Our team has reviewed countless laptops over the past few years, from affordable ultrabook devices to the sleekest and most powerful MacBooks. Thanks to all that collective knowledge, we’ve already gone ahead and curated the best-rated student laptops, to make your life a lot easier. We’ve ensured to include as many options as possible at varying price points, specs and features throughout this list to reflect all the various courses you’d need the best student laptop for. This list covers those who are after high-performance content-creation devices as well as portable devices that are ideal for notetaking and browsing. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that every laptop we review goes through a rigorous testing process. We use industry-standard benchmarks to delve deeper into the processing speeds and accuracy of the screen, as well as gathering anecdotal evidence from the time we had them in for review, so you know you’re getting real-world advice you can count on. If you’re looking for something a little more specialised, we have roundups of the best MacBook Laptops, the best Huawei Laptops and the best Dell Laptops. Plus, we’ve covered the best Ultrabook Laptops, the best Budget Laptops, the best Laptops for video editing and the best Laptops overall, so make sure you check those out for an even better idea of what options are on the market. So, without further ado, here are our picks for the best Student Laptops. Make sure you bookmark this page and come back soon as we will be updating it with any more fantastic devices that come through our doors in 2023.
Best student laptops at a glance
Best you can buy: Apple MacBook Air M2 (2022) – check priceBest value: Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 – check priceBest Chromebook: Acer Chromebook Spin 513 – check priceBest for high-performance content creation: MacBook Pro 16-inch (2021) – check priceBest for designers: Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio – check price
The M2 chipset at the heart of this machine not only chews through everyday tasks, but it’s more than fast enough for photo editing, 4K video editing and even some gaming. During the review process, our reviewer spent (far) too long playing Football Manager 2022 – for testing purposes, of course. If your day mainly consists of typing, then the MacBook Air M2 (2022) is one of the best machines on this list. Our reviewer found the keyboard a joy with just enough travel and big function keys. Below the keyboard sits a huge trackpad that’s very responsive, and while this particular MacBook doesn’t feature a Touch Bar, it offers simple function keys in its place like pre-2016 MacBooks. Battery Life is strong enough to make it through a full day of work. During our testing, the M2 MacBook Air lasted for 14 hours in a video loop test (two hours longer than the previous model). In addition, the display is great for bouts of Netflix after class, and while it isn’t Mini LED like with the new MacBook Pro, the 13.6-inch IPS LCD panel here is still more than serviceable for work as much as it is for play. If you don’t need the extra graphics firepower that the latest Air offers, it’s also worth checking out the more affordable MacBook Air M1 laptop. It may be a couple of years older, but it still provides a stellar productivity performance. Reviewer: Max ParkerFull review: Apple MacBook Air M2 (2022) review This is one of the most affordable Windows laptops on the market, and yet still offers excellent build quality and is portable enough for frequent trips to the library. Its processor is slightly out of date compared to more expensive laptops, but our tests proved it’s still perfectly speedy enough for day-to-day tasks such as web browsing, opening emails and hammering out essays. We’d only advise opting for a more powerful option if you need a laptop for gaming or content creation. Our only major concern with this laptop is the poor screen resolution. At just 1536×1024, we found that video doesn’t look as sharp as it does on a more conventional 1080p laptop display. That dinky 12-inch screen isn’t ideal for video streaming either, proving problematic if you want to view multiple web browsers and apps simultaneously. But if you don’t need a laptop for video streaming, or simply don’t care about crystal clear picture quality, then the Surface Laptop Go 2 remains one of the best student laptop options for your studies. Reviewer: Ryan JonesFull review: Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 review The Spin 513 weighs in at only 1.2kg and is very easy to take out on the go, which we found to be useful for hybrid working. Since this laptop runs on ChromeOS, this won’t be the best pick for those who need access to software like Adobe Photoshop, but is perfectly fine if you stick to the basics. For when you need to bang out an essay, the keyboard of the Spin 513 also proved to be responsive with a solid keypress, and it’s also a backlit keyboard too. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c processor worked wonderfully for us during web browsing, word processing and didn’t falter when we ran multiple Chrome taps on it at once. The processor also doesn’t require a dedicated cooling system, meaning that this machine will run quietly during those late-night study sessions. The foldable design of the Spin 513 – as well as the bundled stylus – also means you can use this as a tablet if you want to kick back and watch some TV after a long day of classes. While we wouldn’t recommend this as a creative device, it will fare fine for any essay-based work and ChromeOS should ensure a seamless and simple experience. Reviewer: Reece BithreyFull review: Acer Chromebook Spin 513 review The latest MacBook Pro is available with either an M1 Pro or M1 Max chip, both offering blistering speeds that can handle everything from basic productivity tasks to complex 3D animation and 4K video renders. Our benchmark results show that there are very few laptops available that can deliver a performance as good as this for content creation as this particular MacBook came out as our top performer in each test. We were also pleased to see Apple adding a number of ports to this laptop, with MagSafe charging, HDMI, Thunderbolt and an SD card reader all present and accounted for. In addition, its redesigned chassis offers a boxier look that users of older MacBooks will appreciate, with the same industrial charm. Since the MacBook Pro is the most expensive laptop on this list, we would not recommend it to anyone who doesn’t need high-end performance. Any creative student will definitely see a stark difference between this laptop and many others in regards to demanding media tasks, though any essay writers out there don’t need to splash out this much to find their perfect laptop. Reviewer: Max ParkerFull review: MacBook Pro review During testing, we loved how easy it was to pull the screen forward and magnetically clip it to the deck just above the trackpad. Unfortunately, the Microsoft Slim Pen is not bundled with this device and will need to be bought separately. However, if you do get one, we found it felt great on the touchscreen with the 4069 pressure levels available making it wonderfully reactive and great for digital painting and design work. The Surface Laptop packs an 11th-gen H-Series Intel processor – with i5 and i7 options available – with our unit performing well during basic tasks like web browsing and watching Netflix. This is not the most powerful laptop on this list, but its touch screen and versatile hinge set it apart from the rest, and it will work great provided you don’t need the most powerful specs. While the MacBook Pro is the better option for high-performance tasks, any student who creates digital art should still seriously consider the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio. Reviewer: Ryan JonesFull review: Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio review
