The 10 best laptops for students in 2017: the best laptops for college, high school and more

Update: In accordance with our revamped ranking methodology, we've moved things around in this guide using a combination of factors including star ratings and awards granted to each laptop. Please note that, while this buying guide is a ranked one, it follows a strict methodology that may not account for the nuance of your specific needs. With that in mind, be sure to read each entry and subsequent review to see whether a particular laptop is right for your school work.

The beginning of a new semester means not only getting in the habit of waking up early for those dreaded 8 am classes, but it's also the best time to upgrade your educational tools. It's the perfect time, for instance, to chow down on a new laptop.

After all, if you're clinging to a weathered workhorse that shudders at the thought of 4K photo editing, it's time to move on. Although Apple might come to mind whenever laptops for school are mentioned, recent run-ins with malware might make you think twice about Macs never getting viruses.

Companies such as Lenovo have made it possible to pack heat in the form of dedicated graphics cards and Intel Core i7 processors into slim, convertible designs while others like Razer are more focused on refining more traditional laptop designs, gracing them with 4K screens and keyboard lighting effects. 

As there's quite the range of options to choose from, we've arranged a list of the best laptops for students.

Packing a high-resolution screen and serious processing power, there's more to the Dell XPS 13 than being a surprisingly small Ultrabook. Now featuring new processors and better integrated graphics, clearly the main advantage of buying the newest Dell XPS 13 is that it comes in Rose Gold. 

There's a 13-inch display crammed into an 11-inch body, a worthy rival to a certain other aluminum laptop line, and what's more, the Dell XPS 13 is perfect for any basic course work scenario. After all, Apple doesn't make the only premium, general use laptop worth batting an eye at, and the Dell XPS 13 is the proof.

Read the full review: Dell XPS 13 review

Call it a MacBook Air knockoff if you want, but the Asus ZenBook UX305 is one of the best Ultrabooks you can buy at the moment considering the low price-point. With a full HD screen, a whole 8GB of RAM and up to 512GB of SSD storage, the Asus ZenBook UX305 is a steal.

Like the Dell XPS 13 listed below, this is further proof that you can find a truly primo, general use laptop for less than a thousand bucks. The ZenBook UX305 is an honest-to-goodness laptop, presented in an attractive package, that takes home the gold when it comes to exhibiting the basics.

Read the full review: Zenbook UX305

A higher resolution screen, a thinner design and a move to Intel's more powerful Skylake processors all help to make this portable tablet a capable substitute for your other computing hardware.

What you get is one of the few tablets we can say for certain can replace your laptop. Luckily, with Windows 10, it serves as a great companion device, too. Sadly, the Type Cover keyboard is still an optional necessity for this laptop replacement.

Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Pro 4

For less than a grand, you could get a MacBook Air, complete with a sub-1080p screen and a Broadwell processor or you could buy a Samsung Notebook 7 Spin. A 2-in-1 laptop with an HDR-enabled, Full HD touchscreen, the Spin boasts both a discrete Nvidia graphics chip and one of the latest Intel CPUs.

Considering the sheer horsepower you can exert from this thing and – we can't stress this enough – an HDR screen, the Samsung Notebook 7 Spin is perfect for the classroom or the dorm. Sure, it uses an old-school hard drive and a standard-def webcam, but at the same time, but few concessions are made to keep the price down and its value up.

Read the full review: Samsung Notebook 7 Spin

It's not much in terms of specs, but the Asus ZenBook Flip UX360 doesn't need to be. For the price, it's one of the better 2-in-1 laptops money can afford. It's thin and light, packing in an all-day battery life and yet Asus was still courageous enough to keep all your favorite ports intact in addition to its signature 360-degree convertible mode.

Traditional PC users and newcomers alike will be delighted to find a pair of USB 3.0 ports accompanied by a microSD card reader and USB-C. The downside is a notable lack of full-size HDMI, opting instead for the antiquated micro HDMI. However, this laptop more than makes up for its faults with a spacious trackpad and keyboard as well as a processor more than capable of completing everyday tasks – just don't go nuts with the browser tabs.

Read the full review: Asus ZenBook Flip UX360

The HP Chromebook 14 is no performance powerhouse, sure, but thanks to the zippiness of Chrome OS combined with a funky blue case, this is one fun notebook to use.

Because of its low cost and ease of use, the HP Chromebook 14 is ideal for high school or liberal arts college students while simultaneously providing access to nearly every major service an undergrad would need to survive. It's nothing fancy in terms of specs, but it is at the very least a sight for sore eyes.

Read the full review: HP Chromebook 14

For students impressed by the sleek-and-alluring 12-inch MacBook, but unsatisfied by the lack of power and ports, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is an obvious solution. Featuring a lengthy battery life (7 hours and 24 minutes in our anecdotal battery test) and a powerful, full-fledged Intel Core i5 processor, the latest 13-inch MacBook Pro is replete with everything you need to get through the coming semesters.

Weighing in at only 3.02 pounds (1.37kg), the 13-inch MacBook Pro is lighter than ever before, thanks in part to its slimmed-down keyboard and covert cooling system. Not only that, but the MacBook Pro manages an even larger trackpad despite the laptop itself being thinner. And, like all macOS-outfitted devices, it even ships with Pages, iMovie and Garageband pre-installed at no extra cost.

Read the full review: Apple MacBook Pro (13-inch, Late 2016)

Look, you're bound to have some down time outside of class, so why not invest whatever disposable income you have into one of these bad boys? The Lenovo IdeaPad Y700 looks nice and its price tag only tempts us more.

Don't expect to run the latest best-selling games on Ultra settings, but hey, with a system like this you can accomplish just about anything else. From cranking out essays to editing videos, the Lenovo IdeaPad Y700 is one of the best laptops for students money can buy.

Read the full review: Lenovo IdeaPad Y700

If you're convinced that every Chromebook on the market has to be less than 14 inches, you'd be dead wrong. The Acer Chrombook 15, for example, boasts not only a whopping 15.6-inch screen, but it also packs an equally impressive range of processors.

Despite some slight discomfort experienced during prolonged use, but you can snatch the Acer Chromebook 15 at a much cheaper price now than when it originally released, making it well worth the sacrifice.

Read the full review: Acer Chromebook 15 C910

Though it's yet to adopt Apple's Retina display standard, the benefit to this compromise is a 12-hour battery life coupled paired with a dual-core, Broadwell processor and now 8GB of RAM at the entry level.

Plus, if you don't like the feel of the 12-inch MacBook's low-travel butterfly keys, the MacBook Air uses a more traditional chiclet-style keyboard. And hey, a MacBook Air is the most affordable (and pretty much the only) way to get that backlit Apple logo on the back of your laptop.

Read the full review: MacBook Air 13-inch

• Now check out the best 2-in-1 laptops

Gabe Carey has also contributed to this article

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