I've been writing about the mattress business for quite some time now, and along the way I've picked up a good idea of how all the main brands work. Each of the best mattress companies has its own approach to sales, and by now I can tell pretty quickly whether a particular deal is something new and exciting or a standard offering.
There's one particular deal, though, that I always notice but then dismiss pretty much instantly. It's from Brook + Wilde, and it's a regular alternative to its percentage discount, instead offering you a free iPad with your mattress. In terms of deals, to me it's so out there that it simply doesn't compute; my inner cynical nerd insists that it can't possibly be as good a deal as a straight discount, and I move on to working out how much of a discount the current percentage deal is worth.
Not today, though. Today, in a post Black Friday mattress deals haze, I decided to run the numbers, just in case my inner cynical nerd was wrong. So, is it a good deal or not? Let's find out!
Brook + Wilde really wants you to go for that free iPad. That's what it leads on when you open the store page, and if you click for more info you'll see the popup above, inviting you to use the code TABLET to get your free iPad, then mentioning as a sort of mumbled afterthought that you could instead use the SLEEP45 code to get 45% off if you really wanted to.
Free iPad's a bit vague though, right? Fortunately if you dig into the T&Cs, things get a little more specific. The iPad you get is dependent on how much you spend:
- An Apple iPad (9th Gen) 64GB worth £369 when you spend a minimum of £849
- An Apple iPad Air 64GB worth £669 when you spend a minimum of £1,599
- An Apple iPad Pro 128GB worth £899 when you spend a minimum of £1,999
Being a savvy TechRadar reader you'll of course be snorting indignantly at the prospect of a mere 9th Gen iPad. Both the iPad Air and iPad Pro appear to be up-to-date models though (the iPad Pro's the 11-inch version, of course).
Oh, and I've checked, they only come in Space Grey, the most boring colour, and the T&Cs also mention that your iPad won't be delivered until after you get your mattress. Brook + Wilde promises to make mattresses to order within six weeks, so it's a safe bet you won't get your iPad in time for Christmas.
The big question, though, is this: assuming you want both a Brook + Wilde mattress and a new iPad, would you be best off using this deal, or instead taking the discount and buying them separately?
I'm guessing you won't be astounded to learn that you're better off with the 45% discount in every case; however if the discount was 40%, at the lowest end of the spend brackets the iPad would be the better option.
But! There's one tiny outlier that might just be worth it: if you were to buy the new Brook + Wilde Suprema in a super king size, that's £1,999, which squeaks you in at the bottom end of eligibility for the iPad Pro, worth £899. If you opted for the 45% discount you'd get £899.55 off, so if you really wanted the iPad Pro and you were prepared to wait a lot longer than if you ordered directly from Apple, you'd get as close to the same value as makes no real difference.
Of course, though, you might be able to get that iPad even cheaper; our best iPad guide will take you through all the options and find you the best deals available now.
