There are plenty of laptops on the market that can suit students, and almost all of those models are available in multiple configurations to match your performance needs and budget constraints. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of options, we’re here to help with advice on what to consider when buying a laptop for school.
Price
The search for a new laptop for many people starts with price, especially for college bound students. For a laptop that will last you at least four years of school, I’d advise against choosing a bargain-basement, entry-level model. Additionally, you can avoid spending money upfront in years to come with an eye toward improving memory and storage in the future. Laptop makers are increasingly moving away from making advanced components, so it’s best to get as many laptop capabilities as you can afford right away.
Generally, the more money you spend, the better the laptop. That could mean better, faster performance components, a better display, stronger build quality, a smaller or simpler design from higher-end materials or a more comfortable keyboard.
Currently, the sweet spot for a reliable laptop that can handle average school work is between $700 and $800. For art and STEM students who need to use serious graphics or STEM apps (or those who want a little play, after homework is done, of course), you’ll need to spend about $1,000 or a little more. The key is to look for discounts on models in all price ranges to get more laptop power for less money.
The size
If you plan to take a laptop to class every day, you’ll want a laptop that’s lightweight and compact. I recommend a model with a 13- or 14-inch display for most readers. The larger 15- and 16-inch models offer more screen real estate for work and multi-window juggling, but you’ll likely tire of dragging it around campus.
Details
If you’re targeting a 14-inch laptop for school, then the basic display resolution of 1,920×1,200 pixels should be enough to create clear text and images. Image sharpness will improve as you increase the resolution, but you don’t need a 4K display for such a small screen. If your budget allows, look for an OLED display with 2,240×1,400, 2,560×1,600 or 2,880×1,800 pixels. The increased number of pixels will not only improve the image, but the higher contrast ratio and color performance of OLEDs will be evident compared to those of IPS LED displays.
For insiders, Intel and AMD are the main CPU makers for Windows laptops, with Qualcomm as the third new choice with its Arm-based Snapdragon X processors. Intel and AMD offer an impressive selection of mobile processors. To complicate matters further, both manufacturers have chips designed for different styles of laptops, such as energy-efficient chips for ultraportables or fast processors for gaming laptops. Their naming convention will tell you what type is used. You can head to the Intel or AMD sites for specifications to get the performance you want. In general, the faster the processor speed and the more cores it has, the better the performance will be.
Apple makes its own chips for MacBooks, which makes things a little more straightforward. The entry-level MacBook Air uses the M1 chip, and the latest Air models include M3 chips.
Battery life is important for a student laptop, and it has less to do with the number of CPU cores and more to do with the CPU architecture, Arm vs. x86. Apple’s Arm-based MacBooks and the first Arm-based Copilot Plus PCs we tested offered better battery life than laptops based on x86 processors from Intel and AMD.
If you plan to study art and your course will involve using creative applications that require graphics, you will need a Windows laptop with a dedicated Nvidia GPU or a more powerful MacBook Pro. The same can be said for STEM students who will be using powerful science applications and any student who may want to play PC games on their laptop. Costs add up quickly, however, when you jump from integrated graphics to an Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU or from a MacBook Air to a MacBook Pro.
For memory, I highly recommend 16GB of RAM, with 8GB being the bare minimum. RAM is where the operating system stores all the data for the applications that are currently running, and it can fill up quickly. After that, it starts switching between RAM and SSD, which is slow. I recommend at least 16GB of RAM for a Windows laptop, but most readers should be fine with the standard 8GB that Apple offers in its base MacBook Air. Also, Apple charges a whopping 16GB.
For storage, get at least a 256GB SSD and a 512GB SSD if you can. If you need to go with a smaller drive, you can always add an external drive down the road or use cloud storage to back up the smaller internal drive. The exception is gaming laptops: I don’t recommend going with a 512GB SSD unless you really like to download games every time you want to play a new one.
Operating system
Choosing an operating system is part personal preference and part budget. For the most part, Microsoft Windows and Apple’s macOS do the same things (except for games, where Windows wins), but they do them differently. Unless there is an OS-specific app you need, go with the one you feel comfortable using. If you’re not sure which one that is, go to an Apple store or local electronics store and check them out. Or ask friends or family to let you check out theirs for a while. If you have an iPhone or iPad and love it, chances are you’ll love macOS.
When it comes to value and versatility (and PC gaming), Windows laptops win. If you want macOS, you get a MacBook. Apple’s MacBooks are always high on our best-of list — they’re expensive, though the original M1 MacBook Air is still available for just $649.
Windows laptops can be found for as little as a few hundred bucks and come in all sorts of sizes and designs. Admittedly, we’d be hard-pressed to find a $200 laptop that we could give a full recommendation on, especially if you need it to last you through four years of school.
If you’re on a tight budget, consider a Chromebook. ChromeOS is a different experience than Windows; simple and easy to use. There is a limitation, in that basically everything runs through the Chrome browser. Just make sure your school or course doesn’t require you to use apps that only work on a Windows or Mac machine.
