Back to School sales may typically revolve around stationery or school uniforms, but in a post-pandemic world, the need for remote learning tools is becoming all the more apparent.
Back to school sales provide the perfect opportunity to find discounts on laptops, PCs, and accessories like webcams, keyboards, monitors, cases, bags and more. In some cases, student discounts also extend to parents and staff.
With September around the corner, sales and student discounts are picking up. We’re seeing new Back to School promotions launch every day – including brands such as Adobe, Xiaomi, OnePlus and Microsoft.
Amazon’s End of Summer sale is also poised to launch on 26 August and run until 3 September promising even more savings!
We’re looking at all Back to School sales on right now, along with any all-year student discounts. If you’re in the US, see the best offers across American retailers.
When do Back to School 2021 dates – when do sales start?
While there’s no official start date to back-to-school sales, sales can start as early as July through to August, and until the new school year begins. In the US, Back to School Sales can start Auguest-end to early September.
Don’t forget to keep an eye on our round-up of the best student deals of the month and our dedicated Back to School hub.
Best Back to School 2021 sales & deals right now
- Acer – 15% off Notebooks, Desktop PCs, Tablets, Monitors, Projectors and Accessories for students or 16-26 year olds, extra 10% off + free shipping in US
- Adobe – 65% off Creative Cloud All Apps + 1 month for free in the UK; Get 70% off in US – See full guide to Adobe CC student discount – Best Adobe deals: £236 off All Apps from Very!
- Amazon Prime Student – Get a 6-month trial instead of a 30-day trial, along with 50% off the standard rate. See our full guide to Amazon Prime Student.
- Audible – Get 3 months for 99p – see our full coverage
- AmazonBasics Back to School – Amazon’s section on school supplies and backpacks, along with electronics.
- Apple Back to School Sale – Free AirPods with purchase of M1 Mac, MacBooks, iPad Pro or iPad Air 2020 from the Education Store. You also get 20% off AppleCare+. Ends 11 October, 2021.
- Best laptops for students
- Best Fitbit deals
- Dell – Up to 20% off + free delivery across XPS 13, Alienware m17 R3, monitors and accessories. See Dell Outlet Back to School Offers for recommended devices. Dell US Back to School Sale here.
- HP Store – HP’s dedicated Student Store gives students up to 40% off. Here’s our full guide to HP student discounts. Check out HP US’s back to school sale here
- Laptops Direct – 25% off laptops, 30% off monitors, 25% off tablets, plus deals on TVs, smart home, and more
- Microsoft Student discount – Students save 10%, get £290 off Surface Pro 7 Essentials Bundle, £175 off Surface Go 2 Essentials Bundle and more. See our full guide on how to get the Microsoft Student Discount.
- OnePlus – Get £50 off OnePlus 9 along with up to 50% off on OnePlus Buds Z
- Free Office 365 for students – Students and teachers in the UK and US can get Office 365 completely free (it’s not a trial version!)
- Where to buy PS5 in the UK
- Where to buy Xbox Series X/S
- Xiaomi Back to School Sale – £150 off Xiaomi Mi 11 with free Mi Watch Lite, Redmi Note 9T bundle with Scale 2, Hair Dryer, Earphones, Band 5 & more ( see our full coverage) – ends 5 September
- Best SIM deals for students in the UK
- Best SIM deals and plans for kids
See our dedicated article on the best student deals of the month.

How to get a student discount?
Most retailers and companies with a student discount program require you to provide your university or school email address to qualify for the discount. Many rely on UniDays or Student Beans to verify your student status, which also require your uni email address for verification.
Both UniDays and Student Beans help students find discounts across tech, fashion, food and more all in one place. See our full guide to UniDays.
Below are some of the best deals on the web right now, which you can access with or without a student email.
Best laptops deals right now
Below are a few highlights of the best laptop deals on the market this month. You can see the full list and our expert advice on how to choose a laptop in this article.
Top 10 Laptop Deals
Avita Liber V 14

Avita might not be the most well-known laptop brand but we’ve been impressed with the ones we’ve tested. The Liber V has an AMD Ryzen 3 processor and 256GB for not much money at all.
Huawei MateBook D 15 (2021)

The latest version of the excellent MateBook D 15 has a decent saving of £300 with an AMD Ryzen 5 and 512GB SSD.
That’s amazing for the price and Huawei offers discounts on a selection of other products.
Huawei MateBook 14s

The MateBook 14s sits atop our best laptop chart having gained a 9/10 score in our review.
This £400 discount is incredible and Amazon has the same price.Microsoft Surface Laptop Go (2020)

This is an excellent deal on the Surface Laptop Go, a great laptop for students.
Save a decent £100 on this model, which comes with an i5 processor and 64GB of storage.
Huawei MateBook 14 (2021)

A huge £450 off an excellent MateBook 14 on the official store is a great deal. You get a Core i5, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.
Huawei also offers a selection of other products at discounted prices.
Asus ZenBook 13

There’s a whopping £350 off the excellent ZenBook 13 which has an OLED screen, Core i5, 512GB SSD and 32GB of additional Intel Optane memory.
Samsung Galaxy Book Pro

The Galaxy Book Pro is now under £550 in this deal from Currys.
The laptop has an Intel Core i5, 256GB SDD and a whopping 20-hour battery life.
Acer Swift 3 14in Laptop (8GB/512GB)

If you want top-notch specs for an almost budget price then this Swift 3 is a great option. It comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.
Apple MacBook Air M1 (2020)

The MacBook Air with M1 chip is now the older model and has a new lower RRP of £999 but you can still get it cheaper than that thanks to AO.
It’s not the biggest discount we’ve seen but they are rarer for Apple hardware.Lenovo Legion 5i

This powerful gaming laptop has a 120Hz screen, Intel Core i5 processor and Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card.
The eCoupon ‘BACK2SCHOOL’ should automatically be applied and you also get one year of Premium Care services for £1.
Best tablet deals
Check out the best tablet deals below and how to spot one here.
Top 10 Tablet Deals
Microsoft Surface Pro 8 (512GB)

Surface Pro 8 discounts aren’t as big as they were around Prime Day, but there are still some decent deals available. £200 off this mid-spec model is joined by £78 off the cheapest configuration at Amazon.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S8

The still-new Galaxy Tab S8 already has a big saving of over $125, making it a great chance to get Samsung’s flagship tablet.
Apple 12.9in iPad Pro (2020, 1TB)

Nab a not-insignificant reduction on the top 1TB storage version of the iPad Pro 12.9in from 2020. This isn’t a Prime-only deal, so all Amazon customers can buy it, we just don’t know how long it’ll be available at this price.
Samsung Galaxy Tab A8

The budget Galaxy Tab A8 is even cheaper. It boasts a great display, impressive speakers and great battery life, none of which are guaranteed at this price.
Microsoft Surface Go 3 (i3, 128GB)

This excellent deal drops the top-spec Surface Go 3 to its lowest price yet. It’s the model we’d recommend to most people, but there are savings across the range.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 FE

There’s a solid £81 off the 64GB Tab S7 FE with LTE connectivity, getting you a great tablet for on the go. You can also find similar savings on other models.
Microsoft Surface Go 2

If you don’t mind slightly older hardware, the Surface Go 2 remains a great portable PC. The top-spec Wi-Fi version is currently available with a useful £120 discount, or you can save £144 on an LTE model.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 (128GB, cellular)

This 4G model of the Tab S7 is a powerhouse, delivering flagship performance via a stunning display. It’s available with a useful discount right now, too.
Lenovo Tab P11 Pro (128GB) w/ keyboard + stylus

Lenovo’s Tab P11 Pro is a promising multimedia slate with a premium design and a stunning display. This model comes complete with both the Keyboard Pack and Precision Pen to expand its capabilities. Check out our Tab P11 Pro review to see how we found the whole kit and to decide whether this discounted Amazon price is right for you.
Apple 10.2in iPad (2021)

This 64GB model of the latest regular iPad is available with a modest discount at Amazon, but that’s actually the lowest price it’s ever been.
Best Microsoft Surface deals
Microsoft’s incredible Surface range is an easy choice for students. Save on a Surface device below and see our full guide to buying one here.
Top 10 Surface Deals
Microsoft Surface Duo 2

The Surface Duo 2 has had a big price drop, but it’s not in stock everywhere. Microsoft has £500 off the 128GB model or £555 off if you want 512GB of storage.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio (i7, 2TB)

This is a huge 22% saving on the top-spec model, although £87.84 off the cheapest configuration is also worth considering,
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (15in)

If you’ve got your eye on the 15in Surface Laptop 4, this Ryzen 7 model with a 512GB SSD is a great option. You’ll also find £80 off the cheapest 13.5in configuration.
Microsoft Surface Pro 8 (512GB)

Surface Pro 8 discounts aren’t as big as they were around Prime Day, but there are still some decent deals available. £200 off this mid-spec model is joined by £78 off the cheapest configuration at Amazon.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Go (128GB)

The Surface Laptop Go’s successor has arrived, but it remains a capable device that will serve you well for many years. This 12% saving on the mid-spec model is worth considering.
Microsoft Surface Go 2

If you don’t mind slightly older hardware, the Surface Go 2 remains a great portable PC. The top-spec Wi-Fi version is currently available with a useful £120 discount, or you can save £144 on an LTE model.
Best VPN deals for streaming
A VPN is an essential not only for security but for all your international streaming needs. These are the best deals around, but you can see more here.
Top 10 VPN Deals
Ivacy five-year VPN subscription

Ivacy’s deal is one of the best around, knocking a whopping 88% off the usual monthly price.
It’s a five-year subscription that works out at $1.19 per month, or 96p if you’re in the UK. The up-front payment of $71.64 / £57.59 is a real bargain, as that’s what most VPN services charge for two years, or even one year.
Ivacy offers a great service which supports P2P downloads, unblocks streaming services (including Netflix and Disney+) and, like any VPN service, gives you security when using public Wi-Fi and privacy when browsing the web.
You can use it on up to 10 devices at the same time, but even if you use it only on one or two, it’s still one the cheapest VPN deals around. Plus, as a bonus, you also get a password manager included for the first year!
CyberGhost three-year (+3 months) subscription

From: CyberGhost
Was: $506.61 / £389.61 a year
Now: $89.31 / £68.25 for three years (82% off)
CyberGhost is a great VPN service and its current offer is for a 39-month subscription. It’s touted as a three-year deal with three months free, but click through and you’ll see you’re actually charged for all 39 months at the monthly price quoted.
It’s a practice we want all VPNs to ditch, but since the renewal price remains the same and doesn’t get hiked up (as it does with NordVPN and Surfshark), it’s still a good deal.
CyberGhost is great for unblocking streaming services, so if that’s what you want a VPN for, it should be a tempting deal.You’ll find CyberGhost in our round-up of the best VPNs.
Surfshark two-year subscription

Surfshark is currently offering 82% off its two-year subscription, plus two months free.
The monthly price on Surfshark’s website is lower than what you’ll actually pay because, like others here, it counts the free months as paid, and displays the price excluding (which is 20% in the UK).Making up for this is the fact that Surfshark now bundles full-blown antivirus software for free. And it has been tested and certified by Virus Bulletin.
This isn’t the absolute lowest price we’ve ever seen from Surfshark, but it’s still a great price for two years’ access to a top VPN service, which is also one of the few which doesn’t put a limit on the number of devices you can use with it at the same time. In fact, it’s almost half the price NordVPN is currently charging.
Read our Surfshark review
PureVPN two-year subscription

PureVPN’s latest deal is for a two-year subscription that will cost you $53.95 (around £44) and you get three free months on the end.
By our calculations, that’s not 82% off or $1.99 per month as claimed. It’s actually $2.25 per month, and 79% off.It’s because PureVPN is counting the ‘free’ months as paid in order to make the price look cheaper. But it’s a good deal, made even better by the fact you can currently use the coupon code Pure20 to get an extra 10% off the discounted price.
As with all the deals here (and with all VPN subscriptions longer than a month), you pay for the full subscription up front – not per month.
TIP: if you’re using a desktop web browser and move your cursor off the page you should see a “secret” 5-year deal appear which works out at just $1.49 per month (£1.11), but of course the total price is higher ($89.95) as it’s for 60 months rather than 24. You cannot use a coupon code with this offer.Atlas VPN Premium two-year subscription

Atlas VPN is a relatively new services, but it offers 32 locations including Japan, with Netflix support.
It doesn’t tick as many boxes as NordVPN or Surfshark, but if you’re just looking for the lowest monthly price, then this deal should be tempting, especially as Atlas VPN doesn’t put any restrictions on the number of devices you can use with the service at the same time.
Private Internet Access two-years, two-months subscription

Private Internet Access is offering 81% off its two-year subscription.
The monthly price shown on PIA’s site counts the extra months not as free but as paid months. It’s a cheeky way of making it look a bit cheaper than it really is.
But it’s a good deal overall for this trusted service: it’s one of few VPN services that have made the source code for its apps public so it can be scrutinised.
Read our full PIA review for more details.
NordVPN two-year subscription

This deal gives you 52% off the renewal price (as opposed to the monthly price, which is why NordVPN’s discount appears lower than its rivals), and applies when you sign up for the two-year plan.
The UK prices shown here include VAT, which is why they look more expensive than the prices you’ll see when you click through to Nord’s website (it’s £3.47 per month, not £2.89). It’s still 52% off, but Nord presents all its prices without tax.NordVPN is by no means the cheapest VPN service – even with this deal – but if you want the best all-round VPN – it’s top of our round-up of the best VPN services – then this is deal to go for.
FastestVPN Lifetime plan

Unlike most VPN deals which are subscriptions for a set number of years, FastestVPN’s is for a lifetime subscription. We asked the company exactly what that meant and were told “we will never terminate their accounts”.
And for just $20 – around £15 – that’s unbeatable.
Plus, you’ll get a year’s cloud storage thrown in – 2TB with Internxt – and a password manager.
FastestVPN isn’t the best VPN service around, and it’s not the fastest either. It has far fewer locations and servers than most. When we tested it, speeds were good over IKEv2, but terrible over OpenVPN, which is what you need to use to unblock services such Netflix and Disney+ in the US.
Hidden24 two-year subscription

From: Hidden24
Was: $72/£119.76 a year
Now: $59.88/£78.96 a year ($4.99/£3.29 per month) (20% / 44% off)
Hidden24 is a VPN service with a difference: it doesn’t require an app. It will suit anyone wanting a VPN for absolute privacy as it logs precisely nothing.
Your device will need to support a VPN connection natively, but Windows, Android, iOS and macOS all do.
Hidden24 is also a great option if you don’t want to sign up for a long time: it’s around half the cost of its rivals if you just need a VPN for a month.
Hide.me two-year VPN subscription (plus 2 months free)

Hide.me is celebrating its 10-year anniversary and offering a two-year deal as part of it.
As with so many of these deals, the ‘free’ extra months are factored into the monthly price shown, meaning they’re not free at all. Or the real monthly price is actually higher ($3.33 / £3.33).Regardless, you’ll pay for the entire 26 months upfront and it’s a good deal compared to the prices Hide.me usually charges for a single month. Plus, the subscription renews at the deal price, which is a bonus.
It isn’t the best deal we’ve ever seen from hide.me, however.Best printer deals
If you’re writing papers, you’re gonna need to print them. Save on a printer below, plus here’s how to choose a printer.
Top 10 Printer Deals
HP OfficeJet 6950

An affordable printer for your home office, the OfficeJet 6950 is an all-rounder with print, copy, fax and scanning functions.
- Inkjet
- Multi-function
- Wi-Fi with AirPrint
Kodak P300R Mini 3

This Mini 3 from Kodak has over £35 off and comes bundled with 68 photos. It’s Bluetooth and compatible with iPhone and Android.
- Portable
- Bluetooth
- 3x3in instant photos
Canon Pixma TS5150

It’s not a huge discount but any money off a decent printer at an affordable price is worth a look. You’ll need to check stores for collection, though.
- Multi-function
- Inkjet
- Wi-Fi
Epson Expression Photo XP-8600

The XP-8600 features in our Best Printers chart, ranking highly. It may not be the cheapest but you’re getting bang for your buck, and this is the lowest price you’ll find right now.
- Multi-function
- Colour inkjet
- Colour touchscreen
- Wi-Fi
Epson EcoTank M1100

Laptops Direct currently has £10 off this black and white inkjet printer. It’s eligible for free delivery in most of the UK.
- Multi-function
- Mono inkjet
- 32ppm (pages per minute)
- 100,000-page warranty
Canon Selphy Square QX10

There’s a chunk off this pocket-size smartphone printer from Canon. There’s also an optional bundle which comes with an ink and paper set.
- Mobile instant printer
- Wi-Fi
- Compatible with iOS & Android
Canon Pimxa MegaTank G5050

As the name suggests, this MegaTank model from Canon is designed for those who need to do lots of printing. It can yield up to 18,000 pages from 3 black ink bottles or 7,700 pages from a colour set.
- Inkjet
- Wi-Fi
- Includes full set of ink
HP Envy Photo 7830

While it’s aimed at printing photos, the 7830 is an all-in-one printer that can also handle copy, scan and fax in a compact size.
- Inkjet
- Wi-Fi
- 4-months of Instant Ink
See our dedicated Back to School hub for even more deals and buying advice.