Review: Best Gadgets for College Kids

College is a time for experimentation and self-discovery. You're away from home for the first time, meeting new and exciting people, drinking new and exciting beverages and taking new and exciting drugs. But if you want to excel in academics and be a big shot on campus, you'd best pick up a bag filled with the following tech.

Samsung NC20

Best Gadgets for College Kids

Learn How We Rate ##### Wired

Top-to-bottom hardware redesign is a big win, with thoughtful new features. Outstanding battery life. Generally crystalline call quality. Solid selection of downloadable applications.

• 1/10A complete failure in every way
• 2/10Sad, really
• 3/10Serious flaws; proceed with caution
• 4/10Downsides outweigh upsides
• 5/10Recommended with reservations
• 6/10Solid with some issues
• 7/10Very good, but not quite great
• 8/10Excellent, with room to kvetch
• 9/10Nearly flawless
• 10/10Metaphysical perfection

The NC20 takes many of its under-the-hood cues from the netbook world, offering comparably restrained specs like 1 GB of RAM and a 160-GB hard drive and, most eyebrow-raising, a VIA Nano U2250 CPU. In our benchmarks, the NC20 outclassed every Atom-based laptop we've ever tested (most of which can't make it through a round of benchmarks without crashing), and it even outscored our beloved Lenovo IdeaPad S10 by 5 percent on PCMark05.
— Christopher Null

HTC T-Mobile myTouch 3G

There's no physical keyboard on the myTouch, and the small size makes tap-typing on the narrow screen more difficult than, say, on the iPhone. Autofill/autocorrect features make things move along a little faster, but it's generally slow going. The screen also feels a bit less sensitive and accurate than the iPhone's. The OS is noticeably sluggish, though it's not oppressively slow.

A capable 3.2-megapixel camera/camcorder rounds out the package. In all, the myTouch has smoothed out nearly all of the G1's numerous rough edges. We may not be dumping our iPhones for it just yet, but at least the open source crowd no longer has to be embarrassed about its top-of-the-line handset.
— C.N.

Fagor Portable Induction Cooktop

The cooktop brought three cups of water to a full and violent boil almost twice as fast (in just over four minutes) as our gas stove. You'll also get five power levels to choose from, depending on whether you want to slow melt some chocolate or sauté the hell out of a bag of shrimp. For all its speed, however, this induction cooker isn't quite perfect. First, with no visible flame or glowing red coils, fine-tuning the heat levels is a tad tricky, particularly on the lower power settings. And despite the company's claim of even and precise heating, there was a very discernible hot spot in the middle of our test pans.
— Bryan Gardiner

WIRED Heats your cookware, not the cooking surface, so impromptu trips to the burn ward are unlikely. One of the sexiest cooktops on the block. No residual heat to steam up your dorm room or kitchen. Super portable and a cinch to clean.

TIRED Touch-sensitive controls are finicky. Loud exhaust fan runs for up to 30 seconds after unit is switched off. Extremely expensive when compared to other cooktop ranges.

$200, fagor.com | Read full review

Sony Walkman X1051

College is the perfect time to experiment with strange new things. Why not start with a portable media player that isn't made by Apple? As a music powerhouse, the X1051 definitely makes the grade. In addition to supporting the standard file types, Sony threw in both FM radio and internet radio chops, courtesy of Slacker. Although these are great additions in their own right, they made for awesome additions to the X1051's MP3 chops. Tired of listening to your English Lit lecture? Pop on some tunes. Sick of your selection? Try the radio. No luck there? Then fire up your own personalized radio station via Slacker. With all these options at our disposal there was rarely a moment where we weren't bumping tunes.
— Terrence Russell

WIRED Slick, simple interface. Awesome-looking (and very responsive) touchscreen. Rich, natural audio from included earbuds. Tweakable digital noise canceling and EQ options let you dial in audio bliss. Music + video + internet = never having to pay attention in class ever again.

TIRED Integrated browser is shoddy with a hastily assembled feel. No App store. Proprietary charging port. How can we sleep through lectures with no voice recorder?!

$300 (for 16 GB), sonystyle.com | Read full review

Olympus LS-11 Audio Recorder

The LS-11 blends all the old-school charm of handheld audio recorders with the convenience and accoutrements of portable digital audio. And the advantages are amazing. Between the respectable 8 GB of storage and the 20-plus hour battery life, even the most scrupulous scribe can zone out, as the LS-11 handily records whatever lecture or meeting you've chosen to sleep through. All convenience aside, the true draw of the LS-11 is aural quality. Recording indoor events like meetings and lectures produced clear, nuanced audio, while outdoor sessions in parks and subway cars were surprisingly intelligible.
— T.R.

WIRED Fantastically high audio quality. Supports noise-activated auto-recording. Records in common formats (WAV, MP3, WMA) and high-quality 24-bit/96-kHz Linear PCM. Runs on AA batteries, but comes with a charger for unlimited POWAH!

TIRED All kinds of pricey. Lo-fi monochrome screen makes our TI-89 blush. Stereo speakers are tinny and unfortunately placed. Sucks as an MP3 player.

$400, olympusamerica.com | Read full review