Microsoft 365 review | Laptop Mag
Our Verdict
There's no denying the accomplishments of Microsoft 365. It is an unrivaled collection of features and tools packed into applications often seen every bit the flagships of office productivity. While online tools aren't equally smoothen as the contest, it'due south a minor flaw in an otherwise incredible user feel.
For
- Peachy user experience
- Feature-rich, notwithstanding never crowded
- Real-time collaboration
- Premium versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Against
- Sluggish office.com apps
- Linux users once over again become without
Laptop Mag Verdict
At that place'south no denying the accomplishments of Microsoft 365. Information technology is an unrivaled collection of features and tools packed into applications often seen equally the flagships of function productivity. While online tools aren't as shine equally the competition, information technology'due south a pocket-sized flaw in an otherwise incredible user experience.
Pros
- +
Great user experience
- +
Feature-rich, yet never crowded
- +
Existent-time collaboration
- +
Premium versions of Give-and-take, Excel and PowerPoint
Cons
- -
Sluggish office.com apps
- -
Linux users over again go without
The internet would incorrectly take you believe that Microsoft'due south crowning accomplishment was that fourth dimension Bill Gates pulled off a standing vertical bound over some office furniture. As impressive as that was, Microsoft'south truthful legacy revolves effectually three things: the Windows operating arrangement, Xbox game consoles, and developing one of the most reliable, widely used and recognizable part suites ever.
During CES precursor COMDEX'due south 1988 prove, Microsoft became rivals to software such as StarOffice or AppleWorks by throwing its hat into the office suite ring. Two years later, Microsoft Office released for Windows three.0, bundling together the already impressive productivity software Microsoft Give-and-take alongside Excel and PowerPoint. Past 1992, Microsoft had launched Windows 3.ane, calculation database software Access to Office as they did. And by 1993 Microsoft had secured itself every bit the about widely used GUI operating system, with Function outperforming like suites in WordPerfect and Lotus i-2-iii to control a dominating market share.
What followed has been zero brusk of success after success for Microsoft Office. Unrivaled for and then long in both its offerings and capabilities, Part is often seen every bit the gold standard in productivity software. At present, Office still retains its sizable market place share and popularity. Although, thanks to popular free alternatives like Google Docs and LibreOffice, Microsoft faces the toughest challengers to its throne withal.
I hadn't used Microsoft'southward full function suite in some time. Then I decided to dive dorsum in with Microsoft 365, a rolling subscription service that delivers the Office package alongside a number of cloud-based services to meet how this powerhouse's 30+ years of evolution holds up to the current competition.
Pricing and packages
True to form of about subscription services, the number of available editions and tiers tin speedily rival that of your average Ubisoft pre-social club. Explaining the difference between them can become dense and confusing. While I will attempt to clarify each subscription tier equally best I tin, further details about what's included the Home and Business editions tin can be found online.
Microsoft 365 Home Personal: Ideal for the individual user, the Personal tier has an annual cost of $69.99 or a monthly accuse of $6.99, giving access (on 1 PC or Mac) to premium versions of Discussion, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook (which boosts your mailbox capacity to 50GB).
Access to these apps is available on desktop, mobile or Office for the web. On superlative of that you volition too proceeds 1TB of cloud storage, 60 minutes of Skype calls each month, OneNote, full technical support, and avant-garde security for both electronic mail and OneDrive. And lastly, if you're on PC, you'll too gain access to Microsoft Publisher and Access.
Microsoft 365 Dwelling Family: The Family tier is almost identical to Personal, except you can share your subscription with upwards to five others. Each user will get all the benefits of the subscription, including 60 minutes of Skype calls per month, their own 1TB of cloud storage, and a mailbox upgrade to 50GB. If you have a Microsoft Family account set up already, members of that group will automatically gain access to Microsoft 365 without any setup needed.
You'll too have the selection of using the Microsoft Family Safety mobile app for some further safety measures at no boosted cost. Microsoft 365 Family costs $99.99 annually, or $9.99 if yous want to pay monthly.
Microsoft 365 Business concern Apps: The Apps tier is as straightforward as information technology sounds, providing subscribers with the premium desktop, mobile and Office for the web versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint along with 1TB of cloud storage.
This subscription costs $eight.25 per user, per month with an annual commitment. However, if you don't want to commit for the twelvemonth, the charge per unit for subscribing to Microsoft 365 Apps monthly goes upwardly to $10, per user.
Microsoft 365 Concern Basic: This tier only includes access to mobile and Part for the spider web premium versions of Discussion, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. The only desktop versions bachelor in this subscription are Microsoft Publisher and Admission for PC users.
The Basic tier also includes access to Microsoft Teams, Commutation and SharePoint with an expanded 50GB mailbox that allows for custom domains. Microsoft 365 Business organization Basic has an annual commitment of $v per user, per month or a monthly charge of $vi.
Microsoft 365 Business Standard: The Standard subscription includes everything from the basic subscription, alongside premium desktop versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. In that location are also extra services available with Microsoft Forms and Bookings to gain feedback and easier scheduling with clients.
Subscribing to the Concern Standard tier costs $12.50 per user each month with an almanac delivery, or $xv per user on a month-by-month footing.
Microsoft 365 Business Premium: The premium tier of Microsoft 365 Business organisation edition includes everything in the Standard tier, with additional business concern-focused services and management tools.
Too included in this tier are superior security tools that scan emails for links and attachments that may be malicious, manage information rights on files, preserve your emails long-term with Exchange Online Archiving, and remotely wipe data from lost or stolen devices using Microsoft Intune.
This tier is perfect if you lot're expecting to handle a large amount of sensitive data that needs to be securely managed, and costs $20 per user per month under an annual commitment.
Not a fan of subscription models?
It used to be the example that if y'all wanted a copy of Microsoft'due south office suite, yous would simply pay a apartment fee and gain lifetime access. Withal, this pricing format was last bachelor with Office 2022 and is non an option with Microsoft 365.
You tin can still purchase Office 2022 for a i-fourth dimension fee should y'all prefer to outright ain your software. However, information technology will cost yous $149.99 for the Domicile & Student edition, or $249.99 for the Home & Business organisation edition. Both editions of Office 2022 include the archetype versions of Word, PowerPoint and Excel, which lack a lot of the features found in Microsoft 365'due south premium versions. Purchasers of the Home & Business edition will also be granted a archetype version of the Outlook e-mail client only across the board, Microsoft 365 subscribers will gain considerably more than than Office 2022'south offerings.
Still, if you can hold off on your buy a short while longer, Microsoft has recently appear that Part 2022 will make it at some point subsequently this year for the same cost of $149.99. While no official list of features is confirmed, it would exist reasonable to propose that a lot of what Microsoft 365 has currently rolled out may announced inside the standalone release.
Non a fan of the price?
There are two ways you tin access Microsoft's part suite without paying annihilation. The showtime of which is if you're a student or instructor at an eligible school. If you lot are, you lot can utilize a version of Part 365 Educational activity Edition for gratuitous! To bank check if you're eligible visit the Microsoft website and check out their education section.
Another mode you tin can access apps like Word, Excel, OneNote and PowerPoint is through Microsoft's Office for the web. Office for the web is free to anybody with an Outlook email address (@Outlook, @Hotmail, @Live or @msn). To access these apps online, all you need to do is visit the Outlook homepage and sign upward or log in. All the same, the apps inside Office for the web have limited features and are not on a par with the premium versions available through subscribing to Microsoft 365. They will, however, perform perfectly fine for a majority of tasks and are peachy if yous demand access to a lightweight role suite for smaller tasks.
Design and interface
Microsoft has carved out a existent identity when information technology comes to the look and style of its role suite. Although Microsoft 365 is now 30 years old, its presentation remains recognizable. If yous've, at any point, used a version of Microsoft's office suite in the past, no thing how much may have changed, the look and feel of the software seems e'er familiar.
The benefit of being the most popular office suite is that culling software attempts to emulate rather than introduce. This is seen primarily in suites similar LibreOffice, where the thought is to opposite engineer Microsoft'southward offerings and evangelize them without the toll tag. This puts Microsoft in a position where its design, interface and layouts are viewed as the gold standard, meaning you're almost intuitively at home in the software even if you've never used information technology before.
The entire suite (and online counterparts) has a uniform design that leaves you confident in your ability to work each program. If yous can operate File Explorer in Windows 10, y'all tin handle whatever of the apps in Microsoft 365. The widespread adoption of the ribbon toolbar across Windows 10 and Microsoft programs has fabricated navigation easier than always, and it looks peachy also. Being able to shrink all the formatting, design and creative options into one contextual menu without sacrificing what is on paw leaves previously cluttered drop-down menus feeling like a dusty relic of the past.
The near used tools volition always feel immediately on brandish, resulting in less time wasted in navigation and more than time focusing on the chore in front of you. The ribbon is also fully customizable should you lot desire to make whatever changes or swap tools in and out based on what yous may or may non require. Even faster formatting options are bachelor in each program past simply right-clicking on whatever element; this brings up a floating contextual menu for fast formatting, editing or layout changes at lightning stride.
When you lot're using productivity software, you want to be as productive as possible and Microsoft's focus on keeping these programs ataxia-complimentary significantly cuts down on distractions. There are no needless menus, no intrusive sidebars, and no Clippy the paperclip. The design is minimal merely not spartan, and regardless of which app yous use, Microsoft 365 makes its plentiful array of features and tools known to yous without wasting any screen space to do so.
Performance and compatibility
If yous have a Windows, Android, macOS or iOS device, and so you're more than likely to meet the minimum requirements posed by Microsoft. PC users will need to be running Windows 8.1 or above, whereas Mac users crave whatsoever of the three latest versions of macOS (the latest existence macOS Big Sur). Sadly, Linux users are, once again, left out in the common cold when it comes to native desktop back up, which has seemingly never been a priority for Microsoft. However, users have reported that the Office for the web apps will run adequately well on certain browsers inside Linux.
The online variants of Discussion, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook are recommended for use with Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari. I tested a number of these browsers and constitute that while they are similarly lightweight in design to offerings like Google Docs, they were tedious to initially load on all browsers tested. One time up and running, at that place were no significant issues, with each of the available apps running smoothly and without error.
Running the desktop apps was seamless in Windows 10, with even larger files loading upward in next to no time. Using the software is a shine experience that feels corking, aided by slick transition effects and blithe menus. Everything just worked. Its lightweight footprint meant I had multiple windows open from each application and didn't worry near a thing, juggling betwixt multiple Excel and Word files with no noticeable hitches.
When it comes to file compatibility, Microsoft'due south own file formats are reliable standards, with well-nigh every other role productivity software catering to them. Microsoft 365 is, however, compatible with plenty of other formats. Information technology can read and save to many common file types including PDF and OpenDocument — the format of selection for various popular OpenOffice derivatives available online.
In that location are very few (if any) office suites out there that won't relieve to compatible formats, meaning regardless of what file blazon heads your fashion, Microsoft 365 will more than probable handle information technology but fine.
Features
Most people are already aware of the reputation surrounding Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft'southward three core pieces of productivity software accept a joint development fourth dimension that nears a century, and all of them have become widely synonymous with the tasks they perform. The premium versions of these apps within Microsoft 365 include new tools and features, furthering their already impressive potential.
Editor is just one of those premium features, designed to improve your writing beyond the simple offering of a spelling and grammar cheque. Working with Editor, Microsoft Word now scans for potential refinements of your work, offering suggestions on how to improve clarity and conciseness, or ways to restructure sentences.
It's fully customizable too, which is great if you desire to tailor things to your ain style of writing. Are you more of a casual writer? Simply adjust the formality checks in the settings and Editor will know non to worry so much about contractions, slang or stance markers. You can even go along runway of any bias towards gender, age or race to ensure your writing will exist comfortable to read for the widest audience possible.
PowerPoint has a similar premium tool called Presenter Double-decker. This AI-backed tool allows you lot to rehearse your presentations and receive feedback on your pacing, pitch and potential apply of sensitive phrasing. Presenter Coach will also option up on all the awkward filler words we churn out when our brain goes into stage fright mode, encouraging you to prepare and memorize your presentation improve.
After each rehearsal, the Presenter Coach gives you lot stats on how long your presentation took and which words to avoid. Information technology too tracks how well your average pacing was throughout the presentation, and how original information technology was in relation to the slides provided. It'due south a fantastic tool to assist you lot proceeds confidence and feedback on your projects, all without driving your friends and family insane past staging mock presentations where they feel compelled to become easy on you.
Excel isn't without its own premium features; Money in Excel is your 1-cease solution to managing and agreement your finances. Finally, you can cry at your fiscal status via desktop, tablet or mobile as beautifully presented graphs and figures are automatically populated in one case you've connected Excel to your checking or savings account.
With this information, you tin track trends in your spending, view monthly snapshots of transactions, and hopefully, come up to understand how damaging Steam sales are to your wallet. Coin in Excel tin can perform in moments what would otherwise accept hours of transmission setup to replicate, and having visual representations of your in's-and-outs can often make all the difference in understanding your finances.
Fifty-fifty Outlook and OneDrive go the premium treatment, featuring an increased 50GB mailbox and 1TB of cloud storage. Advanced phishing and malware protection work in tandem with email encryption to keep your inbox safe, and OneDrive gets ransomware protection to ensure your cloud-storage isn't compromised.
While these additions are an enormous boon for subscribers, they aren't the but improvements. A considerable number of additional high-quality stock photos, templates and icons are available throughout the office suite to use within projects. This can affect the presentation of your projects profoundly regardless of which application you lot use.
Give-and-take Premium includes some fantastic accessibility options involving Dictation, Read Aloud and alternate page colors that may profoundly assist users with dyslexia or visual impairments. Ink Gestures let fast and exact editing through pen or touch gestures, and Line Focus allows larger documents to be digested in smaller chunks to improve comprehension.
Excel Premium as well includes an LET function that allows the utilise of named variables, improving the composability and readability of formulas for all levels of user. There are also new data profiling views bachelor within Ability Query, and a new XLOOKUP part speeds up information referencing.
Collaboration has become a necessity in recent times, and Microsoft 365 allows you to do exactly that with ease. Word, Excel and PowerPoint all support co-authoring of up to 99 concurrent users. While such numbers brand the phrase 'too many cooks spoil the broth' come up to listen, 'many hands make light work' too appears, and everyone's a fan of light work. Combined with apps like Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 delivers a fantastic cooperative experience that tin seamlessly spread beyond desktop, browser and mobile.
All of these improvements stack on top of the already characteristic-rich foundations Office is known for. Add to that list a steady and consistent supply of updates, security enhancements and performance tweaks, and you're offset to see why Microsoft 365 recently reached 200 meg agile monthly users.
Bottom line
In that location's a reason Microsoft 365'due south heritage is considered the gold standard in part suites. An unrivalled depth of features and tools built upwardly over several decades isn't something others tin can simply 'catch-upwardly' to. In terms of an online or cloud-based function suite, Microsoft has some way to go earlier rivalling the popularity and smoothness of Google Docs, but as a suite of desktop applications, there is really nothing ameliorate.
Many have tried to imitate, but Microsoft 365 continues to exist one footstep alee of its contest by delivering a top-tier user experience that is readily attainable to all. The but hurdle people have to jump over is paying for a subscription with a bounding main of costless alternatives available.
It's that subscription that will be the deciding factor for well-nigh. So, if this is a deal breaker for y'all, call up that there are plenty of office suites out there to try – well-nigh of them gratis. In fact, you can fifty-fifty try Microsoft 365 for a month without cost, to see for yourself just what has kept Microsoft's function suite alee of the pack for all this time.
Source: https://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/microsoft-365
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