Dear new student,
Congratulations on getting in. Somewhere on your list, between bedding and a kettle, is “laptop”, and you’ve probably been told a dozen different things about what to buy. Here’s the advice I’d give a younger cousin, in the order it matters.
Wait until you know what your course needs
This is the big one, so it comes first. Before you buy anything, check your department’s website or email them and ask whether your course requires particular software.
Most don’t. If you’re studying English, history, law, business or most sciences, nearly any decent laptop will do. But some courses do have needs. Engineering and architecture programs often use design software that only runs on Windows and wants a dedicated graphics card. Film and music courses may be built around particular editing programs. Some computer science departments have preferences too.
Ten minutes of checking can save you from owning an expensive laptop that can’t run the one program you need in second year.
You’re going to carry this thing every day
At home, a laptop sits on a desk. At university it goes into a bag at 8am and comes back at 10pm. It rides on buses. It gets used on a fold-down lecture hall table the size of a dinner plate.
So weight matters more than you’d think. Under three and a half pounds, about 1.6 kilograms, is a good target. A 13 or 14-inch laptop fits those tiny tables and your bag. A 15 or 16-inch one gives you a bigger screen for working in your room. Both are fine choices. Just know which trade you’re making.
Battery life is freedom
Lecture halls never have enough sockets, and the ones in the library are always taken. A laptop that lasts a full day of classes means you never have to plan your seat around a plug.
Don’t trust the hours printed on the box. Look for the battery size in watt-hours, written as Wh, and read a review or two. Our battery Q&A explains why the advertised number is always optimistic.
The specs, kept short
You don’t need to become an expert. For a Windows laptop you’ll keep through your whole degree, look for these.
- 16GB of memory. Research means dozens of browser tabs, plus documents, plus a video call. Memory is what keeps all that smooth.
- A 512GB SSD. Avoid anything listed as eMMC.
- A full HD screen or better that’s reasonably bright. You’ll be staring at it for years.
- A recent mid-range processor. You don’t need the top one.
If a listing confuses you, our guide to reading a spec sheet will get you through it in five minutes.
About that gaming laptop
I know. If you play, it’s tempting to get one machine for everything. It can work, and plenty of students do it happily.
Be honest with yourself about the cost, though. Gaming laptops are heavier, their batteries often run out by lunchtime, and their fans can be loud in a silent lecture. If you’d mostly play in your room, some students do better with a light laptop for campus and a console or desktop at home. We lay out both sides in Gaming Laptop or Gaming Desktop?
Don’t overspend, and don’t underspend
You don’t need the most expensive model in the store. A solid mid-range laptop will carry you through a degree.
But the very cheapest ones are a false saving. A laptop with too little memory and slow storage will frustrate you every single day and may not make it to graduation. If money’s tight, and for most students it is, a refurbished business laptop is often a better buy than a new bargain model.
Ask about student discounts too. Many manufacturers and retailers have them, and the back-to-school sales in late summer are some of the best of the year.
Protect it, because student life is rough on laptops
Three small things will save you from the worst week of your degree.
Back up your work. Every year, someone loses a dissertation to a stolen bag or a spilled coffee. Don’t let it be you. Your university almost certainly gives you free cloud storage. Save your work there from day one, so that losing the laptop only means losing the laptop.
Think about accident cover. A standard warranty covers faults, not drops or spills. For a laptop that lives in a backpack, accidental damage cover can be worth it. Check first whether your family’s home insurance already covers your belongings at university. We weigh this up in Are Extended Warranties Worth It?
Get a padded sleeve. It’s the cheapest protection you can buy.
A last word
No laptop will write your essays for you, and nobody ever got a better degree because of a faster processor. The right laptop is simply the one that never gets in your way. It’s light enough to bring, lasts long enough to rely on, and is quick enough that you forget about it.
Buy sensibly, back up your work, and go and enjoy yourself. The laptop is the least interesting thing about the next few years.
Good luck.
If you’d like some specific suggestions, our Student & General Use Laptops page is a good place to start.
More reading: all Dealmania articles