Best laptops for college students 2024: Top picks and expert advice | usagoldmines.com

Why we like the Dell Inspiron Plus 14

The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is one of the most well-rounded laptops available right now. You’re getting reliable performance, phenomenal battery life, and a superb-looking display. It only costs $999.99 too, which is several hundred dollars cheaper than our former top pick. With a PCMark 10 score of 7,061, it beat both the similarly spec’d Acer Swift Go 14 and the more expensive Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. (PCMark 10 gauges how well a laptop handles day-to-day tasks.) It also lasted a whopping 17 hours on a single charge, which is perfect for students looking for a long-lasting machine. You don’t have to go hunting for an outlet between classes, that’s for sure.

Performance and battery life are no doubt impressive, but the 14-inch 1400p display is also worth noting. According to our review, “the display is exceedingly well suited to office work and static imagery.” We measured a peak brightness level of 418 nits, which is plenty bright for writing papers and browsing the web. Plus, thanks to the anti-glare coating on the display, you can use this laptop in natural lighting environments.

Who should buy the Dell Inspiron Plus 14

Students looking for a well-rounded and long-lasting laptop. The design is a bit boring, sure, but its hardware capabilities and long battery life make up for the staid aesthetics. You can’t get much better than this–especially for $999.99.

Why we like the Asus Zenbook

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED dazzled us with its peppy processor performance, outstanding battery life, and sublime OLED touchscreen display. Movies and games “look realistic and vibrant” on the 14-inch 1200p display and the 75 watt-hour battery ran for a whopping 16 hours on a single charge. This result really blows away competitors like the Lenovo Slim 7 14 Gen 9 and the HP Pavilion Plus Laptop 14. As for how it fares in the performance department, the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED is plenty fast during day-to-day tasks such as web browsing, chatting over video, and so on, delivering benchmark scores just a bit below our top pick.

Who should buy the Asus Zenbook

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED is a fantastic choice for students because it offers outstanding battery life, speedy overall performance, and a lovely OLED display. It’s also cheaper than our current top pick. That said, it’s a runner-up for a reason. The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, which is still the reigning champ, is the more well-rounded option of the two. It has twice the storage, a higher resolution screen, and a better keyboard. However, if you’re looking to save a hundred bucks or so, the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED is still a great option.

Why we like the Acer Aspire Go 15

The Acer Aspire Go 15 is a great choice for students on a tight budget. The power-efficient Intel Core i3-N305 is capable of handling day-to-day tasks such as watching Netflix, surfing the web, writing papers, and more. This laptop also managed 12 hours of battery life on a single charge, which is more than a full school day. Connectivity options aren’t too shabby, either. You’re getting one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with Power Delivery and DisplayPort, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, one HDMI, one 3.5mm combo audio, one Kensington lock slot, and one DC barrel jack.

Who should buy the Acer Aspire Go 15

Anyone who needs an affordable laptop with decent performance. The 53.9 watt-hour battery will last you most of the day and the CPU has enough power for daily tasks. The 15.6-inch 1080p display also boasts good visibility and the keyboard offers a comfortable typing experience. It doesn’t have all the fancy features you’d see on a high-end machine, but some folks don’t need all that extra noise. If you’re on an ultra-strict budget, then the Acer Aspire Go 15 is worth picking up.

Why we like the Lenovo Flex

The Lenovo Flex 5i is a great Chromebook because of its convertible design, fast performance, superb typing experience, and touchscreen display. The chassis has a luxurious aluminum finish on it, which makes it feel three or four times as expensive. The 360-degree hinge that connects the display to the rest of the laptops feels strong and like it won’t wear out anytime soon. The keyboard is also a dream to type on and easy to adjust to, and the 1200p display produces sharp, colorful visuals. Sure, it’s heavier than we expected right out of the box and the stylus isn’t included, but those are small trade-offs in the grand scheme of things. Overall, this is a well-rounded machine.

Who should buy the Lenovo Flex

We feel as though the Lenovo Flex 5i is a good option for those who prefer using Google’s ecosystem and can handle mostly working online. The beautiful touchscreen display and the convertible design really gives it the edge over other Chromebooks and even some Windows laptops, as you usually see those features in machines that cost much more. While the nine-hour battery life is a little below average for a Chromebook, it’ll still last you a full school day and then some. At the end of the day, the Lenovo Flex 5i’s list of compromises is quite small.

Alternative option: If you’re dealing with an unforgiving budget (been there), the Acer Chromebook Plus 514 ($249.99 / £399 U.K.) is worth picking up. It’s about $100/£100 cheaper than our current pick and it comes with loads of connectivity options as well as a spacious keyboard and a sophisticated design. It’s not a 2-in-1 laptop like Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus, but I wouldn’t consider that a deal-breaker, especially if you prefer traditional clamshells.

Why we like the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is a long-lasting machine with a “reasonably sharp” 14-inch 1920×1200 display. In fact, it lasted almost 24 hours on a single charge–that’s absolutely bananas! This is likely because of the power-efficient Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 processor inside the machine and the lower-resolution display. The speakers also pump out impressive volume and the connectivity options are pretty diverse. In addition to a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, you’ll also find two USB-A 5Gbps ports and two USB4 ports.

Who should buy the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6

Anyone with a jam-packed school schedule! The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is designed to keep going and going, which is perfect when you’re running from class to class. Performance-wise, it’s a dependable machine that will keep up with “light workloads wherever you go,” according to our review.

Alternative option: If you’re looking for a more affordable option, you should definitely check out the Asus Vivobook S 14 ($1,199). In addition to it being cheaper than our current pick, it also lasted 20 hours on a single charge and it features the latest “Lunar Lake” processor.

Why we like the MacBook Air

From the outstanding battery life to the spacious Liquid Retina display, the MacBook Air (M3) received high marks across the board. It comes with an 8-core CPU (M3) and a 10-core GPU as well as two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a 66.5 watt-hour battery. Performance is similar to the MacBook Pro (M3), which means it can blitz through school work and casual use tasks. The only difference between the two is that the MacBook Air doesn’t have fans, resulting in quieter operation. This laptop also managed a whopping 19 hours on a single charge, which is great news for those with jam-packed schedules and who have zero time to plug into the nearest outlet.

Who should buy the MacBook Air

Anyone who prefers MacOS over other operating systems! The battery life is incredible and the laptop itself weighs just a little over three pounds, which means you can easily take it anywhere with you. The $1,299 price tag is also reasonable for the performance and features. However, the 8GB of RAM is light compared to Windows-based alternatives.

Why we like the Asus Zenbook S 14

From the featherlight form factor (2.65 pounds!) to its stunning OLED display, it’s hard to highlight just one good thing about the Asus Zenbook S 14, as it brings a lot to the table. First, let’s talk about the obvious and that’s the versatility of the 2-in-1 design. You can flip the screen around and use it like a tablet or prop it up for watching movies. The build quality is impressive for such a travel-friendly machine as well. According to our review, there was only a “minimal amount of flex when pressing hard upon the center of the keyboard and the display doesn’t demonstrate meaningful wobble.” 

The 73 watt-hour battery also lasted 21 hours on a single charge, which is good news if you’re working with a jam-packed schedule this semester. In addition to the superb battery life, the 14-inch 1800p OLED touch display produces the inkiest of blacks and the 120Hz refresh rate makes for a responsive mousing experience.

Who should buy the Asus Zenbook S 14

Anyone that’s looking for a long-lasting, portable 2-in-1. The battery life is spectacular, which is impressive given how thin and light it is. It also boasts good audio! This is cool because laptop speakers generally suck, often firing down into whatever surface it’s resting on. The audio is boosted by four integrated Harmon Kardon speakers, which are then further enhanced by Dolby Atmos audio.

Alternative option: The Lenovo Chromebook Duet ($399.99) is another good option to consider. It weighs just 2.09 pounds and it’s hundreds of dollars cheaper than our current pick. However, you’re stuck using Google’s web-focused ecosystem (aka ChromeOS), which may be a non-starter if you need to run discrete programs for school.

Why we like the Acer Nitro V 16

The Acer Nitro V 16 is a fantastic option for those on a strict budget. You’re getting a fast IPS display and RTX 4060 graphics for just under a grand, a phenomenal value. When we ran the more demanding Metro Exodus benchmark on this machine, the Nitro reached an average of 38 frames-per-second, which is “more than competitive with gaming laptops with similar components,” according to our review.

The battery life, as you might’ve guessed, is the laptop’s Achilles heel. We only managed to get four hours out of it before it died. That’s not a surprising result, as gaming laptops traditionally have poor battery life, but it won’t last very long unplugged.

Who should buy the Acer Nitro V 16

Anyone who needs an affordable, reliable gaming laptop. The 16-inch 1920×1200 display is perfect for action-packed games because of the 165Hz refresh rate and, thanks to the RTX 4060 GPU, it’s capable of running most games on the Medium or High graphics preset. That sort of grunt makes it great for handling heavier work tasks as well, though its plastic build may be a turn-off for discerning students.