The Best Tech and Gear for Back to School 2026

The less money you spend on speakers the more money you’ll have to buy, uh… books and stuff. The Kallsup is a small-but-mighty speaker from Ikea that is as fun as it is affordable—the 9-hour battery life doesn’t hurt, either. If you want bigger sound, you can always pair multiple units together.

Keep your desk clean with this neat-looking cable management tray that bolts onto the edge. It’s good for holding your chargers or storing office supplies and other accessories you don’t want cluttering your main tabletop.

Wired earbuds are trendy again. The sound on Apple’s wired EarPods won’t compare to AirPods Pro 3, but the microphone is secretly one of the best for calls, Zoom meetings, and recording TikTok voiceovers.

Rechargeable AA batteries are a dime a dozen, but these have been thoroughly scanned by review experts to verify their capacity and safety. It’s handy to keep an eight-pack around, especially for any older devices that still use AA batteries.

Sometimes you need an extra battery boost to make it through the day. The TravelCard Plus favors size over multiple charges and is easy to slip in your bag or even your pocket. For when you’ve got a long day ahead but can’t be bothered to lug around a heavy battery pack.

Disposable cameras have their downsides (fixed focus, poor lens quality, etc.), but they’re perfect for capturing your day-to-day life on film at low cost. Fujifilm’s QuickSnap is an industry standard for a reason. Grab a two-pack and bring it everywhere.

Staring down at a laptop all day is awful for your neck. It’s hard to find a laptop stand that’s both portable and aesthetically pleasing; Herman Miller has hit that intersection perfectly. Throw it in your bag just in case you end up with a long visit to the library.

You’re going to get a lot of use out of your desktop keyboard, so you want one with all the bells and whistles, plus that premium “thocky” feel. Keychron’s C2 Pro doesn’t cost a bundle, but it’s a full mechanical keyboard with a numpad and replaceable switches.

If you’re taking your gaming handheld or iPad with you to your next dorm room, Genki’s Covert Dock 3 will help you out for schoolwork or gaming. The small 65W GaN charger can hook up to your TV or monitor with HDMI 2.1 passthrough, and it has an additional USB-A port for Ethernet or other accessories.

The most annoying thing about a standing desk is that it makes plugging devices into an outlet a dangling and tangled mess. The Nano Power Strip cleverly clamps onto the edge of your desk, offering six AC plugs, two USB-C ports, and two USB-A ports—all with one main cable going into the wall outlet.

Don’t develop carpal tunnel at an early age. The Logitech Lift mouse is an old standby for ergonomic PC controls, one that doesn’t just feel great with a smooth glide and clicky controls; it also looks good on your desk.

Plugable is known for its do-it-all docks, and this 11-in-1 version is no different. It connects with USB-C and has 100W passthrough, plus it supports dual 4K monitors at up to 60Hz. The plethora of USB ports, an SD card reader, and a 3.5mm jack ensures there’s no connection you’ll be left without.

College is just as much about studying as it is about vibes, and this kit from Nanoleaf is a great way to create ambiance. It comes with hexagonal panels that can be organized to your liking and customized in a companion app to suit your preferred color. If you’re feeling wacky, you can even set it to mirror the colors on your laptop and impress all of your friends.

Wireless earbuds are just as much about sound as they are about looking cool, and Nothing nailed the look with the Ear 3. It helps that this pair also has good sound and solid ANC, as well as a “Super Mic” feature for recording audio through the case for when you want to get your YouTuber career off the ground in between classes.

One of the best ways to do things faster is to get a macropad and program each button to perform specific actions. The Creator Micro 2 is super customizable and automatically changes mapped-button layouts when you launch an app. The joystick and dial are pretty sweet.

Wireless earbuds aren’t just about listening to music anymore; they can also save you from perils like a snoring roommate. The Soundcore Sleep A30 are for side sleepers and do an excellent job blocking noise. Soundcore has loads of free sounds to drift off to, which are accessible in a companion app, so you can choose the one that best saves you and your roommates’ relationship.

Getting into film photography is a blast, and the Instax mini Evo is a perfect entry point for newbies who want something nicer than a disposable. Its ability to shoot both digital and film means you’ll truly never miss your iPhone’s flat photos.

For just the basics, the Apple Watch SE 3 is all you really need. The screen is bright; it does nearly all of the health and fitness tracking available in the Apple Watch Series 11, like showing you a sleep score; and it now charges faster.

A pint-sized, portable SSD is a good choice for moving between classes, but for a thick chunk of data storage, a fast HDD may prove the better option. Seagate’s Firecuda X Vault is built with PC gaming in mind (and we won’t judge you if you store some games there), but its base 8TB capacity and single USB-C cable design make this a hefty and versatile external storage device.

In a world full of book-sized e-readers, the Palma 2 is a rarity in that it’s both inherently pocketable and very full-featured. Plus, it’s super easy to sideload ebooks and PDFs for studying purposes.

For Android users, we recommend Google’s Pixel Watch 4. The round display easily fits any occasion. With improved health tracking, longer battery life, and hands-free Gemini access, Google’s smartwatch easily ranks at the top.

Want a great-looking monitor without spending too much? For a dorm room, we can’t think of a better option than Alienware’s 27-inch, 240Hz QD-OLED monitor. It maxes out at a 1440p resolution, but its marquee feature is the pretty picture you get from the OLED display.

reMarkable’s E Ink tablets are the best in the game for notetaking, but the Paper Pro and even the more affordable Paper Pure aren’t exactly pocketable. The Paper Pro Move won’t fit in pants pockets unless yours are very deep, but it will fit in the right coat or jacket pocket, which makes it more convenient for quickly jotting down fleeting inspiration.

It may have virtually the same features as the previous Pixel 9a, but Google’s latest Pixel 10a budget phone is still a clean and no-frills software experience. Just don’t expect many Gemini features; you’ll need to step up to the Pixel 11 series for all of the latest AI goodness.

If the Pixel 10a is too bland, consider Nothing’s Phone 4a Pro. It has a fun, round dot-matrix screen to show notifications, a timer, call status, and more. It’s a quirkier phone that will turn heads without sacrificing on performance.

The MacBook Neo still stands out as one of the best deals in laptops, period. It looks cute, has a bright screen, sounds good, and feels more solid than most other budget laptops you can buy today. You can probably subsist with the cheaper version of this MacBook with the 256GB storage, especially if you plan to use cloud storage.

Don’t call it budget because the iPhone 17e doesn’t feel cheap in any way. It has a powerful A19 chip, 256GB of storage, a 48-megapixel camera, and a battery that lasts all day. Most importantly, Apple added MagSafe, which is something the previous iPhone 16e didn’t have.

Being locked into Amazon’s ecosystem isn’t for everyone (and there are plenty of options for those who don’t want to be), but if you do want the convenience that comes with that, the Kindle Scribe ColorSoft is one of the best all-in-one e-readers around. The big color display and stylus are market highs, even if the price can be tough to swallow.

Dell’s XPS 13, packing 16GB of RAM, is the perfect MacBook Neo alternative if you want to stick with Windows 11. It has a touchscreen, great sound, and a battery that will last you throughout the day. Better than all that, its aluminum body doesn’t feel cheap, something you can’t say about many other laptops at a low price.

The M5 MacBook Air is exactly the kind of laptop you need if the MacBook Neo doesn’t have the kind of processing power you’re looking for. The M5 chip is an efficient, still-unbeaten processor capable of helping your Mac last through an entire day of lessons and still have enough left over for sitting back in your dorm room with a few hour-long YouTube documentaries before bed.