Best laptops for college students reddit

I still need to buy a laptop before I start 1st year.

I preferably would want a cheap lightweight product that will get the job done.

But I'll be willing to fork out a bit off extra cash if the laptop has features which makes it more easy to use and a lifesaver during the course.

Any recommendations?

This is inspired by a post somebody made the other day and I responded with a very long comment so I might as well make a post of it to include more details. Again, this is only my two cents and people’s opinions may differ so feel free to correct me in the comments.

The ideal combo is a MacBook + an iPad. If you’re also using iPhone or any other Apple products it would be perfect. The productivity derived from the Apple ecosystem is just beyond reach. It’ll make everything very efficient. Also, Apple products just look nice. Everything from the UI and the box is just very well designed and detailed. You also don’t have to do much comparisons with different brands so it’ll save you a lot of time.

What I’m using is: 2020 M1 MacBook Air + iPad Air 4th Gen. My MBA has 16 GB RAM and 512 GB Storage but the base $899 model with education discount can get you quite far. If you’re rich enough, of course you can get the latest M1 Pro MacBook Pro. But unless your major requires you to do some heavy art creation or editing, I’d advise just getting a MacBook Air because it’s much more portable and light. It’s also powerful enough for your everyday task and even some light gaming. (I can play League of Legends and CS: GO on it very well, getting 100+ frames with the highest settings).

My iPad Air is the base model ($560)with 64 GB Storage which is enough for me as I’m only using it to take notes and most of my stuff is saved on iCloud with the $3/month subscription plan. My advice is don’t ever get the base line iPad 9th Gen. It is cheap but it has older hardware which will not last you as long as the other iPads. Also it doesn’t support Apple Pencil 2, which allows it to magnetically attach to the iPad to charge it while you have to awkwardly plug the 1st Gen into the lightning port to charge it, making it less visually appealing and less portable. I highly advise against getting those $30 Apple Pencil rip-offs. I got one and they sucked. It’s not as responsive as the real Apple Pencil. The iPad Air 4 also have a full screen like the iPad Pro, which not only makes notetaking easier but also makes the whole device looks more appealing and even professional. You can of course shoot for the iPad Pro if your budget allows which will even give you more nice features. But if you’re an art major, go straight to the M1 iPad Pro because it has a 120Hz ProMotion display which will makes drawing more smooth.

If you’re on a budget constraint then I’ll recommend getting a Microsoft Surface laptop. I’m not as familiar with it but to my knowledge, it’s a 2 in 1 laptop + tablet which allows you to snap the screen off to take notes by hand and snap it back on to type. Of course it’ll not be as fast as the Macbook/iPad but remember for Apple you’ll have to spend about $1500 at least. For Surface, you only have to spend under $1000 to get a laptop/tablet. You can of course still get an iPad + a Magic Keyboard to make it more “computer”. But an iPad is still an iPad and there’s a lot of things you can only do on a “computer” (unless future iPads support MacOS which will be another story).

I don’t recommend anything other than Microsoft’s Surface and Apple’s MacBook unless you wanna do some heavy gaming on the side of studying. If so, you’ll have to look into some gaming laptops. But keep in mind that they’ll be a lot heavier and less portable so if you want something you can carry around and bring to lecture halls to take notes, you’ll need something like a Surface or a MacBook or an iPad.

All in all, you’ll have to consider a few things: major + budget + purpose. If you’re something of an art major or anything that involves heavy editing, go straight the the MacBook Pro. If you have to do a lot of math and draw a lot of graphs, I’d recommend to get a tablet which you can write on, in this case a Surface if you’re on a budget constraint or a MBA + iPad if you can afford it. If your major only requires you to type, then you’re fine with only a MBA.

One more thing: Since most of you looking at this post I’ll assume is a Class of 2022 HS senior, I’ll recommend not buying anything at this moment if you’re considering any Apple Products as they’ll likely release a new MacBook Air and a new Gen iPad Air as per their past practice. I’ll say wait til Summer 2022 for any Spring releases to make purchases if you don’t currently own a laptop/tablet. But if you currently do own a laptop/tablet, you can even wait a little longer til after Fall 2021. Anyway, always use the education discount if you’re buying anything from Apple. You don’t have to present any proofs just search on Google Apple Education Store and shop from there. And because of the current situation, anything that’s not a base model has to be configured in China and it’ll take 1-2 weeks for your product to be delivered to you after you order it. So time your purchase to avoid not having a device to use when school year starts.

Edit: thanks for u/falxonpigxon pointing it out in the comments. If your major requires specific programs (Engineering, CS…), you may have to look into your school’s recommendations cuz some programs don’t run on Mac. The latest M1 Macs also can’t run bootcamp. So you may have to look into a windows laptop.

I’m starting to look, but I don’t want to drop a whole bunch of money on a laptop and wish I had gotten another one later 🤡. Right now I’m leaning towards the MacBook Air, but I wanted to crowd source and see what the general consensus on laptops for college is.

Looking for a laptop that is speedy, will last for years to come, and is under $900 with accidental protection. Something that will work well for school and Zoom meetings!

I was looking into a custom built HP Envy 13, is that a good idea?

If not, any better ideas?

Thank you all in advance!

First of all, I am no expert at this, I just did my own research and bought a new laptop not long ago AND how I wished there's a short summary/guide on how to choose my laptop, so here's what I consolidated. To the laptop/com experts here, feel free to add your own comments or opinions.

MEMORY (Random Access Memory RAM): short term memory which allows multitasking and allows many tabs and apps to be opened at the same time. So if u always open a lot of tabs and apps, u shld get 16gb. But honestly I think 8gb is enough for normal student/office work

Ports: alot of laptops now ONLY has type C USB ports which is kinda annoying if u need to pluck in a thumbrive or a mouse which is type A. In my knowledge, some laptops like dell xps or macbook only has type C (thunderbolt is the new version of type C), so u have to buy adapters which is kinda troublesome and really a hassle to be always carrying it and plugging and unplugging it. So yea having at least one type A port will be very useful. Also, if u think you are likely to be doing a lot of presentations, a hdmi port will come in handy too.

Battery Life: this one very impt to me lol cuz I lazy charge. My laptop has a battery rating of 63Wh and it can literally last me the whole day without charging if I don't use it excessively. But then 63wh abit overpower HAHAHA so around 50Wh normally is decent enough to last you through your school day. ALSO, don't ever trust them when they say the laptop can last 12hours++, they usually run some minimal applications or battery tests which are highly inaccurate. So look at the battery ratings instead (Wh). Watts hour(Wh) is the amount of energy stored in the battery so yea

Processors: idk much about ryzen but I heard its better than intel but imma tell yall more about intel since I have done more research about it. ITS A MYTH THAT I7 IS BETTER THAN I5. I7, I5 are like a series and what matters is the generation. So a I5 11th gen can be better than a I7 10th gen. The newest gen now is 11th btw and its written like this: I7-11sthsthsth which means its i7 11th gen (so i5-10sthsth is i5 10th gen), the behind numbers and letters have meanings to it but I don't think yall need to get that hardcore ya (unless yall are gamers lol). So basically processor determines how fast your laptop will process things which is vv impt also so yeah if u want the best just get i7-11th gen. i7-10 or i5-11 are very decent as well. There's i9-11 now but its too ex and not worth the price.

Ryzen: after reading all the comments, it does seem like ryzen is better than intel HAHAHA so basically, ryzen processors are smaller in size and yet as or even more efficient than intel. This leads to be a higher thermal efficiency and a better battery life. Ryzen 7 has 8 cores, ryzen 5 has 6 cores which are all really good specs. So yea my take is choose a laptop model u like and if that model offers ryzen chip, go for the ryzen one :) but if it doesn't, hey intel ain't that bad.

Storage: er depends on your personal preference but I think 512gb shld be more than enough but the more the merrier lol. Also u can take note whether its ssd or hdd storage. Basically SSD transfers data much faster than hdd which can help with your battery life too. Alot of laptops nowadays offer ssd or a hybrid of both, so this isn't really a big concern to me but yea, good to know hahahaha

Display and Weight: if yall are okay with small screens, 13inch will do and honestly if u use it long enough, you will get used to the 13 inch screen anyway. Laptops that are around 1.2kg are sleek and super portable but yea anything less than 1.5kg should be fine bah

So yep guys, these are the main considerations when I was choosing a laptop. Hope it helps :))

Okay btw I bought asus zenbook 14 UX435EG-AI016T recently and I'm loving it. Not only it has all the specs I want, the touch pad also acts as an additional screenpad which is hella LIT. You literally have 2 monitors in one but then personal preference la hor, if u think its helpful then yay :) okay but zenbook isn't the only series with this feature, u can look into vivobook too if u want HAHAHAH

Windows recommendations: levono thinkpad, dell xps or asus zenbook.

The new macbook with the m1 chip is really good (freaking fast processing speed), so if you are a fan of apple and its ecosystem, why not :) However, one bad thing about this m1 chip is that it may not be compatible or verified with some software apps, so coding/engineering students take note ya, yall might wanna check if your apps are compatible with m1 chip first(got this info from a comment below)

iPad is still a great choice for those who just need a laptop for slides, zoom, notes taking, presentations. However if u need to use developer apps, coding, rendering, CAD designs and things like that, you shld get a proper laptop :)

EDIT: Added some info (ryzen, storage type, battery life, m1 chip disadvantage) based on the comments, so keep the comments coming and I will edit accordingly :) AND THANK YALL SO MUCH FOR THE AWARDS HAHAHA honestly didn't expect this to get so much attention :))