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.

© 2010, Best College Laptops
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Notebook Deals For College Students

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The search to discover the best college laptop isn’t always a simple one. The thing to remember is that not every student needs the same things from their computers. If you are a parent who is looking for notebook deals for for your college bound daughter or son, then you should figure out your kid’s personal requirements. Once you know what your daughter or son needs in their computer, do your research and find an affordable laptop that fulfills your kid’s needs. To help you out, here a list of the top 5 laptops for college students:

The Apple MacBook Pro is one of the top college laptops. It can get a little expensive, but it’s worth every penny. It is equipped with a decent processor, which comes in handy. The battery seems to last a lot longer than most laptop batteries do. It’s a bit heavy, but that is to be expected with computers of that size. You can get the MacBook Pro 13, which has a screen that is about 13 inches long. You can also get the MacBook Pro 14, which has a screen that is about 15 inches long. Overall, the quality is great and The Apple MacBook Pro is highly recommended.

The ASUS Laptop with Intel Pentium Processor is another good choice for a college student’s laptop. When it comes to speed, this computer has it. A lot of computers, even really good computers, tend to get slow on us. But, the ASUS Laptop does a good job at maintaining that quick loading speed that doesn’t leave you feeling frustrated with your computer. This computer has several function keys that other computers don’t have. For example, it has a function key that allows you to adjust the brightness of the computer screen.

The Acer Aspire Laptop with Single Core Processor AS5532 is one of the best value laptops on the market. If you’re looking for the best performing computer for the college student to use, then this is not the computer for you. But, if you are looking for a computer that works decently and is affordable, then you might want to give it a try. Just be prepared for the possibly of your pages loading slower than you would like.

The HP Pavillion DV6-2162NR is another affordable computer and it works decently. This computer has High Definition graphics, which is something most college students would appreciate in a laptop. This computer allows you to rip DVDs to an archive, which may come in handy. This computer is built in a way that allows for great quality entertainment while using the laptop and it also comes with the basic things that a college student will need in their computer.

The Gateway NV5387u Laptop also comes with High Definition graphics. It allows you to store videos and movies on the computer. If the college student loves to listen to music, then this computer will also allow them to save their music to their own media library. It has many features and the computer’s performance is good.

So, there you have it — the five best college laptops available to students. Every one of them is different, just like every college student is different. Every student has their own needs when it comes to computers. Some people require speed, while other people can get by with a slow laptop. Some people need High Definition graphics, while other people have no use for them. Just do your research and find out which laptop computer fits your needs.

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Five Of The Best College Laptops For 2010

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Finding the best college laptop while preparing for the new, exciting experience of undergraduate education is, nowadays, a very important task for any student. More and more, mobile computing has become a staple, if not a requirement, of higher education. Selecting a laptop that will meet the student’s needs for portability, ease of use, power, and features is imperative. This article will showcase five of the best college laptops currently available.

Best value laptops: At rank five on our list is the Dell Inspiron 17R. The Inspiron 17R gives quite a bang-for-your-buck at only $499 for the base model. It comes stock with a powerful Intel Core processor, which can be upgraded to a Pentium Dual Core for additional horsepower. A pre-loaded copy of Windows 7 Home Basic or Premium allows for usefulness for years to come. The screen is 17″, but don’t be misled- it is only 17″ wide, not the traditional 17″ diagonal measurement seen in most laptops. It therefore has a squatter, wider profile when open. It is recommended thus to try this out in a store or display area before choosing it. Still, a strong choice.

Next is the HP G62x, an inexpensive standard laptop from Hewlett-Packard, an industry standard name. Only slightly more expensive than the Dell Inspiron 17R, this model boasts a 16:9 widescreen display, which is more standard and expected. HP is currently running a nice sale providing a few free upgrades with your purchase of a G62x, including nearly doubling the on-board RAM free of charge, making this a powerful deal.

The HP Pavillion dv6 is a very powerful media laptop, packed with an AMD Quad-core processor for intensive computer work. The added power gives this machine the ability to run many programs at once. It also has the option of including a DVD-burner/Blu-ray-reader with LightScribe technology, which can be very useful to a college student with many files to backup. The dv6 is more expensive, at $749, but the extra performance justifies the cost in this case.

The Apple MacBook – the quintessential college laptop – weighs in at number two on our list. Apple has a reputation for providing powerful computers which function flawlessly, often with more stability than traditional PC-based computers. However, Apple is also notorious for their high-priced products, which is precisely what knocks the MacBook out of contention for first on our list. At over one thousand clams, it may be out of the budget for many college-goers. There are discounts available for college students through the Apple Store, but this reviewer felt that $40 off of a $1,200 computer was lackluster at best. When choosing a Mac, however, keep in mind that the majority of computer infrastructures at most colleges are PC-based, so incompatibilities may become a problem later.

Top college laptops: Our grand champion college laptop is the HP dv7. The next model up from the above-discussed dv6, the dv7 is an even more powerful machine for a marginally higher price. The key feature of this laptop is its longevity. It is designed primarily as a “desktop replacement” – that is, it has all the power of a desktop on a mobile platform. While this is never entirely true, this machine does have the chops to perform well for years to come. Its powerful 64-bit processor, 6GB of RAM, 750GB hard disk drive, integrated ATi Radeon graphics, and more are perhaps overpowered for today’s applications. This means that as software becomes more computer-intensive over the next decade, the HP dv7 will still be slugging it out with the best of them. Added HP features such as ProtectSmart, Lojack, and TrueVision-webcam are more than enough to make this a unanimous choice for the best college laptop of December 2010.

In closing, the selection of a laptop for college purposes is an important task. Affirming a wise choice now will allow for years of use without the need of replacement or augmentation. This list is a good place to begin, but the true decision of what laptop to select lies with the student and his or her individual requirements, desires, and financial ability.

This post continues our Best College Laptops 2010 series.

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