Student Laptop Guide (last updated September 2020)

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This guide is aimed at helping most students picking a laptop. This should not be interpreted as the be-all-end-all advice, rather as a general guide.

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If you still need help picking a laptop, feel free to comment on this thread, PM me, or start your own thread.

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If you want recommendations, please look at this form as it makes it easier to recommend a laptop that suits your needs well. If not, please give a budget at a minimum as that's the bare minimum amount of information needed to give advice.

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Anything bold in blue is the main advice. Anything not in blue is the extra information(i.e. reasoning) that goes along with that.

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I would personally recommend getting a 14” laptop as it offers the best balance of having something that provides enough screen for real work, whilst also being fairly small to put into a bag.

•

13.3 inches – Typically found in smaller laptops like the 13.3" MacBooks, these are good if getting something small as possible is a main priority, but while the difference between this and a 14” laptop isn’t drastic, the extra 0.7" still makes a bigger difference than you would think.

•

14 inches – Generally a nice balance of being small to put into a bag, whilst having enough room to get real work done with. If you're unsure which screen size to go with, go with this one.

•

15.6 inches – Generally better for media consumption, and for people who value screen real estate, but do keep in mind that these laptops come with the compromise of generally bigger and heavier to carry around all day.

•

17.3 inches – great if you want something that you can just leave at home with tons of screen real estate, but you will likely have a hard time getting a laptop of this size into a bag, and if you can it’d likely be too heavy.

•

Size is subjective and comes down to personal preference at the end of the day. When we're not in the middle of a pandemic, it's worth going into a store and checking whether you get along with a particular size.

•

I would avoid screens with low resolutions like 1366x768 and jump up to 1080p if you can help it. Laptop Mag did a really good article on the matter here, but the TLDR is that things will look flat out worse and with 1080p screens being fairly common across most price points, it's quite hard to recommend a laptop with a lower resolution.

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Windows 10 – the most common operating system, and the one to go for if you're unsure. Advantages are better software support, better hardware support and it often comes preloaded on a lot of systems. Disadvantages are that it is more prone to viruses than others, though common sense and the built in Windows Defender take care of this.

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macOS – this is the one you will find on Apple's Mac computers. Advantages are deep integration with other Apple Products(e.g. iPhone, iPad), and generally good use of screen space. Disadvantages are that you are restricted to Apple’s own hardware, which generally costs a lot of money and commonly has some shortcomings, such as the limited ports and upgradability.

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Linux – Advantages are that it is free and is generally quicker. Disadvantages are generally worse hardware support and the software you might need isn’t guaranteed to run. If you are interested in this one, I would create a thread for laptops with good Linux support.

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Chrome OS – decent on a tight budget, however if you can come up with the extra money for a good Windows Laptop, I would pick that. Advantages are that it is quite fast on low-end hardware and has some nice tie-ins with Android (though not as many as iOS and macOS). Disadvantages are poor software support(hence why I generally don't recommend them unless you're on a tight budget), and you will be restricted to Google-sanctioned hardware (though this comes from a variety of manufacturers).

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Most people should aim for something with at least an 8^th gen i5 or newer (i.e. 1035g1), or an AMD Ryzen 5 CPU. The latter should have 4 cores at a minimum (i.e. 3500u), or 6 cores if you can help it (for example, a 4500U).

•

If you can afford to do so, avoid the lower end Intel Core i3, and to a lesser extent AMD Ryzen 3 systems as while the latter has 4 cores in the latest generation, the Core i3s and older Ryzen 3s only have 2 cores, which while certainly sufficient, will make things a touch slower, and will come with the caveats of potentially shorter longevity – at the end of the day futureproofing doesn’t hurt.

•

Don’t get a laptop with dedicated graphics if you will just be doing tasks like writing essays, watching movies, TV shows, YouTube etc., and likely video conferencing, as these often come at the expense of things like battery life and portability, and often with gaming laptops, fan noise. While there are exceptions to those downsides like the ASUS Zephyrus G14, or the Dell XPS 15, it is safe to say most people should skip over this.

•

Do get a laptop with dedicated graphics if you will be doing something like Engineering, and to a lesser extent some creative courses like Graphic Design as the dedicated graphics will seriously come in handy, especially for engineering in which you’ll be running CAD software like SolidWorks, which really benefits from the extra graphical power provided by the GPU.

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For the latter scenario of creative courses, something like this ASUS ZenBook with a Ryzen 4500U and a lower end MX350 will still give you enough performance for the tasks you will be doing, whilst also keeping your device relatively thin and light.

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For engineering, I would get something with a more powerful GTX/RTX Card (i.e. GTX 1650) as while the MX cards are good for stuff like Photo and Video editing, they are not so good for CAD Software. I would personally pick this Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 on the budget end, or the Asus G14 on the premium end.

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If you can afford it, I would strongly recommend getting something with 8GB as this will run a bit quicker, you'll often be able to run more apps on your laptop at once, and besides it’s fairly cheap to jump up to 8GB anyway.

•

For most people, though, 4GB would be serviceable, just expect some general slowdowns, especially when multitasking.

•

If you will be doing Engineering or Creative subjects, I would bump the minimum RAM up to 8GB, and get 16GB if you can afford it, as the type of apps you will be running like CAD software and the Adobe suite respectively are unlikely to run well on 4GB.

•

128GB is the minimum amount of storage for most people, however again I would recommend getting 256GB if you can afford it as at least on full-blown OSes like Windows or macOS, as you start installing apps you will find that you start to run out of storage pretty quickly on anything lower than that.

•

Get a secondary storage solution like a USB stick, cloud storage, or an external hard drive instead of getting a laptop with an internal mechanical hard drive as while mechanical hard drives will get you much more storage for less money, the downside is that the computer will run a bit too slow for comfort. Plus, it's always a good idea to keep your important data in a secondary location.

•

For a laptop with the specs that I generally recommend for most people, expect to pay around £500-£600. However a lot of people of can't pay that, so I've listed

•

£200-£300 - You can't really win in this budget. If you can come up with extra money to get something in the price range of £300-£400, then I would do that as that little bit of extra money will go a long way to getting something that will be more usable. If you really can't come up with that extra money, though, then it's worth making your own thread, PMing me or leaving a reply to this thread so we can see what's available to suit your needs.

•

£300-£400 - This is where we start getting into actually-worth-buying territory - any of laptops in this price will certainly be usable for a lot of use cases - though again you can get a better computer by coming up with the extra money.

•

£400-£500 - A pretty decent price point, again most of the laptops in this price point are beginning to become worth buying, and you can get some of the specs that I recommend in this price range with deals and student discount.

•

£500-£600 - This is the sweet spot between having a good level of performance and also being pretty good value. Often this is the price range that the laptops I recommend fall in.

•

£600-£1000 - This is generally where you'll find more entry level gaming laptops, most 2-in-1s with the specs that I recommend, and some more premium laptops.

•

£1000+ - This is basically where you'll find your more premium offerings, like the MacBook range, the Dell XPS laptops, most of the Microsoft Surface family, and Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon. I generally don't recommend these as while you do often get more luxuries like better build quality, somewhat lower weight and size, and sometimes better battery life, often these aren't worth hundreds of pounds extra for a lot of people.

•

Most people should aim for a 14” traditional laptop with either an AMD Ryzen 5, or an 8^th Gen or newer Intel Core i5, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 1080p display. This Lenovo Ideapad 5 fits basically all of those requirements for £530(normally £580).

•

If you can come up with the extra money for something decent (anything with at least 4GB RAM, a 128GB SSD, Pentium/Athlon), most people should just buy a brand new laptop rather than going used as the used market is a minefield, and at the time of writing prices seem to be inflated on account of working from home. However, for those who need a lot of performance for not much money, or are on a tighter budget of around £300, this is a great way to get a decent computer for not much money, though I would first recommend watching this video by the 8-bit-guy as it covers some really good tips on going this route. If anything, avoid used laptops that do not come with a charger as there is too high a chance the laptop was stolen.

•

If you have a student discount, I strongly recommend taking advantage of this if it is available at the place you are purchasing the laptop from as unless there’s a sale which brings the price down to lower than it would be with student discount, it would just be a waste of money not to.

•

Wait for back to school sales as they are a great way to save money if you are buying something for a course.

•

PSA for those looking at MacBooks – I would advise on holding out for the release of the Apple Silicon MacBooks later this year, as while they will have teething issues to start, the current Intel based MacBooks will likely suffer from a shorter life span of anywhere within the realm of 3-5 years.

•

As it's free and quick to come out of it, I wouldn't discount laptops with Windows 10 S, or to go by it's other/proper name, Windows 10 S mode. Microsoft made a guide on how to do so here.

•

Contained within the spoiler is a list of good places to buy a laptop from:

•

Buying from the manufacturer directly isn't a bad idea. Again, within the spoiler are links to the main manufacturers:

•

This guide is aimed at helping most students picking a laptop. This should not be interpreted as the be-all-end-all advice, rather as a general guide.

•

If you still need help picking a laptop, feel free to comment on this thread, PM me, or start your own thread.

•

If you want recommendations, please look at this form as it makes it easier to recommend a laptop that suits your needs well. If you're not going to use the form, though, please at the very least state the apps you intend to run and your budget.

•

Anything bold in blue is the main advice. Anything not in blue is the extra information(i.e. the reason for that advice) that goes along with that.

•

Windows 10 – the most common operating system, and the one to go for if you're unsure. Advantages are better software support, better hardware support and it often comes preloaded on a lot of systems. The disadvantage is that it is more prone to viruses than others, though common sense and the built in Windows Defender take care of this.

•

macOS – this is the one you will find on Apple's Mac computers. The advantage of this one is the deep integration with other Apple Products(e.g. iPhone, iPad), whilst the disadvantage is that you are restricted to Apple’s own hardware, which generally costs a lot of money and commonly has some shortcomings, such as the limited ports and lack of any real kind of upgradability.

•

Linux – Advantages are that it is free and is generally quicker. Disadvantages are that support for your hardware isn't guaranteed, and the software you may need to run for your course isn’t guaranteed to be available. If you are interested in this one, I would create a thread for laptops with good Linux support.

•

Chrome OS – Advantages are that it is quite fast, even on low-end hardware, however the main disadvantage of this one is the relatively poor software support, hence why I generally don't recommend them unless you're on a tight budget.

•

If you're unsure which screen size to go for, I would personally recommend getting a 14” laptop as it offers the best balance of having something that provides enough screen for real work, whilst also being fairly small to put into a bag.

•

13.3 inches – Typically found in smaller laptops like the 13.3" MacBooks, these are good if getting something small as possible is a main priority, but while the difference between this and a 14” laptop isn’t drastic, the extra 0.7" still makes a bigger difference than you would think.

•

14 inches – Generally a nice balance of being small to put into a bag, whilst having enough room to get real work done.

•

15.6 inches – Generally better for media consumption, and for people who value screen real estate, but do keep in mind that these laptops come with the compromise of generally being a bit bigger and heavier to carry around all day, though not drastically so.

•

17.3 inches – great if you want something that you can just leave at home with tons of screen real estate, but you will likely have a hard time getting a laptop of this size into a bag, and if you can it’d likely be too heavy.

•

Size is subjective, and which size is best for you comes down to personal preference. When we're not in the middle of a pandemic, it's worth going into a store and checking whether you get along with a particular size.

•

I would avoid screens with low resolutions like 1366x768 and jump up to 1080p if you can help it. Laptop Mag did a really good article on the matter here, but the TLDR is that things will look flat out worse and with 1080p screens being fairly common across most price points, it's quite hard to recommend a laptop with a lower resolution.

•

Most people should aim for something with at least an 8^th gen i5 or newer (i.e. 1035g1), or an AMD Ryzen 5 CPU. The latter should have 4 cores at a minimum (i.e. 3500u), or 6 cores if you can help it (for example, a 4500U).

•

If you can afford to do so, avoid the lower end Intel Core i3, and to a lesser extent AMD Ryzen 3 systems as while the latter has 4 cores in the latest generation, the Core i3s and older Ryzen 3s only have 2 cores, which while certainly sufficient, will make things a touch slower, and will come with the caveats of potentially shorter longevity – at the end of the day futureproofing doesn’t hurt.

•

Don’t get a laptop with dedicated graphics if you will just be doing tasks like writing essays, watching movies, TV shows, YouTube etc., and likely video conferencing, as these often come at the expense of things like battery life and portability, and often with gaming laptops, fan noise. While there are exceptions to those downsides like the ASUS Zephyrus G14, or the Dell XPS 15, it is safe to say most people should skip over this.

•

Do get a laptop with dedicated graphics if you will be doing something like Engineering, and to a lesser extent some creative courses like Graphic Design as the dedicated graphics will seriously come in handy, especially for engineering in which you’ll be running CAD software like SolidWorks, which really benefits from the extra graphical power provided by the GPU.

•

For the latter scenario of creative courses, something like this ASUS ZenBook with a Ryzen 4500U and a lower end MX350 will still give you enough performance for the tasks you will be doing, whilst also keeping your device relatively thin and light.

•

For engineering, I would get something with a more powerful GTX/RTX Card (i.e. GTX 1650), or an AMD RX5500M+ as while the MX cards are good for stuff like Photo and Video editing, they are not so good for CAD Software. I would personally pick this MSI Bravo 15 on the budget end, or the Asus G14 on the premium end.

•

If you can afford it, I would strongly recommend getting something with 8GB as this will run a bit quicker, you'll often be able to run more apps on your laptop at once, and besides it’s fairly cheap to jump up to 8GB anyway.

•

For most people, though, 4GB would be serviceable, just expect some general slowdowns, especially when multitasking.

•

If you will be doing Engineering or Creative subjects, I would bump the minimum RAM up to 8GB, and get 16GB if you can afford it, as the type of apps you will be running like CAD software and the Adobe suite respectively are unlikely to run well on 4GB.

•

128GB is the minimum amount of storage for most people, however, if you can afford it, I would recommend getting 256GB as at least on full-blown OSes like Windows or macOS, as you start installing apps you will find that you start to run out of storage pretty quickly on anything lower than that.

•

If you can help it, get a secondary storage solution like a USB stick, cloud storage, or an external hard drive instead of getting a laptop with an internal mechanical hard drive as while mechanical hard drives will get you much more storage for less money, the downside is that the computer will run a bit too slow for comfort. Plus, it's always a good idea to keep your important data in a secondary location.

•

For a laptop with the specs that I generally recommend for most people, expect to pay around £500-£600. However a lot of people of can't pay that, so I've listed some other budgets and whether they're worth shopping in.

•

£200-£300 - You can't really win in this budget. If you can come up with extra money to get something in the price range of £300-£400, then I would do that as that little bit of extra money will go a long way to getting something that will be more usable. If you really can't come up with that extra money, though, then it's worth making your own thread, PMing me or leaving a reply to this thread so we can see what's available to suit your needs.

•

£300-£400 - This is where we start getting into actually-worth-buying territory, any of laptops in this price will certainly be usable for a lot of use cases, though still don't expect anything overly great. As with before, however, you can get a better computer by coming up with the extra money.

•

£400-£500 - A pretty decent price point, again most of the laptops in this price point are beginning to become worth buying, and you can get some of the specs that I recommend in this price range with deals and student discount.

•

£500-£600 - This is the sweet spot between having a good level of performance and also being pretty good value. Often this is the price range that the laptops I recommend fall in.

•

£600-£1000 - This is generally where you'll find more entry level gaming laptops, most 2-in-1s with the specs that I recommend, and some more premium laptops.

•

£1000+ - This is basically where you'll find your more premium offerings, like the MacBook range, the Dell XPS laptops, most of the Microsoft Surface family, and Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon. I generally don't recommend these as while you do often get more luxuries like better build quality, somewhat lower weight and size, and sometimes better battery life, often these aren't worth hundreds of pounds extra for a lot of people.

•

Most people should aim for a 14” traditional laptop with either an AMD Ryzen 5, or an 8^th Gen or newer Intel Core i5, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 1080p display. This Lenovo Ideapad 5 fits basically all of those requirements for £530(normally £580).

•

If you can come up with the extra money for something decent (anything with at least 4GB RAM, a 128GB SSD, Pentium/Athlon), most people should just buy a brand new laptop rather than going used as the used market is a minefield, and at the time of writing prices seem to be inflated on account of working from home. However, for those who need a lot of performance for not much money, or are on a tighter budget of around £300, this is a great way to get a decent computer for not much money, though I would first recommend watching this video by the 8-bit-guy as it covers some really good tips on going this route. If anything, avoid used laptops that do not come with a charger as there is too high a chance the laptop was stolen.

•

If you have a student discount, I strongly recommend taking advantage of this if it is available at the place you are purchasing the laptop from as unless there’s a sale which brings the price down to lower than it would be with student discount, it would just be a waste of money not to.

•

Wait for back to school sales as they are a great way to save money if you are buying something for a course.

•

PSA for those looking at MacBooks – I would advise on holding out for the release of the Apple Silicon MacBooks later this year, as while they will have teething issues to start, the current Intel based MacBooks will likely suffer from a shorter life span of anywhere within the realm of 3-5 years. This article goes into a lot of detail and is definitely worth reading.

•

As it's free and quick to come out of it, I wouldn't discount laptops with Windows 10 S, or to go by it's other/proper name, Windows 10 S mode. Microsoft made a guide on how to do so here.

•

Contained within the spoiler is a list of good places to buy a laptop from:

•

Buying from the manufacturer directly isn't a bad idea. Again, within the spoiler are links to the main manufacturers: