Laptops, nowadays, are not only functional for completing assignments or completing projects but serve many purposes. If you are buying laptops for college students, you would need to be more cautious while buying a laptop, considering all the features required. Laptop for college students is also used for watching movies, web browsing, and more, hence, widening the feature requirements.
Buying laptop for college students can be a headache. Still, you need not worry anymore, as, in this article, I will be telling you about the features to look for while buying laptops for college students and giving you a simplified laptop buying guide for students.
What to Choose – Windows Or Mac?
Choosing between Mac and Windows is the most challenging job, as they both are equally popular. But, it would help if you always considered your curriculum while choosing one of the OS. Furthermore, there are a few features that windows can provide while Mac cannot and vice-versa, so it becomes very crucial to choose between the two. Like, you need some software for your course, but if you have windows on your laptop which cannot run the software (or vice-versa), then it would be quite difficult for you. So, to avoid such a problem, consider your curriculum first and then start with your journey of buying laptops for college students.
Consider your Curriculum
While buying laptops for college students, you should always consider the curriculum. Why? Because different students have different needs. A student pursuing graphic designing would need a high-resolution laptop with more PPI, including other professional aspects. In contrast, a student pursuing an MBA or in high school would need basic functions in the laptop compared to what a graphic designer would need. In addition, different courses need different features on the laptop. So, always look for features that are required by your curriculum.
Operating system
The operating system is the most vital element of any laptop, especially if you buy laptops for college students. You should select the operating system depending on what you are studying as you might have different requirements depending upon your curriculum. Like, you might need to install some Softwares and applications that might be functional only in the selected OS and not in the others.
Choose your budget
There are a variety of laptops that come with different features and specifications. It would help if you were very vigilant while choosing the features and specifications you want in the laptop, as it would also affect its price. Various kinds of laptops come at different prices, starting from Rs.10,000. So, it is always important to decide on a ballpark figure as it would also help you decide laptops among different categories and types.
Screen Size of Your Laptop
Screen Size is a crucial factor. Here too, the pricing of the laptop would depend on the screen size. The ideal screen size for your laptop ranges between 12.5 inches to 14 inches. Some smaller laptops, which have a smaller screen size, are more popular because of their portability, while the bigger ones, having 17-18 inches of screen size, will give you higher processing power.
MS Office Subscription
Being a student, you would obviously need an MS office to do your assignments. Some laptops give you a free MS Office subscription, or you will have to buy it from Microsoft separately. Also, Microsoft offers a suite for students and teachers for free if you have a valid school email address.
7 Laptop Hacks for Students to Look Before You Buy
1. Don’t Buy the Biggest Processor and RAM
Most of the laptops run on Intel and AMD processors. In Intel, you would have different versions or, more precisely, core processors dedicated to a particular task like having good programming software or good graphic software. Presently, most of the laptops ship with 4GB of RAM, which is great if you want to use your laptop for “daily student tasks.” But, if you want more RAM, allowing you to multitask between software easily, some laptops offer RAM up to 8GB.
2. Use Cloud Storage instead of Laptop Harddrive SSD
As a student, you will need a lot of storage space as you would have tons of presentations, documents, files, images, apps, movies, and much more. Nowadays, most laptops come with hard drive capacity ranging from 500GB to 2TB and more. Therefore, 500GB of hard drive capacity would be enough for all the software you need to install and would also cost you less, and, if required, you can always buy external storage space (pen drives, memory cards, etc.) in the future.
3. Go for Longest Battery Life
The battery life of the laptop is as important as the processor and RAM. As a student, you will obviously need your laptop with you 24×7 in your house and at college. Carrying your laptop from your house to your college will give you lesser time to charge it. Having a laptop that provides a good battery life that can last for a longer period will be more helpful and easy for you as you can use it for hours long. One easy way to find your laptops’ battery life is by examining the laptops’ ratings, usually marked as s 3-cell, 6-cell, or 9-cell battery. Larger the rating, the more battery life you can get. You will mostly find this information on the sellers’ website or the laptop box.
4. Do you need Retina Display ?
The display is most (x infinity) important for a student laptop. Laptops display has many components; some are available in all types of laptops while some are available in only a few (OS wise). Like, for example, Retina, getting to choose the retina of your laptop, i.e., a high-quality, high-resolution screen display that is over 300 pixels per inch. In the retina screen, you would be able to see images and text more sharply. But to get this high-resolution screen, you will have to opt for one of the Mac OS.
While the Retina display is one of the selling points Apple uses to market its products, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the best type of display out there. Companies are constantly trying to outdo each other in the electronics space. Many different types of displays have appeared. Some of them may be better than the Retina display. There are laptops and smartphones available that have higher screen resolutions than Retina displays. All the same, there are also a variety of factors that make the Retina display an attractive feature, many of which go beyond simple resolution. While Retina displays are measured by pixel density and screen resolution, it really comes down to how the screen appears to you. Retina displays produce very crisp images at normal viewing distances. The average user can detect no graininess at all. A Retina display is actually a type of LED display, and so it falls under the broader category of LED displays.
OLED or the Organic Light Emitting Diode is another component that is included in the display. Though this is a new technology in laptop displays, it is boasted much more than the traditional LED screen. Laptops with OLED screens will give you a much better picture quality along with a lightweight laptop. Yes, that’s true. Laptops having OLED tend to be lighter and thinner.
Screen resolution, one of the display aspects, is the most vital element of the laptop, too, as what you see on the laptop totally depends on your screen resolution. Small pixels are a series of dots that make up the display—the more these dots, the clearer screen you would have. With a high resolution, you can see documents, images, presentations on your screen more sharply, clearly, and in a higher resolution. So, always opt for laptops that provide a better screen resolution. 1920×1080 is considered as the most high-resolution display though there are laptops that offer a higher screen resolution.
Pixel density is one of the aspects to consider while buying a laptop for students. It is nothing but the ratio between the screen resolution and the screen size of your laptop. More PPI (Pixel per inch) means more screen size and will give you sharper and clearer details on your laptop. On the other hand, if your laptop display has a lower pixel density, there will be a limited screen space available, and the picture too will be fuzzy and pixel-y.
5. Easy to Carry for Right Portability
If you are a college-going student, you obviously need to carry your laptop to your college and back home. In this case, you should opt for a smaller-sized laptop as it would be light in weight and would also be easy to carry.
6. Don’t Buy Accessories which you don’t need
Some accessories are meant to protect your laptop, while some are meant to increase its productivity. A laptop bag is one accessory that you should look for while buying a laptop as it would be easy to carry your laptop along with its other accessories more securely. In addition, antivirus is meant to safeguard your laptop from malware threats and viruses. Finally, you might want to include other accessories in your laptop for college students: a USB mouse and keyboard, a cooling pad, etc.
7. Look for Better Service than Laptop Brand
If you are looking to buy laptops for college-going students, you should opt for brands like Dell, Apple MacBook, Lenovo, Acer, HP, Microsoft, and Asus. Always buy a laptop which fulfills all your requirements and best suits your budget.
Very nice
Thanks Abhilasha