Microsoft Office is the largest and most complete office suite that we can find worldwide. Within this suite we can find the most popular programs, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as other interesting solutions such as Skype, Outlook, OneDrive and Visio, among others. Although Microsoft’s goal is that more and more users make the leap to Office 365, the subscription model, users who do not want to pay every month to use these programs can continue to buy full licenses. And, as part of them, very soon we will receive a new version: Office 2021.
When can I buy Office 2021? Will it work on my PC?
Last week, Microsoft already made a version of its new office suite, the LTSC , available to users. This version, we remember, stands out for having a long-term support designed so that, during its life cycle (5 years) it will only receive bug fixes and security patches, nothing new. It is a version designed for companies, for users who cannot risk that a function may give them problems. This edition is now available to all users.
The full version of the suite will arrive in a couple of weeks, along with Microsoft’s new operating system, Windows 11. That is, on October 5, 2021 . From that day on, users who want to buy this new version of Office will be able to do so through the usual means, such as the Microsoft Store or in specialized stores.
As for the requirements to be able to use these programs, although there is no official information, since it is an updated version of Office 2019, without too many new features, it is expected that these requirements are not very different. Surely with a 1 GHz CPU, 4 GB of RAM and 4 GB of hard disk space we will have more than enough.
How much? Can I update my Office 2019?
One of the controversies that revolved around this new office suite at the time of its official announcement came about the price. Microsoft announced a substantial price increase of up to 10% on most editions, both personal and professional, of the suite. In this way, the ” Home and student ” edition will cost around 150 euros , while the ” Home and business ” edition will cost around 250 euros. The license, of course, will be valid for life, and we will not have to renew or pay for it again.
Users who already have an Office 2019 license will be able to continue using this version without problems despite the launch of the new 2021. Of course, we must bear in mind that Microsoft does not offer license updates for its suite, so we will not be able to give the jump to the new version 2021 saving us some money. The only way to enjoy the Office 2021 news is to pay for the full license, nothing more.
Office 2021 vs Microsoft 365, which is better?
Office 2021 is the new version of the suite that, compared to the 2019 version, releases some interesting new features, such as (among many others):
- New appearance.
- New dark modes.
- Search bar.
- Performance improvements.
- Support for the OpenDocument 1.3 format.
- New Excel formulas.
- New features and functions in PowerPoint.
However, although they are news for users of the previous version, Microsoft 365 users have already had all these news for a long time. And they even have news and improvements that, for now, will not reach users of the new 2021 version of the office suite.
The advantages of Microsoft 365 are many, starting with the short-term price, having the programs always updated and enjoying other services such as 1 TB of cloud storage. But it also has drawbacks regarding single-payment licenses, such as that it never ends up being ours and, in the long run, it will be more expensive. In addition, we can make use of Office Online and use Word, Excel and PowerPoint from mobile devices.
So which one should I choose? In the end, it will be up to us. If we want to always be up to date, and have 1 TB of storage space in the cloud we can bet on Microsoft 365. We can easily find keys on Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day of 18 months for less than 50 euros (to share with 5 other people). But if we prefer to buy once and forget about everything else, even if that means that in the long term we will be outdated, then it is worth buying the full license.
And, if we have Office 2019 , and we do not miss anything, the truth is that we recommend you continue with it and not spend the money on the 2021 version that hardly brings news.
