The best student laptops are a blend of relatively affordable, high-performance, and a battery that will last at least from when the class starts to when it ends. With these considerations in mind, please find below a list of the best laptops for students, for those going to college, university, or even high school this year. With a good laptop, getting assignments from platforms like https://grademiners.com/ is a walk in the park.
To a great extent, price (or at least, price-for-performance) should be the key criterion when it comes to purchasing a laptop for school or university. Students are usually low on money, but according to research, a new laptop is the most common single biggest purchase that a new student makes; an investment that should not be made on a shoestring but should not die halfway through a three or four-year course.
- Best PC for University: Apple MacBook Air 13
The most reliable and efficient PC we have reviewed so far is the Apple MacBook Air 13. This is a first-rate version and perfect for college students who require a thin and lightweight laptop for writing papers, surfing the net, and other related uses and entertainment. Moreover, it does not require a cooling fan; therefore, you will not have to worry about the noises emanating from the fans in classes and libraries. It has an incredible user interface, is sleek and bright, has a well-spaced keyboard, and is the hugest touchpad haptic that I have seen; it also has a good battery, but it takes a long time to charge fully.
- HP Spectre x360 14 for Top Functionality
This is also a premium ultraportable, with a 14-inch screen, which feels high-quality and offers a fantastic user experience with the 120Hz 2. It has an 8k OLED display, a large keyboard with much room to spare, and a giant haptic touchpad. It also comes with Wi-Fi 7 wireless connectivity, a 4k camera, and a reasonable array of ports, including one USB-A port and two USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports. Also, you can twist the screen 360 degrees to the back to make it a tablet since it is a convertible laptop. Two things to bear in mind: the brightness level is not as high as in MacBook Air, and visibility in very bright conditions may become a problem; OLEDs are also vulnerable to burn-in, and you have to take measures to protect against it, for example, by hiding the taskbar.
- HP Pavilion Aero 13 as the Best Mid-Range Laptop for College
In the mid-tier, we suggest going with the HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2024), which costs significantly less. This 13-inch ultraportable can be configured with AMD Ryzen 4-based Zen 4 processors. It is small and portable, so you can take it with you almost anywhere, and you probably will not have to recharge the battery, which lasts about 10 hours of use at low brightness. It has only 16GB of soldered-in RAM, which is a mixed blessing.
As for usability, it can be considered quite good, but compared to the models discussed above, which are considered to be premium ones, it is somewhat worse. The available displays include an FHD+ or QHD+ IPS panel; both are sufficiently bright to offer good legibility in well-lit environments. The keyboard looks and feels like a spacious one, though after typing for hours, it may cause slight fatigue to the fingers; the touchpad is quite sensitive, and while working, for instance, dragging and dropping it is slightly challenging.
It’s also not as well constructed because its aluminum and plastic body feels low-grade and cheap and can flex easily. Thirdly, it is quite sensitive to scratches, even in normal circumstances when it is being used.
- ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605 as the Best Budget Laptop for College
This version feels rather well-constructed for costing so little, and although by no means compact for a 16-inch device, it is manageable. It is available with an AMD Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7 processor; both are well capable of handling most students’ tasks, including word processing, web surfing, and basic video playback.
RAM options are restricted to certain configurations where you can get only up to 8GB with an optional upgrade to 16GB. 16Gb models are rarer, but it’s a plus that the RAM is upgradeable, so you can buy, for example, an 8Gb model and then upgrade it via a SO-DIMM memory stick. The battery life is somewhat reasonable and can go for about eight hours on lighter usage. Check out this grademiners review for tips on how to get help with assignments as you look for a good laptop.
In general, they have had satisfactory and wholesome experiences using the applications. It comes with an ergonomic keyboard, a large and responsive touchpad, and a reasonable 720p HD webcam. The screen brightness seems acceptable, though it may look comparatively dim and washed out – this is familiar in budget tablets. The USB-C does not support video output, meaning that if you wish to use an external display, you will have to use the HDMI port.
If you’d like something even cheaper, you can have a look at the best cheap laptops, but all of the laptops below will provide really good value for the money. We have also included a few options for particular use cases. Choose your laptop based on your needs and budget.
