Black Friday and Cyber Monday are just around the corner, which means now is the time to start thinking about saving some money on your Christmas shopping or just grabbing a deal or two for yourself.
One brand that will almost certainly be getting involved in the massive annual sale is Microsoft, which we’re expecting to see slash prices on laptops, tablets and Xboxes. In recent years, the Xbox Series S in particular has been a Black Friday big hitter, with retailers across the web competing to offer the best deal for the pint-sized console. With any luck, it will be a similar situation this year.
Last year’s sale period also saw some tempting deals on Microsoft’s Surface range, and we’re expecting the same in 2023.
As Black Friday approaches, we’ll be keeping an eye on the best Microsoft deals and updating this piece accordingly, but for now, here’s what we know.
When is Black Friday in 2023? And when could the Microsoft Black Friday 2023 sale start?
If you haven’t already noted the dates in your diary, Black Friday takes place on Friday, November 24, and Cyber Monday is the following Monday, November 27.
In recent years, we’ve noticed that Microsoft isn’t usually one of the first retailers to go live with its Black Friday sale, but it did run one throughout the big shopping weekend in 2022. Right now, if you head over to Microsoft's Black Friday Deals page you’ll be greeted with a message that says “you’re a little early, but still in luck”, then pointed towards the current deals it’s running on its tech.
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We don’t, then, yet know when the Microsoft Black Friday sale will launch or what will be in it, but we have a pretty good idea...
Microsoft Black Friday 2023 deals predictions
In order to look forward we must first look back and as we’ve already hinted, one of the most sought-after products of Black Friday 2022 was Microsoft’s Xbox Series S. While not the most powerful Xbox money can buy, the Series S shares much of the pricier Series X’s feature set, and paired with Xbox Game Pass it’s incredibly good value.
The normal retail price for the Xbox Series S is £249.99, but last year we saw it drop to as little as £189.99 with a number of retailers, including Microsoft, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to hope for something similar in 2023. This year, Microsoft introduced a black version of the console, which boasts twice the storage at 1TB. This currently retails at £299.99, which is £50 more than the standard machine. We’ll keep an eye out for any deals on this new model.
As for the Xbox Series X, well, that has featured less prominently in sale periods, but that could change this year. Microsoft is also likely to launch a sale on its digital game store, where you can expect to find discounts on the latest games and some classics too.
Away from Xbox, we saw discounts of up to £270 on Microsoft’s Surface Laptop range and more than £250 off the 2-in-1 Surface Pro 8 in the 2022 Microsoft Black Friday sale. As usual, it’s wise to look for deals on slightly older models of long-running product lines, as this is often where the biggest discounts are found.
Best Microsoft tech deals for 2023
The first thing to note is that Microsoft offers free shipping with no minimum purchase, as well as flexible payment options. At the time of writing, you can save 20% on the price of the Surface Pro 9 when purchased as part of a bundle with the Surface Pro Signature Keyboard. Prices start at £1,278.99.
The Surface Laptop 5 is also currently 20% off at £999, which is the same as it cost in last year’s Black Friday sale.
As for the Xbox Series S, at the time of writing Amazon has it cheapest at £238.16, which is still a good deal, even if we would expect that price to come down in the coming days.
You can browse all of Microsoft's Black Friday 2023 deals here.
