Best College Laptops

Five College Laptops You Should Consider (and why)

Leave A Comment

This is a guest post by Jim Walken, who is well known about here as someone always willing to help out and answer a question. Thanks Jim!

One of the necessities a college student needs to help them in college is a laptop for term papers, researching, keeping in contact with family, etc. Of course, there are student computer labs on a college campus, but it is difficult and inconvenient to not have a laptop with you wherever you go instead of hanging around the computer lab until the hours close. However, when deciding on a laptop, there are certain laptops that are much better than others for college students.

You’ve heard me say it before….the best laptops for college students will be ones that can best fit the student’s needs. Being a college student myself, I have been through my share of laptops and seen what everyone else uses as well, so I have come up with the best laptops that I think are great for college students like myself.

First off, I prefer Mac to PC, so one of my pick for the best college laptop of the five is the Apple MacBook. The MacBook is not extremely cheap, but for under a grand you can get a decent sized laptop with great power and functionality. Mac is a different operating system and a different interface than PC, but it is not very hard to learn how to work on one. I like the MacBook because it is a decent size, it’s still portable and actually quite popular with a lot of college students. It also has a great battery life, and also has attractive features, and you buy it with different memory sizes and different options, but the basic MacBook is just under a grand without tax, not too much for a college student. They can get up to as much as $2,000, depending on the size of the screen and what core components you decide on.

I would also pick the new Apple iPad for college students as well. I actually have one, as do a few students that I know, and it is fully capable of many things that a regular laptop could do, except it does not have a web camera. It is very light, and very versatile, allowing students to buy their eTextbooks on it and read them right at their fingertips. It also works as a sketchpad, where students can purchase a pen for the iPad and draw and take notes. It also has a very long battery life, and even though the keyboard is on the touchscreen itself, it is not that difficult to use. If students have an issue with this, they can purchase an optional wireless keyboard for around $70 and use it with the iPad. I have asked a few people besides myself about the iPads that they own, if they prefer their laptop or their iPad, and many prefer the iPad as it is easier to carry, and less weight in their backpack. The iPad comes with two options, with the Apple 3G wireless network ability and WiFi, or just WiFi, and the option of 3G adds to the cost of the iPad by about $150. The iPad comes in different sizes of memory, from 16GB, 32GB to 64GB. I also really like the touch screen, and the thousands of apps available. You could think of it as a larger iPhone, but more like a PC tablet, without the phone capability. The iPad starts at $499, and goes up to a little over $800, cheaper than the MacBook.

Another personal favorite of mine would be the ASUS Eee pc, a small and portable netbook perfect for web browsing and taking notes. It is rather small, and is primarily used for just web browsing, at netbooks are made for, but at a price of around $400, and a full keyboard, it is still a pretty good deal for a college student. It does able you to run programs like Microsoft Word and programs you would generally need for classes, but only if you want a portable laptop for only taking notes and web browsing. Otherwise, the ASUS Eee netbook probably would not be what you want if you are looking at doing more than strictly class work on it.

Another top pick for college students would be another small one, the Acer Aspire AS1410-2954 laptop. It is a decent screen size of 11.6 inches, and is considered a laptop. It has Windows 7 on it, a relatively newer operating system, but it is not hard at all to get used to. It also comes in a very stylish maroon, instead of a traditional black, white or silver, giving it a little bit of character as well. It costs around $500, which for the portability, the features and the screen size, it is a pretty great deal in my opinion.

The last top pick I would suggest for college students is the HP Pavilion DV6-2162NR. Hewlett Packard has constantly kept its laptops fast, and fair priced, without sacrificing on much as well. It has a large screen of 15.6 inches, and allows to upgrade to a lot of RAM and memory for students who need more for classes like computer science majors, or for watching movies, playing games, or running multiple programs at one time. This laptop is under $1000 at the basic model, and adding more components, memory and features will raise the price, but for everything the laptop has to offer, it is a reasonable deal for students in college.

The best laptop for a college student truly depends on their needs for classes, and their personal preferences. Some students may prefer a Mac operating system to a PC, or they may want something smaller and portable. It also depends on your budget as a college student, and how much you are looking for in a laptop. It depends on how much you will use the laptop as well. Some students have a netbook or tablet and a regular sized laptop, so they can use one at home, and take the smaller one to class instead of a notepad. It all depends on the student and what is the best option for them.

Saving Money On Laptops For College

Leave A Comment

In the uncertainty of the already crumbling economy, students have had much more trouble budgeting their college expenses. The best laptops for students are generic low-end models which use slightly aged hardware, but can still get the job done. The best college laptop can end up being a refurbished laptop.

Budget laptop brands for college students who do not require much power (which are interchangeably called notebooks) include Toshiba, Compaq, Acer, Asus, Emachines, and Gateway. Some of these brands sell laptops as low as 300 dollars when on sale. It’s imperative for college students on a tight budget to be aware of these sales. You can also get more power with a refurbished laptop for a similar price, such as the Compaq Factory-Refurbished AMD Athlon II processor / 15.6″ Display / 3GB Memory / 250GB Hard Drive laptop (model cq62-209wm.)

If you’re a design student, you will want a laptop that has a dedicated graphics card. The two main brands of dedicated graphics cards are ATI, which recently has been acquired by AMD, and NVIDIA. Their lines are named Radeon and Geforce. If the graphics card in the specs of a laptop you are looking for are neither of these, it most likely is a low-end, integrated graphics card. Not having enough video memory or speed can hinder the design process. A dedicated graphics card is crucial for students working in 3D as well as in programs such as Photoshop and Illustrator. You will need an adequate cpu and ram in order for a dedicated graphics card to function to its full potential. A design laptop is a much greatest investment.

While a laptop like the ASUS G51JX-3DE, which sports 1GB of video memory (NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M graphics,) 6GB of ram, a Intel Core i7-720QM processor, and 500GB of 7200 RPM hard drive space, and a $1,700 dollar price tag will give you all the power you need to design and also play games, it is overkill on a budget. A more appropriate laptop would be the ASUS UL30Vt-X1, which cuts ram down to 4GB, video memory to 512mb (NVIDIA G210M,) and 500GB of 5400RPM hard drive space, and the price tag down to roughly 710 dollars. This will do all you will ever need in college. Will you be able to play the latest PC game on the highest graphics settings? Probably not, but you’re not in college to play games.

It’s also advisable to game on a desktop computer, as laptops are prone to overheating. For Apple fans, Apple offers discounting for students with its laptop models, but it is not much. You can’t find much of a deal when it comes to Apple computers. If you must have one and your budget can afford it, go for it, but the PC counterparts are just as good, if not better, for the same price. The major advantage of Apple brand laptops are the long battery life, which can last upwards of 10 hours on one charge. If you decide to purchase an Apple laptop, the MacBook will run you $999 and the Macbook Pro starts at $1199. Some colleges and universities may recommend you buy an Apple laptops for various reasons, mainly for compatibility with course material.

The last thing you should keep in mind when it comes to purchasing your laptop, is to read the warranty carefully. Some can be tricky and won’t cover incidental damage. Some students take out 3rd party warranties to protect their purchase. Hopefully this has been helpful for you.