Best College Laptops

Saving Money On A College Laptop

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So you need a laptop, but you’re a little low on cash. You’re not alone. Over 55 million college students buy laptops each year, though, and with a little advice on the best value laptops, you can afford one no matter what your budget.

Try to avoid purchasing the cheapest laptop you can find. You don’t want to end up with something that is low quality or wont function well. Processing speed, RAM and Hard Drive space are all essential aspects to consider. What follows is a list of the best college laptops around for the money.

ASUS A52F-X3 15.6-inch

For as little as $550, this laptop packs a lot in. The medium speed Intel dual core i3-350M processor and 4GB of RAM provides average to good performance. It isn’t very compact, and its built in web-cam has low resolution, however with a dual layer DVD burner, a 320GB hard drive, and a 15.6-inch display, you can’t go wrong for the price.

HP G62t

Another laptop with a 15.6 inch display, athis may be one of the best budget choices available right now. With a 500gb 7200 rpm hard drive, and 4GB of RAM, it can handle all your email, web browsing and media playing with ease. Gamers should look elsewhere, however. Its graphics card can’t handle anything visually intense. But when the price is 600 dollars, it provides exceptional function for what you will pay.

HP G42-240

 One of the downsides of many budget laptops is their unwieldy size. While the thickness of this laptop can’t compete with some of the more expensive compact laptops, with a 13.5×9 inch footprint and weighing less than 5 pounds, it is more portable than others. Contains an AMD Turion II P520 dual core processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 320GB, 7200 rpm hard drive. The interfact design takes a bit of getting used to, but you can’t beat the price, at as little as $550.

Samsung R780

A notebook in the slightly higher price range of 800 dollars, the Samsung R780 is beautifully designed, and its 1GB nVidia graphics card can handle even graphics heavy gaming. Its large17.3-inch display makes it a bit heavy to carry to class, but with the weight you get an Intel dual core with 2.26 GHz speed and 8 GB of RAM.

Dell XPS 15

Dell is a popular choice for many students due to their comprehensive technical support. The XPS 15 contains 2.4 GHz Intel quad core, 4GB of RAM and 500GB 7500 rpm hard drive, as well as the nVidia GeForce GT 420M 1GB graphics card. If you can afford it and don’t mind the 5.9-6.4 lbs of weight, it’s well worth the 800 dollars. If the prices still seem a bit steep for you, you can try to find a refurbished laptop in this range. Refurbished items usually come with a full guarantee, and work just as well as new ones, sometimes for a price as low as $300.

With budget laptop options improving constantly, whatever the state of their pocketbook, every college student can afford a good quality laptop this year.

My Five Laptop Choices For College

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This is a guest post by Shawn Poolern, a longtime reader and friend.
Preparing to go to college can be very exciting, but it can be easy to overlook one important piece of equipment: your laptop. The best college laptop for you will depend on what you are studying: a student studying photography or film will need to use complex editing programs, and will need a lot of hard drive space while a student studying a humanities subject such as English or history, or a studying for a business qualification will have different requirements again. This post will discuss the best college laptops for a student who mostly intends to write essays and complete written coursework.

The type of laptop required for more specialized courses is something which should be discussed with people experienced in the field, and possibly your prospective school as they will be able to advise on what capabilities are needed to complete the college degree.

First is the HP Pavilion dv6-3120us 15.6” laptop. With 4GB of RAM and a 500GB hard drive it will run quickly and won’t fill up with data too swiftly unless you store a lot of movies and music on your computer. It comes in an attractive champagne colour, and has a full size keyboard. You might think worrying about the key board is a trifling matter, and it’s what’s ‘under the hood’ which counts, but you may find you feel differently after tapping out a 2500 word essay.

Second is the Acer Aspire AS1551-4755 11.6” laptop. It’s lighter on RAM and hard drive space (3GN and 250GB, respectively) but it’s also physically lighter. At about 3lbs, this laptop is ideal for carrying from class to class to take notes on the go.

Next we have the Apple MacBook MC240LL/A 13.3” laptop. Some people prefer Apple operating systems to Windows, and if you’re one of them this is a fantastic option. Not too big, not too small and in the classic Apple white this is a stylish option packed with 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard drive.

Also worth considering is the Toshiba Satellite L655D-S5102 15.6” laptop. It has a large screen, making it a good multi-tasker, suitable for watching movies on and completing course work. The Satellite also has a built in webcam for keeping in touch with friends and family, and has enough power – 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive – to run smoothly through day to day tasks.

Last but not least is the smallest of today’s selection: the Sony VAIO VPCW222AX/WI 10.1” laptop. It’s small enough to pop in your bag and carry between classes without dragging you down, but with a 250GB hard drive and an Intel Atom processer, it’s certainly not a toy.

When it comes down to it, your choice of laptop is as much about personal preference as the specifications of one versus another, but don’t let a pretty exterior fool you into ending up with a substandard piece of technology. Any one of these five laptops will get the job done right, and look good doing it.