The National Digest

Best Bigger-Ticket Items For Your Back-To-School Shopping

Consumer Reports: Best bigger-ticket items for your back-to-school shopping | KOMO With the first local districts heading back to school in less than 10 days, the race is on to finish supply shopping.

Consumer Reports is out with some tips and top picks for back to school. Including one place you might want to avoid according to CR’s Natalie Van der Meer“a surprising one, that you should skip the office supply stores. And that’s actually because Consumer Reports analysts have found that wholesale stores like Costco or Sam’s Club or BJs or even Dollar Stores often have better prices on back to school buys.”

Van der Meer also says have your smartphone work for you by downloading price comparison apps like ShopSavvy or Honey. She says those will show you prices across multiple retailers so you can go out and find the best price directly.

Consumer Reports testers also have a list of bigger-ticket items they prefer this year. For tablets, Consumer Reports liked the $400 iPad Mini. They cite its 10-hours of battery life which is more than enough to get through a school day. Testers also liked the 7.9 inch display calling it bright and accurate. They say the iPad Mini has a large viewing angle, which means you don’t need to look dead center to see the clearest image.

In the laptop category, CR testers have two picks. The first is a 14-inch ASUS ZenBook Flip. It’s $800 and can be used as both a traditional laptop or the screen flips down and folds to use like a tablet. Consumer Reports likes that it weighs just 3.3 pounds, which makes it portable enough to carry around campus. Testers called it good for taking notes, watching videos or giving presentations to small groups.

 

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