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.

This is a guest post from Ben, who goes to FSU 

Last night watching the Patriots-Steelers game in the lounge of my residence hall I had a discussion with several of the guys during halftime. A commercial for the new MacBook Air came on and every single person made negative remarks about it. All of us had discovered one thing about laptops we wish we had known before this year, that the more durable and the more falls it can withstand the better.

Because we live in an age of technology we are constantly on out computers and since we live in a residence hall without wifi we need an Ethernet cable attached. Every single one of us has tripped over the cord and had our laptop crash to the floor or gone to bed with our laptop in the bed with us, only to fall out (sometimes from a top bunk) to the floor in the middle of the night. 

IMB Thinkpads are unfashionable but they are durable and with the type of papers and speeches required of us a working computer is a must at all times. This computer isn’t as flashy and may be unpopular for college freshmen compared to other brands but when an everyday accident causes you to lose all your work and hundreds of dollars of equipment maybe its time to switch to the computer that can withstand accidents. IMB Thinkpads are in my opinion the best college laptop. (Or at least college freshmen laptop until you move into better dorms with wifi and no bunk beds). Its not totally accident proof but it is durable to cover most normal falls and incidents.

Tied for first is the Dell Latitude XFR. This laptop is the definition of durable it could probably fall off a skyscraper and be fine. Of course being college freshman we tried dropping it from the highest place we could. It fell four stories and still works. So if you really want durable this is the most extreme option. 

Also tied for first (yes there are three first place choices) is the Panasonic Toughbook. Because so many of us broke or damaged laptops and we are broke college students the logical first choice for a replacement was whatever computer wouldn’t break. This is just another unbreakable laptop from a trusted brand.

In second place for best college laptops is the Apple MacBook Pro. While it may not have the durability on a college campus computers suffer from slow downloading and lots of issues. It can be so frustrating especially when you really need to finish a Logical Argumentation project due tomorrow at 8AM. So the Mac with far fewer problems and much less prone to suddenly crash on you (My Asus completely crashed during midterms with led to severely elevated levels of stress.). Next to durability, reliability is the most important thing and on a college campus laptops are much more prone to issues and viruses so having a Mac would be very useful.

In third place is the HP TouchSmart. Teachers are occasionally strict about letting computers in their class simply because they do not want student Facebooking instead of paying attention but teachers are fine with this laptop because it folds easy on your desk just like a notebook. And students who have this laptop are able to take notes straight on their computer making them easy to fond later. So for a computer that makes your notes easily organized and that teachers almost always allow in class the HP TouchSmart is a wise choice.

Knowing what I know now there is NO way I would not have bought the laptop I did to start college with. I very expensively learned what does and doesn’t work and for best laptop success get something durable or that will not constantly have problems (or crash at bad times!) or that can be used to further help you stay organized and get ahead in classes.

When you go to buy the best college laptops for students, it has to be lightweight yet sturdy enough so that it gives a good throbbing. It should be small enough to fit in under your arms or in a backpack as well as should be easy to carry from class to class also. The performance and battery life should be excellent and unforgettably should be inexpensive too. It is observed that netbooks prove to be best and ideal mini-laptops for students as they are small in size along with good battery backup.

IBM ThinkPad X40 from Lenovo is ultra thin and sleek and is quite ideal for many professionals as well as students who are shopping for good college laptops. 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.

Every college student needs the perfect laptop to take their college experience over the top. When searching for the perfect laptop, one brand rises above the other, setting the bar for innovation and durability; Lenovo. Without a doubt, the best Lenovo laptop for college, outranking the others in performance, portability and durability is the Lenovo ThinkPad X300; ultra-light, super-portable, this laptop is nearly unbreakable and comes with a ton of features that make it a sweet deal for any student and one of the best laptops for college.

A 13” screen make this laptop user friendly for in-class use and for cramped dorm rooms, yet its rugged exterior makes it virtually indestructible, a must for any college student. The Lenovo X300 ThinkPad is also energy-star certified, making it environmentally friendly as well as user friendly. The integrated DVD burner and ultra-fast media streaming capabilities make it a cinch to turn your class presentations into something professional, which will no doubt impress your professors and awe your classmates, making you the envy of the dorm.

The Lenovo X300 also allows for easy sharing of documents and class lectures, making it all the easier to shrug off that early philosophy class in exchange for another hour of sleep or two. An Intel Core 2 Duo SL700/1.2 GHz processor comes standard and the Lenovo X300 comes Windows Vista capable, for those students who prefer that operating system. A Microsoft Office 2007 icon comes preinstalled with a sixty day free trial, as does Norton Security, with a 90-day free trial offer; all it takes is a click of the mouse and you can access and purchase the full versions of the programs.

The battery has an average run-time of 6.5 hours which allows for a full day of classes without needing to haul around the power cord and the three year limited warranty covers the basics and is similar to warranties for other laptops on the market. Power-saver technology allows for sleeper mode while not in use, extending battery life during down times in classes, a helpful feature during classes with a lab component.

Possibly one of the best features of this laptop is the fingerprint reader, a bonus for dorm room living, protecting both your personal information and your hard earned class work from the eyes of your dorm-mates and those around you at any time, as well as acting as a strong antitheft feature, not to mention adding to the overall coolness rating of the Lenovo X300 ThinkPad.

Other features include integrated Bluetooth and webcam, microphone and integrated high-definition speakers for rocking out those all night study sessions in style. USB and Ethernet slots as well as memory card slots and headphone jack come standard, making downloading pictures, syncing cameras, PDAs and other devices a breeze.

All in all, the Lenovo X300 ThinkPad could be the best college laptop on the market these days. Highly rated by reviewers and users alike, the Lenovo X300 lives up to expectations and is a sleek, smart laptop that delivers everything a college student could need, except of course the free pizza and beer. For that, you’re on your own.

Reader Question: For those who have owned a Lenovo, which one did you have and were you satisfied with it?