When it comes to your college education, laptops are an absolute necessity. However, not all laptops are created equal, and not all of them are going to meet your needs! Here are six of the best laptops for college students, based on what you’re looking for. Note: all prices and reviews come from Amazon. The reviews are based on a five-star scale.
Table Of Content:
- Comparison list of best laptops for college students
- Detailed review of best laptops for college students
List of Top 6 Best Laptops for College Students 2017
| Picture | Name | Operating System | Memory | Price | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Dell Inspiron 15 | Windows 8 | 4 GB DDR3 | $$$ | 4.9 |
 | Acer 11.6" | Windows 8 | 4 GB | $$ | 4.8 |
 | Dell Inspiron | Windows 8.1 | 4 GB DDR3 | $$ | 4.7 |
 | Alienware | Windows 7 | 16 GB DDR3L SDRAM | $$$$ | 4.6 |
 | Apple MacBook Pro | Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion | 4 GB DDR3 | $$$$ | 4.5 |
 | HP Pavilion | Windows 7 Professional | DDR3 SDRAM | $$$ | 4.4 |
Detailed Review Of Top 6 Best Laptops for College Students 2017
Affordability
Dell Inspiron 15 i15RV-6190BLK 15.6-Inch Laptop 
Price: $379.00 Review: 3.9 stars Being on a tight budget doesn’t mean you need to take the risk of buying used or sacrificing what you need in a laptop. This Dell Inspiron, a trusted brand in laptops, will accomplish all you need for school and more. With 500GB hard drive space, you could last your entire college career and never have to delete files (music and games notwithstanding). And its 4GB of RAM for processing means you’ll access the files faster, too and hence is one of the best laptops for college students.
Portability
Price: $263.99 Review: 3.4 stars Acer is skilled in combining quality with affordability, especially in terms of their netbooks. This option also boasts a 500GB hard drive with 4GB RAM, but it comes at the price of an 11.6” screen. The benefit to this is that you can take it virtually anywhere without the pain of lugging around a hefty laptop case or backpack. But if gaming or watching movies are important to your college experience, you may want to skip the tiny screen in favor of something bigger.
Multipurpose
Dell Inspiron i3147-3750sLV 11.6-Inch 2 in 1 Convertible Touchscreen Laptop 
Amazon price: $399.99 Review: 4.4 stars You won’t find any tablets on this list of top laptops for college students, because a keyboard is a necessity for long nights of studying and writing papers. But convertible laptops forego this problem. It may be a tablet flipped one way, but it’s a fully-functional laptop flipped the other way. This option, another Dell Inspiron, also comes with a 500GB hard drive and 4GB of RAM, and operates on touch-screen-friendly Windows 8.
Gaming
Alienware ALW17-8751sLV 17.3-Inch Gaming Laptop 
Price: $2,213.99 Review: 5 stars When it comes to gaming, it’s usually better to stick with a desktop than a laptop, as you’ll typically get better specs for a better deal. However, if you need the portability of these other laptops for college students, there’s no better name in gaming laptops than Alienware. From over 1 TB of hard drive space to 16 GB of RAM to its superior Intel i7 processor to its unbeatable Nvidia graphics card, this laptop has everything you need for a flawless gaming experience (and a little bit extra). Just try not to get too lost in the graphics and forget to study!
Long-lasting
Apple MacBook Pro MD101LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop 
Price: $1184.99 Review: 4.4 stars On the PC-vs.-Mac debate, I always lean more towards the PC side, especially because Macs aren’t the best laptops for college students that are also gamers. However, if there’s one benefit to Macs that I can’t deny, it’s that they are virtually indestructible. This isn’t just because they don’t get viruses; they’re just built to last. This particular Mac doesn’t have the high price tag of the Retina display, but it does have options for either 500 of 750 GB of hard drive, with 4GB of RAM. And you can bet it will last you all the way through college and beyond. As always Macs are in the list of best laptops for college students.
Sound System
HP Pavilion 15z Windows 7 PRO Notebook PC 
Price: $899.95 Review: None yet Whether you’re more into Mozart or Metallica, your sound system can become an important backdrop for your college studying. The HP Pavilion’s speakers were designed in part by Beats Audio, and the laptop itself boasts 1 TB of hard drive with a massive 16GB RAM. The HP Pavilion will be released August 8th, 2017 and we are sure that it would be on the list of best laptops for college students.
