17. Logitech Rechargeable Speaker S315i

Logitech Rechargeable Speaker S315i, $129.99

We can’t expect students to be able to afford a multi-room music system like the Squeezebox from Logitech or the Sonos. Rather than buying multiple gadgets to bring music to every room of the apartment, a student on a budget could simply pick up this rechargeable speaker from Logitech and carry it from room to room. And even better than one of those WiFi-dependent multi-room systems, this speaker works outside (in the quad, at the beach, in a classroom…anywhere).

This dock stores 20 hours of music playback on a single charge. There’s a higher sound-quality setting that burns through the battery charge in 10 hours. It will also charge an iPod or iPhone, but can play music from any other device with an audio-in jack as well (those devices won’t sit in the Apple-compatible dock, but will instead sit next to the speaker while playing). Want to know how much time you have left? The LED on the front is green when you have at least 41% of your time remaining. Then, it turns orange when the tank is on the empty side. It turns red when there’s almost no juice left.

For such a small dock—it is only 10.5" wide and weighs about 1.5 lbs.—the S315i packs a major punch. We expected it to sound tinny and weak. Instead, we were surprised with loudness and a better range than many larger, wall-powered docks. When there’s no iPod in the dock, the surface is totally smooth. When it receives the dock, its center console pushes out to reveal the iPod-compatible plug. That center portion then serves as a stand to keep the dock upright while playing music.