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The Best Laptops for Students of 2024

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Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024)

Fantastic performance

Gorgeous OLED screen

12-hour battery life

Soldered on memory

Fewer graphics card configurations than previous years

HP Pavilion Plus 16 (2023)

Great performance and battery life

Bright and clear display

Slim design

So-so keyboard

No simple GPU toggle

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (2023)

Good performance for the price

Responsive touchscreen

Higher-end look than the price suggests

Screen isn’t the brightest or most colorful

Apple MacBook Air 13 M3 (2024)

Thin, lightweight body

Excellent audio

Bright display

Slow SSD performance

Marginal upgrade over last gen

Acer Swift 3 OLED (2022)

Speedy Intel H processor

Gorgeous OLED display

Design quirks

So-so battery life

Updated June 10, 2024

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 proves that a gaming laptop can beat productivity laptops at their own game.

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS processor (8 cores, 16 threads at 4GHz (up to 5.2 GHz))
• Graphics: Nvidia RTX 4060 mobile (discrete), AMD Radeon 780M integrated graphics
• Memory: 16GB DDR5 at 6400MHz (non-replaceable)
• Storage: 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD
• Display: 14-inch, 2880 x 1800 at 120Hz OLED panel, 500 nits (rated), 410 nits (measured), 100% DCI-P3, 0.2ms response time, Nvidia G-Sync compatible, supports Dolby Vision HDR
• Battery life: 12 hours

Students using CAD engineering software will get a lot of mileage out of the ROG Zephyrus G14’s discrete graphics and powerful processor. It’s also a great laptop for other content creators—the 120Hz OLED panel can handle HDR content with full P3 color coverage and excellent response time.

On the other hand, you might not need a laptop with excellent graphics performance or a beefy processor. If you’re going to spend most of your time in Google Docs and Netflix, the Lenovo Yoga 9i, the MacBook Air M3, or the HP Pavilion Plus 16 will still deliver a great experience.

While this 14-inch laptop can’t outperform behemoths like the Asus Rog Strix G18 or Lenovo Legion 5i, it’s fast enough to run graphically intense games at 2K resolution without dipping below 60fps.

The HP Pavilion 16t provides incredible performance for its price, and it's almost as polished as the more expensive HP Envy.

• Processor: Intel Core i5-13500H
• Graphics: Intel Iris Xe (integrated), Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 6GB (discrete)
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5x 5200MHz
• Storage: 512GB M.2 PCIe 4.0 with TLC
• Display: 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 400 nits max (rated); 458.1 nits max (measured), variable refresh rate enabled (48-120Hz), IPS anti-glare
• Battery life: 13+ hours

For a general purpose laptop you can take with you all day, the HP Pavilion Plus 16 is fantastic. Its 13-hour battery life, strong performance, and ample memory and storage make it a no-brainer for those after the best performance per dollar—it frequently goes on sale for under $800.

The Pavilion Plus 16 is powerful enough to handle content creation and gaming, but more intense games like Cyberpunk 2077 may struggle at maxed out graphics settings. It’s also hard to deny that the Pavilion Plus 16 is not as robust as a more premium laptop. The variable refresh rate screen sounds like an awesome feature until you realize the panel lags every time it tries to auto-adjust the framerate. If you’re a frequent flyer, the 16-inch size will cramp your seat. There are also some nitpicks: you can’t choose a default graphics processor, and the keyboard has some awkward key placement around the arrow keys.

That said, the HP Pavilion Plus 16 is still a great laptop for commuting and for staying on campus from sunrise to sunset. The sturdy chassis and light weight are boons for people who prefer 16-inch laptops to their smaller counterparts.

• Processor: Intel Core i5-1335U
• Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR4 4267MHz
• Storage: 512GB SSD
• Display: 14-inch, 1920 × 1200, 60Hz, IPS LED-backlit touchscreen with stylus support
• Battery: 7.5+ hours

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i is a solid and reliable 2-in-1 laptop that starts at $650, a much more affordable price point for students looking to purchase a new laptop compared to others on this list. The model we reviewed cost $800, and that’s still a steal of a price for the performance, reliability, and versatility it offers.

Its processor keeps up with Intel’s 12th-gen Core i7 H-series chips, it has every type of port you could ever realistically need, and it also looks more expensive than it actually is. We were most impressed with the responsive touchscreen, a crucial aspect of any 2-in-1 laptop. The display brightness was lower than we would have liked to see, but that only starts to cause glare problems if you use the laptop outside on a super sunny day.

The MacBook Air M3 is sleek and powerful, striking a great balance between value and quality.

• Processor: Apple M3 (8-core, 4 performance, 4 efficient)
• Graphics: Apple M3 10-core (integrated)
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5x, unified
• Storage size: 512GB SSD
• Display: 13.6-inch, 2560 x 1644 resolution, 500 nits max (rated), 518 nits max (measured), 100% DCI-P3, LED display
• Battery life: 10+ hours

Apple’s MacBook Air 13 M3 is a master of all trades. It’s fast, extremely portable, packs an awesome display in a slim profile, and can reach over 10 hours of battery life—all while being one of Apple’s cheapest laptops.

It outperforms most Windows productivity laptops in its price range thanks to its M3 processor, and its HDR-compatible 2K display looks as gorgeous as the best OLED screens from the competition.

The one downside to the Apple MacBook Air 13’s M3 processor is its graphics performance, which is fine for day-to-day productivity and light creative content, but it lags behind the integrated graphics aboard Intel and AMD’s latest processors.

Even so, more powerful laptops tend to be larger, have worse battery life, or both when compared to the MacBook Air 13 M3. It’s one of the best laptops you can get, and it has nothing to envy from the more expensive MacBook Pro lineup.

Other Laptops for Students We Tested

• Processor: Intel Core i7-12700H
• Graphics: Intel Iris Xe (integrated)
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5
• Storage: 1TB SSD
• Display: 14-inch, 2880 x 1800, 16:10 OLED
• Battery: 5.5+ hours

The Acer Swift 3 OLED has a beautiful display that any student would appreciate. Other laptops are more aesthetically pleasing, have a better key feel, and are thinner and lighter than the Swift 3 OLED, but they usually don’t come with an OLED display.

During testing, we measured a max brightness of 421 nits, more than what most people need from a laptop. The Swift 3’s OLED display covers 99.1% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, as well as 100% of the sRGB gamut and 97.4% of the Adobe RGB gamut.

The Swift 3 OLED also features an H-series Intel processor, which is more commonly found in gaming laptops, while most other mid-tier laptops use one of Intel’s slower P-series processors. While it’s not as fast as Apple’s M3 chips or the latest-gen Intel and AMD chips, it keeps up with newer processors like the Intel Core i7-1360P.

• Processor : Apple M2 Pro (10-core)
• Graphics : Integrated (16-core)
• Memory : 8GB to 96GB
• Storage : 256GB to 8TB SSD
• Display : 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR (3024 x 1964)
• Battery : 24+ hours

Apple’s MacBook Pro 14 M2 Pro is a master of all trades. It’s fast, extremely portable, packs an awesome display in a slim profile—and can reach an incredible 24 hours of battery life, the longest of any laptop we’ve tested.

Its performance keeps up with Intel and AMD’s current-gen midrange processors like the Intel Core Ultra 5 135H. The screen reaches 1,000 nits of brightness in HDR content thanks to Apple’s mini-LED, Liquid Retina XDR display, and even offers more hardware upgrades than most Windows laptops of similar size.

Windows alternatives like the Dell XPS 13 and HP Spectre x360 are compelling alternatives, but they can’t beat Apple in battery life.

Class-leading battery life

Excellent processor performance

Superb HDR display

Unimpressive game performance

Keyboard needs an update

Not the best value for money

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 8GB (Discrete); AMD Radeon 780M (integrated)
• Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X 6400MHz
• Storage: 512GB PCIe 4.0 M.2 2280 NVMe SSD; 1 empty M.2 2280 slot
• Display: 14.5-inch, 2880 x 1800, 120Hz OLED, glossy
• Battery life: 8+ hours

If you want a powerhouse but you don’t want to pony up for the ROG Zephyrus G14, the Lenovo Legion Slim 5 is awesome. It’s a slim, lightweight 14.5-inch gaming laptop with over 8 hours of battery life that’s easy to sling in your bag and take to the lecture hall without worrying whether you’re seated next to a power outlet.

This laptop regularly comes in at about $1,000 on sale, and it has a lovely 2K OLED panel that feels like it belongs on a much pricier machine. Content creation and gaming are both a feast for the eyes on this display. The Legion Slim 5’s processor and discrete graphics are no different—this is a fast, powerful machine for just about any task.

Excellent design

Performance and efficiency

Gorgeous display

The CPU can run hot

No upgradeable memory

• Processor: Apple M1
• Graphics: Integrated
• Memory: 16GB
• Storage: 256GB
• Display: 13-inch 2560 x 1440p Liquid Retina
• Battery: 11.5+ hours

Even though the Apple MacBook Air M1 is two generations old, this popular laptop still performs well enough to handle most productivity tasks with ease. For just $700, you get a laptop that has a bright, vibrant display, a sleek aluminum chassis, and almost 12 hours of battery life. Because you can't upgrade the M1 MacBooks after purchase, we recommend splurging on a model with at least 512GB of storage.

Jaw-dropping battery life

Incredible performance

Iconic build quality

Poor port selection

• Processor : Intel Core i5-1240P
• Graphics : Intel Iris Xe Graphics
• Memory : 8GB LPDDR4X
• Storage : 256GB SSD
• Display : 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 120Hz LED
• Battery life : 7+ hours

Students who need a Chromebook will appreciate the versatility of the Acer Chromebook 516 GE. It’s one of the fastest, well designed Chromebooks on the market. The 2K display and strong performance will still feel snappy in five years.

ChromeOS isn’t as versatile as Windows 11 or MacOS, but the Chromebook 516 GE’s 120Hz display and midrange processor are great for remote streaming from either a desktop PC or a cloud gaming service. Native ChromeOS apps run quickly and efficiently, and the 8GB of included memory give enough bandwidth to multitask without lag. In addition to being one of the fastest Chromebooks we’ve ever tested, it boasts Wi-Fi 6E and an Ethernet port for rock-solid Internet connectivity.

The build quality on the Chromebook 516 GE is impressive. Tossing it in a backpack won’t leave a dent, and the sturdy chassis and anti-ghosting RGB keyboard share more in common with a good gaming laptop than with a typical Chromebook. But unlike most gaming laptops, the Chromebook 516 GE’s price regularly hovers around $500 on sale.

120Hz display makes everything smoother

Plenty connectivity options

No Thunderbolt 4 connectivity

Speakers don’t sound great

• Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, 16 cores, 22 threads, boost clock up to 4.8GHz
• Graphics: Intel Arc integrated graphics
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5X 7467 MHz
• Storage: 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 solid state drive
• Display: Dual displays, 2x 14-inch 1,920 x 1,200 OLED 60Hz, both support touch
• Battery life: 14.5 hours

If you’re off at college, you might not have the luxury of sparing some desk space for a second monitor. That’s where the Asus Zenbook Duo comes in. This laptop has two 14-inch displays that can be used together for 28 inches of screen real estate. You can hold it horizontally like a book, stack it vertically, or hide a display under the included standalone keyboard for a traditional laptop setup. The Zenbook Duo also comes with a stylus, so you don’t have to haggle with touch inputs when you need a stylus’s precision for art assignments.

When it’s time to write an essay, don’t worry. When you plop the keyboard onto the bottom display, the Zenbook Duo works like a regular clamshell laptop. And despite all the twinkling OLED lights on double the displays, you can count on the laptop to last over 14 hours before needing a recharge.

The Zenbook Duo may be cheaper than the comparable Lenovo Yoga Book 9i, but it is more expensive than many other laptops on this list. Its Intel Core 7 Ultra processor is powerful enough for casual video editing, and the integrated graphics are good enough to play esports at 60fps. However, you can get more powerful laptops for less money.

Dual-screen concept works well

Can also pass as a “normal” laptop

Touchscreens don’t make it a tablet

Performance is modest for the price

Bluetooth keyboard can be finicky

• Processor : Intel Core i7-13700H
• Graphics : Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, Intel Iris Xe (integrated)
• Memory : 16GB LPDDR5 6400MHz
• Storage : 1TB SSD
• Display : 14.5-inch, 2880 x 1800, 120Hz OLED
• Battery life : ~7.5 hours

The Acer Swift X 14’s discrete graphics and high end processor offer impressive performance that can handle any content creation task you throw at it. Add in almost 8 hours of battery life and a 2K OLED display, and the Swift X 14 is a fantastic laptop for students and teachers alike.

You can often find the Acer Swift X 14 for less money than the ROG Zephyrus G14 or Lenovo Legion Slim 5, but it isn’t quite as powerful. The graphics performance is enough to comfortably play multiplayer games or edit cumbersome Premiere video projects, but don’t expect it to blast through rendering intricate 3D scenes in Blender (modeling them is fine). The touchpad isn’t as refined as what you’ll find on the MacBook Air 13 M3, either.

Despite the shortcomings, the Swift X 14 is still a very good laptop. Besides, it’s one of the rare laptops with several types of ports if you need to give presentations on the projector.

Impressive GPU performance

OLED display with vivid colors

Great selection of ports

Disappointing battery life

Oversized touchpad

Underwhelming screen brightness

• Graphics : Iris Xe Graphics
• Display : 16-inch, 3200 × 2000, 120Hz OLED
• Battery : ~7.4 hours

The Acer Swift Go 16 is faster than our top pick in almost every way—but it’s usually the more expensive of the two, and its graphics power can’t match the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, making it a less versatile machine. But if one of your must-haves is an Intel 13th-gen processor and an OLED screen, take a look at the Swift Go 16.

It chews through large Excel spreadsheets with complex formulas and data, its processor keeps pace with Apple’s MacBook Pro 14 M2 Pro (or beats it, depending on the test), and its integrated graphics performance is sufficient for “light” gaming if you catch yourself focusing on too much work and not enough playtime.

Great productivity performance

Solid, yet lightweight chassis

Great touchpad, decent keyboard

OLED screen doesn’t get very bright

Can run warm

• Processor: Intel Core i7-1360P
• Memory: 16GB DDR5 4800MHz
• Display: 14-inch, 3840 x 2400, OLED
• Battery life: 8.5+ hours

Artists and note takers should check out the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8, a fantastic 2-in-1 laptop with a 4K OLED touch display and a pressure sensitive stylus out of the box. With almost 9 hours of battery life, it’s a great companion for long library sessions or afternoons on the quad.

The laptop’s Intel Core i7-1360P processor is not as powerful as other processors on this list, but productivity tasks and some heavy work in Photoshop won’t pose any problems. If you’re not pushing your PC to the limit every time you tackle a homework assignment, you’ll be fine.

In exchange, the Lenovo Yoga 9i provides a top-grade user experience. This laptop has some of the best speakers of any laptop we’ve tested, the trackpad works flawlessly, it has one of our favorite laptop keyboards to date, and it’s a beautiful, sturdy machine. Even with daily use and heavy commutes to and from school, the 2-in-1’s hinge feels like it could survive for years.

It’s the perfect travel buddy for students to keep their digital notes in order and read them later at night in tablet form before popping open YouTube to go to sleep. The laptop used to be $1,400, but these days it’s often on sale for under $1,000.

Phenomenal touchscreen display

Dynamic audio

Included stylus and case

Slightly underpowered

Short battery life

• Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
• Memory: 16GB DDR5 6400MHz
• Storage: 512GB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe
• Display: 14.5-inch, 2560 x 1600, 90Hz, IPS touchscreen
• Battery: 9.5+ hours

If you need something with enough power for light video or audio work, with a battery that lasts longer than you do through an entire day of classes, then the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 is another great laptop to look into.

The Silm Pro 7's AMD processor is much faster than the last-generation AMD Ryzen chip in our Best 2-in-1 pick, the HP Envy x360. The entire laptop is configured to offer the most performance possible in such a slim profile for $1,200, but that of course raises the price.

That puts this mid-range laptop on the same shelf as the MSI Prestige 13 Evo, Acer Swift Go 16, and even the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus—but its processor isn’t nearly as fast. The battery life is nothing to ignore, though, so if you happen to find the Silm Pro for under $1,000, then you’ll be getting a great deal.

Solid performance

Sturdy, tactile keyboard feel

Minimalist, professional look

Just okay screen brightness

Loaded with bloatware

• Processor: Intel Core i7-13700H
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5 6400MHz
• Display: 14-inch, 2880 x 1800, 120Hz, OLED
• Battery life: 7.5+ hours

Don’t be fooled by the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED’s tiny footprint. It isn’t especially fancy, but nails the basics and then some. Film students will especially appreciate the lovely 2K display and the surprisingly rich audio in this tiny laptop.

The Zenbook 14X doesn’t have a discrete graphics card, but its Intel Core i7-13700H processor is mighty powerful on its own. CPU-heavy tasks will be a breeze on the Zenbook 14X, and you won’t have to worry about Chrome crashing when you open the 200th tab.

While you would expect a 14-inch laptop to include at most 2 USB-C ports and a headphone jack, the Zenbook 14X squeezes some USB-A ports and an HDMI port in its sides, too. The stylish metal chassis is also sturdy enough to handle getting trotted from classroom to classroom. Battery life is a bit short at 7.5 hours, but the great processor and refined body are worth the tradeoff.

Stays cool on your lap

Touchpad with built-in Numpad

Pleasing sound

Middling performance

All ports are on the right side

Lacks a built-in card reader

How to Choose a Laptop for Students

Operating system.

Which operating system is the best? The answer to that question depends on the student. Some will be more familiar and comfortable with MacOS, while others may prefer Windows or Android. How a laptop is going to be used is another factor in choosing an operating system.

If you’re going to need certain software for school or to play games, you may want to stick with Windows. Apple has complete control over how Macs are built, so its auto-update system does an excellent job of keeping the laptop operating system up to date. Unlike macOS and Windows, ChromeOS isn’t a full-fledged operating system. With ChromeOS, you’ll be spending most of your time in a Chrome browser using web-based tools.

If you run more intense workloads—whether that’s photo and video editing or playing the latest PC games—you’ll want a bit more “oomph.” Intel’s higher-end i7 processors will make those video encodes run noticeably faster, and a dedicated graphics card will ensure your games run smoothly. For browsing the web and using office software, lower-power chips like Intel’s i3 and i5 are fine.

Battery Life

A long battery life is imperative in laptops for students. No one wants their computer to die while taking notes in class, working on a project in the library, and especially during late-night gaming sessions with friends.

That’s why we tested battery life when evaluating student laptops. We had each laptop cycle through various websites until it ran out of power to estimate how much work it could get done on a single charge. Our recommended laptops range in battery life from about five hours up to more than 17 hours.

Screen Size

When it comes to screen size, it’s important to balance portability against the space available to work. Picking a general size range can help narrow the field. Our recommendations for student laptops range from 13 inches up to 14 inches.

Laptops with displays that are about 13 inches are easy to carry around campus and great for light work like writing papers and browsing the web. Mid-sized laptop screens are a bit less portable and may not work in constrained spaces, but the larger display is useful for photo editing and watching videos.

Large laptops, computers with screens of 17 inches or larger, are only recommended for students who need video-editing abilities or other intensive work that requires a lot of screen real estate.

We recommend that you err on the side of more storage. While 4GB of RAM is usable in a Chromebook, even web browsing can eat up RAM. We wouldn’t advise 4GB for most Windows users. If you tend to open lots of tabs, use lots of browser extensions, or want to be future-proof, at least 8GB is the way to go.

People often underestimate how much space they’ll fill with their music, photos, and videos. Storage can be expensive, though. If you can’t afford a large solid-state drive, consider a laptop with an SD card slot and using a high-capacity card for expandable storage.

A computer can be looked at as an investment in the future of a student, especially with a laptop for college. However, laptops can be pricey. When looking for the best student laptop, we suggest looking at value, so you know that the price matches the performance and features that you’re getting from a laptop.

How We Test Laptops for Students

More articles you might enjoy.

Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.

Meet the testers

Adrien Ramirez

Staff Writer

Adrien is the PC staff writer for Reviewed with over 4 years of experience covering laptops, desktops, software, games, and more.

Joanna Nelius

Former Senior Editor, Tech

Joanna specializes in anything and everything gaming-related and loves nerding out over graphics cards, processors, and chip architecture. Previously she was a staff writer for Gizmodo, PC Gamer, and Maximum PC.

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• Electronics

The Best Laptops for College Students

By Kimber Streams

Kimber Streams is a writer who has been covering laptops and other tech at Wirecutter for more than a decade. They once built a fort out of keyboards.

College is expensive—including tuition, housing, and textbooks, not to mention food and other miscellaneous costs. So students need a reliable laptop that’ll last for years of taking notes, writing papers at 3 in the morning, and editing slides for a group project. But choosing the right laptop can be more challenging than writing a thousand words on Proust.

We test dozens of laptops every year, and for this guide we’ve rounded up the picks from our other guides that are the best for students. A laptop’s price-to-performance ratio is the most important factor, followed by its battery life, its size and weight, and its keyboard and trackpad. Our top pick offers the best balance of all those factors for high school and college students, whether they’re attending classes remotely or schlepping it to a physical classroom.

We also have more-portable picks, if you’re able to spend more. And for anyone on a tighter budget, we have less expensive options that are also well suited for younger kids. To achieve their more-affordable price tags, these cheaper options all make serious trade-offs—in shorter battery life, bulkier size, or more-limited functionality—and they’re not likely to last as long as our picks. If you’re a film or photography student and you need a laptop for photo and video editing , or if you want a laptop that can also play games , we have picks for you, too.

The research

Our pick: asus zenbook 14 oled, mac options: macbook air, budget chromebook pick: lenovo ideapad flex 5i chromebook plus, budget windows pick: acer aspire 3 spin 14 (a3sp14-31pt), budget tablet pick: apple ipad.

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (UM3406HA-WS74T)

The best ultrabook.

The Zenbook 14 offers excellent battery life, a vivid touchscreen, and a reliable keyboard and trackpad, all in a thin and light body. It’s comparatively inexpensive, too.

Buying Options

Recommended configuration

Who these are for: Budget ultrabooks—thin and light laptops with good performance and long battery life and a price tag in the $700 to $800 range—are ideal for high school and college students because they provide the best value. These cheaper ultrabooks tend to make minor trade-offs compared with ultrabooks over $1,000: They may be a bit larger and heavier, may not last quite as long on a charge, may feel less sturdy or solid, or may lack convenient features such as a fingerprint reader or USB-C charging. But even with those drawbacks, budget ultrabooks still provide far better performance and overall quality compared with $500 laptops.

Why we like this one: Most high school or college students shopping for a laptop to last through graduation should get the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED, either the UM3406HA-WS74T or UM3406HA-PS76T model. It’s powerful and portable enough for a full day of classes, and it has a vivid screen and a solid keyboard and trackpad. At 14 hours, the Zenbook 14 OLED has the longest battery life of all the Windows laptops we’ve tested so far in 2024. Unlike most cheap ultrabooks, the Zenbook 14 is sturdy and comes with a USB-C charger, which you can use to charge more devices and is generally cheaper to replace than specialty non–USB-C chargers.

You can read more about the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED and our other picks in our guide to Windows ultrabooks .

Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020)

Performance for a great price.

The M1 MacBook Air has a comfortable keyboard, good performance, and a reasonable amount of storage—things that haven’t always been true of previous MacBook Airs.

You save $50 (7%)

Upgrade pick

Apple MacBook Air (M2, 2022, 13-inch)

A sleek design and a nice webcam.

The 2022 M2 MacBook Air offers an updated design, a brighter screen, and a better webcam, and it restores the fan-favorite MagSafe port.

You save $150 (16%)

Who these are for: If you prefer macOS or need exceptional tech support , a MacBook is a safe bet; the 13-inch models usually offer the best combination of size, weight, and speed. They’re great for most types of schoolwork, including writing, researching, and basic video and photo editing and coding. Once you factor in Apple’s education discount , you can get one with good enough specs and storage to last three to four years for less than $1,000. MacBooks are usually more expensive than Windows ultrabooks, especially if you want to upgrade the memory or storage; Apple’s SSD upgrade prices are so high that we usually recommend looking into cloud storage or an external SSD instead.

Why we like this one: The 13-inch MacBook Air (M1, 2020) costs just $700 at Walmart, the lowest price we’ve seen for a MacBook. If you have a higher budget, we recommend the newer MacBook Air (M2, 2022, 13″) , which has a brighter screen, a superior webcam, and a MagSafe charging port. Both models are more than fast enough for web browsing, working on documents, and light photo and video editing, plus they can even handle professional work like 3D rendering or compiling code. They also have great keyboards and trackpads, as well as all-day battery life. Like Apple’s other laptops, the Air has only USB-C ports; you may need a USB-C hub for certain peripherals. But the Air’s light weight, solid construction, and industry-leading support make it a great laptop, especially if you also own an iPhone or other Apple devices.

For more details on our Mac picks, take a look at our full guide to MacBook models .

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus

The best chromebook.

Reliable performance, a spacious touch display, and long-enough battery life for a full workday make the Flex 5i the best Chromebook for the price. But it is a bit heavy.

Who these are for: Chromebooks are ideal for students who don’t need Windows or macOS for specific programs. A good Chromebook can do  almost anything a regular laptop can do , including document work, video calls, and streaming video—as long as it’s possible in a web browser or via Android apps. And $500 Chromebooks tend to be faster, lighter, and sleeker than similarly priced Windows laptops. Plus, Chromebooks are secure and easy to maintain . But Chromebooks may have trouble connecting to campus printers, and they can’t play Windows games. And they’re not good for people who need access to Mac or Windows apps for photo, video, or audio editing, or other specialized software.

Why we like this one: If you can complete all of your coursework on a Chromebook, we recommend the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus because it has the best combination of features and price of all the models we tested. It has fast performance, a reliable keyboard and trackpad, a tall touchscreen, surprisingly good speakers, and enough battery life to last a full day of classes. But we wish it were lighter—at 3.6 pounds, it’s heavy for a 14-inch laptop.

For more options, you can read our full guide to Chromebooks .

Budget pick

Acer Aspire 3 Spin 14 (A3SP14-31PT)

The best windows laptop under $500.

Unlike most cheap Windows laptops, the Aspire 3 Spin 14 is fast, compact, and light, and it has a decent 1080p touchscreen and good battery life.

Who these are for: If you need a Windows laptop for school and you can’t afford to spend a lot, you can find a decent one for less than $500, but you have to make some compromises. These models are best suited for grade-school or middle-school students, because most budget Windows laptops that are fast enough for school work tend to be bulky, heavy, and stuck with battery life that won’t last a full day of classes. You have to be extra-vigilant when shopping for a laptop in this price range to avoid slow or old processors, not enough memory, sluggish storage, and terrible, low-resolution displays.

Why we like this one: The Acer Aspire 3 Spin 14 (A3SP14-31PT) in any of our recommended configurations ( 37NV , 38YA , or 32M6 ) is the best Windows laptop you can find for the price. But we strongly recommend saving up for our top pick if you can—it’s better in nearly every way.

The Aspire 3 Spin 14 is fast enough to meet most people’s computing needs, and its keyboard and trackpad are reliable. It also has a decent-looking 14-inch 1920×1200 touchscreen with a tall aspect ratio, as well as a 360-degree hinge that allows you to use the device as a tablet to take handwritten notes (if you have a stylus). Compared with most bulky Windows laptops in this price range, the Aspire 3 Spin 14 is also more compact, and it has long enough battery life to last a full day of classes.

The Aspire 3 Spin 14 ships with Windows 11 S mode, which allows only apps from the Microsoft Store and limits you to Microsoft Edge for web browsing. But you can switch it to Windows 11 Home for free to install any program you need. It also comes with a ton of bloatware; we recommend following these steps to get rid of it.

Choosing a budget laptop is tricky, because you can find hundreds of variations, their prices fluctuate constantly, and companies release and discontinue models with no warning. If our pick isn’t available, check our full guide for other available options and advice on how to shop for a budget laptop.

For additional details, you can read our full guide to budget laptops .

Apple iPad (10th generation)

The best ipad for most people.

The cheapest iPad that Apple sells has a large screen, fast performance, a USB-C port, and plenty of color options to suit the needs of most people.

Who these are for: Windows laptops and Chromebooks that cost around $300 are almost uniformly unpleasant to use—washed-out screens and crappy performance are the two biggest problems. A tablet isn’t good at all the things a laptop is good at, and if you’re taking programming classes or learning how to do high-end photo and video editing with apps such as Photoshop or Premiere, a tablet probably wouldn’t work for you. But if you mainly need to browse the internet, write papers, stream videos, draw, and take handwritten notes, an iPad can be a workable, inexpensive substitute for a traditional laptop. iPads feel faster than cheap laptops, they run the App Store’s huge selection of games (in addition to productivity apps), and their light weight makes them more convenient to use in bed or on a couch when your homework is done and you want to unwind.

Why we like this one: The 10.9-inch Apple iPad (10th generation) is responsive and pleasant to use, its larger screen is bright and colorful, it has good battery life, and the Apple Pencil is great for drawing or taking notes. And Apple has made big strides forward in keyboard and mouse support, which makes the iPad feel a lot more like a traditional laptop when you put it in a case and pair it to a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (or one of Apple’s Magic Trackpads ). If you can afford it, and especially if your iPad will be your only computer, consider the 256 GB version instead of the 64 GB version; with that version, you’ll need to rely on cloud storage less, and you’ll have more space for apps and other files.

Head to our reviews of the best tablets and pro tablets to read more about our picks.

Meet your guide

Kimber Streams

Kimber Streams is a senior staff writer and has been covering laptops, gaming gear, keyboards, storage, and more for Wirecutter since 2014. In that time they’ve tested hundreds of laptops and thousands of peripherals, and built way too many mechanical keyboards for their personal collection.

Further reading

The Best Laptops

by Kimber Streams and Dave Gershgorn

From budget-friendly options to thin-and-light ultrabooks to powerful gaming laptops, we’ve spent hundreds of hours finding the best laptops for most people.

The Best Backpacks for College and High School Students

by Zoe Vanderweide

Our top backpack picks for the 2023-2024 school year include a sporty-looking ergonomic pack, a bag that’s nostalgic and timeless, and a polished workhorse.

The Best College Dorm Essentials

by Wirecutter Staff

Our favorite durable-but-not-too-expensive bedding, accessories, kitchen gear, and tools for your dorm room.

40(ish) Wirecutter Picks for Heading Back to School

Here are 40(ish) of our favorite school supplies.