Heading to a new school or college this year? Well, a new journey with lots of hopes and enthusiasm starts with a new school or college, new books, new accommodation, new friends, a new culture and environment. This all-new experience gets a deep hole in your parents’ pocket. And on top of that when it comes to getting the best laptops for college students, we know that our parents won’t say NO to us. But we need to ensure that we check out the best Student deals and discounts on laptops for students and go for the best budget laptops.
This is the best time to check out the guide to the best laptops for students in 2023. We’ve compared and reviewed laptops for every need and budget to bring you the very best laptops for college students available in the market. We’ve got options catering for every need and budget, so we’re sure you’ll find something that suits you.
How To Choose The Best Laptops for College Students
If you are a student, you need a laptop as essentially as your textbooks. A student laptop is not just used to complete your school homework but is a very useful device to handle your big extracurricular activities. Keeping a connection with your social networks, searching for projects, research, posting photos, gaming, streaming movies, video chatting back at home & friends, listening to music, etc. Best laptops for college students are also supposed to last for long with great battery life and durability at least for 3-4 years.
We have a bifurcated the best laptops for college students in a few categories that fit in the above description perfectly without draining your savings account.
Checklist
- While looking for laptops for college, First, and foremost, check with your school or college for any specific system requirements. With a certain curriculum, there are colleges that keeps it hard-and-fast with minimum hardware recommendations.
- Keep it lightweight, depending on how far you’ll haul your laptop every day, it is not recommended to carry a big-screen notebook until and unless such bulky hardware is required for your studies.
- How much power is needed to meet the requirements? This is something which you need to judge thoroughly as it will not only emerge weight on your shoulder but also in your pocket.
- Laptops for college students should be able to boot faster before the lecture starts. We need SSD and high RAM to keep it going during our sessions. If you want to store up a lot of movies and videos, you may think about 500 Gigs of HDD else 256 GB is more than enough for studies.
- Laptops for college should have a sizable battery can be your biggest ally on a day filled with classes and extracurricular activities. It should last up to 10 hours a day with a full charge.
Pocket-Friendly Laptops for College Students
| Product | Microsoft Surface Go | HP Chromebook x2 | Asus VivoBook S15 S530UA | Acer Nitro 5 (2018, AMD Ryzen) | Lenovo Yoga 730 (13-Inch) |
| Lowest Price | $484.88 | $406.00 | $642.00 | $697.95 | $738.90 |
| Editors’ Rating | 4.8 | 4.5 | 4.1 | 4 | 4.8 |
| Best For | Students, Tablet Users, Taking Regular Notes | Perfect Notebook, Projects | Students, Value Seekers | Students, Gamers on a Budget | Digital Courses, Engineering, Graphic Designing Students |
| Platform | Windows 10 | Google Chrome OS | Windows 10 | Windows 10 | Windows 10 |
| Processor Name | Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y | Intel Core m3-7Y30 | Intel Core i5-8250U | AMD Ryzen 5 2500U | Intel Core i5-8250U |
| Processor Speed | 1.6 GHz | 1 GHz | 1.6 GHz | 2 GHz | 1.6 GHz |
| RAM (as Tested) | 8 GB | 4 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB | 8 GB |
| Storage Capacity (as Tested) | 128 GB | 32 GB | 256 GB | 256 GB | 256 GB |
| Graphics Card | Intel HD Graphics 615 | Intel HD Graphics 615 | Intel UHD Graphics 620 | AMD Radeon RX 560X | Intel UHD Graphics 620 |
| Screen Size | 10.6 inches | 12.3 inches | 15.6 inches | 15.6 inches | 13.3 inches |
| Resolution | 1800 x 1200 | 2400 x 1600 | 1920 x 1080 | 1920 x 1080 | 1920 x 1080 |
| Weight | 1.15 lb | 3.07 lb | 3.97 lb | 5.9 lb | 2.73 lb |
| Battery Rundown | 9:56 | 11:00 | 11:17 | 4:37 | 9:49 |
Also Read: Best Gaming Laptops: Beginners and Gamers
Best Laptops for High School Students (Under $500)
Microsoft Surface Go – $484.88
Being a college student, chances are pretty high that you are running on a tight budget. If you are planning to spend less and go for a value to money device under $500, Microsoft Surface Go is the best choice. This detachable 2-in-1 comes with a classic slim design which you can’t find anywhere at this price range. Its bright, colorful display and features can compete with the best laptops under $1000.
1.2 pounds lightweight device which is even lighter than textbooks, with backlit keyboard & touchpad with a powerful Intel processor is a perfect laptop for college student.
Pros:
- Bright and vivid display
- Premium & lightweight design
- Overall Good performance
- Facial recognition login
Cons:
- Below-average battery life
- Thick bezels
- Keyboard and pen cost extra
Technical Specifications
| CPU | Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y |
| GPU | Intel HD 615 |
| RAM | 4GB |
| Storage | 64GB / 128GB |
| Display | 10-inch, 1800 x 1200-pixel |
| Size | 9.7 x 6.9 x 0.3 inches |
| Weight | 1.2 pounds |
Buy Now on Amazon
Best Laptop for Students (Overall)
HP Envy 13t – $978.48
Taking down notes or typing 100-page thesis, HP Envy’s comfortable and responsive keyboard enhances your productivity and performance. HP’s Envy 13t offers one of the best keyboards for laptop, nearly 10 hours of battery life along with a lightweight aluminum chassis. It becomes more responsive with a speedy 8th Gen Core i5 or Core i7 CPU backed up with a PCIe SSD on a 13.3-inch screen. The estimated cost of this laptop starts with $978.48 up to $1194.51 as per configuration.
Pros:
- Best-in-class keyboard
- Powerful performance
- Long battery life
Cons:
- Tinny audio
- Bland display colors
Technical Specifications
| CPU | Intel Core i5/Core i7 |
| GPU | Intel UHD Graphics 620/Nvidia GeForce MX150 |
| RAM | 8GB / 16 GB |
| Storage | 256GB / 512GB / 1TB |
| Display | 13.3-inch, 1080p or 4K |
| Size | 12 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches |
| Weight | 2.9 pounds |
Buy Now on Amazon
Best Chromebook Laptop for College Students
Asus Chromebook Flip C434 – $549.99
Asus still remains the best Chromebook for a cost of $550. Chromebook Flip C434 is the best 360-degree flip with a 14-inch convertible device. This is one of the best college laptops due to its slim profile and relatively affordable price. With Razor-thin bezels, vivid 1080p display, 0.6-inches thick flip, 3.1 pounds weight you can leave the charger in your dorm as the battery can last a full class schedule with one charge.
Pros:
- Sleek design
- Thin display bezels
- Vivid 14-inch touch screen
- All-day battery life
Cons:
- Finicky touchpad
- Expensive
Technical Specifications
| CPU | Intel Core m3-8100Y |
| GPU | Intel HD 615 |
| RAM | 4GB |
| Storage | 64GB |
| Display | 14-inch, 1080p |
| Size | 12.6 x 8 x 0.6 inches |
| Weight | 3.1 pounds |
Buy Now on Amazon
Best Laptop for Engineering Students & Architecture Students
HP ZBook Studio x360 G5 – $2649.00
If the college fee isn’t already burning a hole in your pocket, then engineering students should consider going for this one of the best laptops for engineering students (HP ZBook Studio x360 G5) starting from $1649.00. This beast machine is amazingly thin and lightweight for a college student to work on heavy-duty graphics and large files. It’s 4.9 pounds weight is portable enough to roam around in the campus. This 2-in-1 has unexpectedly long battery life despite flaunting bright 4K display. For engineers and Architects, the Studio x360 G5 offers brilliant overall performance.
Pros:
- Slim chassis with military-grade durability
- Vivid 4K bright display
- Blazing fast performance
- Comfortable keyboard Sleek design
Cons:
- Lid flexes
- Poor webcam
- Pricey
Technical Specifications
| CPU | Intel Core i5/Core i7/Core i9/Xeon |
| GPU | Intel UHD 630/Nvidia Quadro P1000/Quadro P2000 |
| RAM | 8GB/16GB/32GB/64GB |
| Storage | 256GB/360GB/512GB/1TB/2TB |
| Display | 15.6-inch, 1080p or 4K |
| Size | 14.2 x 9.7 x 0.8 inches |
| Weight | 4.9 pounds |
Buy Now on Amazon
Best Laptop for College Gamers
Lenovo Legion Y7000 – $1249.99
Lenovo Legion Y7000 is one of the powerful gaming laptops for college students which fits in your budget and you can also flaunt off the configuration in front of your friends.
It is built with Intel Core i7-8750H Processor along with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Discrete Graphics with a support of 16 GB DDR4 RAM, 1 TB HDD + 128GB PCIe SSD. This configuration marries well for the best gaming rounds. Its 5.2 pounds weight makes it practically portable with epic gaming performance. It features 0.3 inches thin display on a 15.6″ FHD screen with 300 nits of brightness with a backlit keyboard.
Pros:
- Sleek design
- Vibrant display
- Comfortable keyboard
- Strong performance
- Solid battery life
Cons:
- Poor audio
- Awful webcam
Technical Specifications
| CPU | Intel Core i7-8750H |
| GPU | Nvidia GTX 1060 |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 1 TB HDD + 128 GB PCIe SSD |
| Display | 15.6″ FHD IPS Anti-Glare |
| Size | 14.2 x 1.1 x 10.5 inches |
| Weight | 5.17 pounds |
Buy Now on Amazon
Summing Up
Here we have covered the best laptops for college students which are categorized as Best Budget Laptops, Best Gaming Laptop, Best Chromebook Laptop, Best Laptop for Engineering Students, Laptops as Per Price Range, Configuration and Features. These laptops for college students are tested reviewed and classified as best laptops for students that don’t put dents in your pocket.
If this article turned out to be helpful to you, please like and share this with your colleagues.
Quick Reaction:
Leave a Reply