Gadgets for the New College Student

School is done. The lovely long vacation after school is also waning, and the time has come to prepare for college admissions. Whatever the course and subjects chosen, these days, technology braces all forms of education, thus here is a list of really budget friendly, yet useful gadgets for the fresher entering the exciting dynamic world of college.

MP3 players
College without MP3 players is kinda incomplete. Chances are colleges are far from home, and the commute will surely need some fun. Most phones have players we know, but a dedicated player is always better.

iPod shuffle 1 GB
Price: Rs 2,600

Not the new 3rd gen one, definitely not. Read Shayne’s review to know why. Call me old fashioned but I’m talking about the good old iPod shuffle, in which all you could do was play some tracks, simply. The genius at Apple made it a lifestyle element, especially for a hip college kid to clip on a shuffle and walk about. They are still available all over, and it costs a decently reasonable sum of Rs. 2600, maybe lesser some places.

Philips GoGear  SA1928 2 GB
Price: Rs. 2,490
At Rs. 2490, this new model by Philips is actually better than the aforementioned one in terms of usability. Plus it’s cheaper, and looks sweet too. It’s drag and drop, and bears the classic square MP3 player form factor resembling the flash storage that it is. Very good for commuting and bunking with.

Creative Zen 4GB
Price: Rs. 5,200

At Rs. 5,200, this is the most reasonable video supporting player around. The Creative Zen is equipped with a 2.5-inch LCD display with a resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. You can view images, sync with your PC, and schedule backups. But what I really like about this player is the design: it’s slim and sleek and very light.

Motorola A810
Price: Rs. 8,000

The A810 looks like a miniaturize version of the ROKR E6, only instead of a circular navigation pad it’s equipped with a joystick. One of the cheapest touchscreens on the market, the 2.2-inch TFT Touchscreen combined with the UI supports handwriting recognition for quick input in certain conditions. The A810 also comes with a 3.5mm earphone socket and a 2 megapixel camera.  

Sony Ericsson W380
Price: Rs. 7,990

A very cool looking phone: the handset is available in Electric Purple, Magnetic Grey, Black Champagne and Black Orange which give the W380 a really smart yet stylish look. There is more. It has a sensor in the front for gesture control that allows you to silence the handset simply by waving your hand over the phone when face up, and last but not least it has a 1.3 MP camera.

Zenith Admirale
Price Rs 25,200
Zenith of course will feature here since they are the budget laptop pioneers. With Intel Pentium Dual-core T3200, 2 GHz and 1 GB DDR2 RAM, this notebook does not have the most hardcore config but works well for college work ande internet. There is a 14.1-inch LCD and 160 GB hard disk, plus DVD writer and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g

Acer-Aspire 4736Z
Price: Rs 28,299
With an Intel Dual Core T4200 Processor, (Speed 2 GHz) and 2GB RAM this laptop suits the requirements of a busy college student with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, DVD writer, 14.1 inch screen and 3 hours of battery. It comes loaded with Vista Home Premium.