Finding the best laptops for college students can be difficult.  There are literally thousands of different laptops out there from companies like Dell, HP, Asus, and Apple, so which one is right for you?  I’ve decided to do the research for you and will update this post every month with the latest deals.  I’m always surprised that some of the best laptops for students and also some of the cheapest laptops for college students believe it or not.  One final note before we jump into the best and cheapest…I’ve broken it down by category to help you get right to which laptop is best for each student.

UPDATED: Dec 2011

Best Laptops For College Students – On A Budget

These laptops for students won’t be the absolute cheapest, but they won’t be the most expensive either.  They have been picked because they’re a good compromise between price and features.

The Toshiba Satellite L655 is one of my personal favorites and what I my girlfriend ended up picking out as her laptop of choice when it comes to laptops for students this is my go-to recommendation.  It’s got an Intel Core i3 processor, a 640GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM and over 5 hours of battery life.

Cheap Laptops For College Students – Lowest Priced Options

The Toshiba Satellite C655 is the little brother of the Toshiba Satellite L655 mentioned above and it’s reflected in it’s price.  It still has the same amazing screen and overall Toshiba quality, but has a 320GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM, and and AMD E-series processor.  Battery is around 3 hours depending on use.  Right now this laptop is almost $200 cheaper than other models which makes it the perfect laptop if you’re on a budget, but still want one of the cheapest and best laptops for college students around.  It’s also rated in the top 5 laptops on Amazon.com.

Best Laptops For College Students – Top Of The Line

I’ve actually got two choices here for the best laptops for students.  I went back and worth about which one to include or if I should include both and after using both and personally owning the Macbook Air, I just had to post both. Apple is one of the best laptops brands around.

The Apple Macbook Pro is simply amazing.  Every Apple computer I’ve had has been a pleasure to use.  They are extremely reliable and can even run Windows if absolutely needed.  Obviously they aren’t the cheapest laptops around, but I’ve never heard anyone who’s purchased one say they regretted it.

The Apple Macbook Air is my personal laptop of choice and what I would have used it was available in college.  This is the smallest and lightest laptop around.  I carry mine with me everywhere I go and even prefer it over the Apple iPad which believe it or not I sold to help fund the purchase of the Macbook Air.

Well these are my picks for the best laptops for college students.  Do you currently own one of these?  If so I’d love for you to leave a comment and tell me which model and what you love/hate about it.  If none of these laptops match what you’re looking for I’d recommend heading over to Amazon’s Best Selling Laptops.  I’m sure you’ll find what you’re looking for.

The invention of laptop computers have changed the way that consumers and businesses conduct business when traveling or during non-operating hours. Personal computers have expanded the way that data is acquired, sorted, and exchanged between businesses and clients around the world. Having a portable solution to provide a powerful version of a home or office computer is a major benefit. Businesses and industries around the world are now including small laptops for their employees. Keeping track of customers, clients, important business data, and market trends can now be completed at anytime by using these cheap laptops.

For travelers, a laptop is a saving grace for keeping in touch with friends and family. The ability to access email from popular Wi-Fi hot spots is an attractive benefit of small laptops. It now easy to bring a portable version of your home computer with you during traveling or seasonal visits. Having access to your information, music catalog, and email is a requirement in this decade. Consumers that do not have a portable computer are interested in purchasing the best small laptops for the price. Modern laptops include more power, memory, and expanded use options compared to laptops just 10 short years ago.

When shopping for the holiday season, major retailers offer small laptops for a reasonable price. These computers are cheaper to manufacture and are smaller in design. This creates a price point that is perfect for consumers looking to add a second computer or portable computer to the family. These portable personal computers are changing the way that families communicate with each other and the affordable price makes them an attractive option for purchase. The ability to burn compact discs or a digital videodisc is easy with cheap small laptops. The included features are constantly updated to reflect changing technologies.

Employers and employees that work in real estate, construction, sales industries easily benefit from the use of a portable computer. The best small laptops come with bright LCD screens to display housing or construction information that is useful in making important building and leasing considerations. When selling products to potential clients, having cheap small laptops make the selling process easier when customers can see and hear about the actual products or services that are offered. The batteries that are included in these small laptops are built for many hours of use and offer a reliable and portable option that easily fits into your daily needs.

Apple

Apple computers have always been great for me.  All the way through college I had a Macbook and then recently purchased both a Mac Mini and Macbook Air.  My reason behind recommending them as one of the best laptops brands is simple, they are reliable.  I have had very few problems with any of my Apple computers.  No company is perfect however and I did have a couple things break or go wrong which leads me to the next reason why they’re so great.  The Genius Bar…every Apple store has one and you can schedule a time with them and bring your computer in to get looked and and usually fixed for free.  Obviously if you need some new hardware they can’t help, but for most problems they are extremely helpful.

Toshiba

Toshiba laptops are my second favorite.  I’ve actually had the fewest problems with the two that I’ve owned.  I’ve always purchased the Toshiba Satellite models and haven’t been disappointed yet.  I’m not sure what else to say about Toshiba laptops other than they are usually a lot cheaper than Apple ones if you’re on a budget or looking to spend around $500 dollars.

So why didn’t I include Dell, Asus, etc on my list of the best laptops brands?  I guess only because I’ve had better luck with the two mentioned above.  I know people who swear by Dell computers and won’t purchase anything else, but I’ve had great luck and plan on sticking with Apple or Toshiba.

Original Post Below
One can never arrive at a conclusion for this question. Favorites will change with each individual as per his or her usage in the laptop. There are quite a few ones we can consider as best brand of laptop especially the laptops for students.

Coming to the point, laptops are usually used for its important feature called portability that makes it used by people every where. Frequent checking of the web and keeping ourselves updated of the developments through mails is very crucial with the work.

Hence, laptop being a very versatile machine is an importance for everybody. There are different kinds of laptop users and let us sneak in to their way of usage and explore the reason why few laptops are considered best.

Best Laptops Brand: The On-The-Go User

ASUS Eee Pc: This is the best brand of laptop for those who are always on the move. These netbooks are light weighted and priced at $399 with 11hours of battery life. All important functions such as word processing, web surfing etc can be done very well here. This is hence ideal and a best brand of laptop.

Best Laptop Brand: The ‘Just Basics’ User

Dell Inspiron: These laptops have fairly large screen and are affordable at $580. They can come in size as small as 11 inches to bigger ones at 15 inches. Simple computing, uploading pictures and photos, emailing and web-surfing, video chatting are some of the features on this reasonable powerful laptop with dual-core processors. This is one of the best brands of laptop for students.

Best Laptop Brand: The Cool, Creative User

Apple MacBook: These are ever-present in class rooms of most colleges, urban centers or coffee shops. Sized at 13 inches, this laptop is capable of handling functions like productivity and high end computing. This is priced at $999 and has an OS that is virus resistant making it the best brand of laptop for students.

Steps for A Laptop Lease

1. We should verify out different options the college has for laptop lease. Check if there are vendors that are related to the brand manufactures so that we can know if they do give discounts in leasing too. Insurance coverage is another important factor. They would cover mostly all aspects including damage to the laptop during accidents and other reasons.
2. Web search for all the possibilities as there are a good number of stores that can lease laptops for students. We should patiently make a good search to land a good deal rather than settling for a lesser offer.
3. There could be stores or outlets in the vicinity of our residence where they offer good deals on laptops lease.
4. Stores that have used computers for sale sometimes give us options for laptop lease understanding the fact that laptops for students is a necessity. These places are quite flexible as they will also let us customize the leased laptops which may not be an option at most other places.
5. We can enquire about the lease programs in our college IT department too. Many colleges these days are providing laptops for students with lease programs where in much better terms and conditions are favorable for students rather than depending on private vendors or organizations.

Warnings and Tips on Laptop Leasing

1. Leasing laptops can be disadvantaging too as most of the leasing organizations charge more money than required.
2. Student loans can be very helpful as a part of it can be used to buy a good laptop too. Understand our options of ownership and what is obligatory to pay once the contract ends.
3. The main important aspect in continuing laptop lease is the terms of end-of-contract. Most of the banks and Consumer credit providers usually take care of the financing of the leases that many computer manufacturers can offer.
4. The lease terms will go on for 24 to 48 months. There should be an extra 5% payment if any delay in payment for the month is seen.
5. The same way, the money that is accrued over a limit of time is big enough to buy a laptop itself.

While leasing a laptop isn’t for every student out there, it can be a good alternative to purchasing one of the best laptops for students that are available.

The Compaq V2000 is mainly designed and apt for home users and students and it is inexpensive as compared to other light weight computers. The Presario V2000 comes integrated with a Pentium M 725 and this range starts at $1000. The Presario V2000 is a good multimedia machine. This computer can be customized as per our desire except that we cannot upgrade the integrated graphics.

It is possible to upgrade the RAM and other drives to get a better speed. The Presario V2000 comes with a good widescreen that is 14-inch with BrightView and the JBL pro speakers.

This computer is portable and very compact suiting to our need and requirements. They weigh around 5.21 lbs and the size is precisely 13.15”x9.1”x1.53” . This computer is resilient and tough though it is made of plastics. These can very easily fit in to most of the standard sized backpacks.

The computer casing of the Presario V2000 laptop is made of shatterproof plastic. The outer shell of the black and silver computer looks sturdy and strong. This has the matte finish and a faintly rough texture. The hinges look durable enough for a long term use and they are also constructed with a similar material. However, we would not face any problems with the Presario V2000 shell.

Although the keyboard looks stiff, the keys are of regular size and not shallow. The keypad is pseudo numeric and the volume control is placed near to the Power button rather than residing as a function key. The sound system of this computer is above average.  The Compaq Presario v2000 drivers are fairly easy to find on the website if needed, but they do come preinstalled when you purchase the laptop.

The LCD display for this computer is unlocked on depressing the button “Compaq”. The laptops aesthetic looks get a boost with the status lights. They are elegant to look at and fit the style perfectly.

The Presario V2000 makes use of very low power Pentium M. This uses only 21W. As a result the fan is OFF and the computer is very silent. The V2000 never gets very hot but it gets warm after extensive use.  The Compaq Presario v200 battery is also really good and should last long enough for most peoples needs.

The touch pad for this computer is very well built. There are buttons that can turn the touch pad ON or OFF. This is a desirable feature and the Compaq Presario V2000 comes with it.  As far as laptops for students go it’s a great choice.

Lenovo 3000 N200
The Lenovo 3000 N200 model is the particular model I own and love. It’s got a Intel Core Duo processor in it instead of the Celeron found in a lot of laptops. It came in two different sizes, the 14.1 inch and the 15.4 inch. I opted to get the 15.4 inch model, but looking back having a slightly smaller screen would of been worth it for the ease of carrying it around.

Lenovo 3000 N100
The Lenovo 3000 N100 is quite a bit like the N200, so much so in fact that you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference just by looking at them. The Lenovo 3000 N100 did have a slightly larger harddrive (120GB instead of 80GB) and it also has a slightly faster processor (1.86Ghz vs 1.8Ghz).

Lenovo 3000 G530
The G530 model was a great laptop as well. It’s got very similar specs to the other sub models as you’ve probably started to notice. It came with an even larger than the N100 and N200 models. You had the option of 160GB or 250GB with 2 or 3GB of RAM. It’s also got a nice 6 cell battery that was rated at 4.5 hours.

Lenovo 3000 N500
I actually don’t know a lot about the Lenovo 3000 N500. From the little I’ve looked into it it’s almost the exact same at the G530, with the exception of the battery which is only rated at 3.8 hours compared to the G530′s 4.5.

No matter what model of the Lenovo 3000 you get you’ll be happy. They were such a popular model that finding things such as batteries, drivers, and other replacement parts is no problem. I also don’t know if I would rate this THE best laptop for school, but it’s definitely in my top 5 best laptops for college students. Mainly because you can get them used at such a good price right now and they are very reliable.

When looking for one of the best laptops for students it’s important to find one that has as many USB ports as possible. I made the mistake of getting a laptop in college that only had 2 USB ports. I thought there was no way I’d ever need more than 2 at any given time. I can’t even begin to tell you how wrong I was. Here is a quick list of the 7 things I had plugged in almost all the time when my computer was at my desk.

1. External hard drive for back up and storage of all my music, photos, documents
2. External keyboard because it was easier to type on
3. External mouse to go next to the keyboard
4. USB Flash drive that had my current school work on it
5. My digital camera
6. My iPod / MP3 player
7. My printer

You can see how this was going be a big problem. There are a couple of solutions with the easiest being to buy a laptop with a lot of USB ports. You probably won’t find any cheap laptops for students that have 7+ USB ports which is ok. As I’ve mentioned in a previous article, getting one of the best laptops for students should include Bluetooth which will help with the keyboard and mouse problem. You can also get a USB hub that turns one USB port into anywhere between 4 and 8 ports. They are extremely cheap and very useful. Believe it or not you can actually run 127 devices off from one USB port.

If you do happen to see any laptops for college students that do have the new USB 3.0 ports on them that’s great, but most likely you are going to see most of them will have USB 2.0 ports which is plenty fast and the current standard. It’s always nice to look forward and try to plan a head. It helps make your computer usable and relevant to the future which is great for making that computer last as long as possible.

Thankfully, due to this increased need and subsequent demand, laptops for students are now being made available in a variety of different models, and at a variety of price points; several of which are quite reasonable. Students now have the opportunity to obtain a basic laptop with wifi and Bluetooth capabilities, good memory capacity, and word processing programs, for under $400.00 USD. For those individuals that desire or require a higher level of speed, memory, or additional functions, there also exist mid-level and luxury models that are generally available at slightly higher price points and for those who are looking to spend the absolute minimum can hunt around for $200 laptops.

When beginning your search for the perfect laptop, be sure to identify your needs. If you mainly use computers for simple word processing tasks such as completing written assignments, for collecting information online, or communicating via email, you would likely benefit from a basic, inexpensive laptop. If you are a heavy computer user however, who enjoys online gaming, or who works on serious multi-media projects, then a higher-end, more expensive model with speedier processing and increased memory may be required.

To obtain the best deals on a variety of laptop makes and models, be sure to conduct extensive research, and do not forget to inquire with your post secondary institution. Frequently, university and college bookstores or technical support stores will offer special deals on laptops for students that can only be applied to purchases made by current students of the given institution, and directly through them. This option, if it is available, can save students hundreds of dollars, and will often include word processing programs at far below the set retail price.

Look into the variety of best laptops for students available on today’s market, and discover how the convenience and speed that they offer on a daily basis can benefit your course of study.

Laptops are an excellent tool for post secondary students due to their excellent portability, and the convenience that they offer. Students no longer have to spend their evenings inputting their hand written notes into their home desktop computers; instead they can easily take notes with their computer placed comfortable on their laps during class lectures, while cross-referencing terms or ideas with internet resources in order to clarify hard-to-understand concepts.

The best laptops for students are lightweight and easy to fit inside a school or book bag. They should have comfortable keyboards to facilitate regular and large volumes of typing, and screens that are large enough to provide comfortable viewing without being cumbersome or adding to the computer’s weight. Most modern computers are now constructed to include a wireless card, allowing internet access with the touch of a button and the input of a password. This feature will prove invaluable to students, who will easily be able to perform research, check online class schedules, or chat with classmates, from virtually anywhere.

The best laptops for students should also have adequate RAM and hard drive capabilities. In lay terms, they should have fast processors and enough internal memory to store necessary programs and files. Frequently students will also use their laptops to collect and listen to music, play games, or watch movies. The best modern computers have the capacity to perform all of these functions without compromising performance, speed, or quality.

Although students’ laptops do not need to be of the highest quality, they do need to be durable in order to sustain long days of wear and tear, and they should last at least for the duration of the degree program. Students should be sure to inquire about warranties or guaranties offered by various companies, manufacturers and retailers, in the off chance that the computer system should be compromised in any way. At the very least, look for companies that offer technical support for their products, either in person or over the phone.

With the right laptop, students can increase their productivity exponentially, while having access to the internet, and a means of communicating with friends and family. The best laptops for students will allow them to perform all of the above functions, and so much more, quickly and easily.

When looking for an inexpensive laptop, identify all of the elements that you will need to have included on said laptop. Basic models may be offered at very low prices, but may not include certain essential features or programs that, when purchased separately, will bring up that initial purchase cost. Cheap laptops for students should still include an introductory word processing program, some form of anti-virus protection, and enough RAM and memory to process all computer projects quickly and reliably.

Be sure that the laptop computer you eventually purchase is only cheap in price, and not in quality. The laptop should last for at least the length or your degree program, but ideally should last beyond that. Purchasing a laptop that sacrifices quality for price could end up costing more in the long run, since unexpected breakdowns, or undue necessity for replacements, are more likely to occur in a shorter period of time. Students, as well as every individual, should inquire about the warranty that is included with the laptop purchase, and ensure that there is some form of backing from the manufacturer in the case of defect.

One consideration for locating cheap laptops for students is to search for refurbished laptops. These are computers that have been lightly used and returned to the manufacturer. The manufacturer then conducts a thorough inspection of the computer, makes any necessary repairs or corrections, and puts it back on the market at a reduced price point. Although refurbished laptops are not always the newest models on the market, they function as well as a brand new computer, at a fraction of the cost.

Additional ways of obtaining cheap laptops for students include inquiring about special offers. Often as a buying incentive stores or manufacturers will offer additional products with deep discounts, or even for free, with the purchase of a computer. This way, students can not only obtain a well-priced laptop computer, but also a printer, ink cartridges, or an added warranty package as well, bringing down the overall cost of the computer and necessary accessories.