Back to School Gift Guide

It’s that time of year again. Days are getting shorter, the beach is getting colder, and secretly rejoicing parents are getting ready to shuffle off the kids onto a bus again – or even off to college. Sad as this perennial parental parting is, a little back-to-school outfitting goes a long way in soothing back-to-school blues, and tech gifts are among the most useful ones to bring them back to the classroom. From elementary-school kids, to grads and undergrads, here are a few of the most useful gadgets you can send the young ones off with (and one killer backpack to put them in).

For the overachiever:

iPhone 3G S 16GB, $200 on AT&T with Contract

Warning: You’re looking at the ultimate distraction. Half the adults we know don’t seem to know when enough is enough when it comes to this omnipotent, time-consuming device, so beware of putting one in the hands of kids you can’t even get to sit still for 30 minutes to do homework. But believe it or not, you can transform it into an instrument of learning with the likes of encyclopedia apps, flash cards, and Texas Instruments calculators, if you choose. Parental restrictions will also allow you to lock down the phone by restricting app installation, Web browsing, and access to features like YouTube.

One little racing game wouldn’t hurt though, would it?

Check out our iPhone 3G S Review.

For kids who will be kids:

Casio G’zOne Boulder, $150 on Verizon with Contract

Kids can be rough on things. And cell phones aren’t the type of device you want to go replacing every two months when the next one gets crunched in the bottom of a backpack, dropped into a puddle, or fumbled out the window of a moving car. Fortunately, the G’zOne Boulder can handle all of that, and a lot more. We subjected one to the brutality of multiple DT editors and found it to more than lived up to its manufacturers’ ludicrous durability claims, even if the feature set does lag a bit behind those pansy smartphones.

For kids who can’t sit still:

Asus Eee 1000HE, $400 MSRP

All netbooks were not created equal, despite the fact that they all share about 90 percent of the same hardware. The stand-out addition on this particular model: an extra-beefy battery that delivered a full 8.5 hours of real-life computing when we put it to the test. That means it will burn through a solid day of classes or lectures with time to spare, so Junior can focus on understanding the works of Friedrich Nietzsche, not finding the next wall outlet to plug into.

Check out our Asus Eee 1000HE Review.

For young Spielbergs:

Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch, $1199

For tasks above and beyond tapping out essays in Word and doing research in Firefox, your kids are going to need some more serious computing power. Apple’s 13-inch MacBook Pro makes an ideal platform for cooking up projects that deal with video, graphics, and audio – and a lot of universities with degrees in art and communications are starting to treat them like standard equipment for class. Yes, you’re paying a premium for looks – don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. But it’s also buying you a hard-wearing solid aluminum chassis, a less virus-prone operating system, and a brilliant LED-backlit screen that’s one of the best in the biz. And at the moment, you can score a free iPod with the purchase of one, too.

For techies:

Dell XPS 435 Desktop, $899+

Have a kid chasing a degree in science or engineering? Don’t bother with a Mac, which will leave your pocket-protected offspring out in the cold when it comes to engineering software. (While other kids are firing up AutoCAD, Matlab, and ProE, your aspiring Bill Nye will be staring at iLife ’09 wondering where to transfer to a liberal arts program.) Enter Dell’s brutally powerful XPS desktops, which couples Intel’s potent Core i7 processor with ATI’s equally virile Radeon HD 4350, for enough performance to effortless render linear actuator assemblies by day and elves and demons by night. Hey, engineers have to have some fun, too.

For cheap parents:

Windows 7 Home Premium, $120 Upgrade from Vista

If you’re looking to stretch a little more life from the aging notebook you picked up a year or two ago, upgrading to Windows 7 may be one of the very best ways to do it. Microsoft has thoroughly reworked the operating system to make it faster, more stable, and prettier, too. In our testing, it smoothed over many of the longstanding performance issues we had with old Vista machines, greasing the gears and making them feel faster than new. Unfortunately, already having paid Microsoft once for the catastrophe that was Vista won’t get you totally off the hook on paying again, but you’ll get an $80 discount for the upgrade.

Check out our Windows 7 Review.

For the pragmatist:

HP Deskjet F4280 All-in-One Printer, Scanner, Copier, $60

Professors and teachers don’t care how black the colors on essays are or how many pages come out in a minute, so why should you? For utilitarian buyers who just need a machine that works, HP’s F4280 will print, scan and copy for a price that can’t be beat. Keep in mind that HP tries to recoup the cost on these things with ink, but for the initial outlay, you can afford to pay $32 for the black-and-color combo pack. And if not, cash-strapped students can spend an educational 15 minutes learning how to refill the cartridges with economical refill kits.

For sentimental types:

Epson Artisan 800 All-in-One Printer, $230

A cheap multifunction printer will get the job done for class, but if your recent high-school grad also plans to use it to plaster up glossy photos all over a dorm room, we recommend taking a step up the price ladder to a more photo-savvy machine like Epson’s Artisan 800. It’s just as competent zipping out high-quality prints of last weekend’s trip as it is for pumping 50 pages of an essay before class, or scanning that medical release form to fax it in to school.

Check out our Epson Artisan 800 Review.

For the pack mule:

JanSport Air Cure, $75

Climbing bags seem to be all the rage for school these days thanks to their rugged good looks, but unless you actually plan on scaling ivy walls at school, a student bag makes a lot more sense. JanSport’s Air Cure includes a padded pocket big enough to carry a 15-inch notebook, a cord management pocket for running headphones from MP3 player to ears, and comfy AirLift straps to take the load off your shoulders after you pack it full of gadgets. We’ve taken it on flights, dragged it around at tradeshows, and hoofed gadgets back and forth to the office on a daily basis with it, and they don’t get much better than this. JanSport also makes no bones about honoring its lifetime warranties, so when you get tear it, run the zipper off the tracks or otherwise mess it up (while using it for the “purpose intended”), there’s a new one waiting for you.

For the iPod devotee:

Klipsch Image S4 In-Ear Headpones, $80

A good pair of sound-isolating headphones don’t just sound far better than the chintzy white ones that came with your son or daughters iPod, they can help protect hearing, too. This type of earphone actually allows music fans listen at lower volumes, because they’re not trying to overcome the din of kids screaming at the back of a bus or a TV blasting in the other room. Klipsch’s Image S4 headphones provide both the best fit and best sound quality we’ve experienced with headphones in this price range, making them an outstanding complement to any music player.

Check out our Klipsch Image S4 Review.

For the unprepared:

Seagate Replica 250GB PC Backup System, $129

Your kids procrastinate, but you shouldn’t. Don’t wait until years’ worth of school papers, music, video and pictures disappear in a hard drive crash to think about backing it all up, because then it’s too late. Seagate’s Replica PC Backup system scores points for good looks, affordability, and most importantly, completely idiot-proof setup. Just plug it in and let the software go to work, knowing everything will be there when an electrical storm, virus or just a misplaced cup of Kool-Aid claims its next victim.

Check out our Seagate Replica PC Backup System Review.

For the space conscious:

Averatec D1100 Series 18.4-inch All-in-One PC, $530

Space is tight when you live in a box with three other students, so an all-in-one desktop like Averatec’s D1100 makes a lot of sense if you’re not taking the laptop route. Besides saving space, it offers a large, high-resolution LCD with touch capabilities. Just beware that you’re getting the same modest guts inside as most netbooks, which means Facebook addicts and music fans will be fine, gamers and graphic artists need not apply.

For the devoted note taker:

LiveScribe Pulse Smartpen, $200

Sometimes handwriting makes a lot more sense for taking notes than typing – especially in math courses – but that little ballpoint can just be too slow to get everything down. Livescribe’s Pulse Smartpen solves the problem with a little electronics wizardry. Not only does it record everything written with it digitally, so it can be read and even searched through it later on a computer, an integrated mic records everything and syncs it with the notes. Just click on the beginning of that half-written chicken scratch and hear exactly what the professor was saying as it was written. Keep in mind that it requires special paper to work, which runs a little more than normal paper (about $13 for a 150-page notebook).

For the proud laptop owner:

Kensington ComboSaver Combination Portable Notebook Lock, $25

Fact: Notebooks are theft magnets. And most kids aren’t exactly looking after them every minute. Save yourself the tears (and outstretched hand looking for another $600) with Kensington’s affordable ComboSaver. It fits 99 percent of notebooks, uses a combination so there’s no key to lose, and even comes with online registration to prevent forgotten combos.