The Best Back-to-School Appliances and Gadgets for College Students

Share your favorite tracks with your friends and get the party started with one of the best Bluetooth speakers around. The Bose SoundLink Flex offers impressive sound for its compact size and budget-friendly price tag. The speaker is also fully dust-proof, waterproof, and it floats -- which makes it ideal for pool parties and beach trips.

Having a good printer in your room will make your college life that much easier. After testing several printers, our experts found the Brother MFC-J1010DW to be a pretty good printer with a great price. "Photos came out clear and sharp as did the graphics on the website and brochure test. Even the text was very sharp," CNET senior editor James Bricknell wrote.

Over the years, TCL has often topped our list of best TVs and for good reason. Our experts tested and reviewed several TVs and picked the TCL 4-Series as the best option for those on a budget. For a little over $200, you'll get pretty decent 4K UHD picture with all your streaming services built-in, thanks to Roku. If you're looking for something more premium, the TCL QM8 is our pick for best overall TV.

Now, if you already have a TV but you want to add smart features, the Roku Express 4K Plus is the way to go. This is one of the best Roku devices you can buy and it's also the cheapest option with 4K HDR. Additionally, if you have an iPhone or iPad, you can connect to your TV via Roku's AirPlay feature. The Roku Express also works with Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant.

Skip the campus Starbucks and save money by making your coffee at home. The Oxo Brew 8-Cup Coffee Maker is one of our favorite coffee makers for 2024. It's beautifully designed and compact enough to fit in small spaces. Plus, it comes with a thermal carafe that doesn't drip or spill.

This microwave from Farberware takes the top spot on our list of best microwaves. It's spacious, affordable and has quick settings that actually work. If you're in a hurry, you can have boiling water for your tea in less than three minutes. You can also get yummy popcorn for movie night at the touch of a button. If you're not the best cook, you'll love the sensor cook feature, which can detect when something is done cooking so you don't have to worry about burning anything.

If you're looking for a new mattress, you can't go wrong with the Nod from Tuft & Needle. Our experts tested the twin model, and it topped our list of best twin mattresses. The Nod offers comfort without the frills. You can get a 6-inch twin-size Nod mattress for less than $200 on Amazon. 

One rite of passage for nearly every college student is the "college plague" -- the severe cold many freshmen develop due to exposure to new people, environments and stress. While you can't control every environment you're exposed to, you can try to control the air quality of your dorm room. An air purifier may help you avoid illness by keeping the air in your dorm room as fresh as possible. The BlueAir Pure 511 is a great air purifier, especially for small spaces like your dorm room. While testing this model against other small-size air purifiers, we found that the Pure 511 led the way, cleaning the air in a category-leading 7.5 minutes compared to at least 35 minutes with the others. It's not only efficient but also quiet, portable, lightweight and costs less than $80.

College rooms can get filthy, especially if you're living in a frat or sorority house, so you need to make sure you have a vacuum for the job. If you're going to splurge on one thing, it should be the best vacuum cleaner money can buy. The Dyson V15 Detect is the best--performing stick vac of its kind and it'll keep your dorm spotless with very little effort. It even has a laser that shines out from the head of the vacuum to highlight all the small bits of dust, dirt and other debris you may have missed. The Dyson V15 Detect vacuum is also cordless, meaning you can easily clean the whole place without having to worry about annoying cords getting in the way. 

While some people may luck out with AC in their dorms, that won't be the case for everyone. The sweltering heat can overtake college dorms, which is why a good tower fan is necessary for every unlucky college student who doesn't have AC in their rooms. Tower fans are perfect if you're looking for ways to stay cool but you don't have a lot of floor space. The Honeywell QuietSet is a solid choice for most college students. It's powerful for its compact size and runs super quietly so it won't be a distraction while you study or catch up on your favorite TV shows. It's also affordable with a list price of around $75, though you can often find it cheaper.

While smartwatches like the Apple Watch are popular right now, they're also expensive. If you're looking for a cheaper way to track your steps and monitor other health stats, consider grabbing a Fitbit. The Fitbit Charge 6 is our top fitness tracker and it costs around $160, but you may find it for less during sale events. The Charge 6 has an electrocardiogram (ECG or EKG) app, sleep tracking and even connects to workout apps and gym equipment to show your live heart rate while you exercise. It also connects to Google Maps to offer directions while you're out and about and the built-in GPS will track outdoor workouts without your smartphone.

Brushing your teeth is an important part of maintaining a proper oral care routine. And a good electric toothbrush can help you get a more effective clean every time. The Oral-B Pro 1000 is a great option. It's simple to use with a daily cleaning mode and a two-minute timer. It'll even send you signals every 30 seconds so you know when to shift mouth quadrants. The Oral-B Pro 1000 not only topped our list of best electric toothbrushes, but it's easy on the wallet -- coming in at just $50 -- and it's American Dental Association-approved.