The back-to-school season has a different feel now than in the pre-pandemic days.
Try as we might, the need to print out papers or documents hasnt completely gone away yet.
The expert picks below are a great way to get started on your back-to-school shopping.
Photo: Dan Ackerman
A great example of that is something like the AMD-powered Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1.
That makes it good for research and writing, but also note-taking, streaming video and other tablet tasks.
Fortunately, there are cheaper decent alternatives out there without resorting to a no-name throwaway burner phone.
On the Android side, check out the Pixel 7a, which about the same price.
Its $339, which is about as much as a basic iPad.
But for a pure reading experience, its hard to beat, and the price includes a basic stylus.
In fact, I purchased another one for my mother to use, and one for my ski cabin.
My one exception to this rule is if youll be printing a lot of photos.
Thats true even if you have a fancy MacBook before the latest M2 models.
where you might buy games.
But, gaming PCs remain expensive, with budget models starting at around $1,000.
In either case, also be ready to add your own microSD card for extra storage.
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