(ABC 6 News) — Back-to-school shopping is expensive, especially if a new laptop is on the list. The good news is you don’t have to break the bank to get a great computer. Consumer Reports reveals its laptop picks for every budget.

With nearly everything costing more these days, Consumer Reports’ extensive product testing shows you don’t have to spend a lot to get quality tech for your student.

One of the best options for a tight budget—a Chromebook!

“They’re generally less expensive than Mac and PC laptops,” said Nicholas De Leon with Consumer Reports. “They’re not the fastest computers out there, but for kind of everyday stuff—browsing the web, editing documents, that type of thing, you know, school/work type of stuff, they’re totally fine.”

If your student needs something that won’t weigh down their backpack on a mad dash to class — CR says one laptop from Lenovo is an excellent choice for portability and its ergonomics are near top-level.

If your student wants an Apple…

“Save a little bit of money and still get a very good Mac laptop,” recommended De Leon.

CR says to consider the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M2 processor.

The M2 is Apple’s older processor, but CR’s experts say the performance difference between the M2 and the newer processor is so small that you might as well save a few bucks by going with the previous model.

If your student also needs a color printer— the tank model from Epson uses low-cost bottled ink instead of expensive cartridges.

While the overall printing performance isn’t strong enough to earn a CR recommendation, the text quality and speed should be fine for printing book reports and whatever else the teacher assigns!

Click here for a list to Consumer Reports’ best back to school deals on all things tech!