WEBVTT

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(soft music)

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- It is back to school time

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and boy school has
changed since I was in it.

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Not just in terms

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of the technology that's
available for students,

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but also in terms of what we expect

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because ever since the
pandemic era happened,

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so much has changed.

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Hybrid classes really became the norm

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for a lot of people and
even continue to be.

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And I'm not just talking about high school

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and college students, but
grade school students also.

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So I have got some tips

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about what kind of technology
you should be shopping for

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as you get ready to go back to class.

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So if you're thinking about
college and you're looking

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for a laptop that's going to get you

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through all four years,
my go-to default choice

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is always the classic 13 inch MacBook Air.

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These things are indestructible.

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They last a long time.

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They're easy to carry
around, and I usually

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call them the most universally
useful laptop you can buy.

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Now, on the other hand,
they're not inexpensive,

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$1,100 to start

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(bell ringing)

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for the new M2 version of
the 13 inch MacBook Air.

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There's a bigger 15 inch version now

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that's even more expensive.

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So while it is a good
investment over time,

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it's not cheap to get
started with a MacBook.

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I've been playing around recently

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with some less expensive laptops

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that I think are good for students.

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One great example is this
Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1

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that I've been testing.

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It's a 14 inch, pretty
standard AMD powered laptop,

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but it folds all the way back,

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the hinge goes 365
degrees, so you can turn it

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into a tablet for either
watching videos or taking notes.

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So it does the job of two or three devices

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and it starts at about $800,

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(bell ringing)

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which makes it much more reasonable.

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If you want something really
inexpensive but functional,

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obviously look for a Chromebook.

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My favorite is something
like the Lenovo Duet

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which is about $400,

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(bell ringing)

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and also works as a tablet
and a laptop at the same time.

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New phones are expensive,

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especially if you're on a student budget.

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The latest iPhones, a
thousand dollars or more.

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Samsung's, new foldable phones, $1,800.

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There are some less
expensive options out there,

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even if you don't want to go for a used

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or refurbished phone.

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The iPhone SE is Apple's
least expensive new iPhone

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right now.

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The body is a little bit
dated, but it does the job.

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It's about $429

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(bell ringing)

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most places.

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If you want to go Android,
there's the Google Pixel 7A,

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also a little north of $400.

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(bell ringing)

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If you want to go as
inexpensive as possible

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because you're afraid that you

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or the student you're
buying for is going to lose

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or break their phone all the time,

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something like the Samsung A14,
it's not a fantastic phone,

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but it's about the cheapest
5G smartphone you can buy.

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(bell ringing)

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You can literally get these for 200 bucks.

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I've really become a fan of E Ink devices

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for both textbook reading
and regular book reading

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and also for note taking.

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The Kindle Scribe is a
big format E Ink screen.

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It comes with a stylus.

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You can actually get an upgraded stylus

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for even more functionality

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but it does natural
handwriting really well

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for taking notes in class.

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And then you can export those
and send them to yourself.

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And of course,

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(bell ringing)

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you can access a lot
of textbooks as eBooks

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and this makes it really easy
to have them all with you

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but not have to carry around
a lot of physical books.

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And just when it comes
to a reading experience,

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that E Ink screen is so much better

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than reading off, you
know, an iPad screen,

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a tablet screen, anything like that.

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Now I'm going to let you
in on a little secret.

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At some point in your school career,

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grade school, high
school, college, whatever,

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you are going to have to
still print something out.

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I know we'd all love to
email in our assignments

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and that's the end of it,

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but you'll have to print
something at some point

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so you might want to have
a printer sitting around.

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That said, it's hard to find a printer

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that you don't want to
basically throw out the window

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because they're all pretty much terrible.

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Over the years,

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I have found one printer that
is slightly less annoying

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than most of the other
printers I've tried.

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My general favorite is
the Brother L2370DW.

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It is a monochrome laser printer.

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You should generally
always get a laser printer,

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much easier to deal with,

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and it's about $159 most of the time.

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(bell ringing)

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You can get it on Amazon
and get it on Staples.

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The model's been around for years.

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Not only do I have one, I
bought one for my mother to use

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because they're so easy to
use and so rarely mess up.

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Now my other tip about
that is when it's time to

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replace the toner, don't
get the official toner.

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It's very expensive.

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You can get no name toner, it's fine.

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Just go on Amazon

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and read some of the
reviews to see, you know,

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who's no name toner is being
well reviewed at the time.

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Order that, and you're
probably going to be fine

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and for a little bit more,

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there's a color version of
this also, which is great

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if you need to do some
documents with color.

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I will say one caveat, if
you're printing a lot of photos,

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that's what laser
printers are not great at.

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In that case,

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you want to get a specialty
inkjet printer just for photos.

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You can find information about all of this

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in our Gizmodo Back to School
2023 Guide, links down below.

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(soft music)