Staples Black Friday Ad Analysis: Best-Ever Price on the iPad mini 4

You might think that an office supply store would have drab Black Friday sales, but the 2015 Staples Black Friday ad proves us wrong. The store is the first retailer to advertise a major discount on an iPad, in addition to a handful of other great offers. But watch out for items that are confusingly listed at full-price.

Read on for our full analysis of the best and worst bits of the Staples ad.

Best Deals: Amazing iPads and Editors' Choice Repeats

• Apple iPad mini 4 16GB Tablet for $299
  This deal shaves $100 off the cost of the newly-announced iPad mini 4, which is perfectly in line with our predictions. It fell to $350 in October, but this would be the lowest price yet for this model. That said, we firmly believe that multiple retailers will offer the mini 4 for around $300, so keep your eyes open for more offers.
• 
  
• Samsung Galaxy S6 Smartphone With $500 in Credits for $26.25 per month for 24 months
  If you switch to Verizon and purchase a Samsung Galaxy S6 with a monthly payment plan, you'll receive a $400 Visa gift card and a $100 bill credit. That's like getting a $500 rebate. After you consider the $630 you'll pay over the course of 24 months, it's like a net cost of $130 for the phone, which is the best offer we've seen for this flagship phone on Verizon.
• 
  
• Amazon Fire TV 4K Streaming Media Player for $74.99
  This newly-released set top box from Amazon hit $80 in early October, but we haven't seen another discount since then. This deal settles in at our $75 prediction, so we're fairly confident that this will be the best price you'll see during Black Friday.
• 
  
• 20% Off Photo Gifts
  While there are many vendors out there that will offer discounts on photo prints, this is the first time we've seen such a discount from Staples this year.
• 
  
• Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 9.7" 32GB Tablet for $399.99
  This deal isn't groundbreaking since we've seen it at this price three times before, but it's still a solid price. We've also seen the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 8" Tablet for $350 before, although it only happened once in September.
• 
  
• 25% Off Regularly-Priced Items
  Although the store offered this same discount in mid-October, it was an Editors' Choice offer, since it was the best percent-off discount we've seen so far this year at Staples. The store offered the same discount two weeks later, but it was only valid on a single item; Black Friday will offer an opportunity to apply it to multiple items.
• 
  
• HammerMill 8.5x11" Copy Paper Ream for 1 cent
  We've seen this deal before, and it's always a crowd-pleaser. That said, since it does pop up a few times per year, it's probably not worth fighting Black Friday crowds for paper unless there are other items you want in-store.
• 
  
• Apple iPad Air 2 16GB Tablet for $374
  Technically, we've seen this tablet for cheaper, but only twice and for a very limited amount of time. So $374 is still a pretty good deal for a new iPad Air 2, but we'd be remiss if we didn't point out that Staples itself offered it for less over the summer, knocking it to $349. That makes the store's Black Price price a bit disappointing. That said, the only other ad with a better deal is Target, which offers it for $499 but bundles it with a $150 gift card, a net price of $349. If you don't want to pay that much up front though, Staples is still your best offer.
  
  Meanwhile, the iPad Air 2 64GB model has already dropped to $449 once before, but that was an Editors' Choice deal and we haven't seen it again since, making the Staples offer still noteworthy.

Worst Deals: Flashy Tech at List Price

• Apple TVs from $69
  We're not really sure what's up with these deals, as all three of the Apple TV models are advertised at list price. The previous-gen Apple TV for $69, or the current-gen models in 32GB and 64GB varieties for $149 and $199, are only deals if they come with gift cards of some sort.
• 
  
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 7" Android 8GB Tablet for $119.99
  You're more likely to find this older tablet as a refurb these days, but we saw it drop below $105 twice this summer, so $120 is hardly noteworthy.
• 
  
• Apple iPad mini 2 16GB Tablet for $239
  As we noted in our Black Friday Apple predictions, the mini 2 should easily hit $199 this year, so why pay $40 more than you need to?
• 
  
• Amazon Fire HD Tablets from $149.99
  Like the Apple TVs, this is another perplexing "sale" since both HD tablets are advertised at list price, or the same as what Amazon currently charges. Paying $150 for the 8.8" model or $230 for the 10.1" model would be silly.
• 
  
• Surface Pro 4 Tablet for $999
  Here's yet another item listed for sale at full-price. You can already pay $999 at the Microsoft Store if you want this tablet.
• 
  
• Canon and Brother Printers from $50
  The Staples ad features a lot of printer deals, but unfortunately, we've seen a vast majority of these models for less on multiple occasions. Be weary of the printer deals, and do your research before considering any of these offers.

Excited for Black Friday deals? Consider subscribing to the DealNews Select Newsletter to get a daily recap of all our deals; you never know when a Black Friday price will be released! You can also download the DealNews apps, check out the latest Black Friday ads, or read more buying advice.