Best Laptops for College in 2022

Dell XPS 15

The Dell XPS 15 shows up a lot on our best-of lists for laptops, and it will probably continue to maintain a prominent position on our lists for some time to come. It’s a bit on the expensive end, but it’s a workhorse that’s designed to accommodate the productivity heavy workloads of even the most serious students. This laptop for students sits at the cutting edge of processing technology thanks to the inclusion of a 10th gen Intel Core processor, but it still manages to offer an impressive battery life.

And despite the power at work in the Dell XPS 13, this is a highly portable model and one of the best student laptop models. The chassis here is thin and lightweight, and the thin bezels help keep the profile even smaller. And while it may only sport a 13-inch screen, the HDR support and Full HD resolution on the Dell XPS 15 ensure the best image quality.

Apple MacBook Pro 13″

Apple Continues to Impress

The MacBook Pro from Apple is known to be one of the most expensive laptops on the market, but it’s also regarded as one of the best. The biggest appeal to students will be how intuitive the interface is and the fact that it will work in close conjunction with their existing iPhone or other Apple devices, and parents will love the fact that Apple generally offers a greater level of security and encryption than you’d find in a typical Windows 10 laptop.

The newest versions of this laptop offer some very cool ease of use features that make them one of the best laptops for students. Particular standouts are the Touch ID and Touch Bar that are designed to increase productivity, but when it’s time for a student to take a break, they’ll really love streaming movies on the bright and vibrant Retina display of this laptop

 Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop

Making the Most of a Tight Budget

The Acer Aspire 5 is a great deal right out of the box, and its value of price to specs makes it easily one of the best laptops for students. This may be a more budget-oriented laptop for college use, but it offers a lot of bang for your buck, and smart decisions have been made to make sure that a majority of the most important limitations can be overcome.

Both the hard drive and the memory can be upgraded or replaced easily, and that allows Acer to fit in better processors. They’ve made another smart budget-oriented choice by trading the traditional Intel chip architecture in favor of an AMD solution. The 5-hour battery life isn’t the best around, but the small and lightweight frame makes it one of the best laptops for travel.

Lenovo Yoga C930 2-in-1 13.9″ Laptop

The Prodigal Two-in-One

2-in-1s are some of the best laptops for students, and there are few 2-in-1 laptops as well known as the Lenovo Yoga. The latest version combines the best aspects of both a tablet and a laptop while minimizing the limitations of each. In the former instance, it makes use of a relatively powerful 8th generation i7 processor. In the latter instance, the responsive touchscreen and bright display make operating it with your stylus a breeze.

But the coolest aspect of this laptop may be the sound system. The hinge on which the laptop rotates is actually a miniature sound bar, and that allows for better sonic performance than you’ll find with just about any other laptop on the market. And since it runs the latest Dolby Atmos technology, you can count on it to provide great audio when listening to music, gaming, or streaming content.

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 15.6″ Laptop

Solid Performance with a Little Extra for Graphics

The HP Envy x360 is another two-in-one model, but it does something that few other convertible laptops can promise. It makes use of an accelerated processing unit instead of a discrete GPU and CPU, and that means a boost over the traditional integrated GPU you could expect to find in more traditional budget laptops for students. All told, this laptop offers a masterclass in how to make the most out of the resources you have.

In terms of productivity, the HP Envy hits all the marks. Multitasking is a breeze for more intensive study sessions, and the extended battery life means that you don’t have to worry about your battery running out just because you can’t find a free electrical outlet at the library. And the inclusion of a webcam kill switch also means less need to worry about your privacy being compromised.

ASUS ROG Zephyrus S 15.6” Laptop

ROG is short for “Republic of Gamers”, so you can probably guess what sort of specs this laptop prioritizes. But the same specs that make a great laptop for gaming are also specs that can improve performance for just about everything. We won’t avoid the elephant in the room. This is an expensive laptop for college use, but the juiced-up processors should be suitable for more resource-demanding programs like engineering or graphic design.

And no matter how far you push that hardware, you can depend on it to provide you with reliable performance throughout its life. The fans are powerful, the cooling system engineering is smart, and easy keyboard shortcuts give users access to three different cooling levels. Those that like to fully tweak their machine will find this to be one of the best laptops for college. And there are plenty of outlets, so it’s readily compatible with practically any device.

Acer Chromebook R 11 Convertible Laptop

Looking for the best laptops for student use but working on a somewhat more limited budget? The Acer Chromebook R11 comes in at a fraction of the price of many of the laptops in this list, but the nimble Chrome operating system this laptop uses offers incredibly fast performance when performing fundamental college tasks like searching the web and working in a word processor, and the closed, browser-based nature of the platform means security risks aren’t really a thing.

As far as Chromebook specs go, this laptop is one of the better contenders we’ve seen – at least at this price range. And in addition to being a Chromebook, this laptop is also a two-in-one. Both the screen and the touchpad can be used to navigate your screen, and it can swap seamlessly from notebook to tablet – so you can seamlessly move from browsing to taking notes.

Microsoft Surface Pro 7

The Microsoft Surface series is one of the coolest laptop lines to come around in the past few years, and the Surface Pro 7 builds upon an already solid formula to provide some of the best performance for students. Transitioning from laptop to tablet mode is incredibly fun, and the ultra-thin design and compact panel find the perfect line between the fundamentals of a tablet and a conventional laptop.

The battery can last nearly half a day, but this laptop still makes use of an Intel Core processor. In other words, this is a lot more than just a souped-up tablet. The inclusion of both USB-A and USB-C ports can be used for everything from hooking up peripherals to charging your other devices. This entire laptop weighs in at less than two pounds.

Huawei MateBook X Pro 13.9″ Laptop

Huawei enters the mid-range laptop market with the MateBook X Pro, and it’s one of the best laptops for students in this price range. There are no gimmicks or tricks here: just solid hardware specs somehow packed into a razor-thin frame. It might be a bit of an investment compared to some of the other laptops for college on this list, but this laptop can comfortably last students their entire education without becoming too outdated.

And when it’s time to take a break from studying, this is a laptop that can deliver. The 3K display is better than practically all of the best student laptops, and the speakers come backed by Dolby Atmos technology for a fully encompassing aural experience. This laptop is also incredibly fast to boot up, and a single one-touch design helps you get up and running from rest mode as easily as possible.

 Google Pixelbook Go Chromebook

The Chromebook market has really exploded in the past few years, but no one understands the benefits of the Chrome OS quite like Google. If you want to get your student a Chromebook, the Pixelbook Go is your best choice. The biggest sign that Google is doing something different here is the fact that this laptop comes with a true Core processor, so it will be able to handle all of a student’s needs now and will be pretty well future-proofed too.

Combine that with the substantial amount of RAM, meaning having multiple tabs open during a late-night study session isn’t going to have a dramatic impact on performance. The GPU has been similarly beefed up. While you won’t be using it to play the latest games, this is a surprisingly solid laptop for students that want to do some light gaming between classes.