Best Back-to-School Sales on Dorm Essentials, Tech Devices, and More

Walmart recently dropped its price for this espresso maker, making it a great time to buy. It may come as a surprise, but the Mr. Coffee Compact Espresso Maker beat out all the other budget espresso machines in a recent evaluation. Our team found it easy to use, and it produced smooth espresso shots and good-quality foamed milk using its built-in steam wand. It was so simple and intuitive, according to our panel, that even an espresso-making novice had no trouble producing a shot. We even found that this model made better-tasting shots than more expensive models.

The Keurig K-Supreme is back down to the same low we saw for Prime Day. It’s a top performer when it comes to first-cup speed, size consistency, and convenience. It also delivers subsequent cups quickly after the first, important if you plan to serve multiple cups. Its settings let you easily adjust the brew’s strength. Like many K-Cup machines, this coffee maker’s features include auto-shutoff, a removable reservoir, and a height-adjustable drip tray.

According to our sensory test, the Lands’ End Premium Supima Cotton Sheet Set is one of the softest in our ratings. You can use the code LAZYRIVER to get nearly 50 percent off. Though you will experience some wrinkling, it still performs better than most natural cotton sheets in our wrinkling assessment. With an excellent fit for mattresses 14 inches thick and under, little to no shrinkage, and a very strong weave, it is a solid pick.

If you don’t need dorm-length sheets, every size is on sale.

Utopia premium bath towels are 100 percent cotton but shrank the least in our tests, even after 10 wash and dry cycles. We found that they got a bit less soft after washing, however, and experienced some hourglassing. Certified OEKO-TEX, they’re available in plum, sage green, ivory, and lavender, among other shades. They’re usually $35 for a pack of four, so this is a nice discount.

The Shark SpeedStyle Pro Flex competes with the highly sought-after Dyson models, but at more than half the price. Like the Dyson models, our testers liked how easily the attachments snapped onto the hair dryer, and how you can rotate them without removing them. Its airflow is so strong that when turned on, it has a kickback. 

It has another high-end feature: its IQ Speed Styling & Drying Suite automatically adjusts heat and speed depending on the attachment. The attachments are unique and feature-rich, including the Frizzfighter, which is helpful in making sleek bangs (and flyaways). The diffuser features different prong lengths depending on hair type, and its brush attachment includes boar bristles. Its highest temperature reading in our tests was 115° F.

It’s $40 more than its best price and $20 more than it was two weeks ago, but still a great deal compared to its full price.

The Revlon One-Step Volumizer is beloved for a reason: It just works. One tester shared this pro tip to achieve the best results: Keep tension on the hair and work in smaller sections. Otherwise, you may end up with a head full of frizz. 

If you’re looking for soft curls, this lightweight foam could be worth a look. This mousse tells you how many pumps of product you should apply to each section of hair because it provides a guide for varying hair lengths. Because the foam is so lightweight and watery, it spread through our testers’ hair evenly and didn’t leave any clumps of sticky, stiff hair strands. We found it worked best for our testers who had finer hair, so if you’ve got thicker hair, it’s probably a skip.

This is a budget-friendly micellar to begin with; on sale, it’s a real steal. One evaluator found it effective and gentle; another said she had “no major qualms besides having to use a little bit more to get the tubing mascara off my face.” 

This aesthetically pleasing pill organizer has a larger capacity than most other options we tested. It is a little bulky, making it less ideal for travel, and the caps are relatively easy to open, even with one hand. Each container has two compartments for morning and night, and these caps are numbered with 1 and 2, but testers reported the numbers are a bit hard to see.

We found the Onlyone Water Flosser quite easy to use and charge. Despite its smaller countertop footprint, it holds quite a lot of water, which means longer flossing sessions without needing a refill. The removable tank has a large opening, which facilitates easy filling.

The Versa 4 is a great fit for Fitbit fans who want a sleeker-looking smartwatch. You get a good-sized display and all the basics from GPS-enabled workout tracking to heart rate monitoring, plus a generous six days of claimed battery life. 

If you want a sleek, do-everything smartwatch that pairs seamlessly with your iPhone, the Apple Watch Series 11 is a great pick. It can do all the basics well, like tracking your sleep, workouts, steps, heart rate, and more. It also offers a few health features that the budget SE 3 doesn’t, such as hypertension monitoring, electrocardiogram readings to detect an irregular heart rhythm, and a blood-oxygen sensor.

The Instant Vortex 4 Plus Air Fryer 4QT is a standout for the legibility of its digital controls, relatively low noise levels, and ease of cleaning. What’s more, its square basket design makes it easy to fit in a small Pyrex dish or baking pan—great for turning out sweet treats. The measured 3-quart model has a 1-year warranty.

The Cosori Dual Blaze is a bit expensive, but we think it’s still worth highlighting, given its large measured capacity (4.7 quarts), smartphone integration, and all-around strong performance in all the areas we test. The monolithic exterior might not be to everyone’s taste, but with few nooks and crannies in its design, this machine is easy to clean. It also comes with a two-year warranty, a year longer than many air fryer warranties.

Dash may not have the same name recognition as Ninja or Cuisinart, but the 2.6-quart Dash Tasti-Crisp Ceramic DCAF26CM air fryer earns solid scores in CR’s tests and comes at a sale price that’s better than we’ve seen so far for this model. With food contact surfaces made of nonstick ceramic, it earns top marks for ease of cleaning even though it’s not dishwasher safe. We found it runs more quietly than many other air fryer models to boot. The DCAF26CM has a small footprint, making it a smart choice for a dorm room or for those with limited counter space.

The Sony ULT Field 1 is a great speaker to toss in a backpack to hang out on the quad or for an after-school hangout in the backyard. It’s pleasant sounding with a strong impactful bass. It doesn’t play super loud, but that’s largely a function of its modest size. It boasts an IP 67 rating, which means it’s well sealed from sand and dirt, and can take a modest dunking. 

Portable wireless speakers often take a beating, rattling around in the bottom of a backpack or getting knocked off a picnic table—all of which argues for a modestly priced speaker like the JBL Flip 7. The model boasts decent bass, adequate volume, and satisfying sound quality. The 12-hour battery life claimed by JBL is long enough for even your epic 81-song Abba to ZZ Top playlist. And with an IPX7 rating, the Flip 7 is not only splashproof and spillproof but also totally dunkable, according to the manufacturer. One other cool feature: If you buy the Flip 7 from JBL, you can have it personalized, choosing the color and printing your own image or text on the grill.

The high-performing Edifier S1000MKII has always been a bargain, even at its full list price, and this discount (the best I’ve seen all year) makes the deal that much sweeter for college kids who love music. While the MKII lacks the multiroom capability of the newer S1000W, that’s not a dealbreaker. And that’s because the two speakers sound almost the same and that sound is truly admirable. 

There’s a lot to like about this over-the-ear noise-canceling headphone that sits second in Bose’s lineup but performs a lot like the top-of-the-line Quiet Comforts. The Quiet Comforts provide solid sound quality in a reliable set of headphones that will last your kid for years to come. Bose, as a brand, gets great owner satisfaction and reliability scores.

If your kid runs outside, the Bose Ultra Opens are a unique option that will let them stay aware of their surroundings. They hook on your ear, just above the lobe, kind of like a cuff-style earring, so they don’t plug the ear, letting outside sounds in right alongside that running playlist. They sound surprisingly good, too, once you get the placement just right. And it’s totally easy to hear things around you with a clarity that the "transparency" mode of most earbuds can’t match.

Beats headphones are sleek, and they sound good too. The over-ear Beats Studio Pro get top marks for noise reduction, making them perfect for anyone who wants to lock in at the gym, get some serious work done, or just tune out the world for a little while. And the sound quality rated 4 out of 5 in our tests too, so you’ll be able to immerse yourself in your favorite songs.

The Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro 360 was $80 more at the start of July. This is a premium 2-in-1 with a 360-degree hinge that lets you rotate the screen for use as a traditional laptop or a tablet, knocking out a report at your desk or sketching notes on the couch. The bundled stylus is handy for handwriting and drawing. Thin, light, and built to last a full workday away from an outlet, this is the sort of machine that earns its keep if you’re frequently on the move or travel for work. It sits at the higher end of our laptop ratings, so you’re paying for the flexibility and the display quality.

The Asus Vivobook 16 isn’t flashy, but it covers the basics really well, especially for this price. It gets top marks for portability and ergonomics, making it a great pick for students or remote workers who value comfort and a lightweight build. Performance and display are average, but with a roomy 16-inch screen and solid all-around versatility, it’s a strong value at this discount.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i may be a good choice for college students on the go. It lasted longer than most other laptops of its size in web browsing battery tests, at almost 20 hours. The screen shows a wide range of colors that appear accurate in display tests. Performance speeds are quick for complex productivity work, and are able to handle most demanding tasks.

The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 has a 14-inch screen that you can fold back to use as a tablet. Its display is brighter than most, which makes it ideal for reading outside on a sunny day. That said, its battery life is longer than that of many other Chromebooks, lasting 15.75 hours in web browsing tests and 12 hours in video playback. Performance speeds are among the top in our rated Chromebooks, making this a great pick for a variety of uses.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 is impressive when it comes to everything from speed to camera quality. The 11-inch screen is bright and sharp. The battery lasts a convenient 11.1 hours when browsing the web and 15.7 hours when playing video, making it a great choice for studying and unwinding alike. Overall, it’s a top-notch tablet, though with a premium price to match. So this discount is certainly an advantage.

The Apple Pencil USB-C is generally accurate and smooth, making it a good choice for sketching and note-taking. But it’s slightly less sensitive than the Apple Pencil Pro and less responsive than the Gen 2, which makes it somewhat harder to control. It offers palm rejection (so your hand won’t interfere while drawing) and tilt support, which allows for realistic shading and pencil-like strokes.  This model doesn’t support pressure sensitivity, meaning the thickness of your lines won’t vary based on how hard you press down. That can be a drawback for digital artists, but many creative apps allow you to manually adjust brush size or weight, so pro-level work is still possible, albeit with more manual input. The other trade-off is that the stylus charges and pairs via the USB-C port rather than the wireless charging and pairing of the Pro or 2nd Gen model. It can attach to the side of your iPad for easy storage, though.

To go with the iPad, this Digiroot stylus is a reasonably low-cost option if you just want to take notes or doodle. But it’s a bit challenging to control if you’re looking to create detailed art, our reviewer says. It’s prone to leaving erroneous marks, which she had to clean up. It offers palm rejection and tilt support, but no pressure sensitivity. The model charges via USB-C and doesn’t require pairing. Just turn it on and write away. And, unlike some other third-party options, this one can magnetically attach to the side of an iPad.