Back to School 2026: The Complete Kit Guide

Mid-August and you can feel it coming: three weeks until the new school year starts. A new laptop for university, a tablet for the kids, a decent chair because doing homework at the kitchen table does nobody any good. This guide pulls our hand-picked buying guides together so you can get a complete picture in one evening — which kit you actually need, what a fair price range looks like, and what to check before you hit "buy".

For pupils and students: the essentials

A laptop that survives the school year. For secondary school, a Chromebook or budget Windows laptop is fine; for college or university a proper Windows laptop or MacBook Air is more practical because you'll be running more software. Our best student laptop guide compares the options between €500 and €1,200, with a realistic lifespan for each model. If you want to stay strictly around €400, take a look at our Chromebook guide.

Still unsure which type suits you? Our laptop chooser walks you through the decisions step-by-step without jargon: Chromebook or Windows, how much RAM you actually need, and what 512 GB of storage really means for your documents and photos in day-to-day use.

A tablet as a companion device. For reading, note-taking and digital handwriting, iPads are unbeaten; our tablet buying guide compares Apple, Samsung and Lenovo on price and use case. Primary school children are better served by a cheaper kids' tablet from our best kids' tablet guide.

The home workspace

A decent chair. Four days a week of homework at the kitchen table ends in physiotherapy bills. Our best desk chair for studying at home guide shows ergonomic models from €120 that you can use 6-8 hours a day without regret. For students in a small rented flat: prioritise adjustability over design.

An e-reader for long reading sessions. If you're getting through lots of textbooks and PDFs, an e-reader saves your eyes. Our e-reader guide compares Kobo, Amazon Kindle and Tolino on reading comfort, storage and PDF support. Under €150 gets you a solid entry-level model.

A printer for the paperwork you can't avoid. Paper enrolment forms, printouts of articles, a quick photocopy — an all-in-one home printer now costs €80-€150 and saves you tens of euros a year in copy-shop fees. Our best printer guide explains which models don't lock you into an ink subscription every two years.

For on the move and on location

A Wi-Fi router for the student house. The provider's router won't cope with four housemates streaming and video-calling at the same time. Our Wi-Fi router for student houses guide shows mesh sets for larger houses and single routers for flats — from about €90 for three housemates to share.

A power bank for long lecture days. A long day of lectures, note-taking on a laptop and constant phone use flattens any battery. Our power bank guide compares sizes from 10,000 to 20,000 mAh — the sweet spot for students sits around 15,000 mAh (two full phone charges).

Noise-cancelling headphones for focus. On the train, in a busy student house or in the library, active noise cancellation is the difference between staying on task and getting distracted. Our noise-cancelling headphones guide compares Sony, Bose and Apple; under €200 you can find in-ears that are almost as good as the €400 models.

The bits people forget

• A proper chair mat if you're on parquet flooring — €25-€40, saves hundreds of euros in scratches.
• An external mouse and keyboard if you're on a laptop 8 hours a day — the difference in wrist strain compared with the built-in keyboard is noticeable after a week.
• Cloud storage as a backup, not as your main storage. Google Drive and OneDrive are free up to 15 GB; iCloud up to 5 GB. For thesis submissions: never keep the only copy in one place.
• A second laptop charger for the spot where you rarely go (the loft, the study). A flat battery during an online exam is a €40 lesson.

When should you buy?

Waiting for Black Friday (late November) means two months without the kit — and if the school year is already in full swing, that's not an option. Our data shows that most laptop, tablet and accessory prices don't drop meaningfully between mid-August and mid-September. If you need something now: buy it now. For larger purchases (desk, monitor), Black Friday genuinely is substantially cheaper — that you can put off if you have a temporary workaround.

Want more specific advice?

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