The best student laptops not only help you study – with reliable performance and features that foster productivity – they're also great for streaming, gaming, and video calling friends and family (very useful if you happen to be studying away from home).
There's a stereotype around students being lazy, but student life really isn't all about getting up at noon and partying late into the night. Being a student can be hard: and a decent laptop is needed to support your studies and also help you chill out.
However, decent doesn't necessarily mean 'most expensive'. Students love saving money, and here I've tried to favour models that won't break your balance – because we want you to be able to eat as well. Your parents are worried about you.
Included in the list below you should be able to find something suitable for you, however old you are or wherever you're studying. Be sure to also check out our guides to the best Chromebooks, best MacBooks, or the best laptops for Windows.
This entire student laptop list has just been revised and refreshed, to bring you the very latest models – and the laptops that are most suitable for your education.
T3's top picks
The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 gets the nod as the best student laptop for most people: it balances performance and price in an overall package that's easy on the eye and easy to carry around between libraries, lecture halls, and wherever else you're working.
There's a lot to like about MacBooks if you're a student, from the lightweight design and smart engineering, to the stacks of software you get included for free – and the MacBook Air is more compact and less expensive than the MacBook Pro option.
It doesn't come cheap, but the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED still gives you a whole lot of bang for your buck: some top-tier internal components, an absolutely gorgeous OLED screen, and fantastic build quality. You're not going to regret this investment.
Want a Windows laptop that also does double duty as a Windows tablet as well? Then you want the Microsoft Surface Pro 11, a fine portable computing device that's versatile, powerful, and well put together (though you will need the keyboard add-on).
With the Dell XPS 14 (9440), you've got a laptop that scores highly in every different department that matters when you're a student: performance, value for money, battery life, portability, and all the rest. It's the best all-round student laptop right now.
Students inevitably spend a lot of time looking at their laptop screens, and the OLED screen attached to the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is a beauty. There are plenty of other reasons to recommend this laptop too, including the slimline design aesthetic.
The best student laptop for most people
Right now, our pick for the best student laptop for most people is the Samsung Galaxy Book 3, a superb and capable mid-ranger from the tech giant that wraps in all of Samsung's know-how and design excellence into a sleek laptop that will cost you a relatively little amount of money. It's definitely worthy of your consideration.
As our comprehensive Samsung Galaxy Book 3 review will tell you, it's "made for families and students" and "feels like a much pricier laptop" (which is what you want when shopping at this price). It's a great workhorse for typing essays on, and the all-day battery life is something that's really going to appeal to students too.
With Intel processors powering everything on the inside, and a rather attractive finish on the outside, this has broad appeal for students: just don't expect to do any advanced gaming or 4K video editing on this, considering the mid-range spec. If you're after the best value for money in this list, then this could well be it.
The best premium Mac laptop for students
The MacBook Air series needs no introduction of course, and it's always been popular with students for its compact form factor, software capabilities, and performance – and the 13-inch MacBook Air (M3, 2024) is no different. It's a fantastic laptop that can take your computing to the next level, as long as you're not put off by the pricing.
While the cost of the entry-level M3 MacBook Air isn't extortionate, as soon as you start to spec it up, you'll find yourself paying more and more money – and so I've described it here as the best premium laptop for students. Those optional upgrades do genuinely add to the speed and capabilities of this Apple laptop, however.
In the full T3 review of the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (M3, 2024), we praised the combination of design excellence and high-end performance, writing: "It's silent, it's powerful, it's long-lasting and, ultimately, the MacBook Air M3 is hard to fault." It's also a reliable laptop that's going to last you years, as your education continues.
The best premium Windows laptop for students
Whether or not you're a student, you're going to want to make sure your money is well spent: and that's very much the case if you invest in the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED. First and foremost there's that stunning 14-inch OLED display, so good that it got a mention in the name of the laptop – it really is a top class, high-resolution screen.
Head to our Asus Zenbook 14 OLED review page and you'll see words like "sleek", "portable", and "speedy" thrown around, as well as a display that's "simply divine" (and which I've already mentioned). It can handle every task capably, and with Intel Arc on board, there's even enough power for some light gaming, should you need it.
Admittedly it is on the expensive side, but if you see it as an investment for a three or four-year educational course then it starts to look more respectable from a price perspective (it's very unlikely that you're going to want your money back). It's also super-light, so you'll have no problems carrying it around from place to place.
The best 2-in-1 student laptop
There's an awful lot to like about the Microsoft Surface Pro 11, from the understated and lightweight design to the performance offered by the new Snapdragon X Elite chips from Qualcomm – because these are based on an ARM-esque architecture, you may run into some app compatibility issues, but they are few and far between.
Crucially, the main chipset gives you speedy performance without too much in the way of battery drain, and that means you can keep moving from lectures to the library to your bedroom without needing to constantly recharge the Surface. You will need the optional keyboard accessory though, for the full tablet+laptop experience.
In our Microsoft Surface Pro 11 review, you'll see we called the device "the biggest glow-up this family has had for some time", and a "tour de force in the Windows laptop space". All of that makes it worth the rather steep asking price (especially steep when you factor in the keyboard), and my pick for the best 2-in-1 laptop for students.
The best all rounder laptop for students
The Dell XPS series has long been a favourite of ours here at T3, and it's no different with the latest Dell XPS 14, a laptop which sits in the middle of the current series (between the 13-inch and the 16-inch) when it comes to size and portability – perfect if you're studying and need to carry a powerful laptop around from place to place.
Our Dell XPS 14 review sums it up rather well: it's described as a "sleek, stylish laptop" that has "no problems powering through tasks", with "great battery life" and "a gorgeous OLED screen". You can even equip it with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, though don't expect too much in terms of high-end gaming performance.
One of the standout features here is the 3.2K OLED screen (though you can save some money by going for a cheaper, lower-resolution panel), which makes everything look fantastic, from movies to essays – and which will keep you going long into the night on those occasions when you have to forgo sleep in order to hit a deadline.
The best OLED student laptop
In our Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge review, we described this laptop as marking "the beginning of a new era of PC", in terms of the extra AI being injected into these devices by both Microsoft and Samsung – AI for generating images and text, summarising documents, quickly searching through files, and plenty more besides.
Besides all of that AI, this is an incredibly impressive computer in all of the traditional senses too: you've got a powerful Snapdragon processor on the inside, plus plenty of RAM and storage to keep you going (while that Qualcomm chipset does cause one or two compatibility issues, it's fair to say the situation is improving all the time).
Then there's the lightweight design, even with a 16-inch OLED display included. That display really is the primary selling point of this Samsung laptop: it looks simply fantastic, and will serve you well whether you're watching movies or writing up essays late at night. This is a powerful combination of both form and function in one laptop.
The best Copilot+ student laptop
If a PC is a Copilot+ PC, it doesn't mean it comes with Copilot on board – that's true of all modern Windows PCs now – but it does mean the computer specs meet a certain standard in terms of AI processing. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 meets the grade, so is perfect for students who want to stay on the cutting edge of AI development.
Our Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 review describes this laptop as being "easy to love" and "one of the best Windows options around" – it's "top-quality" and an excellent Windows alternative to the MacBook Air. On the downside, it can get expensive once you add upgrades beyond the entry-level specs, so bear that in mind when choosing.
The familiar Surface design language is on show again here, which gives the laptop a refined and tasteful look, while the sharp screen takes on that 3:2 aspect ratio of its predecessors in the series: the aspect ratio you want if you're writing a lot of essays and doing a lot of work on the web (albeit less suitable for watching movies).
The best student laptop for portability
If you're carrying your laptop between lectures, classes, libraries, and home office desks, you're going to want a machine that's as thin and light as possible – and with that in mind we present the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x, the latest in a long line of Lenovo laptops that score highly in terms of their slimline design and their portability.
With enough in the specs department to comfortably deal with every computing activities and then some, this laptop excels in terms of its battery life as well – another plus point if you're moving between different locations to get your work done. You can leave your charging cable at home without stressing about the laptop dying.
"No wrong moves have been made," we wrote in our Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x review. "The screen, the design, the keyboard, the battery – nothing has been neglected." It all adds up to an impressive all-round package that's not going to weigh you down, and give you plenty of features and power to keep your productivity at a high level.
The most versatile student laptop
Our HP OmniBook Ultra Flip review will give you a great idea of why this is such a good laptop for students: as the name suggests, it has a screen that can fold over through 360 degrees, so you can easily prop it up like a tent if you're watching a movie or on a video call (and it works fine in the standard laptop configuration as well).
As we put it in the review: "It's super-portable, has a mega-long-lasting battery, a hybrid design, supports a stylus, and can even play games reasonably well." That ticks a lot of boxes if you're a student looking for a new laptop, although you may need to borrow some cash from your parents to be able to afford the asking price here.
With top-tier specs led by premium Intel CPUs, and a superb screen, the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip is undoubtedly one of the best laptops for students right now. It also has the hardware and software to cope with the next generation of AI tools, so you're ready for whatever comes your way in tech during the course of your studies.
The best student laptop for gaming
If you're a student, you're probably not going to want to spend all of your waking hours studying – the quality of your work is likely to dip if you're not taking some regular time to relax, and with that in mind I present the Alienware M18 R2 as the best student laptop for gamers, provided you can meet the steep asking price.
And the money you spend does get you a lot in return: the graphics card options go all the way up to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, which will have no problems at all running the latest games at very respectable quality settings. Of course all that built-in performance power helps with the rest of your computing tasks as well.
Our Alienware M18 R2 review puts it like this: "The Alienware M18 R2 remains among the best large gaming laptops, with the improvements on this year's model underlining its success." Bear in mind that the size of this gaming beast – complete with 18-inch screen – means it's not the easiest to lug around from place to place.
How to choose the best student laptop
We hope our student laptop guide proves invaluable for anyone out there shopping for a system that's capable, decent value, and a boon to your productivity. We're constantly updating this list too with newer models and updated information, so be sure to keep checking back regularly, and we've also included some clutch buying advice to help you narrow down the ideal learning tool for going back to school.
Today's computers need to be able to do much more than the primitive number-crunchers of old. They need to support a huge range of software, given that several courses have special requirements, as well as the standard office packages.
When it comes to software, Microsoft's Office 365 suite is free for students, and there are also Google's Chromebooks and the associated Google Docs suite to consider as well, with the latter also free to use.
These laptops need to be able to run HD video lectures without juddering of course, while a set of good speakers always comes in handy when listening to teachers (or pumping out music). These machines have to be affordable too, given the increased cost of schooling all round the world.
Integrated webcams are important as well, for web lectures and broadcast media-related courses, but these are now included as standard on every laptop – you'd be hard pushed to find a model without one now.
How we test the best student laptops
Laptops are very versatile and powerful tools, which means that there is a lot to consider when buying one. As such, we approach testing student laptops with this in mind, parsing down the process according to what a buyer would consider in store.
Firstly, we evaluate the build quality and design of the system. Here we're looking for signs of robustness and quality, as well as overall fit and finish. It is at this stage that we also evaluate the student laptop's screen, judging its colour balance, fidelity and features, such as anti-glare coatings or tiny bezels.
Next up we evaluate the student laptop purely from a hardware point of view, both on paper and in practice. So we check out its core specifications, such as processor, RAM, storage capacity and graphics chip, before benchmarking the overall package with a brace of benchmarking tools.
We then move onto the more experiential side of the reviewing process, which encompasses what the laptop's operating system and software are like to use, as well as how it performs in the real world – such as, how is the student laptop to carry round, or how well does it perform in a coffee shop.
Lastly, we take a look at any of the system's noteworthy features, such as RGB lighting systems, mechanical keyboards, built-in webcams, touchscreens, rotating screens, stylus support, biometric sign-in options and more. We also provide a rough, real-world take on the system's battery life at this point, too.
Only after these stages are complete do we officially score the student laptop, with a 5-star system (1 being the worst, and 5 being the best) used. If the student laptop scores highly, it is then considered for T3's best student laptop buying guide, which is designed to showcase the very best systems on the market.
See T3's How We Test page for full information on how we test all our products for review.
Reviewer panel
Andrew is a laptop and computing specialist with a wealth of experience writing reviews for T3. He always puts in the maximum possible amount of testing work, so you can be sure his laptop reviews are thorough and comprehensive.
Mike has a wealth of experience writing and commissioning laptop reviews as the Tech Editor here at T3, so he knows what he's talking about when it comes to picking the right laptop for every kind of requirement – including education.
As a Staff Writer in the tech department here at T3, Andy had to write a lot of words each and every day – and plenty of those words were about laptops. Each of his laptop reviews comes with a high level of expert knowledge and experience.
Richard has been writing about a wide variety of tech for decades, and he's right up to date with all the latest developments in laptops. When it comes to laptop reviews, he covers all the key features and specs you need to know about.
