Any Deals for Microsoft Surface Pro 4 ?

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  Iceman82 on 16/01/2016 - 18:33

  I'm looking at getting the i5 128GB SP4 & Type Cover. Eligible for education price, so have looked at MS ($1349.05), JB ($1347) and HN's ($1339.20) offers. For device alone, HN works out slightly cheaper because it's 10% off $1488, rather than off $1499.

  Since I'm still not satisfied with the education price I've been doing further deal hunting. (Got i5 128GB SP3 for $997 from HN last year, and can't stand paying 35% more for the new one!!) I'm trying to find other possible discounts. Thought I'd share what I've got so far, and see if anyone can do better.

  HN do $25 discount if you sign up for newsletter. I think it only works online. Can't find anything else for them.

  MS do 10% off accessories eg. type cover, others don't (unless you haggle). Also, using Cashrewards.com.au gets 4% cashback from MS Store online. This works out as a decent price, but, I had trouble getting the web order to verify academic eligibility and didn't proceed with the order.

  I went looking for ways to match or beat the 4% cash back. The best best option, but not sure if I can pull it off: Use 7.5% discounted Big W gift cards to buy JB gift cards. Then buy education price SP4 at JB. Hopefully haggle type cover down to education price of $180. Even at $200 it works out cheapest of all options overall.

  The Big W egift cards are available at 7.5% off from entertainment book, groupon, cashrewards … and probably somewhere else.

  Only problem is I had to ask Big W staff if they had $1500 worth of JB gift cards. They asked how I'd be paying and said I couldn't use gift cards to buy gift cards. I told them I've done it in the past, but they said they don't allow it.

  Looked up T&Cs online and it's not forbidden, so I'm willing to give it a go. Down side is that if they don't let me, I'll have $1500 worth of Big W gift cards that I won't want anymore. I'm thinking it's worth trying to use the self serve checkouts. Risky!

  Can anyone think of a better way?
  I'd love to find discounted gift cards for JB or HN directly. Not sure if there are gift cards for MS online?

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  flagger on 16/01/2016 - 22:54

  I just went down the education discount + cashrewards route for the same SP4 (i5/128gb). Cashrewards rebate was $58.87, so total for the SP4 was $1290.18. As for the touch cover, I got mine from Harvey Norman. They had them on special for $178, but you can use the $25 once off code when you sign up for their newsletter. So that came down to $153.

  One thing to note is, if you want the ($179) 2 year protection plan (main benefit is 2 repairs included for accidental breakage) and you are buying from the MS store, you are supposed to add it at the same time as the SP4 purchase. Otherwise you have to bring it to a MS store, and there is only 1 in Australia (in Sydney). I got stung by this, because there is no ADD button on the protection plan page on the AU MS store :( Went through a whole lot of support/sales crap trying to add it on within the 45 days stated on the MS Store, but MS would not budge, even though I was telling them you can't add the protection plan on the website.

  On that note, the SP4 has some current issues:
  1. Sleep bug. If put into sleep mode, after a couple of minutes the cpu fan kicks in and the battery drains really fast. Very widespread issue, with a fix expected this month. Stop gap solution is to either use hibernate mode or power off completely.
  2. Microphone array has background hiss when recording. Suspected audio driver issue, hopefully a fix will be issued.
  3. The audio out pops a lot. Sounds like when you are plugging in an audio amplifier while it is on, except this happens all the time. Very annoying if you are wearing headphones cause sometimes it is a very loud pop. People on the net seem to think this is audio driver as well…

  Also be aware that MS hardware support is lacking. They do not have advance replacement (where they will send you a replacement, you receive it, then send back the faulty device). So if you are super dependent on it, and have no backup, you will be SOL. Better off going with Apple or Dell if you need that kind of support. I suppose if you buy through a B&M store like HN or JB then if there is any issues straight after purchase you can get a quick swap done. If you buy though MS, even brand new you have to send it back to the service centre and you will almost certainly get a refurb unit.

  Also got a 200GB Sandisk Ultra sdcard for $120 from Amazon so that brings up the local storage to 328GB, which should work out fine. It is surprisingly fast (for a sdcard) on the SP4.