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An open and powered on laptop showing a colorful scene on its display. Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

The Best Laptops for Students of 2024

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An open and powered on laptop showing a colorful scene on its display. Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

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Editor's Choice Product image of Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (2022)
Best Overall

Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (2022)

Check Price at Amazon

The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus lies at the intersection of productivity and gaming thanks to its hardware normally found in budget to mid-tier gaming laptops. Read More

Pros

  • Stylish chassis
  • Bright display
  • Strong overall performance

Cons

  • Doesn’t beat a gaming laptop
  • Unimpressive audio
2
Editor's Choice Product image of Acer Swift 3 OLED (2022)
Best Value

Acer Swift 3 OLED (2022)

Check Price at Best Buy

Acer finally enters the OLED laptop game with its new, value-focused Swift 3. It has more cons than pros, but it's a solid and speedy machine still worth its price. Read More

Pros

  • Speedy Intel H processor
  • Gorgeous OLED display

Cons

  • Design quirks
  • Sad audio
  • So-so battery life
3
Editor's Choice Product image of Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (2023)
Best 2-in-1

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (2023)

Check Price at Lenovo

Lenovo's IdeaPad Flex 5i wrings plenty of performance out of its Intel Core i5-1335U—and its responsive touchscreen makes it a great "budget" 2-in-1. Read More

Pros

  • Good performance for the price
  • Responsive touchscreen
  • Higher-end look than the price suggests

Cons

  • Screen isn’t the brightest or most colorful
  • Heavy
4
Editor's Choice Product image of Apple MacBook Air M1 (Late 2020)
Best MacBook

Apple MacBook Air M1 (Late 2020)

Check Price at Best Buy

The new MacBook Air looks like business as usual, but its unbelievable battery life and powerful new M1 processor blew us away. Read More

Pros

  • Jaw-dropping battery life
  • Incredible performance
  • Iconic build quality

Cons

  • Poor port selection
5
Editor's Choice Product image of Apple Macbook Pro 14 M2 Pro (2023)
Best Battery Life

Apple Macbook Pro 14 M2 Pro (2023)

Check Price at Apple

Apple’s MacBook Pro 14 gets an update to the M2 Pro chip, improving on its predecessor’s already excellent performance and class-leading battery life. Read More

Pros

  • Class-leading battery life
  • Excellent processor performance
  • Superb HDR display

Cons

  • Unimpressive game performance
  • Keyboard needs an update
  • Not the best value for money
  • Best Overall Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (2022)
  • Best Value Acer Swift 3 OLED (2022)
  • Best 2-in-1 Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (2023)
  • Best MacBook Apple MacBook Air M1 (Late 2020)
  • Best Battery Life Apple Macbook Pro 14 M2 Pro (2023)
  • Other Laptops for Students We Tested
  • How We Test Laptops for Students
  • More Articles You Might Enjoy

The best laptop for students of all ages can make the difference between a passing grade and missing the deadline on your final paper. To take some of the stress out of the decision, we've tested many Windows machines, MacBooks, 2-in-1s, Chromebooks, and more to find the best laptops for students.

Our top pick is the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (available at Amazon) , which has more graphics power than the usual productivity laptops thanks to its discrete graphics card. It was also a consistent, top performer in all our benchmarking tests, even against the best gaming laptops under $1,000.

Credit: Reviewed / Timothy Rezni
Best Overall
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-12700H
  • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
  • Memory: 16GB DDR5 4800MHz
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 14-inch, 2240 x 1400, 60Hz, 100% sRGB color gamut
  • Battery life: 7.5+ hours

Students who need a traditional, clamshell laptop and prefer using Windows will get the most out of Dell’s Inspiron 14 Plus, a classy multipurpose laptop that outperforms most of Apple’s MacBooks. It may not have as crisp and as bright of a display, but the colors are vibrant, the contrast is decent, and it also has a comfortable and responsive low-profile keyboard similar to Dell’s XPS laptops.

Its battery life is on the low side for a productivity laptop, but 7.5 hours ain’t bad. Intel chips’ notorious appetite for power makes it hard to find a laptop this well-rounded with more battery life. But with some planning, you can easily keep the laptop charged and leave the power block at home.

The Inspiron 14 Plus is a good but hard-to-quantify machine, but a fast computer with a gorgeous chassis, decent battery life, and a good display is more than enough for most students.

Read our full Dell Inspiron 14 Plus review.

Pros

  • Stylish chassis

  • Bright display

  • Strong overall performance

Cons

  • Doesn’t beat a gaming laptop

  • Unimpressive audio

Buy now at Amazon
An open and powered on laptop showing a colorful screen
Credit: Reviewed / Joanna Nelius
Best Value
Acer Swift 3 OLED (2022)
  • 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 nit brightness of 421 nits, more than what most people need from a laptop. The Swift 3’s OLED display covers 99.1% of the PCI-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 M2 chips, it does beat Apple’s M1 Pro in raw single-core and multi-core processing power.

Read our full Acer Swift 3 OLED review.

Pros

  • Speedy Intel H processor

  • Gorgeous OLED display

Cons

  • Design quirks

  • Sad audio

  • So-so battery life

$1,199.99 from Best Buy

$1,166.33 from Amazon

$1,120.00 from Walmart
An open and powered on laptop showing a colorful image on its display
Credit: Reviewed / Kris Wouk
Best 2-in-1
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (2023)
  • 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.

Read our full Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i review.

Pros

  • Good performance for the price

  • Responsive touchscreen

  • Higher-end look than the price suggests

Cons

  • Screen isn’t the brightest or most colorful

  • Heavy

Buy now at Lenovo
MacBook lies on white table surrounded by plants
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
Best MacBook
Apple MacBook Air M1 (Late 2020)
  • Processor: Apple M1
  • Graphics: Integrated
  • Memory: 16GB
  • Storage: 256GB
  • Display: 13-inch 2560 x 1440p Liquid Retina
  • Battery: 11.5+ hours

The Apple MacBook Air M1 is not the latest version of this popular laptop, but it's just as good as the MacBook Air M2—and less expensive. The M2 processor's faster clock speed won't have much of an effect on the type of work undergraduate or graduate students complete during their academic careers. That's why we feel, for the money, it's a better option for students.

The MacBook Air M1 comes with the same aluminum chassis and Retina screen we loved in the earlier 2020 Intel MacBook Air. Because you can't upgrade the M1 MacBooks after purchase, we recommend splurging on a model with at least 512GB of storage.

With a shockingly good battery life of almost 12 hours, performance that beats most Windows laptops, and an incredibly smooth trackpad and tactile keyboard, it should be no surprise that the MacBook Air M1 has been so popular. Unless you need Windows 11 specifically, the MacBook Air is a fabulous laptop for pulling all-nighters, writing essays, and streaming high-resolution video.

Read our full MacBook Air M1 review.

Pros

  • Jaw-dropping battery life

  • Incredible performance

  • Iconic build quality

Cons

  • Poor port selection

$649.99 from Best Buy

$999.00 from Abt

Buy now at Amazon

$954.00 from Walmart
An open and powered on laptop showing a website on screen
Credit: Reviewed / Matthew S. Smith
Best Battery Life
Apple Macbook Pro 14 M2 Pro (2023)
  • 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.

It out-performs most laptops with a 12th-gen Intel or AMD Ryzen 6000 chip (even current generation), achieves extreme brightness levels 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 at lower prices. But they can’t beat Apple in battery life and struggle to deliver the same performance across both CPU and GPU without inflating weight or size.

Read our full MacBook Pro 14 M2 Pro review.

Pros

  • Class-leading battery life

  • Excellent processor performance

  • Superb HDR display

Cons

  • Unimpressive game performance

  • Keyboard needs an update

  • Not the best value for money

Buy now at Apple

$1,899.99 from Best Buy

Buy now at Amazon

$1,899.00 from Walmart

Other Laptops for Students We Tested

Product image of Acer Swift Go 16 (2023)
Acer Swift Go 16 (2023)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-13700H
  • Graphics: Iris Xe Graphics
  • Memory: 16GB LPDDR5 6400MHz
  • Storage: 1TB SSD
  • 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.

Read our full Acer Swift Go 16 review.

Pros

  • Great productivity performance

  • Solid, yet lightweight chassis

  • Great touchpad, decent keyboard

Cons

  • OLED screen doesn’t get very bright

  • Can run warm

Buy now at Acer

$1,145.13 from Amazon
Product image of MSI Prestige 13 Evo (2023)
MSI Prestige 13 Evo (2023)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-1360P
  • Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
  • Memory: 32GB DDR5 4800MHz
  • Storage: 1TB SSD
  • Display: 13.3-inch, 1920 x 1200, 60Hz IPS
  • Battery: ~5.4 hours

MSI Prestige13 Evo is one of the slimmest laptops on the market, and its overall design is one of its biggest selling points—enough to rival the Dell XPS and Apple MacBook Air. The keyboard subtlety balances an orderly design with keys spaced apart just the right amount to accommodate a wide range of hand sizes (although some might find the keyboard cramped like one of us did). We also couldn’t tell the trackpad apart from a MacBook trackpad on touch alone, making it one of the best Windows laptop trackpads we’ve ever tested.

CPU performance is comparable to the other laptops on this list, like the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus and Acer Swift 3 OLED, and the Prestige 13 Evo is currently in the top five on our list of Windows machines that have the best integrated graphics performance.

We wish the laptop came with a higher resolution display or an OLED display, especially for $1,500. There are similarly-priced or cheaper laptops on this list with OLED displays that cost less than the Prestige, but none of them look nearly as polished and refined.

To make an OLED display work in the Prestige 13 Evo, MSI would have probably had to use a larger battery or risk shortening the already short battery life on this laptop even further. A larger battery often comes at the expense of increasing a laptop’s thickness, and that would have changed its entire intent: stunning people with its looks.

Read our full MSI Prestige 13 Evo review.

Pros

  • Feather-light

  • Excellent performance

  • Gorgeous aesthetics

Cons

  • Short battery life

  • Unimpressive screen

  • Cramped keyboard

$1,449.99 from Best Buy

$1,449.00 from Amazon

$1,560.76 from Walmart
Product image of Lenovo Slim Pro 7 14 (2023)
Lenovo Slim Pro 7 14 (2023)
  • 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.

Read our full Lenovo Slim Pro 14 review.

Pros

  • Solid performance

  • Sturdy, tactile keyboard feel

  • Minimalist, professional look

Cons

  • Just okay screen brightness

  • Loaded with bloatware

$849.99 from Best Buy

$1,095.90 from Walmart
Product image of HP Envy x360 15.6 (2022)
HP Envy x360 15.6 (2022)
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5625U
  • Graphics: Integrated
  • Memory: 8GB DDR4 3200MHz
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080p
  • Battery: 8+ hours

HP’s Envy x360 is the best budget-friendly option for students who need the flexibility of a 2-in-1 laptop. There are many configurations available, as well, including a 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD version and one with a faster AMD Ryzen 5 7530U processor.

But the Ryzen 5 5625U processor is no slouch when it comes to performance. Among all of our benchmarking data, the HP Envy x360 is one of the top-performing sub-$1,000 laptops. This laptop’s battery life also is great, thanks in part to the power-efficient processor. The 51-watt-hour battery can hold a charge for eight-plus hours.

Typing on this laptop is comfortable, and the keyboard has large, springy keys perfect for working on papers or reports. The trackpad also is well-made and responds to taps and complex, multi-touch gestures quickly and accurately.

Read our full HP Envy x360 review.

Pros

  • Sturdy, stylish chassis

  • Good performance

  • Good battery life

Cons

  • Mediocre display

  • Bloatware

Buy now at Amazon
Product image of Dell XPS 13 9315 (2022)
Dell XPS 13 9315 (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-1230U
  • Graphics: Intel Iris Xe (integrated)
  • Memory: 16GB LPDDR5
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 13.4-inch, 1920 x 1200, IPS, LCD (optional touchsreen)
  • Battery life: About 16 hours

This Dell XPS 13 (9315) is hands-down the best XPS laptop Dell has made (that we’ve tested). It has the same polish and refinement as MSI’s Prestige 13 Evo, a much longer battery life than the MacBook Air, and, given this is the base model, the price is right: $850 on sale at Dell. It’s the kind of laptop you can purchase without much thought and without regretting your decision.

The biggest reason it’s not higher up on this list, even above the Acer Swift Go 16, is that its processing performance is much slower than the others, ranking in the bottom five compared to every laptop we’ve reviewed in the last year.

If you need a tad more performance and don’t mind potentially sacrificing some battery power to get it, you can get the Dell XPS 13 with an Intel Core i7-1250U processor for $899 (on sale). It’s a faster processor when it comes to running actual applications compared to something like the M2, but the Core i7-1250U isn’t nearly as power-efficient—expect the XPS 13 configured with a Core i7 to get under 15 hours of battery life.

Read our full Dell XPS 13 review.

Pros

  • Sturdy and functional design

  • Great battery life

  • Competitive pricing

Cons

  • Mediocre performance

  • Only two Thunderbolt ports

  • Webcam and microphone don’t impress

Buy now at Dell

Buy now at Amazon

How We Test Laptops for Students

The Tests

Here at Reviewed, we put laptops for students through the same rigorous testing as the best laptops money can buy. We evaluate laptops on several factors, including processing capability, graphics, battery life, and screen brightness, using a mix of industry standards and custom-made tests. We also use laptops for an extended period, rating each on factors like build quality, price, portability, and design.

How to Choose a Laptop for Students

What makes a great student laptop? It should be portable and durable, while also helping a student with organization and completing schoolwork and projects. Specific performance needs will depend on priorities—activities like web browsing, video editing, and high-end gaming come with different requirements. When it comes to what to look for in a laptop, there are some general things to consider.

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.

Processor

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.

Storage

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.

Price

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.

Meet the testers

Adrien Ramirez

Adrien Ramirez

Staff Writer

@itsaramkat

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

See all of Adrien Ramirez's reviews
Joanna Nelius

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.

See all of Joanna Nelius's reviews

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