The best student laptops for school, college and university

The best student laptop is not just a nice thing to have, it’s essentially to helping you through higher education. So when you compare it to the cost of your course fees, it’s clear that it’s something worth investing in. However, with so many models on the market, where on eath do you start?

At Creative Bloq, we’re here to help. Our experts have been testing and reviewing laptops for over a decade, using a mix of benchmark tests and hands-on expertise. And so we’ve put them to work, curating a list that will suit both students’ needs and their limited budgets. From the best MacBook for students to the best ASUS laptops, we’ve gathered the best options to suit every level of student and type of course. 

If you like what you see here, we also have guides to the best iPads for students, as well as the best tablets for students. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to make the most out of savings such as the Apple student discount and Samsung student discount offerings. 

The quick list

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The best student laptop overall

It might not have an M3 chip, but we think the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is currently the best and most affordable laptop in the Apple family for students. While this model has since been overtaken in performance by the M2-powered MacBook Air, and more recently the MacBook Air M3 range, this older model remains our top pick not only because of its significantly lower price, but also the fact that it still performs well enough to easily handle most students’ computing needs with ease.

More than half of the Creative Bloq team still use this laptop daily, so we know it very well indeed. Its thin and light fan-less design makes it comfortable to carry around – ideal if you’re lugging your laptop around campus or between lectures, and the absence of a fan also makes it super quiet, ideal for studying in the library.

In our tests, the battery on this MacBook achieved well over a full day of use on a single charge, which will be reassuring for those who like to study at a cafe or other venues where you might not have access to a power outlet. It also has enough ports to support most of the peripherals you might want for college or schoolwork, such as a mouse and external storage. 

Although no longer Apple’s newest, our reviewer noted that the M1 chip is well-optimised for a wide range of applications, so regardless of whether you’re studying economics or visual design, there’s very little that this compact and lightweight laptop can’t handle. Although, we would consider a laptop with more memory if you’re studying video editing or 3D design courses, and your budget allows for it.

See our full MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review for more details.

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The best Chromebook for students

If you’re a student on a tighter budget, or you only need a laptop for simpler tasks such as taking notes and writing essays, then we’re confident a Chromebook may be all you need. These excellent value stripped-back laptops run ChromeOS, which means you won’t be able to use some of the desktop software that you would use on a Windows or Mac computer, so keep this in mind. However, there is now a wide range of apps available for ChromeOS, and many popular programs are becoming available as browser-based apps instead for Chrome users. 

We think the Acer Chromebook Spin 514 is the best Chromebook for students thanks to the 2-in-1 versatility of its laptop and tablet modes. It offers a solid, durable build, and a sharp 14-inch Full HD touchscreen. We tested the quad-core AMD Ryzen 5 configuration and found that it could easily handle all the tasks that ChromeOS is capable of. 

The typing experience should be comfortable enough for those writing essays for university, and the solid metal chassis and sturdy hinges make this a reassuringly solid option for lugging around in a bag. There are plenty of ports on this laptop too for those who need to connect peripherals or additional storage. The screen is particularly impressive for a Chromebook, and means it could even please student artists, who will be able to make use of the tablet mode function, although it is a little heavy to hold. See our Acer Chromebook Spin 514 review for all the details.

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Best student laptop for creatives

As a photography student, this is the laptop that I personally owned while studying for my Master’s degree. I highly recommend it for students as an excellent choice for multitasking as it offers a great balance between professional and personal use. For example, I used this laptop for essay writing, extensive photo editing, online lectures and Teams meetings, plus it could handle light gaming sessions in the evening. 

I love that it has enough processing power to run any creative software, including 3D modelling slicers as the image above demonstrates, as well as Adobe‘s suite of Creative Cloud apps. The Pantone-verified OLED screen also makes it a perfect laptop for photo editing, and I loved the small design features like the built-in privacy shutter, fingerprint reader, and backlit keyboard for late-night essays. 

Overall, I think the Asus Vivobook Pro 15 is a very well-balanced option for students on creative courses, and it’s not extortionately priced, either. The specs can be configured with 16GB of RAM, enough to run most software for visual art and design students, although the performance is not super seamless when it comes to 4K video editing, with a noticeable fan noise.

Despite some hefty hardware, this laptop is ultra-lightweight, making it comfortable to carry around, and the slimline 180° hinge design means you can share on-screen work with colleagues in class. There are also plenty of ports for a range of peripherals like graphics drawing tablets, plus three USB-A ports as well as a Thunderbolt USB-C. 

For students of graphic design specifically, we would suggest this laptop as a better alternative to many of the 2-in-1 devices available, since it provides more power and support for a dedicated drawing tablet, which will be a vast improvement over directly using a hybrid tablet device’s screen as a pen display.

Take a look at my Asus Vivobook Pro 15 review for everything you need to know. 

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Best mid-range laptop for students

For a Windows option firmly in the middle of the range, we think the MSI Prestige 14 Evo is a good option for students, with enough specs to cover a wide degree of uses while keeping costs down. We found that, like all MSI laptops, this is a well-built machine that can handle being carried around while sporting a sleeker and less bulky design than the boxy gaming laptops the company is known for. 

With 16GB of RAM, we found it had enough oomph to students working in visual design and photo editing programmes. Integrated Iris Xe graphics rather than a dedicate GPU means this isn’t a great option for video editors and 3D modellers, but photography students will appreciate the microSD slot and 100% sRGB coverage.

Read our full MSI Prestige 14 Evo review to learn more. 

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Best 2-in-1 laptop for students

The Surface Go 3 is the most affordable 2-in-1 tablet in the Microsoft family, and while it’s nowhere near as powerful as the Surface Pro, it has a similar design and is more capable of running low-demand software and web-based applications, making this an ideal choice for younger students at school.

It comes equipped with Windows 11 and can still run some basic design applications reasonably well. In our test,  we had no issues using Clip Studio Paint to create a few digital illustrations for example, but this isn’t a device you’ll want to edit images or video footage on.

It’s important to note that you’ll have to purchase the keyboard separately (and stylus too if you want that), so the device is sold in its tablet-only form, but when paired with its various accessories the Surface Go 3 is more lightweight and compact than most traditional laptops on the market. And these are the biggest advantages for students, since the compact size makes this comfortable to carry around or use in class (or even on the bus to school).

You can read more details in our full Microsoft Surface Go 3 review.

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Best budget laptop for students

We think the Acer Aspire 5 is one of the best options for students on a tight budget and one of the cheapest recommendable laptops running Windows 11. In fact, we’re talking almost Chromebook prices, but without the limitations that come with using ChromeOS.

There are a few caveats. This won’t hold up to running graphically demanding applications, but for younger school-aged children, and indeed anyone who needs a laptop for basic word processing and some light media, it will do the job just fine. AS we expected, there are a few setbacks that come with a laptop at this price, such as the inclusion of a brand-specific charger over the more common USB-C, and it’s not the most stylish device on the market.

We found it could handle basic image editing in Adobe Photoshop, but anyone who needs something for video editing or 3D design will need to look at more expensive hardware. But if you’re looking for a Windows student laptop at a very cheap price, this is our top recommendation.

Read our in-depth Acer Aspire 5 review to find out more.

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Best powerful laptop for students

The MacBook Pro 16 isn’t just one of the best laptops for students right but one of the best laptops period. As such, it comes with a pretty hefty price tag, and it’s a lot more than almost any student needs. That said, power uses on courses in 3D animation, video editing and other graphically demanding disciplines will without doubt appreciate the power and efficiency on offer here.

In fact, running benchmarks using Blender, we concluded that the Pro 16 is a viable replacement for a desktop machine in many scenarios. It feels smooth and fluid, interactive rendering runs with ease and high polygon and model count scenes showed no signs of slowdown and when video editing – even 8K or multicam timelines are responsive. Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve and Fusion projects feel super smooth.

And while many rival workstation laptops often sacrifice battery life in exchange for power, in our own tests we worked for 10 hours in Cinema 4D before the power indicator turned red, and the laptop never got uncomfortably hot. Sure, it’s expensive but for those on demanding creative courses, we would say this is the best laptop for students who can afford it. The 14in version is more portable and slightly cheaper, but those on creative courses are likely to appreciate the larger screen of the 16in model as long as they’re not regularly on the move with their laptop.

See our full MacBook Pro 16 M3 review for more details.

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How to choose the best student laptop

Choosing the best student laptop will depend on your needs and budget. Naturally, different students will have very different requirements for a laptop depending on what they’re studying. Many will not need massive amounts of power, while those studying subjects such as video production and 3D design will have greater needs.

Students of creative subjects are likely to need at least 16GB of RAM and possibly a laptop with a dedicated GPU. They’ll likely also have greater demands for the display of their laptop, requiring a good colour gamut for visual work. Other students can better prioritise value and portability.

We’ve considered these different needs when selecting the options to include in our guide above. In our experience, there are three major factors to consider:

Portability: If you’re ferrying your laptop to lectures, seminars and the library for all-night cram sessions, you don’t want it to be giving you back problems. A laptop that doesn’t weigh too much and can easily fit into a standard backpack or shoulder bag should definitely be a priority for a student.

Battery life: The last thing you want is your laptop running out of power at a critical moment, and if your laptop can’t get you through the day, it’s probably not going to be hugely useful to you as a student. 

Affordability: Of course, everyone is looking for value with any purchase they make, particularly tech, but for many students, affordability is a more important factor than it is for working professionals who still need a solid laptop. Thus, getting as much computing power on the dollar as possible is paramount.

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How we tested the best student laptops

All the laptops in this guide have been reviewed and tested by Creative Bloq’s hardware experts, who have not just run them through a gauntlet of benchmarking, but also used them in real life over weeks and sometimes months. 

Our reviewers have specifically put these devices through their paces with tasks that students in different fields tend to carry out. We spend several days testing each device and comparing their specifications to pick the best laptops for students with varying needs. We run different benchmark tests on each device depending on its intended use by its maker, but the laptops we’ve included in this guide have all been run through the following:

• Cinebench R23/2024 – this assesses the performance of a computer’s CPU and GPU using real-world 3D rendering tasks

• Geekbench 5/6 – this tests the CPU’s processing power, both by using a single core for a single task at a time as well as all the CPU’s core to see its ability to multitask

• Handbrake – we use this free and open-source transcoder for digital video files to render a short 4K animated film, using the same file for all our tests

• 3DMark – this assesses a computer’s ability to run graphic rendering tasks, including for gaming

• PCMark 10 – this test assesses a computer’s ability to run all everyday tasks from web browsing to digital content creation, testing app launch speeds, 3D rendering and even battery life

But perhaps more importantly than technical benchmarking, we evaluate machines in real-world situations, pushing them to the limit with multiple applications running to see how they perform in real project-like conditions. Power, speed, flexibility, and what a computer looks and feels like to use are all criteria in our reviewing process. 

We do much more than simply unpack a test unit, run some benchmarks and then pack it up again; we have lived and worked with all of the above computers, running them in real-life scenarios and completed projects relevant to the subject of this guide, otherwise, we wouldn’t recommend these models to you. For more details, see our article on How we test.

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FAQs

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