Back to School Tech Checklist for Malta

What Back To School Tech You Actually Need for Secondary, Sixth-Form & Uni (From People Who’ve Survived It)

Back to School Essentials:

Back to School Non-Essentials:


The Bare Minimum Tech You Need

1. Laptop (Refurbished or New, Here’s What You Actually Need)

You don’t need the latest, shiniest MacBook to survive school in Malta. For most students, a budget refurbished laptop will do the job perfectly for stuff like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or research. It’ll also run apps like MAXQDA and SPSS (hello, statistics 😭), and Google Chrome for the endless tabs you’ll have open.

Pro Tip: Buying refurbished is the student hack no one tells you about, more affordable, eco-friendly, and if you buy from a good shop, it comes with a warranty! (ours do)

But! If you’re doing anything heavy duty like engineering or computing you’ll want to level up. That means a laptop or PC with a stronger CPU and, for graphics work or game development, a dedicated GPU. Integrated graphics just won’t cut it for Blender, AutoCAD, Unity, or Photoshop marathons.

If you CBA to read all that...here is a broken down version:

General courses (arts, social sciences, business, law): Budget refurbished laptop = perfect!

For Technical & Creative Courses such as IT, architecture and Design go for a more powerful machine, look for Intel Core i5/i7 or Ryzen 5/7 and a dedicated GPU is necessary.

 

2. Laptop Charger

Sounds obvious, but you will forget it at least once and you will regret it. Trust us nothing says “please give me an F” like your laptop dying mid-assignment. Pro tip: Keep a spare at home (if you can) or just treat it like your lifeline. Keep your laptop powered up by visting this link.

 

3. Powerbank (For your phone, at Least)

Yes, laptop powerbanks exist, but unless you want to spend your whole stipend on one, your phone’s powerbank is enough. Save yourself (and your mum) from the classic “wHeRe ArE yOu?!?” panic texts when your phone dies after school. Some of our powerbanks, can charge your phone, laptop and earbuds all at once!

 

4. Fast Charging Mobile Charger

Because waiting for your phone to charge is so 2012. Get a fast charger (like the Swissten 25W Fast Charging plug + cable combo) so you can top up your phone or powerbank in a hurry whether between lectures, or just before heading out.

 

5. Headphones or Earphones

Tallinja is…to say the least...an experience. Good headphones = instant escape from screaming kids and questionable playlist choices from the driver. Bonus points for noise-cancelling ones, but honestly, anything is better than nothing. We would personally recommend earphones since they are more portable and take up less space in your backpack.

 

6. Pendrive (USB Flash Drive)

If you’re not about that monthly cloud storage life, just get a pendrive. Great for moving files between school and home, printing at the library, and handing in those last-minute assignments without risking Google Drive betraying you. From our experience 32GB or 64GB should be enough for documents and storing some photos.

 

7. Printer (Nice to Have)

Honestly, this is not an essential item but printing at home is kinda a flex, but if you don’t mind doing the walk of shame to the stationary shop for every single page, you can skip it. The HP DeskJet 2820E Desktop Printer is the perfect fit for some printing on a budget.

 

Bonus Items (Not Essential but Nice to Have)

 

What Did We Forget?

Drop your own essentials or horror stories in the comments or let us know which tech item you can’t survive school without.

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