Best Value Laptops For College Students

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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?

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Five College Laptops You Should Consider (and why)

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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.

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Shopping Tips For Buying A College Laptop

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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.

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