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 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 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.

First, consider that you don’t necessarily have to have the newest and most trendy computer. If you are not going to be doing complex programming—in other words, if you’re like most students, using your computer for word processing, surfing the Internet, sending email, and for music and videos—you can likely get by with a less expensive machine than others might need.

Second, less expensive brands can be just as useful as some of the trendier, more expensive models. For example, you might pay upwards of $1,000 for a basic Apple MacBook, even with Apple’s student discount. But if you’re on a budget and looking to save money on your laptop, why not compare it to models put out by Dell, Toshiba, or even Acer? These days, all of the programs you’d want to run are likely available for just about any machine running any popular operating system, so you’ll probably be just as happy with another brand.

Third, shop online. Laptop computers like the one you’re buying for college are commodities. That means that they’re the same thing whether you buy them from one retailer or another. So, you should use that to your advantage by comparing prices online, and even ordering direct from the manufacturer where that’s available. You’ll be amazed at how much money you can save by doing this.

Fourth, if you’re really on a budget, consider purchasing a used laptop for college. You can often find good deals on eBay and craigsist, where you’ll be able to buy your college laptop for $200 or less. The drawback is that there won’t be a warranty, of course. However, if you do go with a used machine, be sure you’re buying a modern enough version to meet your needs; there’s nothing worse than ordering a laptop only to realize it doesn’t have a wireless internet connection for example, because you’ve never seen one so old that it didn’t have one! Also, be sure to reformat the hard drive and add your own software once you buy the laptop. You never know what kinds of sketchy viruses the previous owner might have downloaded by accident, but by formatting and starting over you can enjoy an almost-new laptop experience!

A word of caution: You may be tempted to consider buying one of the less expensive netbook laptops for college, which can run as little as $300 or $400 for a brand new machine. However, if you’re strongly considering this, make sure you go into the store and play around with them for a while. Those small keyboards and tiny screens might be okay for occasional use while traveling, or as a backup machine so that you don’t have to rely completely on the desktop computer back in your dorm room. But if you’re going to be writing papers and virtually living with your computer as many college students do, you might find that a netbook simply isn’t big enough to fit your needs. Remember, the best laptop for college students makes lie easier, not more difficult.

One last tip: Call or email the bookstore at your new college and tell them that you’re planning to buy a new college laptop. You may find that they have great deals for new students that could beat anything you’d find anywhere else.

Hard Cover Books are a Thing of the Past

University students have many books to carry that can weigh between 10 to 20 pounds per book. Just as people can read books on the iPhone, University students will be able to read their textbooks in an eBook format on a much larger screen and only need to carry around a 1 ½ pound “textbook” rather than three or four 10 pound textbooks while accessing all of their reading materials for all their classes on this one light weight “textbook.” With the great selection of iPad messenger bags on the market it should be possible to have a virtual library of textbooks all weight less then that of a laptop!

Convenient Note Taking and Calendar Applications

Another feature that makes the Apple iPad a good college laptop is that it provides that same user-friendly capability to take notes and have them stored in one compact location. University students will love this feature because all of their notes will be kept in that one location. You can email notes to classmates without the worry of getting your hardcopy notes back. The calendar feature is extremely useful for college students as it easily allows them to plug in all important dates for exams, assignments, and meetings; they can easily plan out their own timeframes of when to begin working on an assignment, dates of important exams, study group dates, and social events.

Video and Photo Applications

It’s no secret that today’s teens and young adults are addicted to iPods, You Tube and iTunes as well as taking pictures. The great thing about this computer is that you can watch your favorite videos on a clear and crisp 9 ½ by 7 ½ inch screen. Also, the iPad gives you easy access to purchase and download your favorite music on iTunes and listen to them in high quality through your iPad. This laptop can also be used as a digital picture frame when not in use.

The Apple iPad makes for a good college laptop for any college student. The price runs from $500 to just under $850 and is reasonably priced compared to other laptops, especially for all the features and applications it has. Is the Apple iPad a good college laptop? Absolutely! You get a great high quality laptop with optimal features and will meet the needs of any college student.

One of the best laptops for college students is the Apple Macbook 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 Macbook comes in a small 13.3-inch package that makes mobility simple. This will make transport of the Macbook 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.

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.

This last time (three months ago) I bought the Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv6 Notebook with Windows 7 as the operating system. The notebooks size is an acceptable one with it’s 15.6″ diagonal high-definition2 Brightview LED display. The overall thickness of the laptop is just 1.33″. I’ve had keyboards that were thicker than that. It weighs less than seven pounds. This laptop has been the first one that I’ve own that didn’t need a cool pad.

As for it’s ability, I found it to be so much faster than any other laptop that I’ve had. As a matter of fact it has the same amount of RAM (4GB) as the one before the HP. I”m sure using Windows 7 as it’s operating system doesn’t hurt either. The HP Pavilion also came with a 6GB hard drive (it can be expanded to 8GB), which makes it one hell of a stout little laptop. The Pavilion also has 4 USB ports, as well as a HDMI and VGA port. The 6-cell batteries that comes as the standard type will last to up to 5 hours (depending what programs and how many you’re using). It’s one of the top three on the list of the best college laptop for college students.

This post is mainly to talk about the laptop, but I do have to mention that Windows 7 has been a much better operating system than any other Window version. I’ve heard some negative concerns, but on the most part, it’s been receiving praise and positive reviews.

I purchased my laptop at Best Buy instead of going through HP.com. Not only was it cheaper at Best buy, but I was able to have them remove Norton Security program and install Webroot instead. All I had to do was wait a few hours and go back and pick it up. buying a laptop online will always take any where from 4-10 days before you get it. At least that has been my experience every time I’ve bought one online. Either way you buy the Hewlett Packard Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC, it’s money well spent and is one of the best laptops for college students.

There are many options and features that that you’ll find in laptops for students in, or starting college. Since all students have different needs, there are going to be a wide variety of things that influence their decisions. This is also one of the most important investments that a student will make. I have had my laptop since I began college and have been very happy with the choice that I made.

In my opinion, cost, ease-of-use, and the aesthetic elements of a laptop are some of its’ most important features of the best laptop for college students.

First, a student should decide how much they want to spend on a college laptop. The range of prices is very large. A basic laptop can be found for around five-six hundred dollars, while pricier and more complex models can be as much as two thousand. If you are only going to use your laptop for word processing and emailing, then a cheaper version may suffice. If you play computer games, or use applications that “eat” a lot of memory (i.e. music or architecture programs), then you may want to spend more to get a better system in your computer. If money is tight, going cheap may be best as you can always upgrade a few years down the line.

Students should make sure that their laptops are easy-to-use. Go to the store and try one out or talk to other students for recommendations. Also, finding out if you are a Mac or PC person may be the first step in this direction.

Lastly, aesthetics can mean a lot to many students. If you are going to take your computer out of the house a lot, then make sure it is portable. Get a laptop that isn’t too heavy or bulky. On the other hand, let’s say a student has poor vision. In that case, a laptop with a bigger screen may be the way to go.

These are just a few aspects of a laptop that could influence a student’s decision. Sit down and write a list of what is important for you. Also, I would always advise looking long and hard for good deals. It’s not fun when you buy a laptop and then find it for sale at a different store.

As a graduating senior at a private university, I’ve gone through my share of laptops over the years. In fact, freshman year of college alone, I went through two laptops. I’ve learned a lot what makes the best laptops for college.

Getting back to my freshman year, both of those laptops were HPs, and the second had a fatal crash promptly around the same time the very next year. During the crash of my second HP, it was around midterms at my university, so I was pressed for time to finish downloading articles and finishing research papers.

The year prior, my father had offered me a Macbook as present. Yet, I was stubborn about not wanting to make the switch from a PC to a Mac, and I declined. After my first HP crashed, my dad made the offer again, which I declined. Again. However, after the second hard drive crash, I wasn’t offered a choice. Instead of supplying me with a new PC, my dad sent me a Macbook.

Since it was midterm week, I had no choice but force myself to acclimate to the Macbook quickly. I needed to learn how to use the Apple laptop, and I needed results from it with pressing deadlines. Surprisingly, the switch was fairly simple. In fact, it was probably the easiest college laptop transition I had ever made.

The difference between a Mac and a PC interface is that the Mac is practically designed for a younger market. Apple understands what college students want most in any electronic regardless of use – availability and speed. Macbooks ask permission before installing anything onto the hard drive, so students know exactly what they have installed without having to wonder what programs are hidden in the background.

They’re also easy to search with the Spotlight feature, which is faster and more precise than any search function on a PC. The Spotlight even goes through Word documents, photo keywords, and browser history – talk about thorough!

Finally, Macbooks are made for speed. They have lightning fast processing and internet browsing, as well as media players that make it more enjoyable to watch a movie from iTunes rather than on a movie screen. Overall, I simply couldn’t have made it through college without my Macbook. In my opinion, they are the best laptop for college students. My only regret is that I did not make the switch sooner.

Apple computers are worth every penny of their price tag, and they’re specifically designed for young people like me. I know that I’ll be sticking with Macbooks far into the future past graduation!

Indeed, my MacBook has been both of those things. It is easy to carry which makes it good for a student that wants to bring it to class with them. I was very surprised when I went back to school after eight years of working, how many people now take their notes directly on their computer. It’s definitely one of the best laptops for college. Another really nice thing about the MacBook is how long the battery power lasts. There is room in my classrooms for every student to plug in their own computer but I imagine that is not the case at all schools.

My Mac will last for note taking for several hours on a full charge. It is also a great help that the computer automatically goes to sleep when you close it and you do not lose very much power at all. It saves a lot of time and frustration as you do not need to reboot your computer every time you go to class. In fact, you can leave your computer on all the time, even as you carry it from place to place. You should not be concerned about programs not working with Mac. Most software automatically converted. Many schools have agreements with Mac through which students can get discounts for a computer and software. Some schools even offer the software for free (although the cost is probably included in tuition).

The MacBook that I have is very light weight. It is not a “thin” laptop but it is much easier to carry then the PCs that I have used before. It fits easily in a backpack. Instead of a carrying case I use a memory foam sleeve which so far has protected it very well. The charger is also compact and fits in the front pocket of my backpack. My Macbook also has a built in camera which is very useful for video conferencing with friends and family. If you are going to school far away from home this is a must.

My Macbook is a very basic model and does not have a lot of memory but so far that has not proved to be a problem for me. It runs very fast and I have plenty of room to store my files. I chose a basic model because Macs in general were pricey but it is worth it to me, as a student that depends on my computer, to have a laptop that is durable and reliable.

First of all, you might want to look at factory refurbished laptops before you look at the newer models. The savings on refurbished models are often quite surprising to people who haven’t given any thought to buying reconditioned instead of new. So, let’s get started.

The first laptop that comes highly recommended for college students is the Acer Aspire One AO531H. Acer is a company that specializes in low-cost (but high quality) laptops, specifically for those who may be on a budget. For those looking to do homework or other tasks that don’t require much processing power, this is a great little netbook. It has a 10.1 inch screen, which is just about the right size when you need to haul this computer back and forth from your dorm room to your classes. It’ll easily fit in a backpack, so that’s not a worry at all. Even better is that it only weighs 2.5 pounds, which is considerably less than most laptops. You can snicker at all the people lugging around their huge 17 inch laptops!

This Acer has a very respectable 1.60 GHz Intel Atom processor and 1 GB of RAM, making it plenty powerful enough for just about every application you’d ever need. High end games might be a bit of an issue, but remember that we’re talking about keeping you on a budget! This laptop also boasts a very nice 160 GB worth of hard drive space, which is better than most laptops its size. How much does the Aspire One cost? A bit less than $300 refurbished, and just under $400 brand new. Either way, it’s a steal!

Speaking of the best college laptops, you’ll love this next one: The HP Pavilion DV7-1464NR is really a performance laptop with a small price tag. This thing will play all of your games and more; it even includes a Blu-Ray player standard. It has a 17.0 inch screen with a 1440 x 900 resolution, 4 GB of DDR2 RAM straight from the factory (expandable up to 8 GB!), and a 500 GB hard drive. It also has a 2.2 GHz AMD Dual-Core processor, making it one of the more powerful laptops on the market. How much is this going to run you? About $700 refurbished. If you want to go new you’ll pay about $1300 out the door, so I highly recommend the former. $700 is still a fair amount of money for a college student, but if you can get your family to help you out you’ll be all set!

Thanks for reading, everyone! I certainly hope that this post has given you a head start on choosing one of the best college laptops available to you today.

Brent is the author of http://www.refurbishedlaptopsguide.com.

IBM ThinkPad X40 from Lenovo is ultra thin and sleek and is quite ideal for many professionals as well as students. The style and performance along with its being extremely light in weight, makes it the best choice. However the most attractive and remarkable feature of this laptop is keyboard, which is simply great rather perfect. The keyboard helps in solid typing and offers a ‘full body’ feeling in addition. It is just 3.2 pounds in weight and 1.3 inches tall. It has 40GB hard drive and 256MB of RAM that is built in. The screen is 12.1 inch and is quite bright and crisp. It has all the basic features like couple of USB ports, a monitor connection, network and modem jacks, an SD Card slot and basic audio facility too.

Another remarkable feature is the Thinklight, which enables the user to type even in the dark, which really is extremely helpful for students. This also helps while traveling so that you do not disturb anyone else because of your work. The only thing lacking is the absence of touchpad, which is very helpful and easier, actually for the students. Despite this drawback, X40 proves to be one of the best laptops that has the quality of IBM and is ultra portable.