How do you know what are the best laptops for college? What do college students think the best laptop they have owned is? First is best to look at what type of feature is most important to you. Speaking as a college student, there are a couple of main categories that you want to look at. These include: price, size and portability (convenience), amount of memory and programs it is packaged with, and the type of operating system.

Usually most important for college students, is price. College students don’t have a lot of money to throw around and though a laptop is essential to college life, you cannot sell a limb to get it. The price needs to be low. Most of the time, the best laptop for college students can be found for under $1,000. A laptop is a big investment and a solid laptop usually ranges anywhere from $500-$1000. As a final note on price, the best laptop is one that is one sale. Stores know the season when college students are heading off, and thus give great deals that cater to students. Look for them and you will not regret the savings.

The second most important aspect is the size and portability of a laptop. In general, the smaller the laptop the better it will be for college students. Many times this laptop will go into a backpack, be carried around the shoulder in a pack, or be carried in-hand. College students already have a lot of books, papers, and notebooks to carry around so adding a few extra pounds is never good! Always strive for a laptop that makes an effort to be more portable by weight and size. Screen size also determines the main bulk of the laptop. Usually, while 13” is a little small for some of the fun activities college students do like watching TV, movies or playing games 17” is too large to carry. Thus, 15” is usually the perfect middle ground.

The third most important aspect is the amount of memory and programs a laptop is packaged with. These I will combine to form “packaged features”. Memory is always important for a college student to store their documents and anything else they may need later on their laptop. A good laptop has at least 250GB of memory on the hard drive. This will help college students store everything they may need. Regarding programs, it is always best to look for a laptop packaged with Microsoft office. Most importantly, Microsoft word, excel, and powerpoint. These are the programs are the most common ones college student will use.

The last deciding factor is operating system. Namely, Macintosh or Windows. The trend has lately been to go for the more hip Macintosh that is more user-friendly. However, many students may need to use programs in classes that run on Windows only. It is best for students majoring in technical things like engineering and computer science to go for a Windows computer. Ultimately, it is up to the customer to weight the individual criteria listed above. For some people, one aspect may be much more important than another. If one sticks out, make that one the most important and look for one that meets all the other criteria but excels in that specific category.

The top 5 laptops that meet much of these criteria are:

1. Sony Vaio EA Series $599.99 640GB hard drive 14.2” screen, 5.2 pounds Windows 7 Professional

2. MacBook $999.00 250 GB hard drive 13” screen, 1.08” thick and 4.7 pounds Macintosh operating system.

3.Dell XPS 15 $799.99 500GB hard drive 15.6” screen, 6.1 pounds Windows 7 Home Premium

4. Toshiba A215-S4807 $779 160GB hard drive 15.4” screen, 6.3 pounds Windows XP

5. Samsung R780 $849 500GB hard drive 17.3” screen, 6.4 pounds Windows 7 Home Premium

There are many things to consider when looking for the best laptops for college. One of the main things to consider is your budget. There are many laptops out there for those who are looking for the cheapest laptop that will get them by. There are also many people out there who are willing to spend much more to get all of the extras.

When sorting through the many options available, you will find that there are many different sizes to choose from. There are netbooks that have 10.1” screens. This may be convenient to carry around, but the keyboards are typically much smaller and may make typing more difficult for those who are used to typing on a regular keyboard. You can also choose the other extreme and purchase a laptop with a screen that is 18.4”. This may be good for watching movies and playing video games, but having a laptop that big will be difficult to carry around. Choosing a laptop in the middle of the size range may be the best option for you. Top college laptops with a screen size of 14” or 15.6” tend to give you the best of both worlds. You still get the portability that you do with a smaller laptop, but you get a decent size screen to go along with it.

If you are looking for the cheapest thing to get you buy, you may beinterested in a 10” Coby NBPC1023XP. This has an N480 processor, 1GB of memory, and a 160GB hard drive. This netbook is meant for those on a very limited budget, who are looking for the bare minimum to get them by. You can get this netbook for around $250.00.

Another option for those on a budget is the 15.6” HP G56-129WM. This laptop will run you approximately $375.00, but is worth the extra money if you can afford it. This comes with an Intel Celeron 900 processor. It also has 3GB of memory and a 250GB hard drive.

For $450.00, you can get an Acer Aspire A55736Z-4016. This has an Intel Pentium Processor T4500. It also comes with 4GB of memory and a 320GB hard drive. This also has a 15.6” screen. This would be my pick for the best laptop for college students.

If you are looking to spend a little more money, you can choose a Toshiba Satellite. The L655-S5100 has a 15.6” screen. It comes with an Intel Pentium P6100 Processor, 4GB of memory, and a 500GB hard drive. The Toshiba Satellite Helios L655D-S5110WH comes with the AMD Phenom II Quad Core P940 Processor. It has 4 GB of memory and a 500 GB hardrive.

When buying a laptop, there are many additional things you can add on. You can add features for gaming, music, and music. These features aren’t a must, but would be appreciated by most college students. So when you are out looking for a new laptop for college, just remember to use every penny of your budget wisely. Choose the features that are best for you and your needs.

Now that holiday shopping season is officially underway, we have a fairly good idea of sales and shopping trends on laptops. We know not only what is in stock, but where the best prices and features are. After reviewing all of the data this week, our experts have come up with their top picks for the five best laptops for college.

1. The Coby 10-inch NBPC1023XP Netbook PC with Intel Atom N450 processor and Windows XP currently offers an excellent combination of value and price, making it the best laptop for college students in its price range. Selling now at just under $260, it is probably the least expensive and best value laptops on the market today and an excellent starter PC.

2. The eMachines Black 10.1-inch eM350-2074 Netbook PC with Intel Atom N450 Processor and Windows XP Home is also a fantastic laptop, and some retailers have been offering this model for under $250. We included it here because it really is an outstanding laptop; be warned, however, that sales have been so brisk that many merchants cannot keep it in stock. Place the eMachines on your watch list and be ready to act quickly when supplies are available.

3. Moving up a tier to the larger laptops with wider displays and more capable processors, we have the Compaq Presario CQ62-209wm Laptop PC with AMD Athlon II Dual-Core Processor and Windows 7 Home Premium. This PC has a 15.6-inch display and a dual-core processor with substantially more power than the Intel Atom. The Presario has been on sale for under $400 lately, an awesome price on a complete laptop for college students.

4. The HP 17.3-inch Biscotti G72-227WM Laptop PC with Intel Pentium T4500 Processor and Windows 7 Home Premium is another PC selling for under $500 that offers a great value in terms of the best laptops for college. Its substantially larger display makes creating Office documents and reading electronic files easy and convenient.

5. Finally, the Acer Aspire 17.3-inch AS7741Z-4633 Laptop PC is typically about $50 more than the Biscotti; however, you get some excellent features worth mentioning. 4 Gigabytes of DDR3 Dual-Channel SDRAM memory and an HDMI output are not usually available on netbooks and inexpensive laptops, but they are ones a college student with an interest in HD video may crave.

We reviewed the five best laptops for college, with an emphasis on sale items likely to be in stock at major retailers around the country. Netbooks are perfect for those on a budget, and their compact size is quite handy. However, to step up to something better than a single-core processor and to add larger display, look carefully at the three models from Compaq, HP, and Acer.

This post continues our Best College Laptops 2010 series.

For most students, college is a time to break away from the nest, meet new and different people and of course, see how you function without your parents, even though you’ll probably end up mssing them a lot. But a very known and popular way to cure homesickness, as well as make any work done for your classes a lot easier, is to have a laptop by your side. It’s very hard to go somewhere nowadays without seeing someone on their laptop. Whether it be at a local bookstore, your favorite coffee shop, or even a fast food chain restaurant, it’s nearly impossible to function without a laptop.

However when entering college, you need to research for the best laptop computer for college students. This will save hours of stress, making your college life a lot easier. When searching for the perfect laptop, you will need to look for a few features that are basically mandatory in the college world.

First and foremost, it must be light, small and easy to carry. This will make it easier to walk around campus, whether it be from class to class, or to meet up with friends to work on a research paper. Many models meet these features, models ranging from Sony, HP and Lenovo.

A very popular and good choice, are Vaio laptops, which come from the brand Sony. Not only thin and light, most systems come with DVD and/or Blu-Ray compatibility, ability to burn DVDs and CDs, as well as buy very powerful CPUs, 2GB RAM, and large hard drives, which allows you to store more information.

Another popular and important feature to look for, especially being a college student, is of course budget. For most students it’s easy to become short on money, and finding a good budget laptop will prove to be a good buy. To name just a few great models, Dell, Toshiba and HP. Two great models I would personally recommend would be from Toshiba and Dell.

Most Toshiba laptops are a great budget and you can also buy a dual core CPU, which works well with most applications needed for college and whatever needed for personal time. Dell Studio laptops are one of the best laptops, which is the laptop I personally use. The price may be a little high for some students, but is completely worth it. Not only can you design your own laptop, or buy other designs nearly everywhere online, it is a very light laptop and has a very good battery life. Although not very easy to move around, it is still completely worth every penny. Dell laptops are also good for their screen size, excellent graphics, and has an amazing processor, good memory and also includes an optical drive and webcam.

Another portable, small and light laptop would be the Lenovo ThinkPad. Capable of not only excellent computing performance, it also comes in a very small, sleek, compact package. The ThinkPad is the best Lenovo laptop for college and is a great choice for any student, though a bit pricey, it’s still affordable and worth the cost. On top of that, it has been called one of the best preforming laptops available and around. Most weigh no more than 3 pounds, which makes it very easy to carry around. Though most are targeted for school use only, it comes with an amazing hard drive, processor and CPU.

However there is one laptop that is known as the best college laptop, the Apple MacBook. This laptop has been called the perfect embodiment notebook for not only college students, but students in high school as well. Most customers to buy the MacBook are, ironically, college students and once reading it’s features, it comes to no surprise. With a big inch display, these laptops are as well light and portable. Though a bit expensive, it’s a purchase you wouldn’t regret in the future. With a great processor, amazing graphics, and 160 GB hard drive, it is seen with more college students than any other laptop. Though only 5 laptops are profiled here, there are plenty more out there and available that could work quite well for a college education. Other models not featured here that are also amazing are HP Pavilion, Gateway and Asus.

Also take into consideration what your needs and wants are before purchasing anything. Make sure whatever laptop you buy, can not only make your college work easier, but fits your style and is easy to carry any and everywhere with you.

This post continues our Best College Laptops 2010 series.

Walk around any college campus today, and you will see that many of the students have laptops. You might also notice that most of them seem to be made by either Apple or Dell. But just which are the best laptops for college use?

Apple laptops are certainly popular. But what do they offer? Apple have three different laptop lines: the MacBook, the MacBook Pro, and the MacBook Air, with standard prices from $999, $1199, and $999, respectively. However, college students can take advantage of the generous discounts available from Apple’s Education Store, so you needn’t pay as much as this.

The MacBook comes in only one model. It is white, has a 13.3″ display, 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and up to 10 hours of battery life, all weighing in at 4.7 pounds. It is the best laptop computer for college students who just have to have an Apple, but are on a limited budget.

The MacBook Pro comes in six variations. All are made from sleek metal. The displays vary between 13.3″ and 17″, the processor between 2.4GHz and 2.66GHz, RAM is 4GB, the hard drive is between 250GB and 500GB, and battery life is up to 10 hours, and the weight is as little as 4.5 pounds up to 6.6 pounds for a 17″ model. Prices range from $1199 to over $2000. The MacBook Pro offers the college student the ultimate portable Apple experience, with the most options, but with prices to match.

The MacBook Air wins among the Apples when it comes to portability. It is super thin and weighs no more than 2.9 pounds. It comes in four versions. The display is 11.6″ or 13.3″, the processor is a 1.4GHz or 1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, RAM is 2GB, instead of a hard drive there is 64GB, 128GB or 256GB of flash-based storage, and battery life is up to 5 hours of doing typical college work. Prices range from $999 up to $1599. The specifications are quite a bit lower than the similarly priced MacBook and MacBook Pro models. However, they are more than sufficient for the typical college work of word processing, emailing, and browsing the web. Where the MacBook Air really wins is in being so small and light, leaving the college student with plenty of spare carrying capacity for all those heavy textbooks.

For the college student on a real budget, Dell laptops are an excellent choice. The Inspiron 15 costs as little as $399, yet is a very capable model. You can stand out on campus by selecting a blue or a pink color. The base model has a competent Intel Celeron 2.20GHz processor, 2GB RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and a 15″ display. All in all, a solid choice for the student wishing to make her money go as far as possible.

Alternatively, if you want something small, highly portable, and even cheaper — though with lower specifications — the Inspiron Mini 10 Netbook is an excellent choice. Costing as little as $299, and weighing as little as 2.66 pounds, it is light on your wallet and light in your bookbag. It has a lowly, but energy efficient Intel Atom 1.66GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and a hard drive of up to 160GB. Despite being the least capable laptop discussed here, it is the cheapest and lightest, and works well for carrying around campus, taking notes in lectures, and keeping up with emails and the web.

Note that all five of the laptop lines we’ve covered allow you to connect to your college’s wifi networks out of the box. No matter your budget and needs as a student, there is a laptop model to suit you. Even if you want to show off with a fashionable Apple, reasonably priced models are available. If you want the very best, Apple also has the model for you. And if you want the best value for money, check out Dell’s offerings.

This post continues our Best College Laptops 2010 series.

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.

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.

In today’s technology-saturated world, lacking a laptop or even an up-to-date laptop can be a serious disadvantage. This is especially true for students, who represent not only the newer generation that relies upon technology more than ever, but also engage in a plethora of tasks that require specialized tools found most conveniently packaged in a laptop. Another boon for possessing a college laptop is its usefulness in taking class notes because it enables students to transcribe their professors’ points more quickly than the traditional pen and paper. However, the problem would be acquiring the laptop, especially when many college students are so cash-strapped due to increasing tuition costs and other fees. Luckily, there are many strategies for saving money when purchasing the best laptop for college students.

College students can decrease their expenditures by doing research, taking a class on information technology, and improving upon a lower quality laptop. Doing a little bit of research will go a long way toward helping college students save money on laptop computers. This includes getting a feel for the different styles and models available.

One of the most crucial questions many laptop-shoppers ask is whether to acquire a Microsoft Windows or Apple Mac book laptop. They can settle such issues through familiarity with the different types of laptops, and that often comes through paying attention to friends’ and acquaintances’ computers, as well as asking them questions about their likes and dislikes. Additionally, most college students have easy access to some of the top computer-experts in the world in their schools’ engineering and computer science departments.

These people, who undoubtedly have deep knowledge of different computer systems, would provide valuable assistance as well. Through people with better or worse laptop systems, college students can obtain information about laptops, which forms a necessary component of saving money when purchasing. Also, through this process of asking different people about laptops, potential laptop-buyers can gain critical insights into bargains that other people obtained, as well as good deals they have seen. This would serve as an addendum to ads and coupons the student personally found. These savings and sales can save laptop buyers a considerable chunk of change.

Secondly, taking a class on information technology can prove to be invaluable to anyone purchasing a laptop computer. The fact is that most college students today consider themselves quite tech-savvy because of their ability to operate a wide range of different technological systems. However, when it comes to understanding the details and underlying workings of these systems, many are lost. Yet, these seemingly superfluous details can be some of the most crucial when purchasing computers because they inform the customer of exactly what is needed.

Instead of spending a great deal of time puzzling through laptop specification and potentially making mistakes by buying laptops that contain unnecessary components or lack essential ones, knowledge of these details would solve the problem. A class need not be a formal lecture class, even though enrolling in a class with a group of other students often times is the most effective way to learn; listening to free lectures posted online or working through a textbook would suffice. Whatever way students choose to take their information technology class, the knowledge they acquire from the more general such an understanding of RAM and operating systems, to the more specific, such as the number of cores for the processor or the dots per inch for the LCD screen, will help them know what they want and need. The macbook/”>best laptops for college students will depend on the particular student, and taking a class will enable them to determine exactly what that best laptop should contain. By knowing what they need in a laptop, students will save both time and money from going to gadgets they do not need.

Lastly, a somewhat strategic method for keeping laptop costs down that students can employ is to purchase cheaper laptop computers and upgrade some of the lower-quality components in it. The knowledge from the information technology class comes in handy here because college students need to know which components cost more money and time, and are incredibly difficult to install, and which components are relatively cheap and easy to replace. For example, if students want more temporary storage, they can save the cost of purchasing a laptop with a great deal of RAM, and instead buy individual RAM chips for a much cheaper price and add them to their system themselves.

Also, students can buy laptops with lower-quality sound and video cards. In many cases, they will be sufficient for their purposes, and they will have saved money; and if it turns out that these lower-quality sound and video cards are bothersome, students can buy high-quality ones and install them for a cheaper price than wasting money purchasing expensive laptop computer with high-quality cards already built-in. Thus, it is evident that college students can decrease their expenditures by doing research, taking a class on information technology, and improving upon a lower quality laptop.

By going through this process, students not only invest in their bank accounts, but also in their futures. The time and energy put into learning about laptops, finding good deals, and doing some self-installation work benefit the student greatly because they provide the student with a deeper understanding of computer systems. As computers are such an integral part of society today and increasing in importance in many parts of the world, that understanding is good knowledge to have.

(Editors note: This review was written by one of our readers Helen R).

One of the best laptops for college students is the Apple Mac book laptop. The Apple Macbook is Apple’s most affordable laptop yet it still features the high quality components and the highly acclaimed Mac OS X Snow Leopard operating system that people have come to expect from Apple. The Mac book comes in a small 13.3-inch package that makes mobility simple. This will make transport of the Mac book to all areas of campus, including on trips home, a breeze.

The Macbook also features a built-in seven-hour battery. This will give students flexibility in their use of the laptop away from the dorm. It will allow them to venture out to class without a charger or any sort of wires. This makes setup in classrooms simple since the computer will go from sleep to active in a matter of seconds making it one of the best laptops for students in college.

Like other Apple laptops, the Macbook features a wireless ethernet card that allows students to network with their school network connections. This is important to a student because it enables wireless connectivity everywhere they may want to go.

In addition to the hardware specifications of the Macbook laptop, the Snow Leopard operating system supports various graphics and advanced media programs, which are of particular use to graphics design students. As anyone in the design community will tell you, Macs are the premier graphics design vehicles and there are many programs that run exclusively on that platform.

Besides being, in my opinion, the best laptop for college students, Macs are also great entertainment devices for students. Given the constraints of cramped dorms, the Macbook is useful in providing an entertainment center to students. It is versatile enough to serve both as a television from which to stream and watch movies, a stereo system from which to download, listen, and store music, and lastly as a gaming platform in which students can play games on.

The Apple Macbook’s greatest asset to students is its price. It is competitively priced at under $1000 for its base models. Should the student or user require additional memory, hard drive space, or software; the user is able to customize their laptop to suit their needs. Additionally, Apple offers amazing student discounts that further reduce the price of their computers thereby making them even more affordable. Check the back to school laptop sales for even more of a discount.

The Apple Macbook is clearly the laptop designed for the contemporary college student. Its multiple uses, both for schoolwork and for entertainment, combined with its incredible value make it a best buy for any college student.

Reader Question: For those that have owned a Macbook, why would you recommend it for a college student?

Choosing a laptop for college can be a complicated thing. There are so many options out there, offering such a vast array of capabilities, features, and bells and whistles that selecting the right one can be daunting. Laptops can run anywhere from about $300 to $2000 or more, and that price difference often has less to do with quality and reliability than with features and capabilities you may never need or use. How, then, should you make your choice? Read our tips for choosing the best laptops for college and use the coupons and codes listed here to save even more money!

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The first thing to do is to develop a clear sense of exactly what you need in a college laptop. If you are primarily concerned with the basics, like word processing, internet access, wireless, et cetera, you may be fine with something as inexpensive and simple as a netbook. These are extremely compact, relatively no-frills laptops intended for basic needs. Unless you plan to study something like music or video editing, which may involve more elaborate software and capabilities, a netbook should meet virtually all of your academic needs.

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For most courses, you will only need to be able to write and edit on your computer, to participate in online discussion groups, and to e-mail, and almost any currently sold laptop will allow you to do those things. If you intend to study music or something involving video editing, you may need to do some research into higher-end laptops with more memory and possibly with more software included at the time of purchase. If you know your potential major and believe it may require particular computer capabilities, you might contact a professor or department chair to inquire about recommendations. Remember, the best laptop for college students depend on each individuals needs.

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Aside from academic needs, of course, you may want to consider other uses in a laptop for college. If you are interested in watching streaming video, for example, you may want to select a laptop with HD (High Definition) video capability, or higher-end wireless technology. You might also think more about audio and speaker quality than you would if you were thinking of your computer as a primarily academic tool.

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Once you figure out what features and capabilities you need, do some research about what brands are most reliable and represent the best deals. Consumer Reports is a good site for product reviews, and customer reviews on sites like Amazon.com can give good guidance. Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, and Dell are all reliable and well-reviewed throughout the range of laptop options, but each produces some specific models that are superior to others. You will also need to decide whether you want to go with a PC or a Mac. Both have advantages — PCs tend to be loaded with software that will be compatible with what most others have (like Microsoft Word), while Macs tend to be very good for music recording and similar applications.

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In closing, choosing laptops for college comes down to three steps: decide what you need for school, decide what you want beyond those necessities, and do some research to find out who makes what you need best for the best price. If you think of the process systematically like this, you should be able to make a solid choice with a minimum of worry.

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