As a college student today, you’ll need certain tech to get your work done — key among the bunch being a solid laptop for college. But there are other gadgets that can make your academic life easier, and in some cases, more fun. If you’re looking to stay organized, produce better work and enjoy your down time on and off campus, picking up a few important devices before you start the next semester can make all the difference. We’ve collected some of the must-have gadgets for college that we’ve tested here, and we wouldn’t be surprised if all of them stuck with you long after your four-year university run is over.
Quick Overview
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Apple iPad Air (M2)
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Marshall Emberton II
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Apple Watch Series 9
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Sony WF-1000XM5
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Lapgear Home Office Lap Desk
See 6 more
Best tech for college students
Photo by Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
You probably have a laptop that you use as a daily driver for school, but a tablet can make working on the go easier, or supplement your laptop during the busiest of cram-sessions. Apple’s new iPad Air M2 is the one we recommend for most people because it’s the iPad that strikes the best balance of power, features and price. Now available in 11- and 13-inch sizes, the iPad Air earned a score of 91 in our review thanks to its excellent performance provided by the M2 chipset, its newly positioned front-facing camera that makes FaceTime calls much easier and the fact that the base models now come with double the built-in storage than they used to. On top of that, you get TouchID support on the tablet’s power button, 10+ hours of battery life and support for the new Apple Pencil Pro.
Most students will find the 11-inch model a great option for mobile work and even acting as a second screen alongside their laptop. But those with any classes that require drawing, diagrams and excessive handwritten notes may want to spring for the 13-inch model and Apple’s new stylus.
$564 at Amazon
Marshall
Any student will appreciate the Marshall Emberton II speaker, and not just for its good looks. The latest version of the compact, rectangular speaker has 10-watt full-range drivers and passive radiators that help deliver balanced sound that’s signature to the brand. Its 360-degree sound makes it a great choice for dorm-room parties as well as tiny desk concerts while they’re studying or cranking away on a project. Marshall improved the battery life on this model too, bumping it up from 20 hours to 30, and it has a more durable IP67 rating as well. And if you decide you want to expand your system, Stacked Mode lets you pair multiple Emberton II speakers together for a larger, more booming sound.
$120 at Amazon
1Password
Students have enough to remember for all of their classes, coursework and extracurricular activities — a password manager can help remove one thing from that list. And by “one thing,” we actually mean a lot of things, since students have a ton of passwords to keep track of for school accounts and personal ones. Our top pick for the best password manager, 1Password, provides a ton of value at the relatively affordable price of $36 per year.
First and foremost, it saves all of your passwords and login credentials in a secure vault that you can access on any device you have all by remembering just one master password. That means you can ditch the peeling sticky notes next to your computer screen and never have to worry about forgetting an important password again. Even better, 1Password has a tool that will help create strong passwords for you so you don’t fall into the (unsafe) trap of reusing the same, tired passwords for everything. And when you need to use your credentials online, 1Passwords browser extensions will autofill usernames and passwords when you visit key sites, so you can login quickly without lifting (too many) fingers.
$3/month at 1Password
Anozer
While you might do a lot of heavy lifting for school with your laptop, you’ll likely use all of your devices to get work done, including your tablet, phone, ereader and the like. A good stand like this one from Anozer can make it easier for you to use those other devices to the fullest. It can prop up your tablet to the right eye level (and the right angle) for you to use it as a second screen while you’re working on a research paper, and when you’re finished, it’s easy to readjust it to a different position when you want to unwind with some Netflix. Phone can comfortably fit on it as well, if you’re someone who likes to keep their phone screen within reach to see all notifications coming in, and the weighted base is wider than others, which helps make it more stable. Best of all, the whole thing folds flat when you’re not using it, making it conveniently pocketable for trips to the lab or library.
$16 at Amazon
Anker
The last thing any student wants is for their laptop to die right before they finish a paper, or for their phone’s screen to turn black just as they’re on their way home from hanging out with friends. Portable chargers like this Anker Prime power bank can ensure you don’t experience any kind of power woes on campus, at home and everywhere in between. This sleek, 20,000mAh brick supports a maximum of 100W of charging via a single port, which means it can power up laptops, tablets, phones and other small mobile devices without breaking a sweat. It even has a handy display on one side that shows you how many watts are flowing to each device you’re powering up, along with how much juice remains in the battery itself. We recommend picking it up with its dedicated base, not only because it supports fast charging but also because you’ll be less likely to misplace the power bank if you have a special place to charge it.
$150 at Amazon
Apple
The best accessory for an iPhone is arguably the Apple Watch, and it can come in handy for busy students. Not only can it deliver important alerts, timers and reminders from your iPhone to your wrist so you never miss the most important things, but it’ll also track daily activity as long as you’re wearing it. It can be difficult to balance being a good student with being a healthy human, but knowing where you’re at in terms of daily step count and exercise levels could inspire you to take the stairs instead of the elevator to your next lecture or join a pickup basketball game instead of sitting on the sidelines.
The latest Apple Watch has a faster processor, a convenient new Double Tap feature and onboard Siri request processing, all of which contribute to its status as the best smartwatch you can get right now. Android users, though, are not out of lucky: Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 6 is the best equivalent on the Google side of things.
$299 at Amazon
Photo by Jeff Dunn / Engadget
It’s a good idea to have all of your important documents for school saved in more than one spot. You may have cloud services provided by your university, or your own Google Drive or Dropbox account, but you should supplement that with something else like a external hard drive. A portable SSD like our top pick, the Crucial X9 Pro, is a good solution, giving you another spot to save all of those papers, lab reports, syllabi and the like that you can take with you anywhere and everywhere. The Crucial X9 Pro showed relatively speedy performance in our benchmark tests, and it’s remarkably small. Roughly the size of a credit card, it can easily be tossed into a bag or in your back pocket before you rush out the door for the day. Its aluminum body is also IP55-rated, so it’ll survive contact with water and dust.
$98 at Amazon
BAGSMART
It can be easy to lose things at school in the midst of a messy dorm room or while shuffling all of your stuff from one lecture hall to another. Bagsmart’s tech organizer will do a lot to prevent you from misplacing that thumb drive with all of your project materials on it or forgetting your trusty wireless mouse before leaving the library. It has a series of pockets and loops to hold all of your most-used tech, including a few dedicated SD card slots and larger elastics to hold things like a mouse, a portable SSD and other slightly larger things. It’s just the right size to slip easily into a backpack, and the exterior is water-repellent to protect your stuff from accidental spills.
$14 at Amazon
Photo by Amy Skorheim / Engadget
Rather than lug around too many heavy textbooks in your too-small backpack, get an ereader like the Kobo Libra Colour to make your life easier. One of the newest models from Kobo, the Libra Colour has a 7-inch E Ink Kaleido panel, page-turn buttons, an upgraded process and stylus support — all of which make it well worth its $220 price tag.
Reading on the Libra Colour is a great experience, and color only adds to the overall aesthetic even if it’s not a totally necessary feature. The interface is easy to navigate and has two standout features: no advertisements and a built-in connection to Overdrive, the latter of which makes it even more convenient to borrow the next book you’re reading in your English Lit class immediately when you need it. And if you prefer note-taking, highlighting, underlining and scribbling in the margins of the books you’re reading for class, you can spring for the stylus to get an even better experience that gets pretty close to the real, pen-and-paper thing.
$220 at Rakuten Kobo
Sony
For one pair of ANC earbuds to rule them all, Sony’s WF-1000XM5 are the ones to get. Students will appreciate their small and comfortable design, their strong noise cancellation with adaptive sound control, excellent sound quality and eight-hour battery life. These will be the wireless earbuds students take with them wherever they go, whether they want to get hyped up before a football game with their favorite music or shut out the world at the library while they study for final exams. These buds also support advanced features like Speak to Chat, which pauses audio when the buds sense you’re talking, and multi-point connectivity. If you prefer over-ear headphones, our top pick for the best wireless headphones you can get right now also comes from Sony: the WH-1000XM5 cans.
$248 at Adorama
LapGear
Sometimes sitting at a desk just isn’t the vibe. Lapgear’s lapdesk can make it much easier and more comfortable to work from your bed or couch by giving you a sturdy surface on which to plop your laptop, notebook, textbook and other materials. The soft padding on the underside is designed to keep your lap cool even after hours of work, and there’s a built-in mousepad on the top for you to use with your favorite accessory. We also appreciate the phone slot that keeps your handset within view at all times and the handle at the top for easy toting around your place.
$32 at Amazon
