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.

This is a guest post by Charles Moranell, a new reader and writer at helium.com.

What should a new college student should look for in a laptop? With so many different laptops out there and available today it’s very hard to know what to look for. You need to look for certain features, prices, and of course one stylish enough to match your individualism and make you stand out from your new classmates. Luckily with so many articles found online, or even by asking family, friends or teachers, you can find what is needed and for a manageable price. As an avid laptop user myself, certain features I can think of off the top of my head are certain to help you for your college classes.

A model you may consider would be the Toshiba Satellite Laptop L455 model. This laptop comes with a variety of features such as a 3 GB RAM, USB ports, 250 GB hard drive and is also in a lightweight and small design. The 3 GB RAM can be upgraded without any problems, this laptop also plays music and allows you to watch movies. To make this laptop even better, besides having all the basic needs for a college student, Toshiba has one of the best value laptops for students.

Another amazing model all college students should consider would be the Gateway NV5387u laptop, which has been featured on numerous lists for potential college students. The number one thing that is so amazing about this laptop is the price. Seeing as most college students aren’t rolling in cash, price is another big thing to look for when buying a laptop. This laptop costs a mere $500, and comes with many other features needed when in college. This laptop has a Dual Core processor as well as a 2.4 GHz, 4 GB RAM, and a hard drive of 320 GB. Also for this price, the screen of this laptop is at least 15.6 inches, as well as equipped with amazing graphics. Not only can you do school work but you are able to play video games, watch shows and movies and store as much data as you can possibly want on it.

Third and finally, the best laptop computer for college students I believe would be the Apple MacBook. This laptop is featured on many lists which includes it in the top five laptops for college students and is loved by generally the entire population. Not only are these computers fast, reliable, and meet the basic requirements for college, it is also stylish or good looking. Most people do not want a laptop that is unappealing to the eye, and thankfully the MacBook is anything but that. Known as a beautiful model, and being purchased by a wide variety of students, this laptop has a Core 2 Duo processor, a 2 GB RAM, a 9400M graphics card as well as a 160 GB hard disk capacity. As well as a 13 inch display screen, though some come with smaller or larger screens. Though is costs about $1299 and up, this laptop is definitely worth the price.

When searching for a laptop for college, it is important to research and look for hours about the basic requirements needed for a laptop, as well as what makes you happy and comfortable. Make sure you do not buy a laptop with features you don’t understand, simply because it is the latest and hottest thing, and you want to outshine your fellow classmates. When buying a laptop, make sure you understand everything about it, inside and out. You do not want to buy it, mess something up and end up having not laptop to use for college.

This post continues our Best College Laptops 2010 series.

READER QUESTION: What is your pick for the best value laptop and why?

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.

I used to work in a college IT department on all different makes and models, different operating systems and Macs so I know first hand that certain manufacturers are better in quality than others.

For students in an art type of major, Architecture, Interior Design, Fashion, I would hands down recommend a Mac due to the graphics quality. But there are equally good Windows-based laptops for school that are very popular. After reading this you should have a better idea of what to look for when shopping for a laptop and your personal preferences for things such as screen size and color.

The three best brands I’ve worked on are Gateway, Dell and Apple. You’ll want to go with an Intel Core duo processor or better for speed and a minimum of 2GB of memory. If you plan on using your laptop for games or using multiple applications at the same time (toggling between open applications) get 4GB.

Hard drive size is dependent on what you plan on storing. If you are just going to be storing documents for school any of the standard hard drives the manufacturers are offering now will work. For music and picture storage you’ll want to increase the size depending on your usage. For those who store a tons of music and large pictures, keep in mind that it takes up a lot of space and will ultimately slow down your computer. So you may want to invest in an external hard drive. But for the average person, as I mentioned before, all the hard drives offered in the new laptops have a lot of space, about 250GB or more and will work just fine.

It is important to get a laptop with Wi-Fi capability as it is probably needed in certain classes and every college now offers Wi-Fi on campus and in dorms.

Also keep in mind battery life – some last just 3 hours and others last 6.5 hours or more. Video and sound are dependent on what you plan on doing with the laptop. This is particularly important to gamers but for your average student, the standard video and sound feature offered by the manufacturer will work. Personal options to decide is whether you want a webcam, if you are looking for a laptop with Windows or a Mac Operating System, the screen size and weight. There’s some laptops you can customize the color but there’s also different styles of skins for purchase as another option and perhaps less expensive. All these latter options are based on personal preference.

I would suggest going with a Gateway, Dell or Apple Macbook. However, the best laptop computer for college students is the Dell Inspiron 15R or higher. This laptop has excellent standard features with Intel Core i3 370M processor (better than Intel Core Duo), 4GB memory, 500GB hard drive, built in wireless and webcam, CD/DVD burner and 1 year warranty just to name a few options! You can also check; Best College Laptops 2010 for more suggestions.

Whichever laptop you decide to go with, all three that I mentioned above have a much better quality than others on the market, and this is based on my direct experience fixing a variety of student computers on a college campus.

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.

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!

Get $9 Off any Order at TheNerds.net!

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.

Save 10% on any order from Dyscern.com!USE coupon code: TAKE10 at checkout

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.

Free Shipping on all Orders over $35 – no code required.

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.

Sony Style Campus Store. Save up to 7% on select VAIO notebooks.(eligibility requirements – see site for details)

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.

Instant Discounts and Specials on thousands of mobile replacement batteries, ac adapters, dc adapters, and more!

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.

FREE Ground Shipping on your $499+ entire order when you buy any Toshiba laptop PC.

Pink Acer Aspire One 8.9″ Laptop $239.99

FREE shipping on orders over $39.99 at the HP Home & Home Office Store! Exclusions Apply.

When shopping for the best college laptops the first thing you ask yourself is where do I go to purchase one? There are many places to go, in person or even on-line. I will talk about both of these choices here in this article.

As for going to the usual brick and mortar type establishments, there are many to choose from. One of the things that you need to ask is, “What brand of college laptop do I want”? You can look in the phone book for the nearest Gateway store in you area. They have quite a few, but there’s not one in every city. If you’re one of the people that does have one in their hometown, then you should check them out. They have every model that they make in these store and with their well trained staff you will be taken care of.

Another one of your choices can be going to the nearest Dell outlet, but then again there’s not one in every city. I myself have been in one in New York City and I found it very hard to walk out of there with just one item and when I decided on the one that I wanted it was difficult not to walk out of there with every single accessory that they offered me. They also have a great selection of good college laptops.

Most likely you will be happier shopping on line for the laptop of your choice since you can do it from the comfort of your own home. This is how I do most of my purchases for such items. Shopping this way will help avoid the salesmen type sales pitches that will come your way when go to the actual store.

Buying best laptops for college online you can save you money by looking up promotion and coupon codes and with the many choices of online stores, they will compete more for your business.