In terms of portability and screen size, what in your opinion are the best laptops for students?

Question

Does anyone have suggestions for laptops that are quite portable but provide a large enough screen adequate for schoolwork?

Answer 1

As for school, it is best to get a laptop that is light enough to make mobility easy preferably below 3 pounds but certainly not above 4 pounds. A laptop with at least a 14-inch display is advised, but it is better to have a 14.5-inch screen as it is of a standard size where a reasonable amount of content can still be viewed without being large.

Comments

I picked up the HP Pavilion 14 from Microcenter for $440 after tax. I don't think there's a better deal. OLED and AMD 7840U alone are easily worth the price, and it still has 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM. Before the fall semester starts, students really should look out for particularly good sales.

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Very little known Laptop but brings tons of bang for your buck:

Lenovo Thinkbook 13x Gen4.

This checks all the boxes for a student except gaming.

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After doing a lot of research, I recently purchased the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED in preparation for my studies in Computer Systems Technician. I'm glad to see this content reaffirm my decision in my purchase. Your reviews and content played a big part in my research. Thank you for making such in-depth content and giving real-world examples rather than just listing off a spec sheet.

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I would recommend the Acer Swift Go 14 Ryzen 7. The price and build quality is insane for the price range, and it has a 1440 webcam with plenty of ports. It weighs 1.32 kg so it’s definitely on the lighter side too. Not recommended for students who has to program heavy stuff, but for casual use.

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The Yoga Pro 9i is a laptop with a lot of potential, but the battery life, according to real-life users, is pretty poor, especially considering it got a bigger battery and theoretically more efficient Intel Core Ultra chip this year. I was seriously considering it but now have to look at other options for my needs. Plenty of other good recommendations in this content though, as always from Josh and the team.

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The yoga pro 9i is what I'd want man.. Getting that now and later a snapdragon surface laptop or tablet for on the go would be the best combo for me.. But man.. $1600 at best... That's a lot of money for me now.. I really would love to.. But man.. Wow.. These things are expensive.. I'd have to check your site for a 2022 laptop model that's cheaper.. Even refurbished.. I heard the 12th gen cpus are a great option...

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You mentioned the Yoga Pro 9i 16" as an option but what are your thoughts on the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 14". Was considering purchasing it with the Ultra 7, 32gb ram, and 1tb ssd config since I prefer 14" form factors and the specs did seem to beat the alternatives presented by Lenovo for my use case (programming / VMs / etc. planning on doing a 700gb/300gb partition dual boot between linux and windows).

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The Spectre 14 (2024) and the Asus Zenbook S 16 (Zen 5) are similarly priced where I live. I'm not too fussed about the size of the screen or 2-in-1 capability. In view of their relative efficiency, performance, battery life and heat and fan noise, which do you think is a better buy? Thanks!