Apple's latest iPad mini with cellular connectivity is back on sale at its record-low price

a close-up of a person holding an apple ipad mini against a light gray background

SAVE $99.01: Amazon has the 2021 iPad mini (64GB) with cellular connectivity on sale for just $549.99 as of Aug. 12. That's 15% off its $649 MSRP and a match of its record-low price.

Pull up some data on the Amazon price-tracking site camelcamelcamel, and you might notice a weird trend with Apple's latest iPad mini. In the middle of every month since May, the 64GB base model with cellular connectivity has briefly returned to an all-time low price of $549.99 — but only for a couple days. (This is "weird in a very good way," to be clear.)

You can catch August's price drop if you act fast: As of Friday the 12th, the pink and starlight variants had dipped down to that $549.99 mark on Amazon. (The space gray and purple ones were sold out at the time of writing.) For context, that's 15% off Apple's suggested retail price of $649, which nets you a savings of just under $100.

Launched in 2021, this particular tablet marked Apple's first major iPad mini redesign since the original one came out in 2012 — and according to Mashable senior editor Stan Schroeder, "the wait was worth it." Its 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display is brighter and larger than the previous generations', but it's still portable enough to take anywhere. ("It feels solid and compact in the hand, like a perfectly sized book," noted Schroeder.) The addition of a zippy A15 Bionic chip gives it a 40 percent performance jump and an all-day battery life.

Other highlights include second-generation Apple Pencil support, a new USB-C port, Touch ID that's built into the power button, and a 12-megapixel selfie camera with Center Stage, a feature that keeps you in frame during video calls. An iPadOS update in September or October (pending a possible delay) will add Apple's new Stage Manager tool, a collaborative app called Freeform, shared iCloud photo libraries, a weather app, some advanced gaming features, and updates to Messages, Mail and Safari.