Best Laptops for Students 2018

Best Laptops for Students 2018: 9 great-value laptops and tablets for back-to-school 

It’s almost back-to-school time, so we’ve put together a roundup of the nine laptops we believe will best serve the needs of school, college and university students. 

There are a variety of laptops available in the market, and picking a single machine to cover the array of activities for which a student might need a device is certainly a tough ask. Take a look at ourTop 10 Tips to Follow when buying a laptop, then look at our list of top choices below.

We also have a more general Best Laptop buying guide, which includes a section of machines as well as a few more expensive options. Gaming more your thing? Check out our Best Gaming Laptopguide for some proper gaming beasts.

Whether you’re on a course that requires you to work on 3D graphics, videos or photography, or you just want a bargain-basement machine to sling into your bag as you dash out of halls on your way to a Monday morning lecture, there are tonnes of great deals out there just waiting to be snaffled.

While this guide covers laptops, it’s worth remembering that if you already have a desktop PC or will only be making sparse notes, then a laptop might not be what you need at all. For example, consider the Google Pixel C, a lightweight Android tablet with a keyboard dock that you can take with you everywhere. Got a bit more cash, perhaps one of the new iPad Pros will be more your thing? Even the Lenovo Yoga Book, which is certainly of niche appeal, might be your best bet.

We’ve also reviewed laptops that haven’t quite made the list for various reasons but might still be worth considering depending on your needs. The Asus ZenBook UX430UA is an eminently portable thin and light laptop that weighs just 1.25kg, for example, but we felt its battery life was a little underwhelming. If you’re going to be near a plug socket for your classes and lectures you might not think this a massive issue, however.

If you want a convertible but don’t quite have the budget for a Microsoft Surface Pro or Eve V, then you might want to consider the Acer Switch 3. At just £499, this price even includes the keyboard cover and stylus. You’re not going to get top-notch performance, but then you are paying around half the price. If you’re a student with only basic productivity needs but want a convertible, this could check the right boxes.

Acer Swift 1

1 of 9

Score

:4

Key features:

• 1.1-2.5GHz Intel Pentium N4200
• 4GB memory
• 13.3-inch Full HD display
• Weight: 1.3kg
• Review price: £350

Acer’s Swift lineup brings premium design at a sub-£400 price point. This 1.3kg, 13.3-inch machine is one of the nicest-looking budget laptops available today, and it offers impressive performance elsewhere, too.

The screen, for example, is surprisingly good for the money, packing a Full HD resolution, good viewing angles and a solid user experience overall. Battery life is less than Acer claimed it would be, but with conservative use this laptop should be able to make it through most of a school day.

Since this laptop is powered by a low-power Intel Pentium processor, performance is leisurely. This effectively means you’ll need to balance the programs and browser tabs you have open at once to ensure you don’t overload it. But if you’re already coming from a cheap laptop, this shouldn’t come as much surprise.

Asus VivoBook E200HA

2 of 9

Score:4

 

Key features:

• Quad-core Intel Atom processor
• 11.1-inch 1366 x 768-pixel screen
• Weight: 980g
• Review price: £230

Best cheap laptop for students

This is our new favourite netbook for a few reasons. First, it’s one of the lightest laptops we’ve ever reviewed, but feels robust enough to be slung into any bag without damage. We should know, after all: a member of the TrustedReviews team owns the previous generation of this device, the X205TA, and despite undergoing a huge amount of abuse, it’s still rocking to this day after two years.

Like any budget laptops, there are some compromises. Of course, the biggest is performance: realistically, you’ll only be able to have a few active tabs open at a time when browsing the web before it starts to chug.

If you’re prepared compromise middling performance for 12 hours of battery life, however, the Asus VivoBook E200HA is well worth it.

Acer Chromebook 14

3 of 9

Score:4

 

Key features

• Thin and light metal design
• Great battery life
• Chrome OS
• Review price: £289

Chromebooks offer an excellent alternative to more expensive Windows laptops, with the only trade-off being a much more simple operating system that’s effectively a glorified web browser.

Since everything from emails to photo editing and writing documents can now be done from within web apps, there isn’t much that you can’t do on a Chromebook that you can do on a Windows machine.

The Acer Chromebook 14 looks near-identical to a MacBook Air, with an aluminium composite body and black chiclet keyboard. It’s slightly bigger, but weighs in at just 1.55kg – which is pretty light for a 14-inch laptop.

It isn’t powerful; its Intel Celeron processor is capable of only lightweight tasks, but with long battery life it’s a great secondary PC for when you’re out on campus or heading into class.

Samsung Galaxy Book 10.6

4 of 9

Score:4

    

Key features:

• 2-in-1 form factor
• Includes folio keyboard and S-Pen stylus
• Dual-core 1-2.6GHz Intel Core m3-7Y30 processor
• 4GB RAM
• 10.6-inch 1920 x 1280-pixel touch screen
• 64GB storage
• MicroSD card slot
• Weight: 1kg
• Review price: £650

The 10.6-inch Galaxy book is perfect for note-takers who like the tactile feeling of writing with a pen instead of a keyboard. This ultra-lightweight Windows 10 machine comes with both a decent (if cheap-looking) keyboard case and excellent passive stylus. There are no hidden costs here, unlike with higher-end machines such as the Surface Pro.

It’s not the most powerful tablet-cum-laptop around, but the dual-core Core M processor is fine for light web browsing, emails and word processing. Just don’t open too many programs and browser tabs at once and you’ll be fine.

Battery life is good, if not excellent, for a laptop, clocking in at around six hours under test.

Avid multi-taskers should look elsewhere, but a student in the market for a capable note-taking machine should seriously consider the Galaxy Book 10.6.

Acer Swift 3 2016

5 of 9

Score:4.5

    

Key features:

• Thin, all-metal design
• Good battery life
• SSD included
• Review price: £650

The student appeal of the Swift 3 is down to its great performance and light weight. This 14-inch machine weighs in at 1.5kg, which is easily light enough to sling into a bag. There’s a choice of specifications starting at just £500 for a Core i3 model, with our best pick being the dual-core Core i5 and 256GB SSD for £650.

Battery life is solid at over seven hours, and the Full HD screen is good for the money – although it isn’t it won’t suffice for proper video or photo editing due to its lack of colour coverage.

For the money, there isn’t a lot better on the market than the Swift 3. Be warned, however, Acer has launched a new version of the Swift 3 – and, like many things affected by the crazy-world currency markets, this model offers you a bit less for your money. It’s still good, but you should grab 2016 models while you can.

Microsoft Surface Pro

6 of 9

Score:4

   

Key features:

• Core m3, Core i5 (both fanless) and Core i7 options
• 4-16GB RAM
• 12.3-inch, 2736 x 1824-pixel touchscreen display
• Surface Pen
• Review price: £2149
• Starting price: £799 (£719 for students)

Microsoft’s latest Surface Pro retains its crown as the finest premium 2-in-1 tablet on the market right now. And it’s an even better deal for students, with prices starting at just £719 for a basic, Intel Core m3-powered model.

We reviewed one of the top-spec, most powerful Core i7 models, but the cheaper, lesser-equipped models will be perfectly fine for those with light usage demands, who only want to take notes on the excellent touchscreen.

You’ll need to pay extra for the keyboard and stylus additions, which is a trifle mean, Microsoft – but some retailers occasionally sell bundles including one or the other.

Alternatives include the Asus Transformer 3 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Book, which both have their own strengths and weaknesses, but are much cheaper.

Asus VivoBook L403

7 of 9

Score:3.5

  

Key features:

• 1.1-2.5GHz Intel Pentium N4200
• 4GB RAM
• 14-inch Full HD screen
• Weight: 1.5kg
• Review price: £300

The L403 is a similar offering to the Acer Swift 1, coming equipped with a low-power Intel Pentium processor, 4GB of RAM and an attractive price point. The L403 is a decent mid-sized portable laptop, weighing in at just 1.5kg.

We had a build-quality issue with the keyboard – which we believe was just bad luck – but, nonetheless, it’s worth remembering that when you don’t pay a lot for a laptop, you might run into minor problems.

The screen is a Full HD model, and we weren’t particularly impressed by its viewing angles. But the faults are made up for by the excellent battery life of around nine hours. If you’re going to be in lectures taking notes all day, this is a great companion.

Lenovo Ideapad 510S

8 of 9

Score:4

    

Key features:

• Intel Core i5 or i7 processors
• 8GB RAM
• 128-256GB SSD
• 14-inch Full HD display
• Weight: 1.7kg
• Review price: £450

The Ideapad 510S will soon be replaced by the Ideapad 520S, but there are still plenty of last year’s model on sale. And they’re great.

While the 510S is a bit of a heavyweight at 1.7kg, it manages excellent build quality, good performance (you can pick up a Core i7 model for under £650) and a decent screen, which ticks a lot of boxes.

Battery life is excellent, too, with our battery tests posting a score of 10 hours. A full day of work on the 510S is very possible.

All in all, the 510S is a great mid-range machine for students who need a trusty companion for lectures and need to be able to work from the library – and it’s capable of some media-editing workloads to boot.

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming

9 of 9

Score:3.5

    

Key features:

• 2.8-3.8GHz Intel Core i7-7700HQ
• 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
• 16GB RAM
• 256GB SSD, 1TB hard disk
• 15.6-inch Full HD screen
• Weight: 2.65kg
• Review price: £1099

If you fancy yourself as a gamer and need a machine powerful enough for video editing and photography work, the Inspiron 15 Gaming is a great choice.

We love its powerful processor and great graphics chip for Full HD gaming, and the 256GB SSD is fast enough to keep the system ticking over nicely. Even battery life is excellent.

Our main complaint is the Full HD screen, which isn’t very good. The main problem is viewing angles, which are narrow and leave the screen looking dark and unsaturated. It isn’t a complete deal breaker, though; plus there are models with higher-quality, IPS screens, available. Dell has also said that the cheaper models will eventually all come with better screens, although this hasn’t happened yet.

Of the new breed of sub-£1000 gaming laptops, the Inspiron 15 Gaming is our favourite so far.

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