When considering which laptop is the best choice if you plan on taking a college course, there are a number of factors to think about; but first, it’s worth asking the education department whether the course has any special computer requirements. For many courses, an average performing machine is fine; however, more and more require professional or even specialist software.
The big issue with buying any laptop if you’re a student, though, is budget. The image of the economically poor student is often an accurate one, so any laptop purchase must be accompanied by a low end price, and this is just one of the factors we’ve considered when looking at laptop models.
So, what do I look for in a student laptop?
- Processor: The higher the GHz the more powerful the laptop – generally 2GHz is a good place to start, but for a high performance machine that’s ideal for heavy duty specialist programs, and for streaming games and movies once study is done, 3GHz might be a better bet
- RAM: 4GB should provide enough space for high school kids, however 8 or 16 would work better for college students, whilst with 32 you’ll probably never need to add extra.
- SSD or HDD: When choosing a student laptop, our advice is to look for a SSD drive. Offering faster load times, an SSD is perfect for presentations and downloading library books, whilst making post study gaming an exciting prospect
- Battery Life: For a student laptop this is always going to be a crucial win/lose situation – powering down mid way through an essay or presentation is a bad scenario.
- Screen Size: Bigger can be better for work, but may be less portable for hauling to and from lectures, and this may well be something to consider
The laptops featured here all carry our recommendation and have survived our tough tests with flying colors.
1) Acer Aspire 15.6’’ Full HD 4GB 128GB, SSD, Windows 10
The school has never been so demanding today. It requires more of the students and gives a bunch of workloads that are hard to manage without some help. Give your studious kids the help that they need by providing them a laptop that can keep up with the school work they are tasked to accomplish. The Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop that has 15.6 inches Full HD IPS Display and runs on AMD Ryzen 3 3200U can help them with school and let them live a productive life. It is great because it is slim and portable so they can carry it easily from school to home.
$346.00 in stock
5 used from $219.78
2) Apple MacBook Air 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
If you love the Apple brand and you got yourself a Macbook and an iPhone, you know how it takes so much stress out from working long hours on the computer. It makes life beautiful and smooth. Share this convenience with your kids by buying them their own MacBook Air. It is a stunning laptop that is stylish yet so powerful and the most affordable in the Apple brand. If you got them an iPhone, it is better to partner it with a Macbook so file transfer and other processes become so much faster and convenient. They will surely love you for this wonderful gift.
3) Lenovo Chromebook 4GB RAM, 32GB, SSD
If you want your studying kids to focus on learning rather than style then a rugged laptop like Lenovo 100E Chromebook 2ND Gen Laptop Computer might be the best choice for them. It is especially great if your kids are not so careful with their gadgets because the light rugged design of this laptop can withstand a little rough handling. It is powered by Chrome OS so you might want to check if they prefer that. It is portable for easy transport between home and school and it is also student-friendly as it already provides easy access to G-suite that they will surely need at school.
