GADGET makers and shops are slashing prices on tech for the back-to-school season.
The summer holidays are nearly over, which means you can get freebies and major discounts galore. There are even summer savings on offer for people without kids, so everyone can get involved.
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FREE APPLE AIRPODS & DISCOUNT
One of the best back-to-school offers available right now is from Apple.
You can bag a free pair of Apple AirPods 4 if you buy a qualifying iPad or Mac.
The wireless earbuds are worth £129, so it’s nothing to sniff at.
The offer runs right through to October 21.
Qualifying gadgets include:
This offer isn’t just limited to higher education students either.
You can bag the deal if you’re a teacher or teaching staff at any level – or if you’re a parent buying for a kid.
Students as young as 16 can get the deal as long as they’re enrolled or accepted to enrol at a tertiary education institution.
So that could be a university – but also a college or sixth form.
You just need to bag the gear from the Apple Education Store here, which already cuts the price of gadgets anyway.
EE DISCOUNT
EE is flogging student discounts on mobile plans and phones.
As long as you have a Student Beans account, you can get 20% off.
And you can also use it for home broadband.
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There’s a 24-month student plan for just £26.99 a month.
Just go to EE’s page here, verify your Student Beans status, and then you’ll get a code to enter at checkout.
HP LAPTOPS
HP has rolled out a load of Back to School deals – and they’re not just for students.
The company has shaved up to £300 off of laptops, and there are dozens of notebooks eligible for the deal.
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In fact, one model is down by £310 – the HP Envy 14 – and it comes with a stylus too. Check it out here.
Another tempting perk – especially if you are a student – is the free Tesco Digital Gift Card if you buy an eligible PC.
The gift card is worth £50, and you can check to see if your purchase is qualifying here.
Again, this is a “back to school” deal, but anyone can claim it.
SKY MOBILE
Sky Mobile is also serving up some Back to School deals…on laptops!
Yes, you can pick up MacBooks on 48-month contracts with the mobile network (with the option to swap devices after 36 months).
Once again, it’s not just limited to students.
Probably the most tempting deal is on a MacBook Air.
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You can get a 2025 MacBook Air with an Apple M4 chip for £20 a month.
The laptop comes with 256GB of storage and only costs £2 upfront.
That comes to £962, which is less than Apple’s £999 mark-up for the laptop.
Previously it was £22 a month. You can get the deal here.
But the bigger saving comes from the data plan you buy with it. Previously it was £14 a month for 10GB of data, but it’s now just £1.
MICROSOFT PRICE CUTS
Microsoft has a few great Back To School offers.
First up is Office 365 Education, which gets you loads of great apps for free here.
If you’re at an eligible institution, you can claim web versions of:
- Word
- Excel
- PowerPoint
- OneNote
- Microsoft Teams
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And you won’t have to pay a penny.
Students can also get Microsoft 365 Personal, which gets you desktop access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook, plus cloud storage and access to Microsoft Copilot for £3.99 a month.
Normally, that would cost you £8.49 a month (that’s £101.88 every year).
So you’re saving £54 if you claim that offer here.
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And on top of that, you can bag up to 10% off Microsoft Surface devices (so laptops and tablets) plus accessories if you’re a student, parent, or educator.
That discount is year-round too, so it’ll work (here) just before Christmas if you’d rather buy a new gadget then.
ACER LAPTOP
There’s also a great Currys deal in partnership with Acer.
You can bag the Acer Chromebook Plus for £249 here.
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That’s £100 less than the usual £349 retail price, which is a tremendous discount.
The gadget has a fairly generous 14-inch screen, 128GB of storage, and runs on Google’s fairly easy-to-use ChromeOS.
It’s not an ultra-powerful machine, but it should get you through a full day of studying (and probably a bit of YouTube too…).
And it has a ChromeOS security system that automatically scans all of your apps for malware.
THE LAPTOP SPECS REVEALED
Here’s the list of specs…
Product: ACER 514 14″ Chromebook Plus – Intel® Core™ 3, 128 GB eMMC, Grey
- Operating System: ChromeOS
- RAM: 8GB LPDDR5X
- Processor: Intel Core 3-N355 (octa-core)
- Storage: 128GB eMMC
- Screen: 14 inches
- Resolution: Full HD+ 1920 x 1200p
- Screen Type: IPS LCD
- Wi-Fi: Intel Wi-Fi 6E
- Bluetooth: Bluetooth 5.3
- Ports: USB Type-C (x2) / USB 3.2 (x2) / HDMI 1.4 / 3.5mm jack
- Camera: Full HD 1080p webcam
- Microphone: 3x
- Battery Life: Up to 10 hours
- Colour: Grey
- Weight: 1.4 kilos
The display has a Full HD+ resolution too, so it should work great for watching a bit of telly. Just not during lessons.
MUSIC TO YOUR EARS
Lastly, students can bag some brilliant music discounts.
For a start, students can get Spotify Premium for free for a month – and then pay £5.99 monthly thereafter.
Normally it’s £11.99 a month, so that’s a saving of £72 yearly. You can find that one here.
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But perhaps an even better music deal comes courtesy of Apple.
Normally an Apple Music subscription costs £10.99 a month.
But you can get Apple Music Student for just £5.99 a month, saving you £60 over the year.
However, it’s made even better by the inclusion of Apple TV+ free of charge.
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Apple TV+ normally costs £9.99 a month, which comes to £119.88 a year.
So you’re actually saving nearly £180 over the course of a year with Apple’s deal here.
All prices in this article were correct at the time of writing, but may have since changed.
Always do your own research before making any purchase.
ANOTHER APPLE TRICK TO SAVE MONEY
One simple way to potentially cut your bills is to pick up an Apple One plan…
Apple One is a way to bundle your Apple subscriptions together to save money.
If you were already going to be paying for them anyway then the savings can be huge.
The Individual plan costs £18.95 a month and includes:
- iCloud+ (50GB)
- Apple TV+
- Apple Music
- Apple Arcade
It means you’d save £9 a month (or £108 a year) versus paying for them all individually.
The Family plan costs £24.95 a month and gets you:
- iCloud+ (200GB)
- Apple TV+
- Apple Music
- Apple Arcade
That’ll save you £11 a month (or £132 a year) versus buying each subscription individually.
And the Premier plan comes in at £36.95 per month, getting you:
- iCloud+ (2TB)
- Apple TV+
- Apple Music
- Apple Arcade
- Apple Fitness+
- Apple News+
This bundle saves you £27.99 a month, which works out at a whopping £335.88 a year.
Picture Credit: Apple
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