7 Best Laptops for College Students in 2023

Selecting the best laptop for college students isn’t easy.

First off, different majors have different requirements. So a laptop has to be reasonably powerful.

But then, you also want your laptop to be lightweight, sleek but not bleeding RGB lights, comfy to type on, a joy to listen to — and preferably cheap.

And also, a good battery life doesn’t hurt.

So how do you choose the best one? Glad you asked.

In this article, we’ll cover the 7 best laptops for college that cover different needs, budgets, and wishes.

Ready to learn something exciting? Hop on.

Minimum & Recommended System Requirements

We’ve listed the minimum requirements to make sure every coursework can be handled without hiccups. But you should also take a look at the recommended specs — these will handle all academic tasks with ease and make sure you also enjoy your downtime.

Top 7 Laptops for College Students

Ready to check the best laptops for college students? Take notes as we go through these academic helpers — and you just might find your next study buddy!

1. Best for Note-taking: Lenovo Flex 5

Lenovo Flex 5

• CPU: 2.3GHz AMD Ryzen 5 4500U
• RAM: 16GB DDR4
• Storage: 256GB SSD
• Display: 14-inch FHD (1920 x 1080)
• GPU: Integrated AMD Radeon RX Vega 6
• Battery: Up to 12 Hours

$612.00

Check on Amazon

If you want to add a little spice to your notetaking skills, check out Lenovo Flex 5. This affordable laptop for college students is also touchscreen, which means — more fun.

The star of the show is a 14” FHD touchscreen display. Unlike some other brands, like Microsoft Surface lineup, you also get a pen with the laptop. As for display, it’s clear, vivid and very responsive, so notetaking feels great.

Under the hood, Flex 5 runs on capable Ryzen 5 and a Radeon Vega GPU. Along with strong 16GB RAM, this combo does well with general tasks, notetaking, and most college software. I wouldn’t recommend it though for heavy 3D modeling and CAD tasks, since the GPU is a bottleneck.

Another thing going for Lenovo is the portability. I got 11-12 hours of battery life for simple tasks, which is impressive for a touchscreen. Add to that the weight of 3.63 lbs, and you’ve got a long-lasting, lightweight laptop for campus.

I also like the design which is very similar to Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming — elegant, with a backlit keyboard and the tent mode for when you get bored.

Now, depending on the coursework, 256GB may or may not be enough for you. I’d upgrade anyway, since these fill up easily, especially if you store more than assignments on your laptop.

Still, this is a small thing compared to what you’re getting with this college laptop. It’s a great, portable touchscreen that will easily last throughout your studies.

2. Top Budget Choice: Acer Aspire 3

Acer Aspire 3

• CPU: 2.8GHz AMD Ryzen 5 7520U
• RAM: 16GB DDR5
• Storage: 1TB SSD
• Display: 15.6-inch FHD Touch (1920 x 1080)
• GPU: Integrated AMD Radeon 610M
• Battery: Up to 12 Hours

$599.99

Check on Amazon

Besides Lenovo, Acer Aspire 3 is a tried-and-tested budget laptop for college. If you want great value for a very reasonable amount of money, this is it.

To start with, Aspire houses one of the latest Ryzen 5 CPU, which makes it awesome for CPU-intensive tasks, and especially calculations and scientific research. The integrated GPU won’t let you play the latest AAA titles at high settings, but it can still do the lighter work just fine.

Just like Lenovo, Aspire 3 comes with a touchscreen display — except this one is 15.6” IPS panel. I actually quite like it — it’s crisp and vivid.

Aspire is also awesome in the portability department — at 12 hours of battery life and weighing 3.92 lbs, this is another laptop that’s super easy to carry around.

The overall design, however, seems a little blocky and outdated. It feels sturdy, sure, but you should figure out how much the looks really matter to you.

To be fair, I love the keyboard. It’s a full-size keyboard with numpad, very responsive and tactile.

And with a large storage and 16GB RAM, Acer Aspire 3 is one of the most serious contenders among budget laptops for college. It’s a great machine that will serve you well.

3. Portable Brilliance: ASUS Zenbook

ASUS Zenbook

• CPU: 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-1240P
• RAM: 8GB DDR4
• Storage: 1TB SSD
• Display: 14-inch 2.8K (2880x 1800)
• GPU: Integrated Intel Iris Xe
• Battery: Up to 11 hours

$715.99

Check on Amazon

With one of the best displays on the list, ASUS Zenbook is a thing to behold. This college laptop is powerful, beautiful, and quite reliable.

Besides not straining your eyes, Zenbook’s display feels very vivid and crisp. The colors look beautiful on a 14” hi-res screen that is also color-accurate, which makes it awesome for photo and video editing, and any color-sensitive work.

Packing a 12th Gen. i5 processor and the integrated GPU, Zenbook does well in benchmark tests. This is not a gaming laptop, but it will perform great with most college software, tasks, and projects.

I’m a sucker for ASUS’ integrated trackpad, I admit it. The fact that you can switch from trackpad to numpad is never lost on me, and it’s a great solution for number crunchers and data warriors.

Plus, the overall design just looks super sleek with the abyss-blue chassis, thin bezels, and compact keyboard.

Zenbook is very portable — I got 10-11 hours of work on a single charge, which is enough for any day of studying. Weighing only 3.06 lbs, it’s also super easy to carry around.

The main concern is the RAM, since the model comes with 8GB. In order to fully utilize the screen and the overall performance, I’d get at least 16.

Moreover, the laptop does get hot with super-heavy tasks, so a cooling pad is a must.

Still, if you want a sleek, portable laptop for college, with an amazing display, I’d go for ASUS without a second thought.

4. Supreme 14″ Display: Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro

Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro

• CPU: 2.2GHz Intel Core i7-1360P
• RAM: 16GB DDR5
• Storage: 512GB SSD
• Display: 14-inch AMOLED (2880 x 1800)
• GPU: Integrated Intel Iris Xe
• Battery: Up to 15 hours

$1,191.28

Check on Amazon

Samsung’s a relatively new player in the laptop arena, but the Galaxy Book3 Pro quickly rose to the stardom, and it’s a great, versatile laptop for students.

The title of “supreme display” Samsung earns with a crazy-good 14” 3K AMOLED display. I mean, this thing is wonderful: bright, vivid, with deep blacks and amazing contrast. If you want a crystal-clear picture, this is it.

But Galaxy Book3 is more than the display: the laptop comes with a 13th Gen. i7 that is lit and will fly across the college tasks. The integrated Intel Iris does well to support the CPU, just don’t expect to play heavy-duty games (for those, see Nitro 5 below).

Here’s where it gets interesting: at 2.58 lbs of weight and whopping 14-15 hours of battery life, Samsung threatens to dethrone MacBook Air in terms of portability.

Sleek and elegant, with somewhat darker hues, Galaxy Book3 Pro’s design also seems to be inspired by Macbooks — older ones, that is. One important difference: Samsung’s keyboard comes with a numpad.

Though this laptop for college students is among the pricier on the list, the amount of value it holds is worth every dollar. It’s an amazing machine that will stay relevant for long.

5. College + Gaming Machine: Acer Nitro 5

Acer Nitro 5

• CPU: 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5-12500H
• RAM: 16GB DDR4
• Storage: 512GB SSD
• Display: 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080)
• GPU: 4GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050TI
• Battery: Up to 6 Hours

$801.64

Check on Amazon

So most students like games — board games, beer pong, and AAA titles. For the latter, Acer Nitro 5 is an amazing machine: super-capable, sleek, and affordable.

This is one of the two laptops on this list that comes with a dedicated GPU, the RTX 3050 Ti. It’s an excellent choice for budget gamers, and this is what I like about Acer: they don’t skimp on the most important stuff.

Coupled with a 12th Gen. i5 and 16GB RAM, Nitro 5 is quite capable of running the latest games at high settings. Not only that, it’s a good laptop for heavier tasks like photo/video editing, 3D modeling and CAD tools.

Nitro’s display is gamer-optimized, meaning it’s a 15.6” panel with a 144Hz refresh rate. Esports and first-person shooters look great on this bad boy.

Add to that a sleek, polished chassis with Nitro 5’s signature red-backlit keyboard, and you’ve got a mean gaming machine.

However, like most gaming laptops, Nitro 5 is also low-ish on portability. I got around 5-6 hours of battery, which isn’t bad but it’s far from some other laptops here. Plus, with 5.5 lbs, this isn’t the easiest laptop to carry around.

Overall, if you want a great gaming laptop that will also perform excellent with college tasks, and you aren’t bothered with portability, Nitro 5 is the top pick.

Watch our Acer Nitro 5 Review

This YouTube review was created by the Not Just Laptops team. The specs may slightly differ from the laptop in the article.

6. Apple’s Portable Laptop: Apple MacBook Air 15 M2

Apple MacBook Air 15 M2

• CPU: 3.5GHz 8-core M2
• RAM: 8GB DDR5
• Storage: 256GB SSD
• Display: 15.3-inch Retina (2880 x 1864)
• GPU: Integrated Apple 10-core GPU
• Battery: Up to 18 Hours

$1,099.00

Check on Amazon

Talking about best laptops for college and not mentioning MacBook Air is just unimaginable. And the latest Air brings so much more to the table.

Let’s start with the obvious and exciting: we finally have a 15” MacBook Air!

The 15.3” Retina display looks amazing. It’s got everything we love on Macbooks, along with deeper blacks and better saturation.

And yes, the screen is still very much optimized for portability and performance. With a crazy battery life of 15-16 hours and body weighing only 3.3 lbs, this 15” laptop is probably one of lightest workhorses on the market.

As for performance, the M2 chip works wonders with photo and video editing, 3D modeling, heavier tasks, and most coursework.

Don’t be fooled by 8GB of unified RAM. Because of the Mac’s ecosystem, this number is realistically much higher in terms of performance it offers.

That being said, the 256GB of storage might not be enough for you. While you do have an iCloud option, I’d weigh my needs well before buying this one, because it can’t be upgraded. At the very least, get an external hard drive.

Of course, Macbooks are known to be pricey, and Air M2 is no exception.

But, with one of the best keyboards on the market and a new-and-improved 1080p webcam, there’s little MacBook Air can’t do. It’s a great option for college years, that will follow you well into your first job.

7. College + Gaming Top Performer: Sager NP7881D

Sager NP7881D

• CPU: 2.2GHz Intel Core i9-13900HX
• RAM: 32GB DDR5
• Storage: 1TB SSD
• Display: 17.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080)
• GPU: 8GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060
• Battery: Up to 5 Hours

Check on Amazon

Sager may not be a recognizable brand to some, but this Clevo machine is a legit diamond in the rough and an excellent laptop for college and gaming.

Let’s start with the internals: a 13th Gen. i9 and an RTX 4060 are some of the best on the market today. Add to that 32GB of DDR5 RAM, and this beast will zap through whatever you think of: AAA titles, CAD tools, engineering, music production, photo and video editing.

Sager also sports one of the larger displays on this list. It’s got 17.3” panel with 144Hz, thin bezels, and crisp, gorgeous picture. If it were a little more color-accurate, it would be perfect. So, if you’re doing color-sensitive work, make sure to connect to an external monitor.

The chassis is clean, polished, and premium. I also like the green backlight on keyboard, since it gives Sager an unmistakable gamer vibe.

Like most gaming laptops, Sager’s portability also suffers. 5 hours of battery life isn’t necessarily bad, but 6.3 lbs of weight can be a little too much to carry.

And this is the most expensive laptop on this list. But at the same time, it’s much cheaper than similar machines, like ROG Zephyrus and Razer Blade.

If you’ve got the money and want to play demanding games, Sager is the one laptop to consider as your study/gaming buddy throughout college.

Buying Guide for Laptops for College Students in 2023

Before we get to the juicy part, it’s important to explain what you need to look for when choosing a laptop for college. The following buying guide is college-specific, but if you want to learn more, check out our comprehensive laptop buying guide.

1. CPU Is the Name of the Game

Most coursework in colleges relies heavily on CPU. Whether you’re doing calculations or scientific research, the CPU will determine how fast and lag-free the whole process goes.

That being said, do not go for anything below 11th Gen. Intel Core i3. This CPU will do most of the tasks easily and stay relevant if you’re just starting college.

If you’re working with CAD tools, photo/video editing or need a 3D modeling laptop, a 12th Gen. i5 or an AMD equivalent will be more up your alley.

2. Graphics Counts Too

Most college coursework doesn’t actually require a dedicated GPU. In fact, when it comes to writing assignments, multitasking, doing spreadsheets and data, a good ol’ integrated Intel Iris Xe is more than enough.

However, if you’re working with visual elements and assemblies — or you’re a gamer hellbent on winning the latest AAA titles — you need a dedicated GPU. In that case, the NVIDIA RTX 30 series is something to look for, as it balances performance with price beautifully.

3. RAM Comes Next

RAM is where the magic happens — it helps you keep multiple tabs open without your laptop going into consistent stutter and deadly blue screen. It’s also important for most processes as it alleviates some of the load from CPU.

Nowadays, 8GB RAM is the realistic minimum for most tasks, be it a laptop for MBA students or law. Although some laptops still come with 4GB, I’d seriously avoid these.

If you want to future-proof your laptop, however, and make sure it lasts all those college years, maybe go for 16GB RAM instead.

Finally, you will notice DDR4 or DDR5 next to RAM specifications. DDR5 is the latest version of RAM, and much faster than DDR4, so if you come across DDR5 and it fits into your budget, by all means — go for it.

4. Display of Academic Proportions

We can talk about displays all day long, and there would still be things left to say.

Do you go for FHD, IPS, OLED, AMOLED? Well, for most part, FHD and IPS are quite good for academic purposes. Laptops with 4K displays and AMOLED screens look amazing, but they’re usually more expensive — and you really need them only if you’re a gamer or photo/video editor.

As for size, this really boils down to your preference. Generally speaking, smaller screens are more portable and come with better battery life, while the bigger ones give more visual satisfaction and better detail.

All things considered, for most college students, a 14” or 15.6” display is usually the golden mean.

5. It Shouldn’t Be So Heavy…

Since you’ll likely carry your laptop to campus every day, you really want to pay attention to the weight.

For most part, productivity laptops range from 3 to 4 lbs, and this is the weight I’d go for.

Gaming laptops, on the other hand, are often bulkier and heavier, and can go anywhere from 5 to 10 lbs. 

So make sure you know your limits, so you don’t end up lugging the device and cursing the gods of academia for that pain in the shoulder.

6. …And It Should Last Long

The second part of portability is the battery life.

Do you have lectures all day? You better make sure your laptop can take it.

Luckily, most laptops nowadays run for 6-8 hours, with some battery champs — like Macbooks, Samsung, and ASUS — going well over 12-hour mark.

Gaming laptops are the exception. Because of their super-powerful specs, these beasts last from 4-6 hours. Anything beyond that is considered impressive.

7. Keyboard, Keyboard

Since you’ll probably be typing a lot, make sure to check the keyboard as well.

You want a good travel distance, spacious keys and trackpad, and preferably a backlit keyboard if you study at night.

Additionally, a touchscreen laptop might be an interesting solution — for when you want a little change in your notetaking routine.

FAQs about Laptops for College Students

Verdict

The laptop market offers many options for college students.

Your major will play the biggest role in which laptop you select. Different courses have different requirements, and that’s a good place to start when picking out the machine for your college years.

If you’re still unsure, here’s a quick recap of the most impressive laptops for college students:

• Acer Aspire 3 is always a good choice, because of its amazing value for money, touchscreen display, and great portability,
• If you are more inclined towards the macOS, consider the latest Apple MacBook Air 15 M2, for its amazing performance, display, and keyboard.
• For a budget gaming machine, Acer Nitro 5 is a tried-and-tested warrior that won’t cost you arm and leg.

So what do you think? Did any laptop catch your eye and why? Let us know in the comments below.

And if you’re really into gaming, there are many more laptops for gaming and school you could check out.