If you are a student pursuing your education for bachelor’s or master’s degree, whether at university or school, a good notebook is a gradual must-have item in your store of tech products with which you can plan to get more scores.
Obviously, there are a bewildering number of choices out there, so what must you aim on when selecting a laptop to utilize in your education? Here are some tips while purchasing a laptop for students.
Ruggedness
First and foremost, take into consideration the build quality, since ideally you need a portable device that is created to take hard knocks. We normally do not mean a completely rugged device, but preferably the model you select must have a fairly strong structure. The device must be capable of standing a knock every now and then.
Simultaneously, you need something that is rationally compact, and not too heavy or thick, so it will easily fit into your sack (and not obstruct you when carrying the device). In a nutshell, you require striking a balance here and selecting something sensibly portable, yet still well-developed and sufficient to take a little knock.
Taking notes in lectures or classes will probably be a major concern. So buying a device with a stylus or touchscreen may be a priority in your list of features.
That will possibly mean a hybrid laptop, which can be employed as an ordinary laptop or as a tablet for easing things down (normally these have either a 360-degree hinge that lets you to fold the keyboard against the display, or a detachable keyboard that can be kept aside, efficiently making the laptop a fat tablet).
You will be scribbling, as well as typing, of course, and if you are going to be writing lengthy papers and essays on your device, the keyboard will apparently be an essential factor. That is where a detachable-keyboard hybrid might get back in the list a bit, as these do not always offer the best experience for typing.
You actually require a keyboard with an excellent typing action (practically strong and with good key travel that clocks key presses adequately) and preferably no wobbly or plasticky keys.
Reviews can assist you with this, as we always take into account the typing experience when it comes to reviewing such laptops. On the other hand, you can go to a retail store and actually get your hands on the keyboard of the machine yourself, which is always preferable.
Last, but not the least, choosing a notebook with a good battery life is always a must. The more longevity of the battery, the better. And you surely need your device to be capable of making it through a complete day at university or school.
Price
The price factor can be something of a prickly problem. Not everybody is capable of spending a hefty dime, but making requirements meet while managing daily expenditure at school can be a challenge. Hence, you might well be looking at the reasonably-priced section of the laptop sector.
On the other hand, even if you can only afford for a budget laptop, the good news is you do not have to be concerned too much about how strong the hardware is. This is because you actually do not require one of the latest chips (CPUs) for normal computing jobs such as browsing the web for research, using a word processor, and so on. And you surely do not require anything such as a separate powerful graphics card.
You must be looking at to fulfill essential computing needs in terms of the hardware. A simple dual-core AMD or Intel chipset will be sufficient. You must also make certain that you have 4 GB of RAM, as while you might be lured by super-cheap devices with 2 GB of RAM, which is walking on thin ice when it comes to operating the latest Windows 10.
And at the low end, you are probably going to need a conventional hard disk instead of an SSD, as you will not get much storage on a tight budget with the latter. And you will possibly require extra storage memory.
An affordable device will expectedly be ideally fine for doing your work and you may well be shocked at what you can get with a tight budget if you search around for deals on laptop. All you need to do is wait for the right time such as a festival season or clearance sale. This is the time when retailers and online sites offer deals on the electronics.
Chromebook
Still mulling over the lower end of the laptop segment? One more option for an affordable laptop is to buy a Chromebook rather than a Windows laptop. These operate Chrome OS instead of Windows OS and it is a much less demanding OS. This means these devices can have lesser-spec elements, which in turn makes them affordable and preferable if you are running low on budget.
Chromebooks also employ mighty cloud empire of Google to amass files online, indicating you require less local space. And this option also indicates that you can employ G Suite, which is a striking productivity suite nowadays and allows you avoid shelling out penny for Microsoft Office. Chromebooks have also become more and more flexible in recent years, and some devices can now operate Linux software or Android apps.
Getting Choosy
Till now we have discussed in general terms about the features and components that will possibly be helpful to all students. On the other hand, those studying certain courses at university may have more particular needs for a laptop.
For instance, engineering students will require a portable workstation or even a more solid laptop, which features a strong graphics card to deal with the kind of heavyweight apps and calculations comprised in these courses.
Creative sections on design or art courses might hanker for a touchscreen-featuring laptop with a very high quality screen (maybe a high resolution and fine color accurateness) along with a receptive stylus with no lag that shows a suitably high level of pressure sensitivity.
Perceptibly there are a series of different courses present all over the world, and we do not have the space to cover each individual requirement here. The point is that while most of the students will get by with an all-rounder laptop, others might require something a bit more customized depending on what they are studying.
If you fall into that section, it is possibly worth talking to your instructor (or indeed other candidates who are already pursuing the same course) to see if there are any options to consider aside from what we have discussed here.
