Budget-Friendly Back to School Tech: Essential Devices & Tech!

Back to School Tech well all right everyone it is that time of year again we are now kind of creeping towards the end of August and this is definitely that back to school moment where Brands start to put things on sale make sure that it's relatively affordable or at least more affordable to get some of your favorite tech items accessories main computers iPads all that good stuff so I put together a nice little list of things that I would personally recommend for people that are either physically going back to school or even somebody that's setting up for maybe an at home situation when they are just kind of maybe telecommuting and things like that so without further Ado here are my best recommendations and I think you're going to be surprised by some of them let's get into [Music] it so of course to start off with the Computers main computer and I'm going to recommend a couple here and also a couple different ways because with back to school there's a bunch of not only discounts but then promotions on the other side so there's two main Avenues I'm going to recommend going about especially when it comes to something like a MacBook Air because right now on Amazon if you want to just buy a M2 MacBook Air a baseline version it starts M2 MacBook Air at $799 which is absolutely absurd I personally have an M2 MacBook Air that I use from time to time even with the EG Ram if I'm just doing some normal everyday day-to-day things then it would be totally fine and again $7.99 for M2 MacBook Air and then if you want to get the brand new one which is the M3 MacBook Air which gives you a little bit M3 MacBook Air more in terms of actual usability for instance it will be a little bit faster for my CPU in gprof performance standpoint about 10 to 15% but some of the important things that we have is that it does give you some voice isolation in wide spectrum microphones which supposedly will benefit you from a voice call situation so if that's important to you definitely go with the M3 there's also some enhanced voice Clarity with the mic microphones but more importantly especially on the gaming side a little bit and the coding side it does have Ray tracing built in there with the M3 and now both of these will support apple intelligence whenever that does come out and the M3 MacBook Air the basine version is $849 on Amazon so $800 for the M2 $850 for the M3 which is pretty unbeatable prices but now if you transition over to the Apple Store Apple Store Education Store Pricing it gets a little bit interesting here because technically on paper it's a little bit more expensive but let's say you go through the education store if you go through the education store they ask for zero proof by the way to go through education store especially here in the US take that into account but you do get $100 off any Apple product especially the big computer hardware right so the normal retail pricing on the Apple Store is $9.99 for $1,000 for the M2 MacBook Air and we're talking about the 13-in versions here but then also it is $1,100 for the M3 version now subtract $100 from each of those when you go through the education store now you're at $8.99 and $9.99 respectively so still more expensive than from Amazon but Apple does throw in a $150 gift card to be used at Apple Store so depending on what situation you're in maybe you want to get some other Apple accessories like a magic mouse or a keyboard because $150 can get you some stuff but it's not even enough for a pair of airpods Pros if that's something that you want to get into which we will touch on from the Amazon store but again to each the rone there are multiple ways to get it and there are running some great deals the Apple Store stuff does end on September 30th versus on the Amazon side we don't know when that could end so I personally would go with the Amazon side but I also don't need $150 gift card to Apple but those are the main ones that I'm going to recommend the M2 and the M3 MacBook Air for a 95% of students going into college first on the Amazon side we don't know when that could end so I personally would go with the Amazon side but I also don't need a $150 gift card to Apple but those are the main ones that I'm going to recommend the M2 and the M3 MacBook Air for 95% of students going into college and now I do briefly iPads want to talk about the iPad although I can't fully recommend the iPad as your main computer unless you know who you are you know what situations you're going to be in because if you do get an M4 iPad Pro with the magic keyboard and the apple pencil it becomes a little bit cost prohibitive being 145 $1600 and even more so if you get more storage so depending on who you are definitely jump on an iPad like you can get a n9g iPad from Amazon right now for less than $200 you can get the iPad 10 gen for $300 you can get the iPad Air for only $500 on Amazon I'll link those all down below but I do recommend for most people that if you do want an iPad use it as a supplemental device and only get it if you have the funds to do it don't just go out and get an iPad versus a MacBook Air because I don't want you to be in a situation where maybe the iPad isn't getting it done for you and then you're kind of stuck with this iPad and you're going to have to go out and buy another MacBook Air or something like that so definitely look at the MacBook airs first then the iPads as supplemental devices unless you know who you are what you're getting yourself into if you want to make the iPad Pro your main computer now whether you are being a student from BenQ MA270U home or you're in a dormatory or maybe you're living off campus I always recommend somebody have a external monitor so when you are at home you have a little bit more screen real estate to work with and BenQ recently launched a brand new budget friendly 27in monitor made for MacBook users so this one is going to be mouthful but this is the ma27 Z z u and again this is a 27 in Ultra HD 4k monitor with a 16x9 aspect ratio you have 95% of the color gamut it does support display HDR 400 you have a 60 HZ refresh rate so it's not really the ultimate gaming monitor or anything like that but it is made with MacBook users in mind it does have some built-in speakers in there so if you do want to just use those speakers they're going to be good enough obviously it's not going to blow you away but to listen to podcast listen to audio books or even listen to some music out loud they'll definitely do the job and it also has a matte finish on the panel which I love because it helps with glare with ongoing light whether it is from an actual light bulb or from the Sun itself again it's tailored and calibrated to what Mac OS gives most people and then also it's a single cable solution so you do have some HDMI ports on the rear if you do need to to connect maybe an Xbox or a PlayStation or something like that but then also it is USBC capable passing up to 90 watts of power passo to your host computer so you have two USBC ports you have two HDMI ports and then you also have two usba ports so it kind of turns into a little bit of a hub itself meaning you don't have to really spend money on an external Hub it's got great height adjustments it tilts 5 to 20 Dees it swivels another 15° each way and it supports vertical orientations if that's something that you want to get into depending on what classes maybe call for that so again a high-end BenQ 4k monitor will cost you $460 I'll leave that link down below and again this is our budget friendly version for those of you that want to get into the BenQ world and use it with your Macbook so for less than like $1 13 $1,400 you get this brand new monitor and a M2 MacBook Air and you'll be set for the next four years of college in my opinion now I do quickly Mount it Standing Desk want to mention a standing desk which is the one that I'm actually using and this is by a company called called mount it they make a bunch of different standing desks and different sizes different budgets and what I like about this is that you can literally spend as little as $250 on a Sit standand desk and as much as I believe $600 or $700 I have a 55 in version that goes as low as 25.4 in and as high as 51.4 in so it's great for pretty much any height solution which I love to see it supports up to 300 lb also so the monitor the MacBook Air an Xbox a bunch of other auxiliary devices you'll have no problem and you can save up to three different save Heights for maybe those of you that sit stand and maybe I don't even know or maybe have another person likes to use it in standing formation or sitting formation it's well made it's rigid it can hold up as much weight as I personally needed to so this one is definitely a good solution and a good option if you guys want to check it down below so again if you start to add this up for less than $2,000 you have a great desk a great Monitor and a fantastic computer to last you for 4 to 8 years so now let's talk about some other Lexar SL500 SSD auxiliary accessories some of these smaller things that will help just kind of amplify your experience that much more the first thing I'm going to bring up since we went with these Baseline model MacBook airs is they do come with 256 gigs of internal storage so I want to recommend an SSD that I've been using for a few months now that I absolutely love and that's going to be the Lexar SL500 SSD which comes in a 2 TB and a 4 TB version the one I have linked down below is a 2 TB version I believe it's around $180 the 4 TB one is $340 at the time of recording this and it's pretty much as good as it gets when it comes to transfer speeds at this price point right you get 2,000 right speeds you get 2,000 megabyte right speeds 1,00 megabyte read speeds it can handle pretty much anything I use this to offload all my footage from my iPhone to the SSD I use it to edit all my video on my iPad Pro directly off the SSD so literally no complaints whatsoever it's ultra slim ultra light it is dust and splash proof I wouldn't dunk it in water but if you get a little bit of water on top of it you can just wipe it away and you'll be good to go so an SSD especially if you're somebody in the creative space that doesn't want to spend too much money on internal storage on their MacBooks this is a great AirPods Pro Gen 2 solution and I do want to bring up some audio accessories as well so obviously I got to recommend the airpods pro Gen 2 with USBC the new case Amazon has them for $189 that's why I said earlier the $150 gift card from Apple doesn't get you too much because again these same headphones that Amazon sells for $190 Apple's still selling for $250 so you can't even really buy those headphones with a $150 gift card but again to each to own they're the same exact headphones I purchased mine from Amazon because they're $60 cheaper so definitely take a look at that there's also the Sonos Ace Sonos Ace for those people that want to get some ere headphones and use those on a daily basis with great noise cancellation those just went on sale for sub $400 which are probably the comfiest headphones that I've ever used in terms of over-ear headphones and I've used the Bose QC Ultras I've used the Sony XM 4S I think and the xm5 so the sonus ones are definitely my favorite over your headphones at this premium price point definitely do not get airpods Max because I think at some point soon some new ones will be coming out since those have been out for almost 5 years now at Sonos Move 2 this point and then I want to stay in the Sonos ecosystem for a speaker I like the Sonos move to because it works off a Wi-Fi but you can also use it with airplaying and Bluetooth you can remove it from the actual base itself so you can use it as a plugged in speaker but then you can also grab it move it around and use it as a portable speaker which I love and for the size it's impressive how powerful this is from a base standpoint Clarity standpoint and just overall loudness standpoint the Sonos move 2 is a pristine speaker and then I quickly want to bring up some charging Kuxiu X40Q Solutions so for people that want to use a nightstand charger I do recommend things from Kuku they have some threein one chargers at every single price point that come not only with the charger itself but it comes with a cable it comes with a charging brick which is something that a lot of accessories can't even say anymore and also comes with a travel carrying case so you can put everything away and charge all three of your devices at once with no problems whatsoever and that same charging brake can also charge your iPad it can also charge your iPhone directly and can charge at least trickle charge your MacBook Air but the brand new x40 Q is her Cheat 2 wireless charger which supports up to 15 watts of fast charging wirelessly on your iPhone that's their latest and greatest I believe that one is $80 but they also have I believe it's called their x40 I will leave the correct one link down below but that one is only $40 and the only thing you're giving up is a charge speeds going from 15 to 7.5 watts and that's totally fine for an overnight charger and for $40 Magic Flex Cable it's very hard to beat and then I want to mention some raycon products so two power solution raycon products that I've been loving first is going to be the magic Flex cable now this one is interesting because it's pretty much an all-in-one they're calling it a six in1 I don't really see where the six inone really lies but they have two different sizes they have a short one that can be used kind of as a keychain and then a much longer one which I believe it's about 6.6 ft that can be used in multiple situations I have the longer one but what's beautiful about this is that it does support up to 100 wats of power so it can charge any of your devices and then on each side of them it has a USBC end but on top of it you have one side that has a usba a and then another side that has a lightning so if you still have an older iPhone you can charge this with this cable but let's say you want to be able to charge your laptop or your iPad or your headphones you can use the same exact cable because all you have to do is take off the lightning piece and then you're using the USBC piece and there's a lot of things to like about this one because like I said it charges up to 100 Watts but the mechanism to remove it and put it back on I've seen other companies make this kind of you know twoin one flexible cable but they use this malleable material normally or some sort of rubber versus this is much more rigid it's easier to use and it just feels a lot more confident when taking it off and putting it back on multiple times a day so this one by raycon I highly recommend and then in terms of a power Magic Slim Power bank bank I've mentioned this one a bunch before this one is the Magic Slim and it is a MAG saave power bank that can be used with any iPhone that supports macafe or any iPhone that supports wireless charging and what I love about this one is that it integrates with the battery widget meaning that you get to see how much battery is in the actual battery B itself without having to rely on those three or four dots on the rear of it you can see a direct on your home screen so this one is a 5,000 mAh battery for I believe $40 and it's super slim super lightweight charges via USBC and can support your iPhone as well so this one if you're going to run out of battery in class is something to bring Nomad 65W Charging Brick along with you I do also want to recommend some sort of charging brick the one that I personally use is a 65 wat Nomad charging brake and the reason I personally like this one is because it has two ports so you can charge the full 65 wats but then you can divy that up and get 45 watts and then 20 watts out of both of them but also it does have an Apple Watch charger that sits on top of it as well so if you're somebody that has an Apple watch this is a great kind of on the-go solution but it is a little bit cost prohibitive I believe it's like $100 it might be on sale right now I will'll leave it link down below but if you just want a charger that works that Anker 65W Charger has two USBC inputs and does give you up to 65 Watts this one by anchor is only $30 and gets the job done so the anchor one will definitely be more than enough for all of your charging needs but the Nomad one is a little bit more premium a better finish and can charge your Apple watch directly on the brick itself I do want to recommend a few more products so the first one is going to be a HDMI USBC HDMI Capture Card capture card and the reason I recommend this one is because you're able to then turn any iPad or any USBC in device into a dumbing monitor to then be used with any other maybe like an Xbox or a PlayStation or a switch or anything else that has an HDMI out I've been using this forever now so I use my iPad as a dummy display all the time to be able to play my Xbox directly on my iPad this is not cloud gaming it's literally using my iPad as a dummy display or as any other display because of this capture card and it's only like $18 or $19 so it's perfect to have with you in your dorm room whenever you need it I also want to Xbox Controller put some Xbox controllers down in the description below because they're currently on sale right now and you can connect those Xbox controllers to all of your I devices now because they are natively supported so if you do place things like apple arcade or if you are able to cloud game directly from your iPad or your MacBook Air being able to just Bluetooth connect a Xbox controller is a game changer now so I believe these are like $42 and they are Microsoft branded wireless controllers for your Xbox that can be used with all your ey devices two more items I want to bring ProtoArc Ergo Chair up first is going to be this chair right here that I'm using this is by Proto Arc and this is a $140 chair that looks like it could be6 7 $800 it's very comfortable it's easy to use so easy to put together it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that's something that's maybe $6 7 $800 but it can lean back it can lean forward you can raise and lower the armrest so it's got everything that you would need and it's very comfortable at the end of the day with this mesh breathable material so also if you get a little bit sweaty you can still get a little bit of air to go through too which I love to see so again for 130 or $140 for a legit chair hard to beat and then when it comes to Waterfield Sling backpacks or slings I'm going to recommend water field as one of the better ones to definitely go after I love their products I use their water field Shinjuku I believe it's called their sling bag but they also have backpacks and I also will link down a couple of cheaper backpacks that I've used in the past like by initech and things like that that for I believe3 $40 $50 you can get a great backpack but if you want to get some leather goods some really nice looking ones I do recommend going to Waterfield for all your backpack and sling bag needs but that'll Final Thoughts just about do it for this video everybody I know this was a little bit all over the place in terms of the types of accessories I just wanted to mostly show off that they are running a bunch of deals especially for MacBooks and iPads and monitors and desks because again it is that back to school season and I want people to take full advantage of that so I would personally recommend going through Amazon because it is cheaper it'll get to you between 1 and 3 days versus on the Apple side yes it's coming directly from Apple which is nice but it's still more money coming out of your pocket and you are getting that $150 gift card but it's not like it's offsetting anything it just means you got to spend more money at Apple it's going to end up making you spend more money because I know most people will just use those $150 to subsidize a pair of new airpods which means you'll still have to spend another $100 out of their pocket but this is my two cents definitely do whatever you need to do and that's what's great we have decisions to make we have options so that'll do it everybody if you enjoyed this video leave a little dolphin in the comments down below so I know you made it to the end Le some comments down below if some of your favorite back to school stuff that you've seen kind of floating around and I'm always curious to know what everybody ends up picking up but that'll do it everybody if you want to watch more videos like this one YouTube thinks you're going to like this video right here and I personally think you're going to like this video down here that'll do it I'm Fernando peace everybody