Commerce

Here’s How to Find One of the Best Laptops for College Students in 2023

By Bridget Reed Content Collaborator

July 18, 2023 12:12 PM

Every college student needs a stellar laptop. After all, many of your classes will require you to write papers, put together PowerPoint projects, and do other computer work to pass! Of course, some laptops are better for college students and their common needs than others.

You need to ask yourself things like:

What kind of processor do you want? An Intel core or something else?
Does the laptop need to be a gaming laptop or just for studies?
Does the laptop let you collaborate with others with a webcam, microphone, etc.?
What kind of storage do you need, like an SSD or solid-state drive?
What’s the best budget laptop based on how much you should spend for the upcoming year of classes?
Do you want a 2-in-1 laptop that also works as a tablet?
Do you need a laptop with long battery life for high-end functions?
Should the laptop be powerful enough to handle video editing? If so, it will need a good graphics card, as well as an Intel core i5 or Intel core i7 processor.

All of these questions will help you figure out which college laptop you should choose. Other elements like a comfortable keyboard, great performance, and build quality can help you break ties between two similar devices.

If you’re not sure where to start your search, read on. We’ll break down the best laptops for college students overall, plus look over laptops that are perfect for different focuses, like affordability, processing power, and more.

1. Apple MacBook Air 2023 Laptop

Best for: All-Around College Work

If you don’t know what your major will be or you just want an all-around, versatile student laptop you can rely on, the Apple MacBook Air 2023 is the perfect choice. That’s because it has a lot of excellent features, like a 15.3-inch liquid retina display and up to 24 GB of unified memory.

Although MacBooks come at a higher price point, this is a great student laptop because it offers up to 18 hours of battery life. Therefore, you can use it all day for schoolwork in class without having to worry about whether you’re near a power outlet. The laptop overall is near silent thanks to its quality cooling system, which does not require fans to run.

Of course, this is a stellar social laptop as well, featuring a good 1080 P FaceTime HD camera. You can take your pick of powerful applications optimized for the Apple MacBook, helping to get your work done time and again. The Apple M2 chip is also quite powerful and will ensure you can run most college programs with ease.

2. HP Chromebook 15

Best for: Freshmen or General Education Students

If you’re just adding started with college, you need something functional and affordable, especially if you don’t know whether you’ll take classes with programs that require a powerful CPU. The HP Chromebook 15 certainly doesn’t break the bank, but it still comes with 8 GB of memory and HD audio with an antiglare coating on the screen.

In addition, this laptop benefits from an excellent 15.6 inch diagonal HD screen, with an Intel Pentium Silver N600 processor. Integrated graphics ensure you can enjoy your favorite media at school and use class programs without lagging or stuttering. This ultra-efficient laptop has excellent Wi-Fi connectivity for a fairly good price tag.

Students and their parents will also like the one-year manufacturer warranty and Google Chrome OS. The Chrome OS will receive several years of software updates for free, and the one-year warranty will protect you from any defects or damage for a full year, adding even more value for money.

3. Dell XPS 15 9520

Best for: Power and Longevity

Dell’s XPS 15 9520 is a highly powerful laptop for students. While it is somewhat expensive, this laptop is in excellent condition and has a 15-inch screen with 1 TB of hard disk space. Thus, you’ll be able to store any files and programs you want on your computer without needing to expand.

On top of that, this laptop boasts 32 GB of installed RAM and a CPU with a 4 GHz processing speed. The result: power and performance in equal measure. This is a student laptop that can run any program your college professors throw at you.

It also comes with Bluetooth functionality, a USB-C adapter for easy charging and integration with your favorite accessories, plus a headphone and microphone combination jack. Even though this laptop is among the most expensive on the market, it can do it all, which might make it a great choice for students for whom price is no object.

4. Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Business Laptop

4. Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Business Lapto_fitted.jpeg

Best for: Business Students

Business students need computers that can swap between multiple tabs and programs quickly and easily, such as Excel sheets, web pages, and more. The Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Business Laptop can do this and more.

It’s quite fast, capable of booting up in seconds, and it lets you load files lightning quickly thanks to its solid-state drive. While it comes with Windows 10 Pro installed by default, you can also upgrade to Windows 11 Pro for free once you purchase this Windows laptop on Amazon, Best Buy, or elsewhere.

The processor is high-powered and well-designed, perfect for multitasking. Students will also appreciate the antiglare LED display, as well as the combination headphone and microphone jack. All in all, this is a great laptop for collaborating with team members and tackling business projects in equal measure.

5. Apple 2023 MacBook Pro Laptop

Best for: Apple Fans

Apple’s 2023 MacBook Pro Laptop is perhaps the go-to choice for Apple fans heading to college. It’s a bit pricey, but there’s a lot to like here, including your choice of 512 GB or 1 TB of hard drive space. You get 16 GB of RAM regardless, and the screen comes bolstered with an antiglare coating.

This is a very fast, capable machine, and it can run all of your chosen apps lightning fast, like Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft 365. With the MagSafe charging port, you can recharge the laptop quickly and easily, plus benefit from other ports like a headphone jack and an HDMI port.

The magic keyboard is certainly notable, as it has Touch ID functionality. This is a secure way to lock and unlock your Mac computer, plus get to your favorite sites and applications without having to remember all of your passwords. If you wish to keep your school supplies and files safe while in class, this is the laptop for you.

6. Acer Chromebook Spin 314 Convertible Laptop

Best for: Students on the Go

Some students can’t sit still for more than a few minutes, either because they have a lot of projects to complete or their class schedules are full. Those students might appreciate the Acer Chromebook Spin 314 Convertible Laptop, which folds in and out from a laptop configuration into a tablet or touchpad design.

Under the hood, it comes with 4 GB of memory and 128 GB of hard disk space, which can be expanded through external hard drives. The Google Play app gives instant access to over 2 million quality Android apps, and this Chromebook runs on the Google Chrome OS, facilitating ease of use and fast operation.

The processor is excellent, and this convertible laptop comes with twin built-in faceup stereo speakers, so it can even play media capably. Overall, choose this if you like touchscreen computers and laptops, plus want something you can use comfortably in a car, on a train, or in class.

7. Microsoft Surface Laptop 5

Best for: Touchscreen Users

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 5 should be a perfect choice for touchscreen users. Many students prefer touchscreens due to their intuitive control schemes and ease of use. This laptop comes with a 13.5-inch PixelSense touchscreen, enabling you to be productive anywhere in your university of choice.

This laptop also comes with plenty of color schemes to pick from, as well as an enhanced camera and built-in Windows 11 Security. You also get the benefit of secured OneDrive cloud storage with Microsoft 365. While it may not be as outright powerful as some of the other student laptops you can purchase, this is still good enough for many students and majors.

The backlit keyboard and support stylus offer even more ease of use to the package. The laptop is not overly expensive, but you can pay a bit more for extra storage space if you want to ensure you’ll never need to plug in an external hard drive to store all of your college files.

8. ASUS Vivobook Laptop L210

Best for: Students on a Budget

If you need a laptop on a budget, the ASUS Vivobook Laptop L210 is a great pick. Not only is it highly affordable, but it also comes with the lightweight, responsive Windows 10 Home in S mode: perfect for general education college work and basic classes.

The efficient Intel Celeron N4020 Processor can provide up to 2.8 GHz of processing speed, and the 11.6-inch HD display is excellent for viewing media and college files. This slim, lightweight computer only weighs 2.2 pounds with the battery, and you’ll benefit from 4 GB of RAM: ideal for most college needs.

While this is not powerful enough for many graphically intensive college programs, it’s a good choice for all-around college work and for completing many online classes remotely.

9. Lenovo Ideapad 3 Laptop

Best for: Price Flexibility

The Lenovo Ideapad 3 Laptop is an excellent laptop for college students who need price flex ability. With prices ranging from as low as $350 to nearly $700, you can mix and match the features you get in this laptop, enabling a good level of customization.

For example, you can get this laptop with 8 GB of RAM, or you can stick with 12 GB of RAM for even better power and performance. The laptop comes with a 15.6-inch HD touchscreen by default, allowing you to use the mouse pad or your finger, depending on your preferences.

Whichever version you choose for this laptop, you’ll benefit from a solid-state hard drive, helping with data transfer and fast application boot-up. This is an overall good choice for students who need a laptop that can grow and evolve with them over time or those who want to tailor their device to their specific needs.

10. Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop

Best for: Student Security

Security is a chief concern for many students, especially when identity theft is more prevalent than ever. Acer’s Aspire 5 Slim Laptop is a very secure laptop overall, thanks to the Lifesaver Fingerprint Reader integrated into the touchpad. This lets you log into your laptop in just seconds without using a password that can be stolen.

The rest of the laptop is also well-designed. You get 20 GB of memory for multitasking, and the hard drive is upgradable to a 1 TB solid-state drive variety for faster boot-ups and data transferring. The quad-core processor can run up to 3.5 GHz, and the widescreen 15.6-inch display has antiglare coatings.

Plus, this laptop looks great, with a backlit keyboard and a bundled microfiber cloth so you can keep the screen looking polished. Ultimately, it’s a good lightweight solution to many students’ laptop security problems.

11. ASUS Zenbook 14 Laptop

Best for: Wrapping Up School

What if you only have to tackle a few more classes, or you are taking a few classes online? The ASUS Zenbook 14 Laptop might be a great pick because it has something of everything and isn’t overly expensive.

The LED-backlit display is 14 inches, and the laptop comes with 8 GB of DDR4 memory. The AMD Ryzen 5 4500U processor is decent for the price, and the computer comes with Windows 10 by default, all while only weighing 2.65 pounds.

You can also use this computer with your favorite accessories, like headphones, HDMI devices, and much more. All in all, it does everything decently enough without doing anything special. But that could be just the ticket if you need a new laptop but don’t want to splurge or break the bank for a handful of classes before you get your degree.

The Bottom Line

To maximize your laptop purchase, consider what you really need and what your budget limits might be. For instance, if you want to go into a business program, the Lenovo ThinkPad L14 Business Laptop is likely an excellent choice.

Alternatively, if you want something lightweight and portable, the Acer Chromebook Spin 314 Convertible Laptop won’t do you wrong. Whatever you need, odds are there’s a great laptop for students student among these choices!

Sources:

Bridget Reed is the Vice President of Owned Media & Content at GR0, an omnichannel digital marketing agency that has been serving a wealth of industries since 2020. Bridget's expertise is rooted in results-driven content production, with a passion for producing high-quality, informational articles that serve valuable insights to consumers. Through the years, Bridget has worked with industry thought-leaders spanning the business, health, wellness, parenting, and tech industries, and brings this breadth of experience directly into the content she produces. McClatchy’s newsrooms were not involved in the creation of this content. We may earn a commission if you make a purchase through one of our links.

This story was originally published July 18, 2023 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Here’s How to Find One of the Best Laptops for College Students in 2023."