Microsoft is trying to stoke Surface Book sales with tempting Xbox offer

Apparently Windows Insiders – those testing early preview versions of Windows 10 – are receiving emails from Microsoft offering deals on the Surface Book bundled with an Xbox One S console.

This nugget of information comes from Windows Central, after the tech site was sent an email detailing the discounted bundles by a reader.

These are 'exclusive offers' targeted at the Windows Insider community in the UK, and there are a number of them available for different variants of the Surface Book, although all of them bundle the convertible notebook with the Xbox One S plus FIFA 17 package.

The cheapest of the lot is the offer for a Surface Book with Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, along with an Xbox One S (FIFA 17) with a 500GB hard drive, priced at £1,319. That represents a saving of £230 compared to buying both these separately.

Or you can step that up to the Core i5 Surface Book with 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage and the discrete Nvidia GPU on board, which can be yours together with the 500GB console for £1,609. That's a saving of a tad more at £240 knocked off.

Core i7 cost-cutting

The other bundles are more expensive as they feature the Core i7 toting Surface Book, and the base offering is the 8GB/256GB model complete with the Xbox One S (FIFA 17) and 1TB hard drive for £1,870 – a saving of £329.

Of course, while it is possible to pick these devices up from online outlets other than the Microsoft Store at a cheaper asking price, these discounts still represent better value than what you can manage on, for example, Amazon – where the above two devices are still £80 more expensive than said offer.

Other deals include savings of £390 and £395 respectively on the more expensive Core i7 models with 512GB/1TB of storage, again with the same Xbox One S (FIFA 17) with 1TB.

So if you were mulling over taking the plunge with one of Microsoft's tasty notebooks, and fancy a new console into the bargain, it's certainly worth thinking about signing up to beta test Windows 10.

• In the meantime, consider buying a Surface Pro 4