The best laptops for college students (2022)
The best laptops for college students (2022)
Whether you’re heading to a physical campus, taking classes online or a mix of both, a laptop is sure to be the control center for your studies. Getting a new machine can better help you stay on top of your schedule and handle your furious multitasking with dozens of tabs devoted to research while you write your essays. Given we’re still dealing with ongoing inflation and the global chip supply shortage, you might be concerned about rising prices or what might be in stock. The good news is, companies are still making a ton of new laptops, and there are plenty of models for you to consider. We compiled this guide to help you make the right choice, alongside a list of this year’s best laptops.
Read our full guide to the best laptops for college students here: https://www.engadget.com/best-laptops-for-students-130054631.html
If you buy something through one of our links, Engadget may earn a commission.
– The best Apple laptop: MacBook Air: https://amzn.to/3Pivbnj?uuid=BCEwmX7mVoi2IgPd3280
– The best Windows laptop: Dell XPS 13 Plus: https://bit.ly/3NqnB8S?uuid=frz2oHgLuw6XSmyI7281
– The best for gaming: Razer Blade 15: https://fave.co/3g5pJG3?uuid=fI7Ega8P8Noe1drG11282
– The best Chromebook: Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook: https://amzn.to/3OrwzDU?uuid=pojKlITcWGRkenoO13282
– The best budget laptop: HP Pavilion Aero 13: https://fave.co/3bkFU1K?uuid=LqbVzSHu4lxlN8aZ15283
– The best convertible: Microsoft Surface Pro 8: https://amzn.to/3NtBqTU?uuid=ZPwqLNHUUOphbYee19283
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Trying to pick a premium ultrabook is quite hard when you are a tech enthusiast, many options but they all have their flaws. Ended up getting the base Mbp14 (after searching for a whole year) as the M2 air was economically disappointing and the Windows equivalents was almost as expensive as the mbp14.
I don’t need 4 minutes of telling me what I don’t want. Id prefer a quick comparison rundown of a small range of affordable options
anyone have any recommendations for better laptops for college students/Gaming? I’ve had my Microsoft Surface Laptop Go for 1yr & I was thinking of upgrading to the DELL XPS 13
I’ve learned that a lot of colleges aren’t Apple/Mac book friendly, many times I’ve had to convert entire essays to a pdf or word which some of my professors accepted and some didn’t. Now granted this isn’t rocket science to figured out, but it was an extra step or two that took me away from other projects many many times.
Stopped the video at "Chromebook"
Thank you think the bests are: zephyrus x16 x13 z13, tab s8 s8 plus s8 ultra, huawei matebook e and yoga 9i 2 in 1 from 2 in ones, from basic laptops, dell xps 13 15, lenovo yoga 7i and 7 pro x, zephyrus g14, zephyrus m16 apple macbook pro 14 and m2 macbook air and all ipads. oh and ybe asus duo and 360 line also. Also msi creator z line. 🙂
CORECTION!!! Thats the xps 13 plus you can’t see the pad hope this helps
Hey, kinda need a new laptop for game development, portability, power and battery life are a big deal, i saw something like the MSI gs66 or a MacBook don’t really know what to choose, i have no other apple product but from what I see MacBooks are amazing for everything that I need but the compatibility with gaming kinda worries me.
Insane to me that a channel with 1M+ subs doesn’t link the products in the description.
Sis, suggest 3 new laptops that still have the cheapest and most complete official warranty at what price and what brand do you think "? At least look for specs: i5/r5, 8gb ram (no empty slot), 256/512ssd (no empty slot) with score read2200/write1500, nvidia/vega rx, screen 14"/15.6" fhd ips, thankyou
I want a laptop that is great for gaming and school😫
I am not from US but want to ask, can students afford 1500 dollars laptops. When I was a student, I would have considered 500 dollars as splash.
I just purchased a refurbished Surface Laptop (i5/8GB/256GB) from Amazon and it came like new! I highly recommend going that route.
The greatest threat to Windows PC’s ranked:
1- Intel Chips
2- Dell/Lenovo/HP crappy drunk engineers
3- Microsoft continually re-inventing their core apps promising feature parity with the scrapped version, in a year or two. Continually in growing pains.
4- No wifi direct option for transferring files/pics from android to windows in a quick way. PC link is an abomination. Google is promising some android to chrome wifi direct, but who knows when. All other options are 3rd party jank.
Note that in ALL these issues, Apple is excelling. They have their own amazing chips, their hardware designers are not drunk, their build into their existing apps instead of continually scrapping them with some new designed replacement with no features. They have had airdrop for decades.
I’m surprised that none of Linux-based laptops made it to the list.
These are not prices for Students, most cannot afford anything and advising an i3 processor? Okay…. NO
Hi beautiful
Best laptop for students is a used/new thinkpad.
Thanks for clearing that up, now what machine should i get???
I’ve done so much research on this and im studying graphic things. The best laptop, bang for your buck under 1500 is HP Omen. The second best if you want a lower price, high speccs but not a graphics card is Lenovo Yoga 7 Slim.
Reasons: Full alluminium build, QHD (2 k screen), i7 or r7, 3070 in the HP Open, 512-1 tb SSD, clean designs that doesn’t look silly like some other gaming laptops. IPS or Oled screen.
The best laptop for students is one that’s cheap has decent battery and the speakers don’t suck.
As awesome as a MacBook or a surface pro are. They should only be options for students where money isn’t an issue. Students shouldn’t be looking at chromebooks. The OS is just far too limited. Want a decent laptop for further education while on a budget. Get a surface laptop go!
Hey Cherlynn! How about a good review on ChromeOS Flex on NEW PCs?
Also a worthy mention below 1k would be the HP Envy X360 13.3", it serves me well in school taking handwritten notes in OneNote.
Although I wouldnt recommend it for taking notes with a pen especially (it is not seemless), but I cannot compare it to other devices in this regard.
The model has a refresh on the horizon, packing a 16:10 screen, Windows Hello facial recognition and a 12th gen Intel processor.
The best laptops are: Surface laptop 13 inch. Or, Surface laptop 15 inch. End of video.
XPS 15 Laptop – 1:10
XPS 13 Laptop – 1:55
Zenbook Pro Series – 2:06
Chromebooks – 2:10
Dell XPS 13 Plus – 3:01
Apple Mackbook Air M1 and M2 – 3:50
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro series – 5:30
Microsoft Surface laptops – 5:38
Razer Blade 15 – 6:13
Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook – 6:55
HP Pavilion Aero 13 – 8:01
Microsoft Surface Pro 8 – 8:45
6 gigs is not enough..windows uses about 5 gb. Min 8 gigs
I currently have the Acer Chromebook spin 713. Everything about the device itself and the battery is great. But the operating system with every update seems to become increasingly less compatible with anything windows related in my classes. My main problem is that the lockdown browser I have to use is not compatible with my device at all for a certain class.
Anyone know how the HP 15” 2 in 1 convertible laptop is ?
where are all the links?
Where do i start with this MESS of a "laptops for college students" review?
First and foremost, You do Not need a "New" laptop or "the Best" of laptops available today for College as a student, especially, a first year student on a budget unless your first year classes demand the Power and Performance of those high end laptops suggested in that $1200-$3000 range in this review by engadget.
While your on Youtube just type, Best Budget Laptops, and you will find a plethora of content from non biased individuals. Though every reviewer on youtube will have their favorites, write them all down in the price range your looking for and compare! i recommend looking at at least 4-5 or more videos and compare. Look at battery life, screen size and pixel count (720p vs 1080p HD), how much Ram, and what processor it has…etc. Its a start to finding a Windows laptop around $400 to around $600 often on sale if it was released in 2021 that will handle everything for college (again, unless you need a powerful machine). That reminds me, There are plenty of last years 2021 and some 2020 machines that are New, and on sale at Bestbuy and other stores competing with Amazon Prime Day, that most people wont notice a difference in performance in the $500 range compared to a $900 laptop. I wont go into chromebooks because to this day, some applications are not fully optimized yet for Chromebook unless your just require simple application use like word processing and web browsing. (I have a chromebook for such things i paid like $200 dollars for like 2 years ago and it still going strong and last i checked i seen an AMD Lenovo chromebook at best buy with an AMD, A4 chip thats 4x as powerful as mine for $100 on sale.)
NOTE: The idea that you need the most current processor or laptop is a myth. Applications do not evolve and require performance at the same rate that these tech companies (and reviewers like Engadget) are claiming "you need" as these tech companies are putting out more powerful chips every year, battling one another in the title of having "The Fastest" processor or GPU on the market. Most of these college applications have not changed much in 4-5 years and will work fine on 4 and 5 year old systems to this day and are usually only updated for security reasons or optimized for the latest windows updates!. Look at Microsoft Word for example. You can use word on a 10 year old laptop or older. And it may help to find a laptop that has good battery life if your going to be working on the fly in random locations where an outlet is hit or miss. If your not, then its not an issue. Also many slim and/or light models may also have the ability to charge from a USB-C external battery that can add 2 or more hours if needed but you need to find out if the computer can charge off USB-C in the first place. I just now searched Amazon and these external USB-C batteries start around $20 and go up from there. This is insanely great! as the last time i bought one it cost me around $70.
Also, anyone on a budget should consider these words, that a laptop for college only needs to be "Powerful Enough" to handle those applications and tasks for your area of study for the next few years. Saving $400-$800 dollars by not listening to this garbage review by engadget may allow you the financial means to use that savings for a set of budget head phones to block out noise and all the other necessities for college because all those -unexpected- costs will show up like those books and/or materials not mentioned when you signed up for the class that will now cost you another $100….
Lastly, Congrats for all of those entering College!
Shop Wisely and All the Best in your Journey!
Hello everyone.
Which is your favorite laptop.
I use predator you?
No links? Wtf
Despite the economic crisis, i keep on earning $30,000 returns from my $7,000 investment every 10 days.