Dec 222009
Best Laptops For College Students
Posted by: LaptopsArena in Accesories, Peripherals & Components
When they first appeared on the market, laptops were these cool and expensive gadgets. Some of us thought we could never afford one because they were expensive so we believed they were computers only for business people. Today, laptops are a necessity and not a luxury item. In our modern society, where work seems to be the most important aspect, we are tempted to take our work everywhere with us. Even on vacation! This is why laptops were invented, so we could have portable agendas that we can fill with data and that could help us get our work done wherever we are.
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This is why college students also need laptops. Because it’s easier to write essays. Because professors find it easier to correct printed projects rather than hand written ones. Because they need to do internet research for class. Because they have to chat with their friends back home if they are living on campus. With so many laptop models available on the market today, I can see why it is such a difficult choice to buy a laptop. If you are not a bog technology fan that you probably have no clue why there are so many types of processors and video cards. Well, in our opinion, the best laptop for college students needs to have 2 main characteristics. It has to be light so it can be easily transported and it needs a good battery life so it can be taken to class to keep notes.

One of the wisest choices is the netbook. Netbooks are small as they have displays that vary between 8.9 to a maximum 12 inches. They have weak components and as they name suggests, they were made for internet purposes like writing e-mails and doing online research. They are also used for editing documents and running some other basic tasks and applications. They are excellent because they are light weight and you can carry around in your bag or backpack all day without getting a sore back. Some really good models like the Sony VAIO have batteries that can last even up to 6 hours which means you can definitely rely on them for almost a full day of classes.

As for the specs of a good laptop for students, you should buy a unit with at least 1 GB of RAM. RAM is what allows you to run applications. The more RAM your laptop has, the more applications you can run simultaneously.  You should have about 120 or 160 GB of hard disk capacity because your files and pictures, movies and music are going to start piling up in your laptop and it’s quite annoying to keep making DVDs all the time when you need to store your files safely and then make some extra room on your HDD. The graphics card does not have to be fancy. You can go with an integrated video card unless you are a heavy gamer. If that is your case, you will need a graphics card with at least 256 MB of video memory (512 MB would be nice).

That being said, let’s see what laptop models we can fit into this best laptop for college students category. The Dell Studio 15 is good choice for students (or their parents) that have about $800 to spend. This is not a big price to pay considering there are $2000 laptops are out there. It has a 2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor which gives you laptop good speed to run your applications. Alas, we don’t recommend a 15 inch laptop that does not have an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU. 4 GB of RAM is more than enough for you to choose a 64 bit operating system. Although people have gotten used to Windows Vista, we recommend the new Windows 7 which can really squeeze the juice out of your RAM. You can have up to 320 GB of free disk space which is more than enough storage capacity for whatever files you have to store on your laptop. Above the display you have a 2.0 mega pixel webcam which will provide very clear images in different light conditions. If you use the Skype video chat application, you can get real time movement and you can chat with your friends or family if you are living on campus and they haven’t seen you in a while (in fact, you could tell your parents you need this laptop so they can see you when they really miss you). The ATI Radeon HD 4570 graphics card comes with 256 MB of video memory. Besides, you have a DVD combo drive and a 15.6 inch display.

If the Dell Studio 15 did not convince you, maybe the HP Pavilion dv2 is a better choice. It is powered by an AMD processor (the AMD Athlon Neo to be more exact). The RAM and HDD have the capacity as the Dell Studio 15 but as far as the graphics card goes, you have 512 MB of video memory instead of 256 MB like the Studio 15 has. We recommend this laptop because it’s smaller since it has a 12 inch display. It is as cheap as $700 and I really think the specs are worth the money you pay. You can even take it to class as it occupies the space of a bigger book in your backpack. But it does not matter if you plan on keeping it in your dorm or using it in class or at the coffee shop. This laptop is definitely one very wise choice for college students.

Other models that I recommend you look into for college purposes are the Lenovo IdeaPad Y530 (with a price that varies between $550 and $750 dollars), the Toshiba Satellite Pro U400 S1001X (which can be found at about $840), the Dell Inspiron 1318 laptop or if you are looking for a laptop which you can also use to play games, the Dell XPS M1530 can be bought for $1000 with an 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 processor and some 4 GB or RAM.

















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