Best Laptops for College Students 2019

Here’s the 10 best laptops for college to help you make a good purchasing choice for all your studying needs in 2019.

When you begin your college degree, whether on campus or online, a good laptop is essential. Research, assignments, note-taking, scheduling, spreadsheets for college will all be done on your laptop, not to mention all your extra-curricular activities, social networks, emails, music, gaming, streaming movies and posting photos. Finding the best laptops for college that are most suited to your needs can be quite complex and time consuming.

When choosing a laptop, there are so many considerations — price, size, weight, memory, platform, battery, resolution, RAM, processor speed and graphics card. You need to ensure that the screen is not too small to work on, yet you don’t want a laptop that is too large or too heavy for portability. If you are studying on campus, then you will need something lightweight and durable with a battery that will last, but if you are studying online, a long lasting battery and portability may be less important. You may prefer a larger screen size and more storage space over portability.

If you are finding the best laptops for college students consumer reports too time consuming to research, we have compiled a list of the 10 best laptops for college students to save you time when making that important decision. Saving up for a new laptop as a student is not so easy, so we have chosen the 10 that we consider to be the best value for college purposes.

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Best Laptops for College Students Studying on Campus

If you are looking for something small, light, portable, durable and under $500 for simple note-taking, assignments and spreadsheets, try the following:

1. Acer Chromebook 11

The Acer Chromebook 11 is impact and spill resistant, has a tamper-proof keyboard and a battery life of over 13 hours. It also has a superior HD webcam, widescreen viewing for vivid images, a fast processor and has been specifically designed to be strong and sturdy for daily student campus life, all at a very affordable price.

2. Dell Chromebook 3189 – 2 in 1

This affordable 2 in 1 touchscreen Dell convertible student touchscreen laptop is highly durable, spill resistant, compact, lightweight, portable and robust enough to handle the hustle and bustle of college life including lunchrooms, travelling, backpacks, and dorm life. You can even go out all day without charging it, thanks to its long-lasting battery life.

3. HP Stream 11 Pro G4 EE Laptop

The HP Stream 11 is a cost-effective lightweight machine weighing just 2.57 pounds with a spill-resistant keyboard, a 1-year subscription to Windows 10 and 1TB of OneDrive storage for 1 year. It also has a co-molded rubber edge feature to make it extra durable and robust.

4. Acer Chromebook R11

The Acer Chromebook R11 is another light and portable machine that you can take around with you all day as your battery will last for 10 hours. Another great feature is that it has an HDR webcam for clear HD 88 degree wide angle viewing.

Best laptops for college students studying online

If you don’t need to carry your laptop around with you all day long, you may want to purchase a laptop with a larger screen size and more capability. This means that your laptop will have far more features to choose from but with a higher price tag.

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Let’s look at some of our preferred options:

1. Microsoft Surface Laptop 2

The Microsoft Surface touchscreen laptop is extremely sleek and comes in 4 rich colors including cobalt blue, platinum, burgundy and black. It has a unique Alcantara covered keyboard, plus a smooth soft-touch material which is durable and stain-resistant. It also has a surface pen feature and a super long 14.5-hour battery life.

2. Lenovo Yoga 920

The Lenovo Yoga 920 is in a league of its own with its sleek design that comes in 3 warm shades of copper, bronze and platinum, a 360 degree rotation watchband hinge, a digital pen and even a voice-activated digital assistant that responds to verbal instructions and questions from up to 4 meters away.

3. Dell XP13

The Dell XPS 13 provides beauty without borders with its Infinity Edge display for virtually borderless viewing. It also has an optional ultra-sharp QHD display giving you extra sharp image detail and a flexible 360 degree hinge.

4. HP Spectre x 360

If you are looking for a high-end touchscreen laptop, the HP Spectre x 360 is an 8th generation Intel Core i-7 laptop with a gem cut aluminium design and enhanced privacy. It also has Sure View privacy to enable you, at the touch of a button, to prevent others from viewing your screen as well as a facial recognition and fingerprint login function.

5. Apple Macbook Air

The new Apple Macbook Air is now thinner and lighter in addition to being ultra sleek and ultra portable. It has a vivid retina display with 4 times as many pixels as an HD and 48% more colors, a touch ID and the latest generation keyboard and force-touch trackpad. It comes in silver, grey and a shiny gold finish.

6. Apple Macbook Pro

The Apple Macbook Pro is a high performance machine with advanced graphics, a stunning retina display (227 PPI) and a force touch trackpad for precise cursor control. Both models come in 13 inch and 15 inch in a space grey or silver finish.

Wrapping Up

In order to find the best laptops for college, do your research, check online and check in all your local computer stores. Prices can vary greatly and sometimes you can get really good sale bargains on high-end models making them affordable to purchase.

If you do your degree with UoPeople, there is no video content, but you will need a camera for your exams, so a basic machine should be sufficient for your learning needs. For other online degrees, you may need video capabilities. If you are doing a Computer Science degree, it is important to check the laptop requirements with your college prior to making a purchasing decision.

If you are doing your degree on campus, here are 3 tips to get ready:

1. Be organized, on time to class and see our 10 best time management tips.
2. Be outgoing and don’t be afraid to strike up conversations with new people. Remember that everyone else is experiencing the same social challenge.
3. Prepare your meals and snacks every morning. Eating properly will help you to concentrate.

If you are doing an online degree with an accredited online college like University of the People, or any other accredited online college, here are another 3 tips:

1. Prepare your study space. Make sure that it is free from clutter and that you have enough space for your books and laptop.
2. Make sure that you have healthy snacks at your workspace to ensure that you are keeping your mind and body healthy while learning.
3. Plan a time schedule. Set specific times for learning every day and make sure that you keep to the assigned schedule.