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Want a 1-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365? That’ll be $70. For that price you can run the latest versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and other apps on one PC or Mac, one tablet, and one phone. You also get 1TB of cloud storage at Microsoft OneDrive.
It’s not a bad deal, especially if you want to use Access, Publisher, or some of the other tools that are included in the $400 Office Professional suite, but not the cheaper Office Home & Student or Home & Business editions.
But there’s also another way to get your hands on a 1-year subscription to Office 365: buy a cheap tablet.
In fact, right now you can buy a Toshiba Encore 7 for $70 and get Office 365. That’s kind of like buying a subscription to Office and getting a free tablet.
Or you can pay $79 for an HP Stream 7 tablet, get an Office 365 license, and get $25 to spend in the Windows Store.
Want another cheap tablet option? Best Buy is selling an 8 inch Windows tablet from Digiland for just $50 today. There’s no mention of Office 365 in the product description, so I’m not sure if it comes with a license. But that’s still one of the lowest prices I’ve ever seen for a Windows tablet. Update: The tablet does come with an Office 365 subscription.
Note that these aren’t very good Windows tablets and you probably won’t want to use them for serious work that requires a lot of multitasking. But they’re cheap enough to use for occasional web surfing, media playback, and maybe even viewing some office documents… while you use the included license to install Office on your desktop or notebook PC.
Here are some of the day’s best deals.
Tablets
- Digiland 8″ Windows tablet for $50 – Best Buy
- HP Stream 7 Windows tablet + $25 Windows Store credit for $79 – Microsoft Store
- Toshiba Encore 7 Windows tablet for $70 – Microsoft (via eBay)
- Refurb Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 Android tablet w/pen for $150 – Newegg
- Refurb Asus Transformer Book T100 2-in-1 tablet w/Atom Z3740 for $145 after rebate – NeweggFlash
- Refurb Acer Aspire Switch 11 w/Atom Z373F for $199 – Acer (via eBay)
- Dell Venue 8 7000 Series Android tablet for $350 – Best Buy
Notebooks
- Dell XPS 13 w/1080p display, Core i5 Haswell for $799 – Microsoft Store (coupon: PCGRAD15)
- Refurb Asus X200MA 11.6″ touchscreen laptop w/Celeron N2815 for $180 – Newegg
- Lenovo Flex 3 11 convertible notebook w/Celeron N2940 for $409 – Lenovo (coupon:Â DBFLX311EUS521)
- Lenovo Flex 3 11 convertible notebooks w/Celeron N2840 for $299 and up – Lenovo (coupon:Â WSFLX311KUS521)
Smartphones
- No-contract Motorola Moto G (1st gen) for Verizon for $25 – Best Buy
- ZTE Nubia 5S Mini LTE smartphone for $194 – Newegg (coupon:Â EMCASNN69)
Smartwatches
- Motorola Moto 360 for $150 – Best Buy
- Asus Zenwatch for $180 – Best Buy
- Refurb Samsung Gear S smartwatch for AT&T (no contract) for $200 – Woot
Accessories
- ADATA 32GB microSDHC card + adapter for $10 – Newegg (coupon:Â EMCASNN47)
- Panasonic Bluetooth on-ear headphones for $64 – Meh
- Logitech UE Mini Boom Bluetooth speaker for $49 – Daily Steals
Games
- Pac-Man game sale for the game’s 35th anniversary – Amazon
- Name your price for $160 worth of adventure games + soundtracks – Humble Bundle
You can find more bargains in our daily deals section.
Or, you can use Libreoffice and not pay Microsoft a dime.
If you happen to live close to Micro Center, check if the location close to you has any stock of open box TW700. It goes below $50 and comes with free Office 365. I got one and am pretty happy — the tablet itself is actually quite usable even with 1GB RAM/16GB storage (if you use it for right purposes).
The Best Buy site says about the $50 tablet
“Included Software: Microsoft Office, One Note, OneDrive and more”
Do you have a screenshot? I’m not seeing that — and in fact, when I click “Accessories,” it suggests Office 365 as a separate $70 purchase.
Under the specifications tab.
Weird, I could swear that wasn’t there before. (I did a Ctrl+F search for Office and everything).
It’s not entirely clear if those are full versions of the apps or just trial versions, so I’m not comfortable stating that this is the same “free” Office 365 deal offered with the other tablets. But thanks for helping me find that!
I got the $50 tablet yesterday. I can confirm, it includes Office 365 subscription. It is not a great tablet, but pretty solid for $50.
Awesome. Thanks for the update!
Sadly the windows store is lacking.
It is lacking compared to iTunes and Google Play, but it’s not that bad these days. If you have a Windows Phone it’s pretty neat to be able to buy 1 app and use it on your phone, tablet and laptop/desktop.
I have a venue 11, and almost exclusively use desktop apps because the store seems full of fluff.
Does the 365 license allow commercial use, or is it like the Home & Student?
$70/year indicates it’s “Office 365 Personal” licensed for home use only.
https://products.office.com/en-us/buy/compare-microsoft-office-products