With each graduating class, parents and their son or daughter begin planning for college and with that comes the quest to find one of the best laptops for college students to take off to school with them. Questions include “what is the right model”, “what features do I need”, “do I need a laptop or will a desktop work”, and “what are some of the best laptop brands“.

Obtaining one of the best laptops for college students is much harder that you’d expect. The market is flooded with literally thousands of models all claiming to be the best. Hopefully there tips will help you find the best laptop for you.

If you grew up with a PC, you’ll say that PC’s are the best laptops for college students

Some of the more popular PC’s include companies like Dell, HP, Gateway, and Toshiba. PC’s are a great general use computer that can handle most tasks with ease. They’re also the go-to laptop for students when you’re on a budget because they tend to be very affordable compared to their Apple counter parts. You can pickup a good PC laptop for around $550.  If you want to stick with a PC, but are tired of having the boring grey colored computer, then you might want to look into some of those cool pink laptops that are available.

Note: Even the best laptops for college students usually don’t come with a license of Microsoft Office. While Open Office is a free alternative, most students will want to purchase a copy of Microsoft Office, the good news is students get a discount.

Students that grew up with Apple or Mac’s will say they are the best student laptops

If you were introduced or have used Apple computer before you will say the Macbook, Macbook Pro, and Macbook Air are the best laptops for for students. Their simplicity, reliability, and trendiness has done well for them. Now that Mac’s can run Windows if needed, they are becoming a great choice for a college laptop. They do however cost a bit more money than a comparable PC laptop.

If you are planning on spending over $800 on a student laptop then the Macbook is a great choice. It has everything a student could want is one of the best laptops for students. It has a Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB’s of RAM, Bluetooth, a webcam, DVD burner, and a great graphics card. Apple even helps students out by giving them an additional discount on not only Apple laptops, but also all Apple products including the iPod. Last time I checked you could get a Macbook with the student discount for between $840 and $900 dollars.

When the best laptop for college students means the thinnest, lightest, most ridiculous laptop for college students.

That’s when you buy the Macbook Air. This laptop isn’t the most budget friendly, but it definitely fits into the category of best student laptops. It’s just over 13 inches in size and has a total weight of under 3 pounds. It’s also extremely thin…and I mean thin. It’s just over 3/4′s of an inch thick. It also includes all the normal features and then some. So Bluetooth, wireless, a webcam, etc are all part of the package. It’s the complete package that unfortunately comes at a bit of a price. Although in the past 6 months the price has come down quite a bit. Make sure you notice and plan for the fact that the Macbook Air doesn’t come with a built in CD-ROM. They do offer an external USB CD-ROM though so don’t worry.

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.

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.