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Back to School: here's what to buy

Back to school can be a stressful time, and it's also when people typically refresh at least some of their gear. We're pulling together the best minds at The Verge to come up with our streamlined recommendations for back to school shopping. Keep refreshing this stream, as we'll be updating every few days to give you our best picks for back to school buying including our recommendations for laptops, cellphones, tablets, and more.

  • David Pierce

    Aug 31, 2012

    David Pierce

    Back to School: the other tech essentials

    Back to School: Everything else
    Back to School: Everything else

    So you've bought the perfect laptop. The perfect cellphone. The perfect tablet. You've filled them all with the best apps on the planet. You're pretty much set to dominate this school year.

    But where are you going to put all that stuff? What are you going to listen to music with, because your laptop speakers inevitably suck? Plus, there's a lot more to school than just the classroom, and you need to be equipped for everything. So we've rounded up some of the essentials, the gadgets and accessories you need to get that A up to an A+ — or at least get that A in style.

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  • Ellis Hamburger

    Aug 24, 2012

    Ellis Hamburger

    Back to School: the best apps for every student

    back to school apps
    back to school apps

    Apps are the wave of the future, man. Soon every classroom will be filled with apps of all shapes and sizes, replacing your books, and maybe even your friends. But until then, you need apps on your computing device to succeed this school year. Whether you're reading, taking notes, annotating photosynthesis PDFs, or typing up a long paper on the juxtaposition of thing A and thing B, here are the best apps to get your schoolwork done. Of course, it's still up to you to actually do work, but with these apps tucked into your iPad, Zenbook, One X, or MacBook, your work's cut out for you.

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  • David Pierce

    Aug 20, 2012

    David Pierce

    Back to School: the best tablet for every student

    backtoschool_lead_tablets
    backtoschool_lead_tablets

    Yes, you probably need a laptop more than you need a tablet for school this year. But a tablet can also be an indispensable tool whether you're reading for class, writing papers, drawing when inspiration strikes, or (because this really is required for school sometimes) watching Netflix. Tablets are a great, easily-accessed hub for your reading, your schedule, your notes, and your to-do list; they're also a great way to force yourself to focus on a single task when you've got real work to do.

    Most tablets may look the same, but they're not all good at the same things. So here's the best one for each of a variety of school-related tasks, or for when you just don't feel like dealing with school anymore.

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  • Chris Ziegler

    Aug 15, 2012

    Chris Ziegler

    Back to School: the best phone for every budget

    backtoschool_lead_cellphones
    backtoschool_lead_cellphones

    Textbooks, pencils, new clothes... and apps? That's right: no new school year is complete without a new smartphone to match, and we've got you covered with updated recommendations on all the major carriers at different price points. Obviously, the impending launch of Apple's next iPhone is casting a bit of a pall on the situation — but that doesn't necessarily mean you need to keep your money locked away.

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  • David Pierce

    Aug 13, 2012

    David Pierce

    Back to School: the best laptop for every budget

    backtoschool_lead_laptops
    backtoschool_lead_laptops

    There's no more important thing you'll buy for school than a laptop. Whether you're doing research, writing papers, watching movies on Netflix, reading for class, watching movies on Netflix, goofing off on Facebook, or watching movies on Netflix, you're going to be using your laptop a ton during the school year. That's why it's so important to get the right one — having a good computer that you can depend on makes a huge difference. And, as we've found out, you don't have to pay an arm and a leg to get a laptop that will serve you well.

    Below, we've picked a few of the laptops that will suit students perfectly. Why? For one, they're powerful, capable of handling any and every school-related or extra-curricular task you throw at them. They're also light and thin — when you've got a 900-pound chemistry textbook in your backpack you need to save all the weight you can. They have long-lasting batteries for the marathon class / library / Netflix sessions you'll pull. They have the ports you'll need, whether you're connecting your computer to a TV or backing up your papers onto an external drive. Mostly, they're dependable — these are good laptops that won't make you spend more time fixing them than using them. (I'm looking at you, Dell Inspiron that I had during college that went through four motherboards in two years.) No matter your price range, here's the computer for you.

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