The kids are gone…Now what?

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June 26, 2023

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Best College Laptops

So your child handed in their Chromebook on the last week of their senior year. What are they going to take to college? When you go shopping for a new laptop and see all the options, brands, processors, etc.., it can seem overwhelming. We’re here to help.

If you’re looking for a guide to find a good college laptop written in simple terms, you’ve come to the right place. If you’re looking for the overclock speed and processor thread count of an i7 3770GHz Processor vs its competitor, this isn’t the place for you.

Screen Size and Weight

Given the fact it’s going to be carried in a backpack around campus, you can eliminate your 17″+ Screen Sizes right out of the gate. At the same time, you don’t want to go too small. So to simplify things, we’re going to stick with 15″ Screens. They’re a nice size and fit easily in a standard laptop backpack. Regarding weight, with comfort of carrying across campus in mind, we’ve selected the lightest weight laptops in each of their respective classes.

PC vs Mac vs Chromebook

Peoples loyalty to their preferred operating system runs deep and can almost feel cult-like at times. I certainly have my preference, and would go as far as to say I loath the competitor. But I’ll keep that bias to myself…or try anyway. The fact of the matter is that the world of computing has changed significantly over the years and it really does come down to personal preference. With the advent of cloud based storage, as well as applications, the compatibility issues of PC’s vs Mac are really a thing of the past.

Processing Speed

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, we’re not going to get into the highly technical aspects of what makes one processor better than another. Instead, we’ve selected five laptops that we feel have adequate processing speed to meet the needs of your student, which will likely be comprised of writing papers, taking notes, doing homework, and submitting assignments. The reality is that there are faster and newer processors out there, but they come with a price.

Summary

All five of these laptops we’ve selected will work great for your student. Here are the “Most Popular”, “Best Price”, and our pick for “Best Choice”

Most Popular – Apple MacBook Air | 13″ Display based on rating compared against the other four laptops

Best Price – Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R74Z Slim Laptop | 15.6″ Full HD IPS

Best Choice – HP Envy x360 15 2-in-1 Laptop 15.6″ Full HD. We selected this laptop as “Best Choice” because it’s one of the fastest and lightest of the five. It has four times the memory of the other four laptops, but is still in the same price range. As an added bonus, it has a backlit keyboard, which comes in handy while working in poor light conditions. Finally, this is considered an “All-in-One”, which means the screen is a touch screen and can be flipped so that it can be used as a tablet, or can be stood up, enabling your student to present to fellow students or the class.