Graduation Gifts For Him And Her: The Top Five Gadgets College Freshmen Students Need

High school graduation season is upon us, which means celebrations, parties, and preparations for college-bound graduates. While some gifts for a new life away from home in the dorms are easy to figure out — necessities like computers, TVs, shower sandals and bed sheets — there are some gadget gift possibilities that may just turn out to be necessities, and will definitely make the soon-to-be freshman happy. Here's a categorical checklist of five great gadgets for graduates.

Smartphones 

Many college-bound graduates will already be covered in this category, but if they don't have a smartphone, a full-feature smartphone is the number one gadget they'll need. That's because it will cover most of the necessary technology-related necessities, like basic computing, entertainment, and, of course, phone calls back home, all adequately, at the least, in one package. If you feel like splurging, the newest generation of full-feature smartphones that are either already in wide release to most carriers, or coming very soon this summer, would make a great present. (Of course, you might want to makes sure they're in your network, for the discounted price.) Check out the HTC One, the Samsung Galaxy S4, the Nokia Lumia 920 for Windows fans and keep an eye out for (possibly in time for school)—the next generation iPhone.

Headphones

Often an overlooked college necessity — or just substituted with cheap, ubiquitous ear buds — a good pair of headphones is really essential to the college and dorm room experience. Many college-bound students have no idea who their roommate is going to be, and sometimes living in the dorm can turn out to be quite an ordeal. But a good pair of headphones can provide some much needed privacy and focus in the midst of aural chaos, plus, a college kid has to listen to something on the way to class. Again, if you feel like splurging, Bose Quiet Comfort 15 noise canceling headphones are top of the line and will actively neutralize outside sounds. But any cheaper pair with large-enough cans to go over their ears should at least help to diminish the din of the dorm.

Readers

College textbooks are expensive, and even cheaper reading material, like paperback novels for literature classes, can add up quickly, even if they are bought used. A reader like a Kindle or Nook can be worth the investment over four (or more) years, as digital copies of books are usually cheaper than the physical version, and many older texts can be found online for free and imported to your reader. Both the Kindle and Nook have several versions, depending on how feature-rich, multimedia-capable, and tablet-like you want your reader to be, so make sure you survey all of the options get the one that will suit your new college student best.

Tablets

If you want to give your graduate a gadget that could take the place of a reader and provide some of the features of a laptop and smartphone, you might want to get them a tablet. These can be great for class, though they provide a lot of tempting distractions during long lectures. Of course, you could go the more expensive route with an iPad or iPad mini, but there are a lot of other high-quality Android tablets on the market, like the versatile Google Nexus line-up, that may fit your grad's needs at a much lower cost.

TV Streaming

Okay, so this one isn't really a necessity, but nevertheless, it makes a great gift for students. A lot of colleges have cable TV in the dorms, but for a truly state-of-the-art TV experience, your grad will want to be able to stream online services straight to their TV. If your college-bound kid already has an Xbox 360 or PS3, their streaming needs are pretty much already met. But if not, for less than $100, the Roku 3 or the Apple TV will stream things like Netflix, Hulu Plus - and the latest Roku also does things like Amazon Instant, Vudu, and HBO Go.

Buying a long list of tech gadgets gets expensive, especially if they're the leading devices in their categories. With that in mind, remember that some of the feature-rich devices in their categories, like some tablets, readers, and smartphones (especially smartphone/tablet hybrids, or "phablets"), can provide many of the functions of other devices.

But trust me on the headphones.