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.

Wireless Keyboard – When you’re at college you’ll be on the move a lot and will be bringing you laptop with you.  If you have Bluetooth on your laptop you won’t have to worry about continually plugging in and unplugging your laptop from the keyboard.  Instead with the Bluetooth, when your laptop gets within range of the wireless keyboard it will automatically know to connect.  Simply place your laptop on your desk and start using the wireless keyboard.

Wireless Mouse – The same concept applies to the wireless mouse as it does to the wireless keyboard.  When you place the laptop on the desk you can switch and start using the regular mouse instead of the small trackpad that comes on the laptop.  You can usually find a Bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse as a package deal for a fairly good price at most electronic and office supply stores.

Everyday people are coming out with new gadgets that take advantage of the Bluetooth protocol which is why it’s such a good idea to make sure you include it on your list of required things when searching for the best laptops for students.  Even though you may not see a need to have Bluetooth now you might later on after buying the laptop and considering it doesn’t add any real cost to the laptop it’s a great idea to plan ahead.  If you are looking way into the future you could also justify getting Bluetooth for the resale value.  The person buying your used laptop may use Bluetooth everyday.  Overall it’s a little thing that is overlooked and is worth a second look.

TIP: The range on a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse is pretty good.  You could leave you laptop on your desk and take the wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse over to your bed so you would be more comfortable while you are working on your homework, term paper, or just surfing the web.

TIP: If you’ve already got a laptop and don’t have Bluetooth don’t worry!  You can by external Bluetooth adapters that plug into any of the available USB ports on the side of your laptop.  It’s a good compromise to going without Bluetooth.  It’s still best when searching for the best laptops for students to plan ahead and make sure it’s included.