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What are the best student discounts on tech?

Student discounts on tech
Cut-price Mac: Apple does deals for students

You will likely find yourself heavily in debt by the end of university, so to make sure your credit limit at the bar isn’t adversely affected make sure you seek out student discounts on tech. Wanting to lure you in for an adulthood of using their products, tech companies are more than happy to offer special student discounts.

But who offers what and how do you qualify for the savings? We’ve tracked down some of the best student offers.

How do I qualify for student discounts on tech?

Most companies use one of two methods:

  1. You will need to have an appropriate email address (i.e. one that ends with .edu or .ac.uk). The downside to this method is that if you’re just about to start university for your first year, you won’t have an email address allocated to you yet.
  2. Via the UNiDAYS website – the sign-up for this site involves providing details on your course and institution.

What’s available?

So, you’ve proved you’re a student, what’s available? Heres are our picks of the top technology companies offering discounts to work dodgers. Click of any of the company names to be taken to their student discount page:

Apple

Validate with UNiDAYS for discounts of up to £270 on a top-of-the-range iMac and up to £62 on an iPad.

Microsoft

£450 off a Surface Book? Depending on which model you choose, you can get a tasty discount on Surface hardware. Even the cheapest model will net you a £100 saving.

Software is included too, including Windows 10, although it’s probably Office 365 that will be of most interest – their Office 365 University pack is £59.99 for a 4-year subscription, covering two devices. It includes all the main Office applications as well as 1TB of OneDrive storage.

Amazon

There are numerous discounts available, from 10% off Canon printers and scanners, FireTV and Echo devices, to 20% off Asus Vivobooks and AmazonBasics brand products. However, the main selling point of Amazon’s student account is six months of free Prime membership and half price after that time. This also includes the Prime Video and Music streaming, for when you can’t afford to go out!

Spotify

Speaking of streaming music, how about £4.99 a month for Spotify premium, half the normal price? Spotify uses UNiDAYS to prove you’re a student.

Dell

The Dell offer is a lot more straightforward than, say, Apple’s or Microsoft’s. You get a straight 10% discount on laptops and desktops over £499. UNiDAYS is required for validation.

Adobe

The Adobe offer is no-nonsense, too – it offers the complete Creative Cloud package for £16.24 a month, a saving of 65%. However, this is only for one year, which seems a bit mean. An appropriate education email will be required to validate your student status.

Wolfram Alpha

A little left field, but the computational capabilities of Wolfram Alpha could be very useful for someone studying for a maths or science-based qualification. Students can get their ‘Pro’ plan for $4.75 a month, a saving of $0.74 a month. No, it’s not much really. Alternatively, there’s the Pro Premium plan for $7.99 a month, saving $2.

What Wolfram Alpha has very cleverly (aka deviously) done is make the comparison charts for the Student and non-Student plans different, so it’s very difficult to compare if there are any differences. Check that the student plan does everything you want before committing.

About the author

David Artiss

Works for Automattic Inc., the company behind WordPress.com and Tumblr. Tech geek, international speaker and occasional PC Pro podcaster. Lover of Lego and video games.

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