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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.
Best tech for college students
In the world of noise-cancelling headphones, it doesn’t get better than the Sony WH-1000XM6. The latest version of Sony’s popular cans, the XM6 top our list of the best wireless headphones you can buy now. For those returning to campus this year, they’ll not only provide excellent sound quality for jam sessions and binge-watching movies, but they’ll also block out the world when serious study sessions are in order.
Sony improved both the sound quality and ANC on this model, and battery life remains stellar at over 30 hours. Their sleek design and plush earcups make them comfortable to wear for hours on end, meaning your giftee can wear them from the library to their dorm and onto their next flight home without needing to recharge.
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.
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.
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 M3 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 89 in our review thanks in part to its excellent performance provided by the M3 chipset, stellar screen, TouchID support, 10+ hours of battery life and support for the 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 stylus.
You can’t go wrong gifting a student a portable speaker. Chances are, they probably use their phone as their main speaker when they want to have an impromptu tiny desk concert or when they’re hanging out with friends. But a dedicated speaker will provide much better performance, even one as affordable as the JBL Go 4. This $50, palm-sized speaker packs a punch with loud sound and decent bass for a device of its size. It’ll be almost too easy for them to pair the Go 4 with their smartphone, tablet or laptop and they can take it pretty much anywhere thanks to its compact design and the fact that it’s IP67 waterproof and dustproof. The built-in carrying loop is a nice touch as well, allowing them to use a clip or carabineer to attach the speaker to a backpack or bike while they’re out and about.
Students rely on their laptops, phones and other devices more than ever now, so giving them an accessory that ensures they never run out of battery is always a good idea. Anker’s Laptop Power Bank is one of our favorites, and it can recharge much more than just laptops. The 25,000mAh battery is not only powerful enough to charge smartphones and laptops alike, but it also comes with two built-in, retractable USB-C cables so they never have to remember to bring one with them. One of those even doubles as a carrying strap, making it even easier to toss this power brick in a bag and go. There’s also a handy screen on the bank that displays both the power left in the battery itself and the wattage flowing to each device being charged. There are dozens of portable power banks out there, but this one will be a must-have for students who never want to run out of juice while they’re out and about on campus.
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.
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.
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, the convenient 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: Google’s Pixel Watch 3 is the best equivalent.
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.
For when the student in your life needs to block out the world, get better sleep or protect their ears in super-loud spaces, Loop’s Switch2 earplugs can come in handy. Loop makes excellent earplugs for all types of situations, and the Switch 2 let you choose how much noise reduction you want with three different modes. Engage mode is best for when they still want to have conversations, Experience mode protects their ears during live events without stifling sound and Quiet mode will block out the incessant drone of their snoring roommate. They have an elegant design that’s both comfortable and attractive to wear, and they come with a compact carrying case so they can take them wherever they go.
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.
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