The Best Laptops for College Students

What are some of the best laptops for college students nowadays? 

A laptop used to be seen as a luxury, but nowadays it’s a necessity—most especially since laptops confer versatility whereas desktops force one to stay rooted in one physical location. More specifically, a laptop allows one to work wherever and whenever one wants or needs to, which isn’t really something a desktop can allow. This makes owning a laptop a definite boon for college students, who need to be able to take their computing power with them in the course of their daily lives.

Let’s have a look at some of the best laptop options, including a MacBook alternative, that are available to college students who need laptops of their own! (Take note that these aren’t gaming laptops, so they’re neither specced to the max nor feature flashy designs—our focus here is more on daily usability and dependability, which are, of course, key factors for college students.)

HP Notebook 15s

First up is the HP Notebook 15s. This is a good basic workhorse laptop for the college student who needs a device that will work with them without fuss no matter the assignment or research project. HP’s signature durability will stand this unit in good stead even if its users aren’t all too careful with their devices.

The 15s comes with a 14-inch display, and also offers a plethora of ports—two USB-A ports, a single USB Type-C port, an HDMI port, an SD card reader, and a 3.5-mm audio jack. Keyboard and ClickPad (HP’s term for the trackpad) are functional and sturdy.

The HP Notebook 15s comes in a nice silver metal and plastic combination, making it decent-looking enough to blend in just about anywhere.

Lenovo D330

Those searching for the best laptops for college students and who’d like to do a little more with their devices than a typical laptop can check out the Lenovo D330. This number is one of the more versatile options available—it’s a 2-in-1 and, as such, melds the performance of a laptop with the portability of a tablet.

The D330 can be used in many different ways—as a regular laptop with the keyboard as input device; as a tablet with a stand to view presentations or watch videos or movies (flip the screen down so that the keyboard serves as the laptop stand); and as a pure tablet (gently detach the screen from the keyboard to use it as a tablet). And whatever configuration you choose, you can always use Lenovo’s Active Pen to write on the screen, sketch, scribble notes, and so on.

And for those students who’d like to use a device that has its own net connection, the D330 boasts its own 4G LTE SIM card slot. A great FHD display and a powerful battery round out the D330’s package.

Acer Aspire 3

The Acer Aspire 3 is a slim and light laptop that makes no compromises in terms of usability.

The Aspire 3 comes with a large 17.3-inch, 15.6-inch, or 14-inch HD LED display with minimal bezels. Acer’s BlueLightShield technology will filter out harmful blue light to reduce eyestrain— students who spend long hours on their devices will definitely appreciate this feature. Whatever the version, buyers will appreciate this laptop’s full range of ports, spacious chiclet keyboard, and responsive Precision Touchpad.

Unlike many other laptops, the Acer Aspire 3 can be had in the buyer’s choice of three colors—black, red, and blue. Acer has also tried to make the Aspire 3 stylish by adding a crosshair brush pattern to the top of the laptop lid; this not only looks nice and distinctive, but has the added benefit of making the laptop a little less slippery than many other laptops.

ASUS VivoBook 14

The ASUS VivoBook 14 is set apart by its space-efficiency and portability.

ASUS claims that the VivoBook 14 has a frame size more typical of a 13-inch laptop while still possessing a 14-inch Full HD display—no mean feat thanks to its very thin side bezels. ASUS claims a 77% screen-to-body ratio, which provides more screen and allows for very immersive viewing. That being said, the VivoBook 14 still qualifies as a thin-and-light; according to the manufacturer, this is an everyday laptop that possesses the compactness and low weight of an ultrabook.

ASUS tried to give the ASUS VivoBook 14 a dash of style, thanks to its high-gloss external spun finish and choice of colors—Star Grey, Rouge, and Icicle Gold.

Huawei MateBook D 14

In search of a MacBook alternative? You might want to consider the Huawei MateBook D 14. This is a 14-inch laptop that’s characterized by its IPS FullView Display—its bezels are just 4.8mm wide, giving it one of the most bezel-free screens of any laptop nowadays.

Students who’d like to lay their monitors flat can revel in the MateBook D 14’s 180-degree opening-angle feature; in a nutshell, this allows users to tilt the screen back all the way until it sits parallel to the keyboard. The D 14 also happens to be extremely thin, less than 16mm thin to be exact.

The special Huawei Shark Fin 2.0 cooling fan design enables the MateBook D 14 to be pushed very hard without breaking a sweat, and its 56Wh battery gives it all-day capabilities.

Huawei offers the D 14 in Mystic Silver and Space Grey.

Apple MacBook Air

Last but not the least is the latest version of the Apple MacBook Air.

This wedge-shaped firm favorite of students and professionals alike continues to showcase Apple’s unique combination of macOS usability and efficiency with core features such as a 13.3-inch Retina display with True Tone technology for true-to-life color; a new Magic Keyboard that offers an improvement in terms of durability and functionality over the past series of Apple keyboards; and Apple exclusives including the Force Touch trackpad and Touch ID biometric fingerprint sensor.

Pick up a MacBook Air in your choice of Space Grey, Gold, or Silver. Whatever color you choose, you might be happy to learn that this laptop is made of 100% recycled aluminum.

If you do decide to buy a new laptop, check out our tips on what you should consider downloading in your new laptop.