7 Best Laptops for College Students

Laptops are as essential as textbooks and school ID. Now college life is not just about assignments and projects it may also include extra-curricular activities like social networking, posting photos, video chatting, gaming and listening to music. Well laptops for students also need to provide better performance with good battery life. Check out the best laptops.

1. Acer Aspire 5349-2635

The Acer Aspire 5349-2635 is has a good quality plastic body and is textured with silver gray finish. The laptop is powered with 1.6 GHz Intel Celeron B815 Dual-Core processor, 4 GB of RAM, Intel HD Graphics card and runs on Windows 7 Home Premium operating system. It comes with 15.6 inch LED backlight widescreen display with 1366x768 pixels of resolution, Dual-Layer DVD drive, 320 GB of SATA hard disk.

Other specifications includes multi gesture touchpad, built in webcam, microphone, stereo speaker, connectivity options like three USB 2.0, HDMI, VGA, RJ-45 network port, Wi-Fi, Ethernet LAN, card reader and security lock slot. Price: 24,901 onwards.

2. Dell Inspiron 14z

Dell Inspiron 14z is concentrating on style with thin and light computing. The laptop uses the latest second generation Intel Core i3 and i5 processors with several options and has 14 inch 720p HD resolution screens as well.

It also has an onboard graphic processor and comes with pre-installed on Window 7 operating system. The 14z  has an integrated SRS surround sound HD audio card for better media performance with music and video playback. The laptop also has Intel Wireless Display tech inside and HDMI outputs for displaying video to a bigger screen.

It is available in Diamond Black or Fire Red colors and has sleek keyboards with touchpad which features multi touch for pinch zoom or scroll up or down. The 14z has a 14 inch screen with the same resolution and up to 8GB of RAM, 750GB of HDD space and has a tray-loading DVD player.

3. HP Folio 13

HP Folio 13 is one of the well designed ultrabook out there in the market. It may not the lightest and the thinnest in the market, but it offers value-for-money in all proportions. The best thing about this ultrabook is its wonderful keyboard and satisfying battery life. It also makes you happy with nice connectivity options like HDMI and an Ethernet port.

HP Folio 13 runs on Intel Core i5 processor with Intel HD Graphics 3000 and comes with 4GB of DDR3 RAM and 128GB SSD. The device sports a 13.3-inch 1366x768 LED-backlit display, a wide and comfortable Backlit chiclet keyboard, 1 USB 2.0 port and 1 USB 3.0 port.

The device do have some downside, it is bit heavier than other ultrabooks, that 13.3-inch screen is not that bright even if the brightness is set maximum and the colors that appear on the screen doesn’t seems to be that pleasing.

4. Lenovo IdeaPad U310

The Lenovo IdeaPad U310 is one of the best performance ultrabooks in the market. The device is powered by 3rd Gen 2.6 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU, Intel GMA HD Graphics 4000 graphic processing unit, 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD + 32 GB SSD storage and runs on Windows 7 OS.

It comes with a 13.3-inch laptop which has a HD LED screen with 1366 x 768 pixels of resolution. It also features a 1.0 MP HD camera which can also record videos at 720p resolution, keyboard and touch pad with multi touch feature. The keyboard features island-style AccuType keyboard which provides a comfortable typing experience.

At the right hand side it houses a USB 2.0 port, a headphone and microphone jack and AC adapter jack for power supply. On the left hand side it has SD card, pair of USB 3.0 port, HDMI and Ethernet. The device is available for around 52,856.

5. Lenovo IdeaPad Y480

The Lenovo IdeaPad Y480 offers powerful performance with multimedia features for entertainment, gaming and more. The IdeaPad Y480 is optimized for high definition entertainment and ideal for gaming.

The device is powered with Quad-Core 3610QM chipset with Intel Core i7 at a clock speed at 2.3 GHz, 8 GB of DDR3 SD-RAM, Nvidia GeForce G650M or GTX660M graphic card and come with pre installed Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit operating system.

It sports glossy 14 inch screen at a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels with good viewing angles. It also features Dolby Home Theater v4 for full impact surround sound with premium JBL speakers, Blu-ray optical drive with writer, integrated with 720p HD webcam and has OneKey Theater 2.0 which optimizes audio-visual in just one touch of a button.

For connectivity it comes with gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth, HDMI output, USB 3.0 and also comes with Lenovo Energy Management which helps to improve battery power efficiency. 

6. Sony VAIO E15 (SVE15116FXS)

Sony has always been known to produce style and substance in the same gadget. They have done the same with the VAIO E15. The laptop has a 15.5 inch screen with a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. The laptop comes powered with an Intel third generation Core i5 processor which will give powerful power as well as productivity.

It comes with a full sized keypad with back-lit chiclet keys. Though the keys are comfortable to work on the back light does prove to be distracting at times.  The touchpad is extremely smooth and responsive. Though the battery life proves to be a letdown as it gives the user a very short battery back time.

The 1.3-megapixel web cam comes with gesture controls but they aren’t very useful. The VAIO E15 is equipped with a 750GB hard drive. On the whole this is indeed a good buy keeping in mind the price as well its features.

7. Apple MacBook Air  

The new MacBook Air in both the 13-inch and 11-inch formats, are incredibly thin and light, even to someone used to working with very small laptops.

The 11-inch Air feels speedy enough, closer to a full-size laptop than most Dual-Core 11-inch premium Netbook. That makes sense, as the Core 2 Duo/Nvidia 320M combo is similar to what you'd find in the current $999 white MacBook (although this is a ULV version of the Core 2 Duo in this case).

It's especially interesting to compare this with the 11-inch Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T-68U118, which has a low-voltage Intel Core i7 CPU for $899. The Acer was faster in our Photoshop and iTunes tests, but slower than the Air in our multitasking test. Though it's not as fast as a non-ULV laptop, the MacBook Air is about as good as you're going to find in this 11-inch arena.