These days, laptops are all but required for college, whether you’re an engineering student that needs GPU horsepower for complex models, or an English major that just needs a decent keyboard and a screen. With how far they’ve come in the last few years, the best laptops for school can go a long way in aiding your success in the classroom (or, at the very least, not make your life any harder than it needs to be).
TL;DR: These Are the Best Laptops for Students:
Some schools have strict laptop requirements, and you should follow those if your college has them. For most people, though, the best laptop for college will look similar to what anyone would look for in a laptop. You want a comfortable keyboard, along with a display that doesn’t hurt your eyes to look at for too long. Under the surface, you also need a powerful processor and enough RAM to effectively multitask. After a few hours of grinding away at a paper, even Microsoft Office is going to start eating up any and all resources it can get its hands on, after all.
Engineering and creative students, or anyone who needs to run complex models or software on their computer, are especially going to need CPUs and GPUs that can keep up with them. If this sounds like you, I’d actually recommend going all-out for a gaming laptop like the Razer Blade 16 or the TUF A14, because their powerful GPUs can easily keep up with any complex software like MATLAB or AutoCAD. Plus, you’ll be able to play your favorite PC games in your downtime.
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When you’re setting out to buy a laptop, especially for college, the most important thing you can possibly do is figure out what you’re going to do with it, and I don’t just mean "school work." These days, your field of study drastically affects what you’re going to need from a laptop. If you’re an English major, for example, you can probably get away with a Chromebook, as it’ll allow you to view texts online and write all your papers in Google Docs.
However, if you need to do heavy workloads like video editing or 3D modeling, you’re going to need a laptop with significantly more horsepower. Even computer science majors need to make sure they have a laptop with plenty of RAM that won’t crash when trying to compile projects.
Then, you’re going to need to make sure you stick to a budget that makes sense for you. If you have extra funds from your student aid that you can put toward your laptop, you need to set aside a clear budget and keep that in mind. If you don’t have thousands of dollars to spare, there are a ton of budget laptops available, but you need to have a clear picture of what you need before you start shopping for laptops.
A laptop’s CPU is probably the clearest picture you’re going to get about what it’s capable of at first glance. Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors are probably the most complicated chips to look at, but it’s easy to figure out where they stand. Generally, Intel Core i3 processors are reserved for low-power laptops that are only good for light word processing and web browsing. Core i5 processors are more of a middle ground and are easily able to get most people through light photo work or Excel. Intel Core i7 and Core i9 processors are reserved for high-end devices, and are what you should keep an eye out for if you need a lot of computing power. Luckily AMD Ryzen processors are branded similarly, with Ryzen 3, 5, 7, and 9 processors following the same logic as their Intel counterparts.
You’re going to need to also make sure you get enough RAM. It used to be that 8GB was more than enough for most people, but those days are over. Unless you’re going for a low-power Chromebook, you should shoot for 16GB. If you’re going to be doing a lot of video editing or scientific modeling, you should aim for at least 32GB.
Unless you specifically need a discrete GPU, you can get away with whatever integrated graphics come with a laptop’s CPU. However, if you do need the GPU horsepower, finding a laptop with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 should be a sweet spot for most people. These laptops won’t be quite as expensive as something with an RTX 4090, but will still be able to get through any workload, albeit a little slower.
Picking the right amount of storage depends entirely on how you use your laptop. For instance, I rely on Google Drive for work, so I can easily get by with a 512GB SSD. However, if you like to save all of your work locally, you’re going to want to beef up your SSD, especially if you get something like a MacBook, as Apple stopped letting users upgrade SSDs years ago.
What does a university student need in a laptop?
Most college students can get away with mid-range laptops. Aim for something like an Intel Core i5 processor, 16GB of RAM and enough storage to keep their work. However, if you’re studying a field that requires powerful hardware, like video editing or engineering, a gaming laptop with a discrete GPU like an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 will get the job done.
Do college students get discounts on laptops?
Not all college students will get a discount on a laptop. As a general rule, you should check with your school’s Financial Aid department to see what laptop discounts (if any) you can take advantage of. Beyond that, some manufacturers offer special discounts on select hardware if you’re a student. Apple, for one, offers discounts on a wide range of hardware for any student that can prove they are enrolled in school.
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