Are you a student and finding a best laptop for college works? Then your search should probably end here because here I have made the list of best laptops for college students which includes laptops which are selected specially by keeping students daily needs and routine in mind.
When it comes to buying a laptop for college students, then there are lot of things to check in a laptop. Let me talk about each of them in detail so you can know what it takes to buy best laptop for college students. It doesn’t matter what college majors you are into, one common thing which all students have to do is taking notes in class. For that laptop of a college student should be very fast and it should have convenient typing keyboard to take notes faster. College students are always in hurry so there laptops should not take much time to boot the OS and it should also wake quickly from sleep mode. Laptop should be smaller in size and It should have durable build so that it can go through all daily wears-tears and bumps of students life. One of the most important thing to check while buying laptop for students is weight of the laptop. They already carry lot of bulky books in their bags so buying a laptop which is lighter in weight will reduce the total weight of their bag and it will not boor there shoulders while carrying it to the college from home and vice-versa. Even laptop’s battery life is equally important, it is not feasible to charge a laptop in a class room so it should also have good battery backup.
Well if you are buying any laptop from the list provided here of best laptops for college students then you needn’t have to worry about these things. I have taken care of all these things while selecting laptops to put in this list. So below provided list contains laptops which are perfect for college students. All laptops are from trustworthy and well-known brands. They also have 1 year manufacturer’s warranty so they are complete package for college students. Without wasting more time, let us now begin with list of laptops…
Best Laptops for College Students – Top Picks of 2016
Unlike other laptop buying guides, I would be going real quick with the description of the laptops. If you want more precise information on any laptop models then you can check it by clicking on Amazon button beneath every respective laptops. So lets begin students with the class to buy best college laptops…
Best Laptops for Online Learning Students –
Students pursuing distant education or learning online will not require much powerful laptops so these laptops will be relatively cheaper than laptops of other major students. There are few chrome books and even windows laptops with best display, loud speakers to listen online lectures so you don’t have to boor your head with headphones and longer battery life for non-interrupted learning.
1) Toshiba Satellite C55-B5240X 15.6-Inch Laptop
A powerful yet budget laptop from Toshiba which runs latest windows 10 operating system. It gets power from its Intel Celeron processor with on board graphics and 4 GB RAM. It comes with 500 GB hard drive, in case you want to store any of your learning sessions offline. It has beautiful 15.6-inch display for watching videos. Its speakers are also loud and crispier. It can run up to continuous 5 hours on full charge of battery and it weighs just 4.85 pounds. Apart from that it has built in webcam, all required ports and micro SD card reader so it is a complete package for online college student.
Price – $269.00
2) ASUS F555LA-AB31 Full HD Screen laptop
This is another budget windows laptop for college students which is from Asus. It is made up of high quality durable fiber like material and aluminium at some places. This laptop is light in weight and It has everything which you will need as a online learner from your new laptop. It has full HD 15.6-inch display so it will show you everything in a crystal clear quality. Its keyboard is also convenient to type and touch pad is also big and easy to use. It is powered by 5th Generation Intel i3 chip along with 4 GB RAM and offers 500 GB of hard drive so it is affordable yet powerful laptop. You can buy this laptop over previous one if you want some more power from your laptop and if you can spend 100 more bucks on your new laptop.
Price – $349.99
3) ASUS Chromebook
This is actually a chrome book which runs chrome OS, it offers similar environment as using chrome on other operating systems. Online learning students spends lot of their time on internet and this chrome book from Asus is just made for that. It is beautifully designed and light in weight laptop which is also fast and battery efficient. This chrome book comes with Intel Celeron processor and has 4 GB RAM. It has 13-inch HD screen which will let you enjoy online learning videos and its speakers are also good to hear them clearly. It comes with all required ports and overall its a great deal for just $219. If you are looking for cheaper laptop for your online study requirements which is ultra portable and with more than 10 hours of battery backup then this chrome book from Asus offers just that.
Price – $219.00
Checkout Laptops Under $300
Best Laptops For Economics & Law Students –
Students of economics has to make complex spreadsheets and diagrams, for that they will need a laptop with bigger touch screen display, better performance, precision touch pad and accu-type keyboard. Whereas law students has to type long documents, read different laws books, research previous law cases on internet etc. so they will also need powerful and portable laptop. Here are few such laptops check them out…
4) Asus Flip 2 in 1 15.6-inch touch-screen laptop
This is 2 in 1 laptop as you can see from image above. It has 15.6 inch touch screen display which can be flipped around to use it as a touch screen monitor for drawing pie charts and other diagrams easily. It has full keyboard with num pad and touch pad works also good on this laptop. So from design it is a complete laptop for a college student. It is powered by Intel’s 4th generation i3 processor and 6 GB RAM. It produces enough power to easily switch between multiple programs and work simultaneously on both of them. If you are doubting upon its capabilities then let me tell you that you are not compromising here with any ports or other features. It has 500 GB of hard drive as you would expect from a laptop and it has battery backup of 5 hours which is great for this much powerful machine. Overall great buy for economics and law students, highly recommended because of its less weight and 2 in 1 design.
Price – $477.79
5) Lenovo Flex 3 15.6 Inch Touchscreen Laptop
Another laptop of same kind, which is slightly more powerful and good looking. It comes with 15.6-inch touch screen display which can be flipped completely to provide windows tablet like user interface. It is powered by Intel’s 5th generation i5 processor, 500 GB hard drive and 4 GB RAM, which runs latest windows 10 on this laptop. It has nice big responsive touch pad and full keyboard with num pad. This laptop is really powerful yet portable laptop which has 4.5 hours of battery backup. With 4.62 pounds weight, this laptop stands best for college students who has to deal with heavy multi-tasking works.
Price – $638.95
6) Dell Inspiron 11 3000 Series Convertible Laptop
Another convertible laptop which is small yet very powerful laptop. I would recommend this laptop especially to law students because of its smaller size and less weight. This laptop has 11.6-inch high definition LED touch screen display which can be flipped completely to use it as a tablet. It has a accu-type keyboard which does not have numeric pad, well that’s fine for law students according to me. On hardware side, it is powered by Intel Core i3 processor, 4 GB RAM and 500 GB hard drive which is more than enough hardware to carry out all day to day computing activities of law students. With its ridiculous 7 hours of battery life and 3.1 pounds of weight this laptop is best at portability for any major students but for law students it is perfect setup.
Price – $449.99
Checkout list of laptops under $400
Best Laptops for Computer Science & IT Students –
Computer science students needs a laptop with best keyboards to write code, that is there basic requirement. Apart from that, there laptops should have nice cooling capabilities because Computer and IT students are usually computer addictive persons. They will need extremely powerful laptop which is portable and with best battery life so checkout similar best laptops for college students in computer science and IT major.
7) Toshiba Satellite 15.6-Inch Laptop
Toshiba always manufactures laptops by keeping requirements of people as their first priority. Well this laptop from Toshiba comes with 5th generation Intel core i7 processor with clock speed of 3.0 GHz, 2 GB graphics from AMD and it has 8 GB of RAM so it is very powerful laptop. It has beautiful 15.6 inch screen which will help computer science students to easily multi task by opening two windows side by side. Apart from that it comes with adequate storage of 1 TB and all required features which computer science and IT students will need. Overall this laptop is great package for students with 5 hours of battery life and 4.8 pounds of weight.
Price – $769.99
8) Lenovo Z50-70
Lenovo laptops are known for its durability and light weight chassis, well I think that’s what we need in the laptops for college students. Lenovo Z50-70 is another powerful machine which would be best for students in computer science and IT majors. It is powered by 4th generation Intel core i7 processor which is powerful and battery efficient. It has 8 GB of RAM, 2 GB NVidia graphics and 1 TB of hard drive so there are no exceptions in performance here. It has full HD 15.6 inch display and convenient to use keyboard. Overall this is best laptop for college works with 5.1 pounds of weight and up to 5 hours of battery backup.
Price – $693.00
9) Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Series Laptop
Dell always makes powerful laptops which can be utilized for any works but by seeing design and performance of this laptop I can say that this laptop will be best for computer science and engineering students. This laptop has 15.6 inch LED-lit screen which is best size for computer programmers. It has convenient to type keyboard and precision touch pad. It has all required ports including HDMI and Ethernet ports. For performance this laptop is rocking 5th generation Intel core i7 processor with 8 GB RAM and has 4 GB dedicated graphics from NVidia. This laptop has 1 TB hard drive storage so you will never run out of space with this laptop. Overall this laptop is great deal because it is priced for just $726 despite of its high end hardware configuration and that’s why this laptop would be best for power users like computer and IT students.
Price – $726.00
Checkout Laptops Under $600
Best Laptops for Business Students –
Business students have to attend long lectures and they have to take notes simultaneously so they will need a laptop with good battery life. Apart from that they need to work on various things at a time so their laptops should also have good hardware specifications. Apart from that portability is the common thing to see while finding best laptops for college students in any major, so lets have a look to few such laptop models for business students.
10) Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Ultrabook
An ultra-book from thinkpad series of laptops from Lenovo, is designed specially for business persons to deliver magnificent power. It is ultra portable laptop with just 3.15 pounds of weight. It has quad HD 14-inch touch screen display, best for explaining and drawing business models. It has nice touch pad and easy to type keyboard. Apart from that it also comes with finger print scanner to add extra level of security to your laptop. It is powered by Intel’s 4th generation i5 processor, 4 GB RAM & 128 GB SSD. Its 9 hour of battery life makes this laptop a complete package for business students college needs.
Price – $797.97
11) Asus Zenbook UX305LA Laptop
Asus Zenbook is perfectly designed and equipped laptop for business students. It is powered by 5th generation Intel core i5 processor, 8GB RAM and 256 GB SSD. It has sharp 13.3 inch full HD display which is not touchscreen but it’s touchpad is great to work with Windows 10 on this laptop. Even its chiclet keyboard is nice. Design of this laptop looks very much identical to MacBooks so if you want MacBook like portability from a Windows laptop then Asus Zenbook weighs just 2.87 pounds and has 10 hours of battery backup.
Price – $749.99
Best Laptops for Science & Medical Students –
Most of medical universities in United States ask students to own a laptop before they join college because medical students have to do extensive research on different organs and diseases of patients and for that laptop is essential thing. They will need high resolution display in there laptop which will help them to study small parts of different human organs in extreme details. Even there laptop should be powerful and with better graphics support to monitor live scans of human body. For science students, you will need exactly the same machine with same qualities, so lets have a look to similar laptops for students studying in medical & science majors.
12) Dell XPS 13
We can say that this is the best designed laptop ever or to be more precise a laptop with best display. On seeing this laptop, the first thing you will notice is, its 13 inch touch screen display with Quad HD resolution. It has very small frame which makes its display look much more bigger than actually it is and so this makes a place in list of laptops for science and medical students. It has nice keyboard, touch pad, and all required ports you will need for your daily tasks. This laptop has newest 5th generation i5 processor, 8 GB RAM & 256 GB SSD storage. This model is priced at $1399.99. There are other models also of this laptop which comes with 13 inch non touch display and 4 GB RAM, that model is priced at $899. Both models will be good for medical and science students, you can go with any model as per your budget and requirements.
Price – $1,374.99
13) HP Envy 15t Laptop
A best companion for students from HP with extreme power inside. It is powered by 5th generation Intel i7 processor and it has 8 GB of RAM. To store your necessary files it comes with 1 TB hard drive storage. This laptop comes with dedicated graphics chip of 4 GB from NVidia. This is the best hardware for medical as well as science students. Apart from that it is well built laptop with 15.6 inch full HD display and it also has functional keyboard and precision touch pad supporting multi-finger gestures. This laptop comes with latest windows 10 pre-installed and can run up to 5 hours on full charge of battery. According to me this is the best laptop for both medical and science students, because of its high performance hardware and full HD display.
Price – $839.99
Checkout Laptops Under $1000
Best Laptops for Architecture & Engineering Students –
Architecture & Engineering students have to make and draw plans of buildings and machinery parts respectively. They work on high end software like AutoCAD, Solid Works, MATLAB, LaTEX etc. which needs lot of horsepower to run so laptop for architecture and engineering students should be with high performance hardware. Even they will need a laptop with sturdy build quality, so that it could go work in extreme conditions. Apart from that good battery life and less weight will be icing on cake of high performance.
14) Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK Laptop
This laptop from Dell is recently launched and it is packed with high end hardware specifications. It has got durable body to resist everyday wears and tears and even if you break something on this laptop, Dell provides accidental warranty on this laptop so it will be replaced easily without any extra costs. This whole tough body has newest 6th generation Intel i5 processor which is tremendously fast and battery efficient at the same time. It comes with 8 GB RAM and NVidia GeForce GTX960M 4 GB Graphics. As you can see this Dell laptop is packed with best hardware specifications and even it has tough build quality so this laptop is highly recommended to engineering and architecture college students.
Price – $799.99
15) Asus K501UX Laptop
Another laptop for college students especially for those who has to work on high end software on their laptops. This laptop is has nice two tone color finish. Its outer body is tough and it can resist your daily bumps. It has nice back-lit keyboard which is pretty much convenient to type and its touch pad also does wonders. It is rocking inside powerful 6th generation Intel i7 CPU along with 8 GB RAM. This laptop comes with 256 GB SSD which helps in reducing weight of this laptop and making it more portable. All this power is runs windows 10 very smoothly on this laptop and it manages to give battery backup of about 6 hours. According to me this is best buy for students in engineering and architecture field because of its extremely powerful hardware which comes at just $799, surely a bang for buck deal.
Price – $799.00
Best Laptops for Film & Animation Students –
Film making and animation is something which includes lot of video rendering works so to do it faster students will need extremely powerful rig. They use different type of video cameras and other image capturing & viewing devices so their laptop should have all ports for easier connectivity. Apart from that bigger screen will be boon for them to work on new films. Lets have a look to few laptops for students in film making & animation learning majors.
16) MSI GE72 Apache Pro-001 Laptop
MSI is one of the leading gaming laptop manufacturer right now. If we talk about this model then it has best in class performing hardware, bigger display and light in weight body. It is powered by 6th generation Intel processor, 16 GB RAM and it has 3 GB DDR5 NVidia GTX 970M graphics chip which produces enough power for all your movie making needs. This laptop comes with latest Windows 10 OS from Microsoft. It has full HD 17.3 inch non-reflecting display and best thing about this laptop is apart from its huge size this laptop weighs just 4.2 pounds so this laptop is best for students who needs desktop like performance on the go.
Price – $1,499.00
17) MacBook Pro 15 with Retina Display
MacBooks are well-known for its portability, they are light in weight and powerful laptops. This MacBook comes with Mac OS Yosemite which can be upgraded to El-Captitan for free and it provides wonderful environment for video makers. This laptop comes with quad core Intel i7 processor, 16 GB RAM and 256 GB PCIe-based flash storage. It has beautiful 15.6-inch Retina display with 2880 x 1800 resolution. It has unbelievable battery backup of 9 hours so un-interrupted learning. This laptop looks wonderful, it has tough durable build quality and it is also extremely powerful machine so this laptop is highly recommended to animation and film making major students.
Price – $1,839.99
Best Laptops for Art & Design Students –
When it comes to buying laptop for art and designing students, touch screen display is the most important thing to see in a laptop. It makes zooming and seeing designs much more convenient than doing same with touchpad so this is the most important thing to look for in a laptop for college students in art and designing major. They will also need a laptop with powerful hardware with dedicated graphics for faster designing on the go and yes we are suggesting here laptops for students so they must be light in weight and portable as much as possible. So checkout few such laptops…
18) MacBook Pro 13 with Retina Display
I know MacBook does not have touch screen display but its force sensitive touch pad does wonders for designing works. It has beautiful 13-inch retina display which has best viewing angles so it would be best for designing works of students in college. This laptop has Intel core i5 processor clocked at 2.7 GHz frequency and with L3 3 MB cache. It has 8 GB RAM so multitasking on this MacBook will be buttery smooth and to store all your required files this laptop has 256 GB SSD storage. Being such a powerful machine this laptop has battery backup of 10 hours and it weighs just 3.4 pounds. According to me this MacBook is a best laptop a student can get in design and arts major.
Price – $1,417.99
19) Microsoft Surface Book
Microsoft unveiled there flagship laptop in last event, they call it a surface book which is best windows laptop you can ever get. It has 13.5 inch pixel sense touch screen display which is simply perfect for designing works. It even has stylus to make designs on screen more easily. This laptop can completely detach from keyboard to use its screen as a tablet. Apart from that it has extremely powerful hardware inside, it is powered by 6th gen Intel core i5 processor and 8 GB RAM. For meeting your graphics needs, this laptop has NVidia graphics and to store all your important files it has 256 GB SSD storage. This laptop can run up to 10 hours on one full charge of a battery and it weighs just 3.5 pounds. I would say this as one of the best laptop for art and design learners right now because it is extremely powerful and portable computer.
Price – $1,899.00
20) Asus Zenbook Pro
Another model of zenbook from Asus in this laptop buying guide for college students. I picked this laptop for art and designing students because of its 15.6 inch touch screen 4k display, I think students will love learning and making new designs on this laptop. It is beautifully designed and packed with powerful hardware to run Windows 10 on this laptop. It has Intel’s i7 chip, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD storage and NVidia’s 2 GB graphics. Overall this laptop is another great laptop with bigger high resolution touch screen display so this is value for money laptop for art and design students.
Price – $1,404.87
See More Laptops for Graphic Designing
That’s it students, I think I have suggested laptops for students in all majors. Well if your college major is not listed here then you can tell me your major of study and requirements in comments, I will suggest best laptop for your college needs. I hope this list of best laptops for college students help you to buy best laptop for your study requirements. You can help me back by sharing this post on Facebook, Twitter and Google +, yes that really helps.
Brijesh Gohil is the founder of Tech Brij, A popular Tech Blog which is focused on Tech tips & Buying Guides. You can follow him on Facebook, Twitter, Google + & LinkedIn.