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The sound you just heard was the collective groan of students lamenting the beginning of a new school year.

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While that’s not much consolation for those who still long for carefree summer nights, it’s at least some comfort to know that there’s no shortage of great tech tools out there to make schoolwork less tedious – regardless of the student’s age or subject.

Some of these devices may be helpful during class or while completing an assignment at the library, while others are better suited for use at home or in the dorm room.

Below are a handful of A+ picks that cover a wide price range.

Talk to me

Available in multiple colors, the all-new Amazon Echo Spot ($99) is an Alexa-powered smart speaker (and alarm clock) with a small display that lets you see the time, weather, song titles, and more. Small in size but big in sound, you can summon your knowledgeable personal assistant to answer homework questions, whether it’s about math, science, English, history, geography, or other subjects. Of course, the Echo Spot also lets you control your smart home devices, set reminders, create shopping lists with your voice, and make free phone calls across Canada or to the U.S., U.K., and Mexico.

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Enjoy it

For both your 9-to-5 school routine and your 5-to-9 leisure time, the ASUS Vivobook S 16 OLED laptop ($1,199) features a gorgeous 16-inch Lumina display with a 120Hz refresh rate for displaying smooth graphics (and a vibrant RGB backlit keyboard for gaming in the dark!). Powered by Intel’s latest Core Ultra 5 processor, this Windows 11 laptop also has the CoPilot generative AI assistant built in (and a dedicated key) to help you write essays and book reports, summarize lectures, and learn to code. Under the hood of this all-metal PC is 16GB of system memory, a 512GB solid-state drive (for storing all your apps and files), and an impressive 16-hour battery life.

Thanks for the reminder

Smaller than a deck of cards but with storage capacity of up to 6 terabytes (about 6,000 GB), the new WD My Passport is the highest capacity 2.5-inch portable external hard drive on the planet. Protect all your data – school documents, photos, videos, music and more – and you don’t have to plug the drive in because it draws its power from the laptop’s USB port. Built-in software lets you password protect the drive and schedule automatic backups so you don’t have to remember to do it. Available in multiple colors, prices start at $95 for 1 terabyte.

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Print, scan, copy, repeat

Student life is stressful enough—you shouldn’t have to worry about running out of ink at the most inopportune moment (and having to dig deep into your pockets for expensive cartridges). Instead, the Epson EcoTank 2850 ($249) comes standard with enough ink to print up to 5,000 pages. If you want to buy more ink, you can buy it in inexpensive bottles that will last for another 5,000 pages (a saving of up to 90% compared to cartridges, the company says). This “all-in-one” from Epson is also a wireless scanner and copier.

Photo finish

Students looking to capture and print fun moments with friends this school year will find FujiFilm’s new INSTAX PAL ($129) a wonderfully compact digital camera for kids, tweens and teens. Whether in the high school hallways or on campus, the wide-angle lens is ideal for group selfie photos that you can then wirelessly transfer to your smartphone’s INSTAX app to share on social media or print via any INSTAX Link series smartphone printer—including the all-new Mini Link 3 printer, available in multiple colors (also $129).

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Keep track

With its new (read: lower) price, Apple’s iPad (starting at $499) is a great buy for students on the go. Measuring nearly 11 inches diagonally, this thin and light tablet with Apple’s A14 Bionic chip features a bright and colorful Liquid Retina display, a 12-megapixel rear camera (capable of shooting 4K video), and a 12-megapixel ultrawide-angle front camera. The latter is ideal for FaceTiming with Center Stage, which keeps you in frame and in focus even as you move around while chatting with friends or family at home. This iPad also supports the optional Apple Pencil.

Turn that around

When closed, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip6 smartphone (starting at $60/month for 2 years) fits comfortably in your pocket or purse, and you can view the contents on the 3.4-inch outer display. But if you need more space, you can unfold the bendy phone to reveal a 6.7-inch display. Compared to last year’s Flip5, the main camera has been upgraded from 12 to 50 megapixels. There’s also a longer-lasting battery, a more durable design, and new Galaxy AI experiences to help students get more done in less time.

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Wide open

If you think bigger is better, LG’s 34-inch UltraWide Full HD IPS monitor (21:9, $319) is like having two monitors side by side on your desk. It’s perfect for multitaskers, such as students who work on a word processing document on the main part of the screen but also want to see several smaller windows, such as a web browser, class notes, and a YouTube video. Thanks to High Dynamic Range (HDR10) for better contrast, brightness, and color, this monitor is ideal for work and play (not to mention AMD FreeSync technology for smooth motion in today’s fast-paced games).

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Free TV, movies

Finally, students on a tight budget (er, or their parents) don’t have to worry about yet another subscription service draining their wallets. Pluto TV is a completely free video streaming service with hundreds of live channels and several thousand movies and TV series episodes that you can watch on smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops, smart TVs, and more. Whether you download the Pluto TV app or just go to PlutoTV.com, highlights include all 24 seasons of South Park, MTV’s Jerey Shore, Key & Peele, CSI, Top Gear, and (my favorite) Hot Ones.

-Marc Saltzman is the host of the Tech It Out podcast (marcsaltzman.com/podcasts) and the author of the forthcoming book Apple Vision Pro For Dummies (Wiley).

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