It can be a daunting task these days to decide the best laptop for college students. Are the more expensive ones better? In a lot of cases, it may not be so true. For most college students, cheaper is going to be better. And, with todays disposible socitey, this is a good rule of thumb for laptops.

The average college laptop will only have a life of a few years at best. Let’s face it, that can of soda that dumped into it sure didn’t help to extend that life any. Neither will the fall off the table at the Student Union Building. So look for a good, tough laptop that does not cost a fortune, as you will probably need to replace it at least once before your college career is over.

A new trend is to go with a Netbook, or an ultra small version of a laptop. And there are good and bad points on these. One, the lower price is a good incentive to check them out. And the smaller, lighter size is another good point. But most of them do not have CD/DVD drives. So using any type of software is out of the question unless you can access it online too. And the smaller screen on a killer crunch study night could get to be annoying as well. It is probably better to go with one of the smaller screens on a regular laptop.

There are also some very light and very well equiped best college laptops out there that come with a hefty price for their portability. These are high-end models, that will cost a considerable bit more. There again, you will have to make the final decision on what you are willing to spend, and these loaded laptops are wonderful, but the price is a concern, and if you are looking at possibly replacing it half-way through your college experience is that going to be worth it, having enough memory to download half the documents in the free world, or play the latest, most graphics intense version of a video game? Really, do you NEED 1,000 songs on there? Get a smaller, less costly version for your college classes, and get that big old beast after you graduate!

Most of the budget laptops are bulkier, and do not have alot of the features that will allow you to be a gamer on them, but if you are just looking for a basic laptop to take to and from class and use for your studies, there are some GREAT deals out there. Check the “Bigbox” stores, as well as online sites, as they will often put out internet-only deals that can save you a ton of cash! Watch the advertisements, and go to stores and look around. See what is out there, and make notes of the ones that you might be interested in. Start a little bit before you need it, like at least a month before you go to school, so that you can price shop, and get the laptop and get it set up and ready to go and be familiar with it before you have to use it in earnest.

One thing that I think I would avoid however is purchasing a USED unit. Those can be tricky. Even if they are certified that they are refurbished, do you really want to take a chance on that laptop with ALL of your term paper in it crashing and dying? I think that new would be the best choice here. Yes, new ones can crash too, but you do get tech support for usually one year, so there is at least a hope that you might can recover something.

Deciding the best laptop for college students really has to depend on the student and the budget that they are willing to put out there! Deals can be had, it takes a little effort, and you have to keep your eyes on the prize. Go for lower costs, and less bling, and you will have a nice little unit that will serve you well! Good luck, and happy shopping!

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.

Colleges throughout the world now deliver not only lecture notes, but entire lectures online. Gone are the days of submitting printed or hand written versions of your coursework, as essays and projects are now delivered electronically. Indeed, many universities now make the ownership of a laptop compulsory for all students.

The advent of tablet PCs a number of years ago gave way to a new way to interact with your computer, and ultimately the content it contains. Early adopter technology students saw the appeal of a small touch screen device for taking lecture notes or checking facts on the web during lectures. With the release of the Apple iPad, there is now an even easier and sleeker way to access your entire course and social materials.

You can use your iPad for everything you would need for university. Need to take notes in class? You can use the inbuilt note and word-processing software, along with any number of third party apps available online. If you need to email your friends for a night out or hook up with some family overseas you can do that all from your iPad. Tired of lugging around all those heavy books? No problem, just download them as eBooks from the new Apple iBook store if they are available, or obtain PDF versions online and load them in to the Stanza app from the App store. Imagine, contained within this small device with a very functional 9.7inch screen you can have all your reading material, course notes, social communication, entertainment, music and photos. Packing for university or college has never been so easy. Just toss your iPad in your bag, housed of course in a protective case, add a few clothes and you have everything you need for your semester at college.

If you are concerned about writing long essays on your iPad, there is no need to worry. For those who don’t like the innovative onscreen touch keyboard you can hook your device up to one of the iPad keyboard docks and you have a fully functional external keyboard to tap away on.

The IPad could very well be the best laptop for college students. Compared to a fully fledged Macbook, the iPad is more portable, user friendly and cheaper. When you combine it with all the iPad accessories you have to choose from, it could well be the must have accessory for your college computing needs.

Indeed, my Mac Book 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.

Unlike a large, bulky laptop, the HP 110 doesn’t require a separate carrying case or a special “laptop bag,” which is wonderful for a student because it doesn’t necessitate lugging around two bags (books are heavy enough already!)

With 160GB of hard drive space, you’ll find plenty of storage on this computer, and the Intel Atom N270 is enough processing power to handle whatever you can throw at it. As you can see from the hardware setup, this laptop functions just like a full size computer system, but it is truly portable. This is especially important for a college student. While a typical laptop user may only transport their computer once or twice a day (to work and back home), a college student may move their laptop up to 10 times a day because of their busy class schedule. This compact system will not only save your back, but it will save your pocketbook, as well.

Because it doesn’t contain a bulky over sized screen (one of the most expensive components of a computer), the HP 110 is able to be very competitively priced. For the college student on the move, this laptop is a perfect choice. It is highly recommended for anyone with an active lifestyle who plans to carry their computer around frequently. It just may be the best laptop for college students.

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.