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The 5 best laptops for college in 2024

Are you heading off to college? Starting a new semester soon? It’s probably about time you upgraded your laptop or computer. But glancing at some of the best laptop deals will show you there are many options out there.  What should you be looking for if there’s something specific you want to do, like taking notes with a stylus, researching on the internet, or even a little gaming on the side? What about streaming some movies or shows with friends in your dorm? Don’t worry. That’s precisely what we’re going to review in this guide. We’ll cover all of the best laptops for college for the 2024 school year.

The best laptops for college in 2024

  • Buy the if you want one of the most reliable MacBooks for a great price.
  • Buy the if you want a touchscreen-enabled 2-in-1 for notes.
  • Buy the if you want a portable and lightweight little stunner for a fantastic price.
  • Buy the if you want a well-rounded laptop for busywork.
  • Buy the if you want to do a little gaming on the side.

Apple MacBook Air M1 (2020)

Best Apple MacBook

A 2020 Apple MacBook Air laptop on a white background.
Apple
Pros Cons
Phenomenal battery life Older model
Excellent keyboard and touchpad Supports only one external display
Easy to use and accessible for students

As far as Apple products go, it’s older, yes, but the 2020 Apple MacBook Air M1 is still incredibly capable. It’s also affordable, which makes it accessible to college students on a budget. It comes packed with some excellent features and hardware, too. Like the stunning 13.3-inch Retina display, 18 hours of battery life, and super easy-to-use Mac OS. In our Macbook Air M1 review, we praised it for its excellent keyboard and touchpad, phenomenal battery life, rock-solid build quality, and the M1 chip’s power and performance at the time compared to Intel’s. We still stand by those praises today.

Specifications
Display 13 inches, Retina
Storage 256GB up to 2TB
RAM 8GB
Battery life Up to 18 hours

Lenovo Yoga 6 13-inch AMD

Best 2-in-1 laptop

A Lenovo Yoga 6 resting on a table in tablet mode.
Lenovo
Pros Cons
Excellent battery life AMD over Intel
Convertible and touchscreen-enabled display Average build quality
Affordable with lots of customization

With the base model starting around $600, for great specs, including an AMD Ryzen 7000 Series mobile processor, the Lenovo Yoga 6 2-in-1 is perfect for students on the move. The thin and light frame adds to the portability, with the convertible and touchscreen-enabled display excellent for just about any configuration you can think up. You can use it like a notebook to take class notes, prop it up to watch media, use it as a traditional laptop, and more. Plus, the visuals are vibrant and appealing on the 13.3-inch WUXGA full-HD display, and the audio-optimized speakers are Dolby Atmos compatible.

Specifications
Display 13.3 inches, WUXGA full HD (1920 by 1200)
Storage 512GB up to 1TB
RAM 8GB, up to 16GB
Battery life Up to 17 hours

HP Pavilion Aero 13

Best bang-for-your-buck

HP Pavilion Aero 13 sitting on a table.
Mark Coppock/Digital Trends / HP/Digital Trends
Pros Cons
Decent battery life AMD over Intel
Excellent performance No backlit keyboard (base model)
Super lightweight

Unsurprisingly, our HP Pavilion Aero 13 review praised this little machine that could for its quality, performance, battery life, minimalist design, and lightweight build. It weighs just over 2 pounds and is no burden, even better when tossed into a backpack or handbag. And while it is classified as a budget laptop — excellent for students — it also packs a decent amount of power under the hood. The base model for about $550 includes an AMD Ryzen 5 Series processor with AMD Radeon graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB solid-state drive. The 13.3-inch display is full HD, operating at a 1900 by 1200 resolution. There’s no touchscreen, and it’s a bummer to see no backlit keyboard in the base model, but you can certainly make do.

Specifications
Display 13.3 inches, WUXGA full HD (1920 by 1200)
Storage 256GB
RAM 16GB
Battery life Up to 12 hours

Dell XPS 13 (9315)

Best no-nonsense option

The Dell XPS 13, open on a table in front of a window.
Digital Trends
Pros Cons
Decent battery life No dedicated GPU
Accessible price Average performance
Very compact design

You’ll find that, like most laptops, the Dell XPS 13 can be customized so that you can choose your RAM, storage, and more, with varying price points. The base model starts at about $799 for 8GB of DDR5 RAM — the fastest on the market today — Intel Iris Xe graphics and a 12th Gen Intel Core i5 10-core processor. It is an excellent student option because the price is reasonable, the performance is acceptable, the battery life is terrific, and the machine is reliable overall. Plus, the 13.4-inch full HD display doesn’t hurt either.

Specifications
Display 13.4 inches, WUXGA full HD (1920 by 1200)
Storage 256GB, up to 1TB
RAM 8GB, up to 32GB
Battery life Up to 12 hours

ASUS TUF Gaming F15 (2022)

Best for gaming

A person using the Asus TUF F15 gaming laptop.
Asus
Pros Cons
Excellent performance Poor battery life
GeForce RTX 3050 GPU Overkill for schoolwork
Military-grade durability

You should know that the ASUS TUF Gaming F15 is a powerful machine, but it’s also overkill if you only do schoolwork and everyday productivity tasks. However, if you want to do some gaming in your free time, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU pairs well with the Intel Core i5 processor and 16GB of DDR4 system RAM. Depending on the system requirements, you can play most newer games on medium to high settings, some even higher than that. It doesn’t have the best battery life, so you’ll need to stay near an outlet, especially if you’re playing games, but that’s a solid tradeoff for more power. It’s also a bit pricy for students on a budget, but that’s a tradeoff for the extra power.

Specifications
Display 15.6 inches, FHD 144Hz
Storage 512GB
RAM 16GB
Battery life Up to 6 hours

How we chose these laptops for college

As a college student, likely on a tight budget, the compromises you’re willing to make for a great PC will always be different from those of someone with money to burn who wants the best. That doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t want the best possible for your price range, but there are factors to consider that are more important than others.

Here’s what we prioritized when choosing laptops for college students:

Price

You have a budget, and you need to stick to it. We don’t blame you. That’s why we prioritized laptops from all affordable but capable brands, especially compared to more expensive counterparts. Aside from our gaming choice, which was selected for power above all, everything else on this list should be accessible.

Battery life

From studying in a library for long hours to hanging out in a friend’s dorm, you’ll probably opt for laptops with reliable battery life. Again, aside from our gaming pick, everything else on this list has excellent battery life to offer and should get you through most of your day, even without a quick charge.

Display

Even at a budget price, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a full HD resolution display in this day and age. Every laptop we selected has at least that or better.

This article is managed and created separately from the Digital Trends Editorial team.

Editors' Recommendations

Briley Kenney
Briley has been writing about consumer electronics and technology for over a decade. When he's not writing about deals for…
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