If you’ve been paying attention to the morning traffic, you’ll know that South Africa’s kids have gone back to school. That’s grand, since it means an education and a shot at a better life. It’s not so grand if you’re a parent who suddenly has to grab a load of new gear for Junior and Juniette to lug with them into the halls of learning.
Sure, the school provides a list, but that list isn’t big on recommendations. That bit of discernment is left up to you, and even schools leave important bits off. If heading back to school is giving you heart palpitations, or you’ve just been dithering about which is the best product to buy, we’ve got you covered. Here’s what you should have set aside for the academic year.
We’re covering, specifically, school-aged kids with this collection of items, splitting our back to school suggestions (in some cases) between primary and secondary students.
Laptops
Acer Aspire Lite 14 (primary school)
Look, you don’t need much for the kiddoes who are still roaming playgrounds more than they are sitting in examination halls (kids still do that, right?). When school projects, internet research, and the odd bit of watching cartoons when nobody is looking are the main aim, there’s little need to spend tons on premium hardware. Acer’s Aspire Lite 14 will handle the basics: a Celeron N100 processor, 8GB of DDR5 RAM, and 256GB of storage more than suffice for school work. If the little ones plan to goof off, the 14in 1,920 x 1,080 display should provide enough screen space for YouTube Kids or Disney+ without causing squinting. WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0 permit everything that needs to connect to… well, connect.
from R5,500 | Buy it here
Apple MacBook Air M1 (secondary school)
Technically, this laptop is four years old this year, meaning it should be in pre-school already. Plonk it on a high school student’s desk, and it’ll still tear apart every bit of work they’re assigned for years to come. The sub-R15,000 price tag, still impressive hardware, and Apple’s signature ease of use mean there’s very little to worry about except taking those notes and typing those essays — unless someone dunks a mug of study night coffee on the keyboard. The Apple Silicon M1 chipset remains speedy, 8GB of RAM is all you need on this Apple system (unless there’s loads of video editing happening), and, again, 256GB of storage is more than enough for school. If there are extra-curriculars going on, perhaps opt for a model with more storage?
from R13,700 | Buy it here
Phones
Nokia 105 (primary school)
Obviously, you don’t want to send your sprog to school with a smartphone. If you did, it would have to be the HMD Fuse, a handset designed with parental oversight and child safety in mind. Since it’s not here (yet), you should probably go low-tech. Your kid doesn’t need full access to the internet to phone for a pickup after sports. Nokia’s basic range is durable and cheap enough to survive a few terms in a bag, doesn’t have the specs for too many shenanigans, and will handle the basics — summoning mom and dad in exceptional circumstances. This’ll do that.
R250 | Buy it here
Samsung Galaxy A17 (secondary school)
By the time your offspring hits Grade 8, the clamour for a smartphone will have become unbearable. You’ll mute it with Samsung’s Galaxy A17 (or silence it entirely with a R15,000 Apple iPhone 16e), which offers basic smartphone connectivity in a stylish-enough frame. Samsung offers 128GB of storage, a 5,000mAh battery, and a triple rear camera array with at least one good sensor, plus MediaTek processing and 8GB of RAM. An IP54 rating helps survivability, but you’ll have to do the ‘get off social media and do your schoolwork’ dance yourself. Samsung’s Android implementation is surprisingly hard to lock down (unless you confiscate the phone, which is now considered a war crime, apparently).
from R3,500 | Buy it here
Power bank
Anker 737 Laptop Power Bank (24,000mAh)
You’ve probably got a few power banks lying around at home. Stick a 10,000mAh unit into your kid’s bag before they head back to school next week. But if you insist on getting something good, Anker’s 737 laptop power bank is a monster. It’s also the last one you’ll need to buy, assuming it doesn’t get lost. A massive 24,000mAh capacity and three ports let it charge everything, including laptops, 140W of Power Delivery 3.1 juices up whatever is connected in short order, and it’ll also recharge equally fast. And it’s all compact enough to tuck into a school bag.
R2,500 | Buy it here
External storage
Western Digital My Passport series (or anything, really)
It’s always handy to have some form of external storage for backing up work in case something awful happens to the main computer. This one’s more or less dealer’s choice, but if we were going to pick for you, Western Digital’s My Passport range is a decent bet. Available in capacities ranging from 1TB to 6TB, they’ll contain all of the schoolwork the average kid creates over their entire lifetime (excluding video editing projects). However, if you’re inclined to set up a wireless NAS solution in your home because you don’t trust Dropbox, that’s also an option. It’s a bit like using a flamethrower to light a candle, but you do you.
from R1,700 | Buy it here
Headphones
JLab JBuddies Studio wireless headphones (primary school)
Kids almost always need headphones, whether it’s for privacy on calls or to listen to the sound of things exploding during whatever online Fortnite event is taking place this week. Kids are also almost always silly, in one way or another. JLab’s wireless JBuddies Studio headphones can circumvent potential hearing problems later in life by hardware-limiting its output to 85dB. It’s still plenty loud enough for your youngster to pretend they haven’t heard you telling them screen time is over, but not so loud that you’ll pay an audiologist to tell you it’s the headphones’ fault a few months into the school year.
from R700 | Buy it here
Sony ULT Wear (secondary school)
By now, your precious children should be smart enough to know what sort of damage loud volumes can do. At the very least, they’re too big for you to physically stop them from being idiots about it. Might as well hand them the power to choose their fate. Sony’s ULT Wear headphones feature no volume restrictions, surprisingly good audio for the price, and also feature the ULT button. If you guessed that it ramps up bass tones to one of three levels and is potentially a ticket to later hearing problems, well done. But it’s their choice, at this point. You’ve just provided the tool that will allow for good (or bad) decisions.
from R3,400 | Buy it here
Printer
Epson L3211
There’s no getting around it. You need a printer. It may not be used every day, but when it’s required, you’ll be glad you have it. Opt for something with an ink tank rather than cartridges, so at least you’re generating a different shape of plastic waste, while keeping reliability in mind. Espon makes good stuff, and the L3211 will handle all of your school needs. The copy and scan functions are less useful, but there’s no getting around them. It’s devilishly hard to find a single-function printer that isn’t a business-focused monochrome unit. At least the Takealot bundle referenced below ships with the printer cable you’ll need, as well as your first ream of paper.
from R3,000 | Buy it here
Wearables
FunkyFing Jr 1 (primary school)
We’ve taken a longer look at this kids’ smartwatch in our review, but for younger kids, this is a handy addition to their tech arsenal. An Android interface, built-in GPS tracking, the ability to voice- or video-call parents and other approved contacts, and extensive parental controls mean the FunkyFing Jr 1 is fairly close to strapping a phone to a child’s wrist. A locked-down phone, which is the point. Just a note, however — Buying one of these today locks you into purchasing a pink one. Blue models are inbound, but not immediately available, and we’ve also been told that a successor is coming to market later this year.
from R2,720 | Buy it here
Apple Watch SE 3 (secondary school)
Older kids need better tech with fewer guardrails. They’re also status-conscious, and nothing says ‘status’ like an Apple product on your arm. Then, the only kids who will give them grief will be those whose lunatic parents gave an Apple Watch Ultra to a thirteen-year-old. The Watch SE contains everything your youngster could ever need (though athletes would do better with one of Garmin’s specialised wearables), from tracking and body metrics, app support, and on-wrist messaging. Even Fall Detection might be handy, though it won’t lead to quite so many hip operations as it does with the Olds™.
from R6,000 | Buy it here
E-reader
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite (Gen 12)
You might think it’s a lot of money to pay for a tablet that doesn’t play games or render comic books, but any kid who uses one of these extensively has an immediate advantage over their peers. Why? Because they read. Regular reading works out mental muscles that atrophy in the ages of short-term dopamine depletion, promoting long-term thinking, enhanced comprehension, and, yes, a tendency to join various fandoms from time to time. Plus, it’s a handy place to store a book collection that isn’t the space where mom and dad used to park their cars. Just… get the Kindle, okay?
R7,000| Buy it here
Tablet
Volkano 10in tablet wi/ Iwawa (primary school)
These are surprisingly popular, mostly because Volkano’s budget kids’ tablet comes with two things — its own kid-friendly bumper case, and a customised Android 15 environment tailored toward making using it a safer place for the younger set. The specs aren’t much to write home about — the 10in 1,280 x 800 IPS display is the standout feature, the Rockchip RK3562 is less so. There’s 32GB of onboard storage, much of which hosts the preinstalled Montessori and STEM apps, and the 5,000mAh battery should keep them good and entertained for a while. We’d complain if handed one of these, but an eight-year-old? They’ll be fine. It’s educational.
R2,500 | Buy it here
Samsung Galaxy Tab A11 (secondary school)
Bigger kids need better hardware, and that’s what Samsung’s newest Galaxy A tablet provides. There are hardware tiers to pick from, but the bottom of the range is plenty for basic usage. Internet, social media, the odd bit of note-taking — that’s all you need from a tablet. Without Apple pricing, there’s money left over for a decent case — nab a book-style cover if you can locate it — and perhaps a few items for mom and dad. After all, you parents have just spent a ton of money on your beloved children. Get yourself something nice.
from R2,500 | Buy it here
Downtime
Nintendo Switch Lite
Why the Nintendo Switch Lite and not, say, the Switch or Switch 2? Either of those is also a great choice for rewarding kids who finish all of their homework. But we’re thinking of the parents here, too. Without a convenient dock and detachable controllers, there’s less chance of your little (or large) students completely taking over the TV every evening. Instead, they can park on the couch, preferably with some headphones on, while you watch… whatever it is you want to watch. In peace. More seriously, going back to school shouldn’t be all about the work. Making space for playtime, in the shape of Nintendo’s console, is just as important as ensuring that all of their homework is done.
from R5,000 | Buy it here
