Let's face it, most students are on pretty tight budgets. Also, considering that many students will not use their laptop for anything more involved than word processing and Internet browsing, a budget laptop is a perfect choice for the average college student. Consider a Toshiba Satellite T235D. It has a 13.3 inch screen, 4 GB of memory, a 320 GB hard drive and a fast Turion II AMD K625 / 1.5 Ghz Dual-Core Processor. Starting at around $800, this laptop is perfect for the college student on a budget. (Reference 1)
Apple's line of Mac computers are ideal for college students, especially art students. Macs have software such as iPhoto, iMovie and Garage band that help students to edit photos, make and edit films and even teach them to play musical instruments. Macs are practical, as well. They don't get as many viruses as PCs, yet they are compatible with Windows programs and wireless networks. MacBooks come with a 13.3 inch screen, a 10-hour battery life with 1,000 recharges, a 250 GB hard drive and a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. MacBooks start at $999. (Reference 2)
Netbooks are ideal for taking notes, writing papers and browsing the Internet. Smaller and more compact than traditional laptops, they can easily be taken to class for fast and efficient note taking. They are not as fast as traditional laptops and cannot perform as many tasks, but they are a good value for the money. Consider a Samsung N150. It has a 250 GB hard drive, 1 GB of memory, a 10.1 inch screen and an Intel Atom N450 1.66 GHz processor. Prices start at $250. (Reference 3)
High performance laptops are suited for people who need the speed and performance of a desktop in a portable system. People who use their laptop to watch movies, record music, store photos and edit films can really benefit from the extra storage space and speed these laptops can provide. Gamers will find the better graphics cards to be particularly useful. Consider an HP Envy 17. It has a 17.3 inch display, a 500 GB hard drive, 8 GB of RAM, powerful speakers and an Intel Core i5-460M 2.53 GHz processor. Prices start at $1,300. Gamers will appreciate the Asus G73JW-A1. It has the power of an expensive gaming laptop without the price. It has a Nvidia GeForce GTX 460M graphics card, and an Intel Core i7-740QM 1.73 GHz processor. Prices start at $1,750. (Reference 4)