More Great Options: The Best Laptops Under $1,000 | 9 Great Laptops You Can Buy Now | The Most Capable Chromebooks of 2021 For example, maybe you won’t actually want a big screen and the weight that comes with it if you’ll spend a lot of time carrying the laptop between classes. It’s easy to overspend on a laptop, so make sure you’ll need all the features that are advertised.

Also, some colleges suggest either a Mac or a Windows computer.īudget is a top consideration for many college students, so choose wisely. Many institutions have specific requirements for computers, including processor speed. The first and most important thing you should do before purchasing a laptop is check with your college. Look for a mix of portability and power to make sure the laptop you choose can handle your years in academia. This means that service related issues can often be brand and model specific, making it a bit more complicated to diagnose.College students need laptops that can handle a lot: casual gaming with friends, intense web browsing, and word processing to finish homework assignments. None of the hardware manufacturers have anything to do with the operating system, so each one must create specific drivers and figure out any compatibility issues with the components that they use in each laptop. Lower cost laptops will be built with cheaper and often less reliable components, so that may impact the reliability and long-term performance. The single biggest disadvantage is that Windows is the most targeted operating system by malware because it’s the most widely used. The serviceability of the laptop can become an issue if your child attends a smaller college in a rural area, so exploring service options before you decide would be wise. The number of service companies for Windows laptops is also much bigger. Windows laptops are generally less expensive to service as well, especially if a hardware component fails. This results in a much lower cost of the device as entry level laptops can be found for around $600 and more advanced devices with larger storage drives and faster processors can be found well under $1,000.

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