“Back to school” has a little less romantic flair, and perhaps a little more wariness than previous years, but students and parents still need the best tech. That’s why top retailers are using this time of year to launch their back-to-school sales. We’re seeing great deals on laptops, TVs, smart gadgets and printers. We’ve scoured Best Buy, Amazon, Dell and others to help you discover the very best back-to-school sales. And when it comes to printers, we have a devoted guide to the best back-to-school printer deals, just for you, with some of the best brands on the market, like HP, Brother, and Canon. From this, we’ve selected our very best deals to outfit you for back to school, no matter what your needs.
Functionality is everything with a printer. The first question one needs to ask themselves when investing in such tech (we tend to keep printers for more than just a couple years) is what you’re going to need it for. Is it just printing out papers to hand in? Or will you need it for scanning, for copying and maybe faxing too? A great number of printers come with all these functions built-in, but others are more bare-bones, so it’s an important question to ask yourself. Secondly, you want to think about connectivity. Most printers now come with built-in Wi-Fi or Bluetooth as a feature, but not all of them do. You don’t want to end up in a situation where you were depending on your printer to be able to print from your smartphone, and then find out you’re missing a connection.
Something else to think about is size. This is really key. If you’re a student heading off to college (even if you’re not leaving the house), you may want something on the smaller side, as a dorm room won’t accommodate anything much larger than the smaller sizes. This goes hand in hand with the volume you’ll need to print. If you’re handing in the occasional paper, you might need only the lowest-end, most compact device. But if you expect a heavier print load and will be producing reams of work every week, you might want to consider something more equipped for an office. Important: If you’re on the heavier-duty side, keep an eye on how much toner and ink replacements will cost you. This adds up!
Some more super functional elements: color versus black and white? Inkjet versus laser? Color tends to be more expensive and demanding, but it can also be necessary if your work requires it, or you’re looking to print images. In terms of inkjet versus laser, think of it in terms of history, in that inkjet printers use ink (laser printers use toner), which will not last as long. It fades. That said, ink tends to be better for photos and documents with color.
One last thing to consider is the fun factor. If you just want a printer for photos (say of friends, but perhaps for presentations, too), there are printers dedicated just to that function. Don’t bite off more than you need to unnecessarily. Get the one that’s right for you!
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.