Buy AirPods Pro at Amazon – $228

10.2-inch iPad

Chris Velazco/Engadget

You can still snag the 10.2-inch iPad (WiFi only) for only $250 at Amazon and Best Buy. This is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen on Apple’s most affordable iPad, which normally costs $330. We gave the base iPad a score of 86 for its slightly larger display, good battery life and decent starting price (even when not on sale, it’s still a good value).

Also, the base iPad with WiFi and cellular connectivity is still on sale for $380 at Amazon. This is about $80 off its normal price of $460 and a good deal if you want an iPad that’s always connected.

Buy iPad (WiFi only) at Amazon – $250

Buy iPad (WiFi only) at Best Buy – $250

Buy iPad (WiFi + Cellular) at Amazon – $380

Dell XPS 13 touchscreen laptop

Engadget

One of our favorite laptops is still on sale at Dell — you can get a 2019 XPS 13 laptop with a 10th-gen Core i5 processor, a 13.3-inch FHD touchscreen, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for $833. This isn’t the lowest price we’ve seen on the XPS 13 but it’s very close to it. Keep in mind that this isn’t the 2020 model of the laptop, which has smaller bezels and a new keyboard design. Nevertheless, we still recommend the 2019 XPS 13 (it earned a score of 93 from us), especially when it’s available at a price as low as this.

Buy XPS 13 Touch at Dell – $833

Free Razer Viper mouse with Huntsman TE purchase

Razer

Today is the last day you can get a free Razer Viper mouse when you purchase a Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition gaming keyboard for $130. The Huntsman keyboard has a tenkeyless layout, double-shot PBT keycaps and Razer-made linear red optical switches, and it’s generally well-liked among PC gamers. The Viper mouse, which came out last year, is an ambidextrous wired gaming mouse that typically costs $80. This is a good opportunity to upgrade your PC gaming peripherals if you’ve been itching to do so.

Buy Huntsman TE at Best Buy – $130

HBO Max pre-order

Presley Ann/Getty Images for WarnerMedia

HBO Max’s official launch is right around the corner (May 27th) and you can still get it for a discounted monthly rate of $12. The only catch is that you need to sign up via the HBO Max website and not from any other distributor, which is easy enough. The normal monthly price is $15 so HBO is clearly trying to drum up as many subscribers as possible before launch with this promotion.

Buy HBO Max for $12 per month

New deal additions

BioLite Memorial Day sale

Now through May 25th, BioLite is having a Memorial Day sale that slashes up to 35 percent off many of its products. We’ve recommended BioLite headlamps before and this sale brings some of the deepest discounts ever to those devices — now the Headlamp 200 is $34 and the Headlamp 330 is $45. BioLite’s fire-pits and camping stove bundles are also deeply discounted as well. This is a good time to stock up on outdoor gear before summertime is in full swing.

Shop BioLite Memorial Day sale

Google Home Max

The biggest and most capable Google smart speaker, the Google Home Max, is on sale at Belk for $230 — that’s $70 off its recent going price of $300 and $170 off its price when it first debuted. In addition to being a solid home for the Google Assistant, the Home Max (which we gave a score of 88) has excellent sound quality, a tasteful design and support for connected audio devices via a 3.5mm audio jack and Bluetooth.

Buy Google Home Max at Belk – $230

Samsung T5

The 500GB model of the Samsung T5 portable SSD is on sale for $80 at Amazon and Best Buy. This is a reliable and ultra-portable SSD that can hold pretty much any digital information you need it to — photos, documents and more. It has one USB-C port but it comes with multiple cables so you can use it with USB-C and USB-A devices. While it’s not the newest version of Samsung’s portable SSD (the T7 was announced earlier this year), it’s still a good drive that you can easily take anywhere.

Buy Samsung T5 at Amazon

Buy Samsung T5 at Best Buy

CalDigit TS3 Plus

If you need a dock for your new home-office space, you can get the excellent CalDigit TS3 Plus for only $230. Normally priced at $275, this dock has all the ports you could ever need (and more) and it can connect your main laptop to up to two 4K displays. We also like its sleek, unassuming metal design and the fact that it will charge your laptop when it’s connected using up to 87W of power.

Buy TS3 Plus at Amazon – $230

So what should I use?

There are dozens if not hundreds of note-taking apps to choose from. All of them, unsurprisingly, promise to make you an organization and productivity guru. If you’re struggling to sift through them all, it’s important to ask the following questions.

What hardware do I own?

First and foremost, eliminate any service that doesn’t support your primary devices. For argument’s sake, let’s say you own a Macbook Pro and an Android smartphone: You can immediately rule out any platform that doesn’t support Google’s mobile operating system, like Bear and Ulysses. Why? Because it’s critical that you can access your notes anytime, anywhere. A good, reliable mobile app means you can speed-read some revision notes while sitting on the bus or waiting in line for coffee. It’s also a decent backup if you forget to charge your laptop or tablet before class.

What’s my learning style?

If you haven’t already, take a “learning style” quiz. It will explain whether you absorb and process information best with visuals (photographs, diagrams, maps, et cetera), audio (podcasts, audiobooks, class recordings), words (good old-fashioned reading and writing) or some sort of physical, tactile representation (looking at a globe, fixing a car by hand, et cetera).

What am I studying?

You should then consider your subjects. What would be the best way to represent and digest the course materials? A photography degree, for instance, will probably cover some prolific shutterbugs like Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson. If you want to remember their lives and techniques, it makes sense to build some notes that contain a mixture of text and example images.

What’s my budget?

Don’t spend what you can’t afford. Set yourself a budget (we have a guide for managing your finances too) and dismiss anything that goes above it. Be wary, too, of “free” versions that lock basic features like offline access and cross-device syncing behind expensive subscription plans. You don’t want to feel constrained by your note-taking app in class.

Our picks

It’s impossible to pick a single “best” note-taking app. Instead, we’ve made some suggestions that are tailored to specific users, devices and learning styles.

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“I want to do everything with an iPad and Apple Pencil.”

Our pick: Notability

• Platforms: iOS, macOS
• Price: $9.99 ($19.98 for both)

Apple’s iPad and Pencil stylus are a powerful combination. The former gives you limitless paper — both in volume and sheet size — while the latter can seamlessly switch among a near infinite number of multicolored pens, brushes and highlighters. If you plan to use this combination for most of your college work, we recommend Notability by Ginger Labs. The software is a tad more expensive than GoodNotes 5, but we prefer its general look and side rail organization as well as the way it smoothes out handwriting. Notability has a desktop app too, which is valuable if you occasionally switch over to a conventional laptop or PC.

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“I want to use a tablet and a laptop or PC.”

Our pick: OneNote

• Platforms: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows 10, web
• Price: Free

If you split your time evenly between a tablet and PC, it’s worth checking out OneNote. We love Microsoft’s software because it’s completely free and available on a wide range of platforms. You can organize your life in any number of notebooks and nested sections, which are then backed up to your Microsoft OneDrive account by default. Individual notes can also support a vast number of media types, including text, images, hand-drawn doodles and audio recordings. You can also share your notebooks and collaborate on individual notes with other people. We love Evernote too, but the free tier limits account access to two devices.

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“I’m a power user who wants to customize everything.”

Our pick: Notion

• Platforms: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows 10, web
• Price: Free, $4/month (personal), $8/month (team), $20/month (enterprise)

Notion is a note-taking app with a cult-like following, and with good reason. It’s an extremely powerful and versatile option that supports simple to-do lists, longer blog posts and a whole bunch of other get-your-life-together tools, such as Kanban project-management boards, calendars and Wiki-style databases. Pages (Notion’s term for notes) can also link to pages stored in a completely different part of the app. The software can be daunting for newcomers, however, and building the perfect setup takes time. Thankfully, the company has developed a bunch of page templates and posted some helpful guides online.

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“I have a Chromebook. What are my options?”

Our pick: Google Keep (plus Docs)

• Platforms: iOS, Android, Chrome, web
• Price: Free

A Chromebook is one of the cheapest ways to get a laptop-like experience with desktop-class web browsing. If you’re using one for school, we recommend Google Keep and Docs for most of your assignments. Keep is a dead-simple tool for capturing quick-and-dirty lesson summaries, deadlines and daily to-do lists. Docs, meanwhile, is a conventional writing application similar to Microsoft Word. It’s great for converting shorter notes into longer, meatier essays and revision documents. With a dedicated Chrome extension, you can also create, view and edit all of your Google Docs content offline.

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“I want to take notes with paper and pen!”

Our pick: Evernote

• Platforms: iOS, Android, macOS, Windows 10, web
• Price: Free (basic), $7.99/month (premium), $14.99/month (business)

Not a problem. For many people, the physical act of writing helps their brain memorize the information. An app can still be useful, though, for creating a digital backup that can be accessed anywhere. Many note-taking apps have a built-in camera feature, but not all are designed for handwritten documents. Evernote is one of the few that can smartly detect and capture a note while the camera is open. It will then make subtle adjustments, including contrast tweaks, based on whether it’s a notebook page, business card, receipt or whiteboard. Otherwise, we highly recommend Microsoft OneNote — a truly free alternative, provided you have cloud storage — for capturing your handouts and Moleskine pages.

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“I want a lightweight app for quick, simple notes.”

Our pick: Google Keep

• Platforms: iOS, Android, Chrome, web
• Price: Free

Just want a place to dump quick thoughts, ideas and reminders? Again, we recommend Google Keep. The free software has a simple and clean design that anyone can grasp in a matter of seconds. We love the labeling system and ability to change a note’s background color, just like a wad of multicolored sticky notes. There are plenty of other options, though, including Simplenote and the pre-installed Apple Notes app for iPhone, iPad and macOS. Zoho Notebook, meanwhile, is a free alternative with beautiful “cards” designed for blocks of text, checklists, audio snippets, photographs, files and hand-drawn sketches.

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“I want an app for serious writing too.”

Our pick: Ulysses

• Platforms: iOS, macOS
• Price: $4.99/month or $39.99/year

Many people want a single app for all of their notes and school-based assignments. The ideal solution should, therefore, have a text editor that’s competitive with, if not superior to, Microsoft Word and Google Docs. One such tool is Ulysses, which offers a beautiful design and a super smart take on Markdown, dubbed Markdown XL, for text formatting. At the time of writing, though, it’s only available for iOS and macOS users. Bear, another writing app that we absolutely love, shares the same problem. Dropbox Paper is an intriguing alternative but relies on the web for desktop editing. There’s also Scrivener, an expensive but powerful writing app that’s available for iOS, Windows 10 and macOS — but sadly not Android.