Microsoft's back to school deal helps students save $300 on Surface and Xbox One bundle

Microsoft today introduces a pretty sweet back to school deal, giving students the option to save $300 with the purchase of a Surface device and an Xbox One console. Part of the bundle are three free extras, one of which is a wireless controller.

The promo is valid for all configurations of the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4, and starts at just $878. For the money, students get the base Surface Pro 4 and a 500GB Xbox One game bundle. The two devices are normally available to students for $809.10 and $279, respectively, when purchased separately.

The Surface + Xbox bundle also includes a free Xbox One game -- students can choose from Just Dance 2016 ($39.99), The Crew ($29.99) and Assassin's Creed Unity ($19.99) -- and a $50 Microsoft Store gift code, on top of the aforementioned wireless controller for Xbox One in black, which students can now buy for $53.99. (The wireless controller is included with the 500GB Xbox One game bundle that students can buy.)

If you do the math, the savings effectively range between $279.99 and $299.99, depending on how expensive the free game that you choose is. Even if you do not care about that or the gift code, the deal is still pretty nice as you are basically getting an Xbox One at a very, very low price -- $68.90 when using the aforementioned example -- when buying a Surface Pro 4 or Surface Book.

A more future-proof bundle would include a mid-range Surface Pro 4 (Core i5 version with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage) and 1TB Xbox One, which would end up costing $1,298. You should also add a Type Cover keyboard, which adds $129.99 to the cost, just to make the tablet usable at a desk and more usable in general.

Students also have access to cheaper Office 365 subscriptions as well. The Home version can be had for $79.99 (normally it costs $99.99) while the Personal version goes for $49.99 (normally, $69.99); for most folks I believe the latter is the best option.