019)
From: Currys PC World
Was: £1,999
Now: £1,349.97 (£649 off)
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This is a great discount off 2019’s top-of-the-range 13in MacBook Pro. It’s got a 2.4GHz 8th-generation quad-core processor and a generous 512GB SSD.
18. Apple 12.9in iPad Pro (Wi-Fi, 256GB, 4th-Gen)
Now: £1,010.20 (£58.80 off)
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You can still get £58.80 off the iPad Pro 12.9, which released earlier this year. This is £20 more expensive than it was on Black Friday, though. Here you’re getting the 256GB model, which means it’s pricier than the 128GB model (currently £912 at Amazon), but extra storage means you’re less likely to find you’ve run out of space in future. iPad storage can’t be upgraded, so choosing the right fit from purchase is important. See our full review.
19. Apple iPhone 11 Pro (256GB)
Now: £1039 (£160 off)
View Deal
The outstanding Apple iPhone 11 Pro is one of the finest iPhones to date and this Amazon deal sees the biggest discount on its asking price to date.
20. Apple 27in iMac, 3.7GHz six-core, 5K Retina Display, 2TB Fusion Drive (2019)
From: Currys PC World
Was: £2,249
Now: £1,599 (£650 off)
View Deal
Save money on the 2019 iMac with this deal from Currys PC World. This was the top-of-the-range six-core 27in model that used to cost £2,249 (the equivalent now costs £2,299).
You also get £40 Microsoft 365 Family with code OFFICESAVE40 and £30 off Microsoft 365 Personal with code OFFICESAVE30. There’s also one year of free Apple TV+ included when you buy this iMac.
This model features a 9th generation Intel i5 processor and AMD Radeon Pro 580X graphics. Note that this includes a 2TB Fusion Drive – Apple is now shipping all iMacs with SSDs as standard.
That’s just the top 20 – there’s a load more of where that came from right here.
Once you know what you’re looking for, check out our dedicated deals pages. We spend hours scouring the web for the best promotions every month so you have them at your fingertips:
You may also find these articles helpful for deals on non-Apple products:
If you want to compare the different Apple products and their prices, Apple conveniently charts configurations and starting prices on its products:
- MacBook and iMacs – see pricing differences across MacBook and iMac models based on screen size, processors, storage and more. You can choose up to two devices to compare side by side.
- iPads – compare capacities and prices across all iPads, including Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi and Cellular models
- iPhones – use the drop down on Apple’s site to compare configurations on up to three different iPhone models. Clicking through to an individual model will take you to the RRP.
- Apple Watch – see prices across all Series, both GPS and Cellular models.
- Apple TV – compare capacity and price across Apple TV against Apple TV 4K.
Where to find the best Apple deals
Beyond Apple, you can expect to find great Christmas deals from authorised Apple resellers such as KRCS. KRCS covers the full range of Apple products, including AppleCare coverage and Beats headphones.
Of course, Amazon is the ultimate juggernaut to watch. We would recommend signing up for the 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime so you can take advantage of the Lightning Deals.
Lightning Deals slash prices off limited stock items, which is why the deals only last a few hours. The benefit of a Prime membership is that you would be able to access the Lightning Deals 30 minutes in advance of non-members.
It’s a good idea to keep an eye on the competing retailers that offer Apple products, some of which include:
If you’re in the US, see these major retailers: