The 7 Best Laptops for College Students – Consumer Reports

As a student, you can all agree with me that getting the ideal laptop for college is a vital decision that you make and it’s influenced mainly by your daily needs and budget. As a student, you need to get a high-end laptop that will help you during your college years. You get to surf the web with it although many now do it through their smartphones, you can keep your notes, and instead of getting a TV, you stream your favorite TV shows on your laptop. We have across various best laptops for college students with Consumer Reports in mind.

Getting the ideal student laptop with high-end specs can be quite expensive but still opting for the best laptops for college under $500, it is only ideal if you have minimal usage of the laptop and not heavy usage. You need to get an ideal laptop that can handle all your schoolwork, post coursework, streaming, and perhaps light gaming. For the majority of college students when getting a laptop the first that comes to mind are power, portability, and battery as the key features to check.

Don’t get me wrong, the features I’ve mentioned are key but there are other features that you need to consider as you go shopping for your laptop. To be safe, you need to do extensive research on the laptop you want and check the specifications it offers. In this article, I’ll guide you through the ideal laptops for graduate students and the various features it has to offer. I’ll give some tips to follow as you go to buy your laptop and get the best in the market at an affordable price. Let’s dive in.

How to get the ideal college laptop?

best laptops for college students consumer reports

As you all know the market is saturated with various models of laptop and if you aren’t vigilant, you might end up getting a laptop that doesn’t meet your needs. Here are a few tips that you can check out and put in mind as you go shopping for the best laptops for college students consumer reports.

i) Battery life

It is a component for any college laptop. In some institutions, the lecture halls don’t have power outlets and you have lecturers the whole day, you need a laptop with enough battery power.

ii) Display

You need to get a laptop with a large screen size and an ideal option is a 13†screen. Such laptops are ideal if you need a wide view but you need to check the one that’s lightweight as some come heavy.

iii) Processor

You need to check the laptop’s specs in that the processing speed and storage. I recommend that you get a laptop with H-series core i5 CPU or intel U-series and get one with at least 8GB RAM. If your budgets allow you can opt for one with 16GB RAM which is best if you love gaming.

iv) Ergonomic keyboard and sensitive touchpad

You need to get one with a comfy keyboard to avoid fatigue and get a sensitive touchpad to avoid slow laptop operations.

How do we come up with the best college laptops?

The methodology used to come up with this list of the best laptops for graduate students is with the ratings and customer reviews on the laptops. My crew and I check the ratings from the various reviewers’ blog sites and come up with a list of the best laptop students for college students. Also, checked out the laptops’ ratings and various customer reviews to come with the list. Let’s check them out.

Read More: Buy Now Pay Monthly Laptops. See which laptops are best to finance today!

Top 7 Best Laptops For College Students

1) Apple MacBook Pro 16″

Apple MacBook Pro16-inch
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It comes with an immersive 16†Retina display letting you enjoy a big, beautiful workspace. It produces 500 nits of brightness for superb highlights and bright white and still delivers deep blacks courtesy of the precise photo alignment of liquid crystal molecules.

The new MacBook Pro runs on the latest Intel Core i9 processor with up to 8 cores that sustains a high performance making it an ideal budget laptop for photoshop. It comes with the AMD Radeon Pro 5000M series delivering you with a powerful graphics horsepower unlike other models for seamless playback and faster rendering of ultra-high-definition video.

PROS

  • Ample storage
  • Powerful processor
  • A bright display
  • Long-life battery
  • Advanced security

CONS

  • Slightly heavy

Read our related article on How to Rent-to-Own a Macbook (NO Credit Check!). We cover everything you need to know about renting to own your favorite electronics.

2) Microsoft Surface Pro 7

Microsoft Surface Pro 7
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Microsoft Surface Pro 7 lets you experience the laptop to tablet versatility and you get better connectivity with USB-C and USB-A ports and it’s slim. You can personalize Surface Pro 7 and make it to a full laptop as it comes with a type cover and you can be heard as it comes with enhanced Studio Mics. it comes with an excellent 12.3†display that is bright, clear and to increase your productivity is touch screen enabled.

It comes with an all-day battery life of up to 10.5 hours and with fast charging enabled you go from empty to full within 2 hours.

PROS

  • A bright display
  • Touch screen enabled
  • Fast processor
  • Versatile
  • Light in size

CONS

  • A chunky bezel

3) Acer Aspire 5

Acer Aspire 5 Slim
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Enjoy a bright display as it comes with a narrow-bezel design that offers more space for an amazing view on the 15.6†Full HD IPS display with Acer Color Intelligence. Unlike other laptops, Acer keeps your eyes from strain and you can work or watch for long sessions as it has the Acer Blue Light Shield.

Get to enjoy the exceptional performance as it comes with the AMD Ryzen 3 3200U Mobile processor with Radeon Vega 3 graphics. Acer Aspire 5 has a premium stylish design as it has an aluminum top cover and it is a light design. You can work with the laptop in any environment as it comes with a convenient backlit keyboard.

PROS

  • Backlit keyboard
  • High-quality speakers
  • Premium look
  • Slim design
  • Cheap

CONS

  • Loose keypad

4) Apple MacBook Pro 13″

Apple MacBook Pro16-inch
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It comes with a 4-core up to 10th generation quad-core processor letting you enjoy fast computing and processing.  It comes with the latest Magic keyboard that features a refined scissor mechanism with 1mm of travel for a responsive, comfortable, and quiet typing experience.

Also, it comes with the inverted T arrows keys that you can navigate around in any application with ease. The powerful Touch Bar puts important shortcuts front and center and with the Touch ID provides you with Fast authentication. Get to enjoy a 500 nit’s brightness 13†display with True Tone technology and a wide stereo sound letting you stream the latest movies or games with your friends.

PROS

  • Magic keyboard
  • A bright display
  • Versatile
  • Long-lasting battery
  • Powerful processor

CONS

  • Slightly heavy

5) LG Gram

 LG Gram
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You get to enjoy fast computing operations as it comes with the 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processors that power high-level 4K content production, high-resolution photo editing, and 1080p gaming. It comes with the Thunderbolt 3 and you can enjoy lightning-fast transfer speeds as you can transfer data up to 40 Gbps and display smooth 5K video on one port.

It comes with advanced security measures as instead of using the usual password, the LG Gram comes with a fingerprint reader making it easier for you to boot up and instantly log in.

PROS

  • Advanced security measures
  • Better keyboard visibility
  • Powerful processor
  • An immersive display
  • Fast data transfer

CONS

  • Faulty network connection

6) Microsoft Surface Go 2

Microsoft Surface Go 2
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It comes with a bright wide display of 10.5†letting you stream your favorite shows and provides you with a large workspace as you are working. It comes with a long-lasting battery as it has a battery life of up to 10 hours making it ideal for shopping, emails, and students’ homework.

Surface Go 2 is a tablet portable with superb performance and laptop versatility. Surface Go 2 comes with a full HD front and rear camera to keep in touch with your business partners and friends.

PROS

  • Wide display
  • Full HD cameras
  • High-resolution touch screen
  • Ample storage
  • Smooth performance

CONS

  • It doesn’t come with the type cover

7) Asus VivoBook S14

Asus VivoBook S14
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Asus VivoBook S14 has a sleek design courtesy of its textures metal chassis with diamond-cut edges, unique color, and a color-blocking Enter key. With an overall weight of 3lb and an ultra-thin profile, you can easily slip the laptop into your backpack and you are ready to go anywhere you want.

VivoBook comes with a thin bezel NanoEdge display that gives you an immersive viewing experience giving you an exceptional color reproduction for truly vivid visuals.

PROS

  • Immersive display
  • Wide view
  • Outstanding performance
  • Ultra-thin
  • A large SSD

CONS

  • Average battery life

See our related article on the Best Laptop for Nursing Students On Budget. We share our favorite laptops that perform well at a reasonable cost!

Bottom line

Unlike back in the days, a college student used their laptops to surf the internet, keep up with the trends through social media, or check their emails. Nowadays, college life is changing and it is more demanding and the reliance on technology to teach is growing by the day.

Getting a fast computer is no more a luxury to floss it over to your friends, now it has become a necessity. I hope I’ve answered your burning questions and be able to choose the ideal laptop for a college student. Feel free to share your thoughts about the laptops in the comment section below.

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