College time is the most exciting time in anybody’s life. While it is the period, where students decide as to what they want to do in the future, but college time also brings great fun and enjoyment that students remember for the rest of their lives. In a nutshell, life in college comes as a great learning curve for the students. Under the fun and carefree college life hides the tough studies and stiff competition as well, which every student has to go through. To make the studies quotient of the students easier, laptops are available, which help students get the best study material, all college updates and earn passive income in free time. However, is it easy to find the best laptops? Hell no, and since students don’t have much money to play with, they need to find laptops that offer a mix of everything. Those laptops are exactly what I am going to discuss today, so take a close look at the best laptops for college students consumer reports.
Reviews Of 5 Best Laptops For College Students
1. Microsoft Surface Laptop - Best Laptop Under $1000 For College Students
Microsoft after spending more than 3 decades in creating software for computers have finally come up with its own series of laptops. The saying, ‘Better late than never’ fits perfectly on Microsoft because the Surface laptop series is just incredible. The design, the specifications, and the overall performance, everything is just so amazing in Microsoft Surface.
Let’s start with the processor of the laptop, which is a 7th Generation Intel Core i5 Processor. It offers a decent power to the laptop to deliver a satisfactory performance to the users. The laptop is equipped with 256 GB of storage space and 8 GB of RAM, which is a decent configuration. The company claims that the laptop can give up to 14.5 hours of video playback on a single battery charge. The body of this incredible looking laptop is made up of aluminum, which also makes it lightweight without compromising on the durability. The keyboard is, in fact, the highlighting point in the laptop because it is designed with an opulent fabric, giving a very soft and comforting look and feel. In this laptop, you will get all the necessary ports, which are present in laptops these days.
2. Apple 13″ MacBook Air
Talking about laptops and not including a MacBook would be a criminal offense. Jokes apart, this laptop is a piece of beauty, no doubt about that. A sleek and elegant laptop, Apple doesn’t want to sell this laptop on its looks, which is why the company has added a 2.2 GHz dual-core Intel Core i7 processor under the hood, which is amalgamated with TurboBoost up to 3.2 GHz for enhanced functionality. This laptop is so sleek that you can easily carry it without putting it in a bag. It just slightly bigger than a tablet, but it’s beautiful.
The inclusion of a backlit keyboard will give you the ability to complete your assignments in the night because if the submission date is on the next morning. A backlit keyboard even helps a great deal when using a laptop in dark rooms. The MacBook Air is equipped with a 512 GB SSD, which I believe is sufficient for students even when they are using heavy software programs.
The laptop weighs less than 3lbs, so you can use it even on the go. The battery life of this laptop is the main highlight because it can easily last 10-12 hours on a single charge. This laptop offers a complete package to students, which is why it is on my list of the best laptops for students.
3. Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop - Best Laptops For Gaming
If you want to buy a laptop, which can perform college work efficiently and deliver a power-packed performance while gaming, then this Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming laptop is an ideal machine. The laptop looks formidable, thanks to its metal chassis, and complementing the solid design is the powerful processor of the laptop. The laptop is equipped with the latest 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ Processor, which is really fast. The laptop comes with 256 GB storage space, but it has also got an additional slot of installing hard drive, just in case, you want to increase the storage space of the laptop.
To run the OS, apps and all other processes, the company has installed a 16 GB RAM, which I believe is more than enough. The inclusion of Turbo Boost Technology further augments the performance of the unit. The machine runs on Windows 10 OS, which will come preinstalled in the laptop. Moreover, the laptop will work smoothly for 7 hours on a single full charge. Therefore, you can complete your important tasks, watch multiple movies, episodes of your favorite TV series or listen to your favorite music using headphones or a compact stereo system in an uninterrupted manner.
4. Acer Chromebook R11 Convertible
If you are not digging into the conventional laptops, then take a look at Acer Chromebook R11, which looks like a laptop and works like a laptop, but it has another side to it as well. The laptop comes with a tablet mode as well, so you can disconnect the laptop screen from the keyboard and use it as a tablet.
Now, coming to the specs of the device, then it sports a 1.6 GHz Intel Celeron Processor, 32 GB SSD and 4 GB RAM, a configuration that you may not find that interesting, but given the fact that it is a convertible unit, the configuration seems to be a decent one, if not good. To do your college work or to watch movies and play games, you are getting an 11.6-inch HD touch display, a feature that is absent in the aforementioned laptops.
Since it is a Chromebook, so the operating system used in this laptop is Chrome OS. Therefore, you will find a lot of resemblance in this notebook and an Android-based tablet. The apps can be downloaded from Google Play Store, which is a big relief. However, there is one major drawback associated with this laptop that it doesn’t work without an internet connection, so if you want to use the laptop to its 60%-70% potential, then you will have to connect the device to an active internet connection.
5. 2018 HP 15.6″ Business Flagship Laptop
HP has launched this laptop last year only, so it’s a fresh model with fresh features. Despite promoting the laptop as ‘Business Flagship laptop’, students too can find many useful features for themselves in the unit. Let me begin by mentioning that this is a full-HD touchscreen laptop, which is not a convertible. The inclusion of WLED backlighting in the laptop ensures that the colors of the picture are bright, vivid and natural in all types of lighting. The design of this laptop has nothing fresh to offer, which may disappoint you. As far as the technical specs of the laptop are concerned, then it comes with a 7th Generation Intel Core i3 7100U Dual-Core Processor, 1 TB HDD, 12 GB RAM, and Intel 620 Graphics. This laptop will ensure that all the college-related tasks are carried out without any lags, and also allowing you to play less heavy games in a smooth fashion.
Tips For Students To Buy The Best Laptop
You will find a large price disparity between the costly and cheap laptops; therefore, zeroing in on the right laptop is not going to be an easy decision. Consider the following tips and make your life easier because these tips will narrow the gap between you and the ideal laptop you’ve been looking for everywhere.
- Curriculum: If your studies include the use of special software programs like AutoCAD, Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut Pro and other specialized software programs, then you will have to invest in a laptop that has a top processing speed, ample amount of RAM and graphics card. Not to forget, high storage needs to be there as well. But, if you want to buy a laptop just to create assignments or presentations, then you don’t need a high configuration laptop.
- Screen Size: For an average student, a laptop having 13-inch display will be sufficient to carry out almost all the tasks. Larger the screen size, harder will it be to fit into a backpack. However, if you are comfortable with a large-sized laptop, then you can buy it, otherwise, 13-inch display size is good.
- Touchscreen: If you are looking for touchscreen laptops and convertibles, then first ask yourself, whether you want these laptops for show-off or do you really have some great of a touchscreen laptop. Convertibles and/or touchscreen laptops are generally costly, so I would suggest if you spend money on a laptop with better tech specs rather than this feature in case you don’t have any use of it.
- Storage: Despite the prevalence of cloud storage, physical storage matters a lot, so you should look for a laptop that comes with 512 GB SSD or 1 TB HDD. If you think you could manage well with a laptop with 128 GB or 256 GB storage capacity, then you can go ahead with such laptops.
- Free Microsoft Office: Every laptop user knows the importance of Microsoft Office. All your assignments and presentations can only be completed successfully if you have installed MS Office on your laptop. As a student, you can get MS Office 365 for education for free, but you will have to provide them with your college email address. There are many alternatives to MS Office available on the market, so you can take a look at those as well such as Open Office and Libre Office etc.
Final Verdict
The large market of laptops can even confuse a geek, let alone a student like you. Therefore, you don’t have to go through the conundrums of selecting a laptop from a bunch of thousand laptops. You need to pay attention to the best laptop for college students consumer reports that consist of only five laptops. Pick the laptop from the list that you find most appropriate according to your curriculum. Make sure that the laptop you buy becomes an asset to your studies rather than being a liability. Happy Shopping!
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