As students enter the hi-tech digital world, gadgets form an elementary part of their lives. Gone are the days when pen was the mighty sword. Now-a-days students prefer hi-tech technology in the form of advanced, useful gadgets available in the markets. Affordability is surely one of the factors while purchasing a gadget. So, we bring in the festivities with the top 7 affordable gadgets for students.
Dell Inspiron 15z : Dell’s Inspiron 15z is truly a ‘notebook’. Be it assignments, presentations or other tasks, this multimedia does it all. The Dell notebook features a 15.6″ HD WLED True-Life (1366×768) display and is powered by Intel Core 2 Duo Processors alongside 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium OS. It is equipped with 2GB Dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM and 320GB 5400RPM SATA HDD. The notebook is inclusive of 1.3 megapixel webcam, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, 7-in-1 Memory card reader, Intel High Definition Audio 2.0 sound card and more. The Inspiron 15z is backed by one year limited warranty and is retailed for Rs. 34, 900.
Sony e-book Reader: If you are an avid reader, the Sony Reader Pocket Edition is a must-have. Transferring eBooks and charging the Reader Digital Book is made possible by means of a single USB 2.0 cable. This compact e-book reader weighing just 7.76 oz can be your ideal companion while on the move. You can pick the Reader Pocket Edition in silver, navy blue and rose colors. The 5-inch display offers legible text owing to the E Ink Vizplex technology that enables users to read even in direct sunlight. Tired of carrying books with you, this Sony device will carry up to 350 books, with its 512MB of onboard memory. It allows readers to customize the font as well as the orientation of the screen as per their wish. The Sony Reader Pocket Edition is offered on Amazon for around Rs. 9, 510.
Nokia 5130 XpressMusic: For the mobile enthusiasts, the Nokia 5130 Xpress Music brings your favorite tunes in amazing audio quality at an affordable price. The mobile phone features a 2.0-inch screen that offers 320 x 240 pixels resolution. The handset measures 107.5mm x 46.7mm x 14.8mm and weighs around 88 grams. The GSM device delivers a talktime of 6 hours and standby time of about 288 hours. The quad band phone sports a 2 megapixel camera with 4x digital zoom and supports video recording. The music phone entertains with its MP3 music player and RDS supported FM stereo radio. It is inclusive of a 1GB microSD card, 3.5 mm Nokia AV connector and supports Bluetooth version 2.0. The Nokia 5130 Xpress Music can be purchased for Rs. 5, 539.
Buffalo MiniStation Turbo Portable External Hard Drive: Carry your entire music collection, movies, e-books and presentations in a single compact device. We believe that the Buffalo MiniStation Turbo Portable External Hard Drive that offers 250GB storage space is an apt device for students to hoard their precious content. The external HDD is pretty sturdy measuring around 8.4cm x 2.3cm x 13.2cm and it weighs about 224 grams. The MiniStation offers an amazing data transfer speed of 480Mbps. The USB powered device is compatible with operating systems such as Microsoft Windows 2000, Apple Mac OS 9, Apple Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista. To keep your data safe, the hard disk includes SecureLockWare software. It also incorporates Memeo backup software that is capable of providing data backup from other drives, a flash drive, iPod and even on network locations. The 2.5-inch hard drive is USB 2.0 and 1.1 compliant and delivers read speed of 39.3MB/s and write speed of 28.4MB/s. The storage device is backed by one year limited warranty and comes with a price tag of around Rs. 5, 999.
LiveScribe pulse pen: Tired of misplacing notes? The LiveScribe Pulse pen comes to the rescue. This ‘smart pen’ is capable of creating digital copies of everything you write by hand and simultaneously records audio. The LiveScribe device features a calculator, translator, and a paper piano. The Pulse pen uses special dotted paper for spatial recognition to digitally replicate the notes. It incorporates around 2-inches long OLED display that displays one line of text. The high-tech pen comes with a speaker and a 2.5mm headphone jack. The recording pen is equipped with 32-bit, 150 MHz Samsung ARM 9 processor. The sleek device measures around 155mm in length and weighs 36 grams. The gadget is compatible with Intel Mac with Mac OS X 10.5.5 or later, Windows XP 32-bit SP2 or higher, or Windows Vista 32 or 64-bit operating system. The 2GB Livescribe Pulse pen can be purchased for approximately Rs. 8,125 via LiveScribe’s online store.
iPod Shuffle: Research says that music is a great stress buster, so if you are too much burdened with the huge pile of books, just switch on this sleek music player from Apple. The colorful pink, blue, green, black or silver colored music player can be easily sneaked in your pocket and you can enjoy the tunes while on the go. The portable device measures 45.2mm x 17.5mm x 7.8mm and weighs about 10.7 grams. The Apple device is built with a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack. You can enjoy around 500 songs and it offers up to 10 hours of audio playback time. The 2GB iPod Shuffle is retailed for about Rs. 3,700.
Franklin Pocket Prep for SAT: Students preparing for SAT can now carry their tutor right into their pocket. The Princeton Review Pocket Prep for the SAT is a portable interactive handheld tutor that improves SAT test scores with a comprehensive test preparation system. It incorporates verbal, mathematics, essay preparation, full length practice tests, instant scoring and personal diagnostic reports. Practice drills, flash cards and an extensive verbal and essay reference suite to maximize grammar and essay scores are also incorporated. Students can improve their vocabulary on the go with this device that features over 5,000 SAT words, advanced thesaurus, advanced grammar guide and complete Merriam-Webster dictionary. The educational gadget can be bought for about Rs. 3,821.
