Back to School Gifts for College Students

September is an incredibly important time for college and school students. Unless you’re in Australia, New Zealand, and other countries that have alternate term dates due to seasons being at opposite times to the northern hemisphere, students are probably prepping for a new school year. But these students often have everything covered. So what are the best back to school gifts for college students?

Great back to school gifts are the ones that everyone needs, but wouldn’t think of buying for themselves (or asking Mom and Dad for). Most of the time, this includes tech products that are used daily. Increasingly, it is including tech products like this incredibly filesharing device that kids hadn’t even realized existed.

Or if you’re off to college and looking to treat yourself with something practical – money doesn’t grown on trees – then we’ve put together a list of great ideas.

End your quest for the perfect gifts for college students here – read on to see exactly what tech they need!

Important Tech For College

Doing well in college is due to a myriad of factors, and is difficult enough. Having bad or slow tech shouldn’t be a drawback on this! The basics to keeping your tech running are simple: have great charging equipment and even better means of managing your files. For this reason, we’ve selected our favorite, most practical tech as back to school gifts for college students. This includes:

  • Charging Cables
  • Power Banks
  • Wall Chargers
  • FileHub

Charging Cables

cables are great gifts for college students
Charging cables are incredibly important for fast charging

To do really well, you’ve got to get the basics right. And the basics of all charging tech is getting good cables.

Students need fast charging to keep up with their busy lives. Fast charging isn’t all about the wall charger you use.

A USB cable has four wires, including data and charging wires. How much power your cable carries is decided by the size of one of these charging cables. If you have a standard cable it’s 28/28 gauge. A 28/24 gauge is better for fast charging.

Standard wires only carry around .5A, whereas fast charging cables can carry up to 2A. This is because even though 24 seems lower than 28, they’re actually 60% bigger. You can check the power of your cable by downloading an app.

These also make great gifts for college students because they’re cheap, light and easy to fit in a loaded bag. Plus, you ALWAYS need them and always lose them at the wrong time; having some as a backup is perfect! Check out our recommendations at the end of the post.

Power Banks

back to school gifts
Power banks are great back to school gifts

We’d argue that in the modern world, power banks are important for everyone. They are useful everyday, not just for your phone but for accessories like wireless headphones – even this pair with 40 hours playback time.

Power banks are practical because they give you a boost during otherwise desparate times. The feeling of being under 10% battery as you walk home alone at night is terrible, as is the knowledge you might not be able to contact your friend to meet up if your phone dies in the next five minutes! For this reason, power banks you buy for back to school should be light, portable, and with fast recharge features.

They’re also great gifts for college students because they are something that will become imperative the more you use your phone. Plus, you’ll have peace of mind knowing your kid will always have access to power. Before you check out our recommendations at the bottom of the post, we’ve got ten features that you should consider when buying your power bank.

Top Ten Features to Look For in Power Banks:

  1. Fast Charge/Fast Recharge
  2. Light
  3. Portable – Easy to fit in your bag/pocket
  4. Stylish
  5. iSmart Charging Protection
  6. 10000mAh or Larger Battery Capacity
  7. Multiple USB Ports
  8. Compatible With Your Devices
  9. Wireless Capabilities
  10. Durability – A sturdy build with excellent aftercare

Wireless Power Bank

For modern students, a bulky box with loads of wires isn’t enough. Their tech needs to look and feel great, and be minimalist in a way that simply wasn’t possible even five years ago. Enter: the wireless power bank.

These power banks are great because you can totally cut the cord. Gone are the days of tangles; simply place your Qi enabled phone onto the power bank (easy to do on a college desk) and it will instantly begin charging. Not sure if your phone is compatible? You can check a list of Qi enabled phones here.

Coming in at just under a pound, the PB080 is a hefty piece of tech that will endure some impact drops. The tech inside boasts faster charging speeds (ideal for newer smartphones) and adapts depending on the device you are charging. For my iPhone XR, it took less than 20 minutes to charge from 73% battery strength to 100%.

David Thomas, RP-PB080 10400mAh Power Bank Review

20000+mAh Power Bank

If you’re looking for back to school gifts for more absent minded students, or those who might be out for a whole weekend, we recommend power banks that have over 20000mAh battery capacity. This capacity is important because it dictates the amount of full charges your phone can get from one fully charged power bank. For a 20000+mAh power bank and a modern phone, this should be at least three full charges.

A higher battery capacity power bank will often have more than one output port as well, meaning you can charge two or three devices simultaneously. This is great for busy students on the go, as well as great for their friends who might have forgotten their charger!

Wall Charger Power Bank

This solves all your back to school gifts issues at once, although often these chargers don’t have a huge battery capacity. Wall charger power banks do what they say on the tin; they work as a wall charger whilst simultaneously charging their built-in power bank. Users can carry these lightweight devices around with them all day safe in the knowledge that they can charge their phone anywhere with a wall outlet, as well as having back up power.

We’ve written about these before as, to be honest, we’re big fans. These devices are practical and have saved our charging souls more than once. They’re also great for keeping mobile gamers powered while out and about (Pokemon Go crew, we’re looking at you and have a special post for you here).

Wall Chargers

iSmart Charging has universal capabilities
PD Chargers have Universal Compatibility

For students who are lugging a laptop around with them all day, wall chargers are an important item. What’s even more important is that they’re powerful and lightweight. Did we mention PD charging? Yeah, that’s a key feature!

Power delivery is the creation of a universal standard for charging. This means that you can power your phone with the same wall charger that you power your iPad Pro and MacBook with; and in the tech world, one simple solution is always the best way forward. They’re able to supply up to ten times traditional USB wattage, enabling fast charging across all devices. As long as you have the right cables and your device is capable of fast charging of course.

PD Charging wall chargers are perfect back to school gifts for college students because one size fits all. They don’t have to think about whether their switch and their phone can be charged with the same device – it just works, and works quickly! Moreover, not only are they great looking, light and portable, but the socially conscious student would like that they could be better for the environment.

FileHub

gifts for college students
FileHubs are a great device for college students

FileHubs are a great untapped resource for college students. In particular, students studying degrees that involve group work – including STEM subjects – will benefit majorly from owning a FileHub.

This is because FileHubs are a filesharing device that also take on the role of wireless router. It effectively creates unlimited storage for your iPad, iPhone or laptop; simply transfer all the data with one-click onto a storage device of your choosing and voila! Perfect back to school gifts.

This also prevents any unexpected losses of work from forgetting to save. Regularly transfer and the project wont have to be restarted every few days! Plus, you can share work from everyone in a group to a communal folder so that you can keep track of what work has been achieved.

It also means students can do everything from essays to searching one-pan recipes to easily streaming 4K movies at home whilst having protected Wi-Fi. One FileHub can create guest logins for individual Wi-Fi accounts, meaning everyones connections are secure. This is particularly important for shared accommodation, where you might not know how trustworthy the guy in the room nextdoor is.

If you’re still not convinced, we have 10 reasons why FileHub is an essential item – and we can guarantee it’s not for the reasons you think…

Back to School Gifts – What Are The Best Gifts for College Students

So you’ve chosen your favorite gear as gifts for college students. Now you just need specific recommendations. We’ve given you all the tools to search Amazon to find the right product for you, but just in case – here are ours!

Charging Cables

Power Banks

Not just one of the most appropriate back to school gifts, these power banks cover everything you’d need for day-to-day life.

Wall Chargers

FileHub

FileHub (2019 Upgrade) – The lastest FileHub is packed with amazing technology that makes it easily one of the best gifts for college students. Find it on Amazon today!

Want to explore more? Check out our official site or search RAVPower on Amazon!

One Reply to “Back to School Gifts for College Students”

  1. I like the idea of getting a wall charger for a college student that can charge multiple devices at the same time. I imagine that it is like a surge protector that has multiple outlets all over it. Either way, I think it would be a good investment for any college student so they can have power for all their devices.

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