Your guide
Available to current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and homeschool teachers of all grade levels.* Mac Save with education pricing on all Mac models.
Justin Krajeski
Whether you need a laptop to take notes in class or to gossip with friends, the Asus ZenBook 13 UX333FA is the best laptop for college students because it offers the most value for an affordable price. It has solid performance and all-day battery life, and it’s compact and light. Our picks are best for college or graduate students, but they’ll work for high schoolers, too—they should last five years, to carry you from your first day through graduation.
Our pick
Asus ZenBook 13 UX333FA
The ZenBook 13 UX333FA has more than enough battery life for a full day of classes, and it’s thin and light, making it an excellent value.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $810.
The ZenBook is also amazingly well made for the price, with a powerful processor, a 1920×1080-pixel display, and a decent webcam—we recommend the UX333FA-DH51 configuration with an Intel Core i5-8265U processor, 8 GB of memory, and a 256 GB solid-state drive. It had more than 10 hours of battery life in our test, about as long as the more expensive Dell XPS 13. But compared with the XPS 13, its keyboard is less enjoyable to type on, and it doesn’t offer a fingerprint reader, which is a bummer in 2019. It also lacks a fast, versatile Thunderbolt 3 port, but it does have one USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port for connecting more modern peripherals. Even so, for around $850, the Asus ZenBook 13 UX333FA is the best option for college students.
If the UX333FA were to disappear in the middle of the night without leaving a note (or if it’s just, like, out of stock), we’d recommend the Asus ZenBook 13 UX331FA instead.
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Upgrade pick
Dell XPS 13
The Dell XPS 13 has one of the longest battery-life results of any Windows ultrabook we’ve tested. It also offers a great screen, keyboard, and trackpad, plus a thin, light chassis.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,050.
Apple MacBook Air (2019)
You get good-enough performance and a full workday of battery life in a thin, light laptop with a fantastic display and two Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,100.
If you’re willing to pay more for the best combination of battery life, screen, and keyboard, get the Dell XPS 13 (9380) or the 2019 MacBook Air, depending on which operating system you prefer. The 2019 Dell XPS 13 is the best Windows ultrabook we’ve found. Not only is its battery life among the longest we’ve seen, but the XPS 13 also offers a compact design without sacrificing space, and it’s better to type on than the Asus ZenBook.
The 2019 MacBook Air is more expensive than the ZenBook, but it’s the least-expensive Mac laptop we recommend for college students. It has all-day battery life, a lightweight aluminum body, and one of the best trackpads around, along with good performance and a fantastic display. However, it has only two Thunderbolt 3 ports and a headphone/mic jack—that lack of legacy ports may be an inconvenience for students who already own USB-A printers or hard drives. If you’re a college student, we recommend buying a MacBook Air through Apple’s store for education for a discount on the laptop and AppleCare. Often, doing so will also get you extras, such as free Beats headphones.
We usually recommend that college students look for laptops with 256 GB of storage, but they may be better off getting 128 GB to save some money and relying on cloud storage to store files (or getting an external hard drive if they really run out of room).
Budget pick
Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA
With solid performance, a great keyboard and trackpad, excellent battery life, and a 14-inch screen squeezed into a compact laptop, the C434 is one of the best Chromebooks ever made.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $550.
If you can complete all of your work in a Web browser—from Android apps to browser-based alternatives—we recommend the Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA. The touchscreen Flip is fast, it provides enough battery life to last through your classes, and it has a compact body and a comfortable keyboard. But Chromebooks may have trouble connecting to campus printers, and they’re not good for people who need access to Mac or Windows apps for photo, video, or audio editing, or other specialized software like MatLab.
Budget pick
Asus VivoBook Flip 14 TP412FA-OS31T
Sleek for a cheap Windows laptop, the VivoBook Flip 14 has a vibrant screen and a comfortable backlit keyboard, but its trackpad is slippery and it chugs if you try to multitask.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $480.
If you need to save some cash but still run Windows, get the Asus VivoBook Flip 14, which has a solid processor, 128 GB of solid-state storage, 4 GB of RAM, and a bright, 14-inch screen. It’s by far the best Windows laptop you’ll find for the price. But we strongly recommend saving up for the ZenBook 13 UX333FA, which is better in nearly every way.
If you’re a film or photography student who needs a laptop for photo and video editing, or if you want a laptop that can also play games, we have picks for you, too.
Everything we recommend
Our pick
Asus ZenBook 13 UX333FA
The ZenBook 13 UX333FA has more than enough battery life for a full day of classes, and it’s thin and light, making it an excellent value.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $810.
Upgrade pick
Dell XPS 13
The Dell XPS 13 has one of the longest battery-life results of any Windows ultrabook we’ve tested. It also offers a great screen, keyboard, and trackpad, plus a thin, light chassis.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,050.
Apple MacBook Air (2019)
You get good-enough performance and a full workday of battery life in a thin, light laptop with a fantastic display and two Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,100.
Budget pick
Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA
With solid performance, a great keyboard and trackpad, excellent battery life, and a 14-inch screen squeezed into a compact laptop, the C434 is one of the best Chromebooks ever made.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $550.
Budget pick
Asus VivoBook Flip 14 TP412FA-OS31T
Sleek for a cheap Windows laptop, the VivoBook Flip 14 has a vibrant screen and a comfortable backlit keyboard, but its trackpad is slippery and it chugs if you try to multitask.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $480.
The research
Why you should trust us
Wirecutter’s team of computer reviewers has been researching and testing laptops since 2013, and the members of that team have more than 20 years of collective experience reviewing all kinds of laptops. We’ve spent more than 500 hours researching and testing hundreds of laptops—everything from portable ultrabooks to Chromebooks to gaming laptops to laptops for creative professionals and beyond—in the past few years.
How we picked the best laptops for students
Students need a great laptop that’ll last for years of taking notes, writing papers at 3 in the morning, editing photos for a group project, or playing Overwatch. But choosing the best laptop for you can be more challenging than writing a thousand good words on Proust.
The most important features in a laptop for college students are value, battery life, size and weight, keyboard and trackpad, performance, storage, screen, and ports. Not all college students will have the same priorities, though. For example, a film student may need a more expensive laptop that can handle editing video on a high-quality screen; a student who enjoys playing video games might be willing to put up with a larger, heavier laptop to get a decent graphics card.
These are the features that you should look for in a laptop for college, but your priorities may vary depending on the work you do:
- Price and value: College is expensive—students have to pay for tuition, housing, textbooks, and other miscellaneous fees and costs—so a laptop’s price-to-performance ratio is the most important factor. Students should get the least expensive laptop that will handle their coursework and last through all of college.
- Battery life: Because students rarely work in a single location, the longer the laptop’s battery life, the better. A laptop for college should last a full day of classes so students can concentrate on taking notes and doing homework instead of worrying about finding an outlet.
- Size and weight: You don’t want a massive laptop weighing down your backpack as you sprint across campus to class. A 13-inch laptop that weighs around three pounds or less provides the best balance of screen real estate and portability for most college students. A 15-inch laptop isn’t necessary unless you plan on using your laptop to play games or edit video or photos.
- Keyboard and trackpad: Your laptop’s keyboard and touchpad should be accurate and responsive to your touch and comfortable to use for long periods of time.
- Performance:
- Processor: An eighth-generation Intel Core ultra-low-power processor, meaning an Intel Core i5-8250U or i5-8265U processor or better, will be powerful enough for most coursework. If you plan to use your laptop for gaming or film and photo assignments, we recommend a more powerful quad-core processor.
- Memory: We recommend 8 GB of RAM as a minimum for browsing the Web, sending emails, and writing research papers, and 16 GB for students who have a more demanding workload.
- Graphics card: You need a dedicated graphics card only if you’re a gamer or a film or photography student.
- Storage: Solid-state drives are much faster than hard drives, and they’re affordable in all our picks. We recommend that most college students get at least 128 GB of storage, relying on cloud storage or an external hard drive if you need more room. Gamers, as well as students enrolled in photo and film programs, are probably better off spending more for at least 256 GB of built-in storage.
- Display: You should get a laptop with at least a 1920×1080 IPS display, since you’ll be staring at your computer screen every day. Photo and film students should invest in a higher-quality, higher-resolution IPS screen.
- Ports: While a lack of ports didn’t disqualify any of our contenders, we prefer to see at least a couple USB 3.0 Type-A ports, as well as a Thunderbolt 3 port for future-proofing. An SD card slot is useful if you’re in a photo or film program.
The best laptop for students: Asus ZenBook 13 UX333FA
Our pick
Asus ZenBook 13 UX333FA
The ZenBook 13 UX333FA has more than enough battery life for a full day of classes, and it’s thin and light, making it an excellent value.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $810.
The Asus ZenBook 13 UX333FA is the best laptop for most students heading to campus because it offers the best performance and features at an affordable price. The ZenBook 13 costs around $850 at this writing, has more than enough battery life to get you through a day of classes, is slim and light, and has a responsive trackpad. It also performs well enough for schoolwork while providing a nice screen and a variety of new and old ports. We recommend the UX333FA-DH51 configuration with an Intel Core i5-8265U processor, 8 GB of memory, and a 256 GB solid-state drive. Although the ZenBook’s keyboard wasn’t our favorite—it felt more cramped than others we tested—and the machine lacks a fingerprint reader and a Thunderbolt 3 port, it still meets most college students’ needs.
If the UX333FA were to disappear in the middle of the night without leaving a note (or if it’s just, like, out of stock), we’d recommend the Asus ZenBook 13 UX331FA. Although it lasted about an hour less than the UX333FA in battery life tests, and it’s an inch wider, the $800 UX331FA still has about nine hours of battery life, it’s just as comfortable to use as the UX333FA, and it has the same specs—but double the storage—for $50 less. It adds a handy fingerprint reader, too, but it lacks Thunderbolt 3 ports.
The ZenBook 13 can easily survive a full day of lectures and seminars, even if you can’t find an outlet to plug into during or between classes. In our battery test, the ZenBook lasted 10 hours, 13 minutes. Its score is exceptional—the only other ultrabook we tested in 2019 that lasted as long is the Dell XPS 13 (9380), which gave us 10 hours, 26 minutes of battery life. This means the ZenBook 13 UX333FA is an especially good choice if you regularly find yourself tucked away inside library aisles to complete your work before it’s due. (Hello to all my fellow nervous procrastinators.)
The ZenBook is about a half-inch wider and 0.2 inch thicker than the Dell XPS 13, measuring 11.9 by 7.4 by 0.7 inches. It’s about the same size as the MacBook Air (13-inch, 2018), although it’s about an inch narrower. And at 2.6 pounds, it’s a little lighter than both the XPS 13 and the MacBook Air. All good backpacks for college students have enough room to fit the ZenBook, and the ZenBook’s light weight is a real asset for a college student on the move.
The ZenBook 13 has a comfortable enough, backlit keyboard, but its keys felt mushier than we would have liked, and its layout was a little more cramped for us than that of the XPS 13 or the MacBook Air. The trackpad had a satisfying travel and clicking noise when we pressed it, though. It was responsive and accurate, and we had no problems using it for two- and three-finger gestures, or zooming in and out on items. You can press the upper-right corner of the trackpad to turn it into a number pad (as shown above). The function doesn’t cause any problems—and more surprisingly, it’s useful—but it may take some time to get used to.
The ZenBook 13 has a mix of new and old ports, so it should be compatible with any of your existing peripherals as well as new ones you accrue throughout the next few years. The machine has one USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C port, but the laptop cannot charge via this port. It also has one USB 3.1 Type-A port, one USB 2.0 port, an HDMI port, and a microSD card slot, as well as a combo headphone/microphone jack. It comes with a proprietary charging port too, and it supports current-generation 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0.
The UX333FA’s 13.3-inch 1920×1080 IPS screen looks accurate, and its colors are vibrant, but not overly dramatic. The ZenBook 13’s webcam is in the top-middle of the screen, and although its video quality can’t match that of an external webcam, it’s fine for calling home or for videoconferencing with classmates to discuss a group project. The one major flaw of this laptop is that it lacks a fingerprint reader for secure, Windows Hello login support.
A step up for students: Dell XPS 13 (9380) or MacBook Air (2019)
Upgrade pick
Dell XPS 13
The Dell XPS 13 has one of the longest battery-life results of any Windows ultrabook we’ve tested. It also offers a great screen, keyboard, and trackpad, plus a thin, light chassis.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,050.
If you’re willing to pay around $350 more for a better battery life, screen, and keyboard in a more compact laptop, the non-touchscreen Dell XPS 13 (9380) is a great choice. Its battery life is among the longest we’ve seen, it’s thin and light, it has a great keyboard and trackpad, and it offers fast performance, a healthy selection of ports, and a good screen. We recommend getting the configuration with an Intel Core i7-8265U processor, 8 GB of RAM, a 256 GB solid-state drive, and a fingerprint reader.
The non-touch XPS 13’s battery-life results rank among the best we’ve seen from a Windows ultrabook, at 10 hours, 26 minutes in our Web-browsing battery tests. Many of the models we’ve tested have lagged behind the XPS 13 by at least an hour, but the Asus ZenBook 13 UX333FA had a comparable battery life in tests, lasting 10 hours, 13 minutes.
The Dell XPS 13 and the Asus ZenBook are similarly sized, with minor trade-offs in physical dimensions and weight: The Dell is more compact than the Asus by almost a half-inch in width, while the the Asus is imperceptibly lighter than the Dell. Both laptops weigh less than 3 pounds and are small enough to fit into a backpack.
The XPS 13’s keyboard is comfortable and responsive, and it offers a better typing experience than the ZenBook 13 UX333FA’s keyboard, though its backlit keys are a little shallow. The XPS 13 has a better trackpad than the ZenBook, too—it was accurate and reactive to our touch, with precise tap-to-click and a satisfying physical click (though it can’t turn into a number pad). The trackpad never dropped swipes in our testing, and it worked well for two- and three-finger gestures.
The XPS 13’s 13.3-inch IPS screen offers good color reproduction and fantastic viewing angles, as well as a matte coating that prevents glare. This makes it better than the ZenBook for watching movies after you’ve finished your work. The 1080p screen is particularly immersive because of its small bezel, which—thankfully—doesn’t push the webcam to the bottom of the screen yet again as in earlier models. (Dell has finally moved the webcam above its screen, exactly where you need it to be.)
The Dell has two Thunderbolt 3 ports—which the ZenBook lacks—that you can use to transfer data, connect an external display, or charge mobile devices or the laptop itself. It has one USB 3.1 Type-C port with power delivery and DisplayPort capabilities, a headset jack, a microSD card reader, and a Noble Lock slot. Although we wish the Dell had a USB-A port, that’s easy enough to resolve with a USB-C hub or dock.
Upgrade pick
Apple MacBook Air (2019)
You get good-enough performance and a full workday of battery life in a thin, light laptop with a fantastic display and two Thunderbolt 3 ports.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $1,100.
If you need a Mac, either because of personal preference or school requirements, we recommend the 2019 MacBook Air. It has all-day battery life, a lightweight aluminum body, and a fantastic trackpad and display. But its keyboard is shallow, and it has only two Thunderbolt 3 ports, with no legacy ports. We recommend getting the configuration with a 1.6 GHz dual-core 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB (or 256 GB, if you can afford it) solid-state drive. If you buy it through Apple’s Education storefront, you can get a student discount and (often) other perks such as free Beats headphones. You can also check out refurbished models to see if you can get a good deal.
The MacBook Air is around the same size as the Asus ZenBook UX333FA, though it’s about an inch wider, at 12 by 8.4 by 0.6 inches, and it’s about a quarter-pound heavier. Still, at less than 3 pounds, the MacBook Air is light enough to carry around campus without adding too much weight to your bag.
Unfortunately, the MacBook Air has a thin keyboard with shallow travel. The keyboards of the Asus ZenBook and the Dell XPS 13 are springier and more comfortable to use for long periods of time. The MacBook Air’s trackpad, however, is the best we’ve used on a laptop. Because it has no hinge, you can click anywhere on the touchpad and receive the same response, and its haptic feedback is satisfying.
The MacBook Air has a fantastic 13-inch screen; its 2560×1600 Retina display has more pixels than the Asus and Dell’s 1920×1080 screens, making everything look crisper and more detailed.
The MacBook Air has two Thunderbolt 3 ports. Because these are the only two ports—aside from a 3.5 mm headphone/mic jack—you’ll need a hub or adapter if you have any hard drives, scanners, printers, or card readers that use USB-A. Similarly, if you want to use an external display or projector, you’ll need the right adapter.
With the MacBook Air, you get the best support of any computer brand. Apple includes one year of coverage, which you can extend to three years by paying for AppleCare+. You can visit the Genius Bar in any Apple retail store for in-person support (a nice contrast to having to ship a laptop off to a Windows-computer manufacturer when you run into an issue).
Best budget laptop options for students
If our picks are too expensive and you’re willing to make some sacrifices for a cheaper computer that can still handle basic work, consider these budget options. Keep in mind that they all make serious trade-offs—shorter battery life, bulkier size, or more-limited functionality—to achieve their more-affordable price tags, and they’re not likely to last as long as our picks. Despite each budget option’s particular setbacks, however, each of these budget laptops provides good-enough performance for less money than our main picks.
Budget pick
Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA
With solid performance, a great keyboard and trackpad, excellent battery life, and a 14-inch screen squeezed into a compact laptop, the C434 is one of the best Chromebooks ever made.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $550.
If you can complete all of your work in a Web browser, we recommend the Asus Chromebook Flip C434TA. The Flip provides enough battery life for a full day of classes, and it has a compact body with a touchscreen, a 360-degree hinge (though it’s too heavy to use comfortably in tablet mode), and a comfortable keyboard. It’s fast enough for tab-heavy browser work, too. However, Chromebooks may have trouble connecting to campus printers, and they're not good for people who need access to Mac or Windows apps for photo, video, or audio editing, or other specialized software like MatLab. They can run Android apps and browser-based alternatives, but that's not good enough if your coursework requires a specific app. To read more about the Flip or to check out other, even cheaper, options, see our review of the best Chromebooks.
Budget pick
Asus VivoBook Flip 14 TP412FA-OS31T
Sleek for a cheap Windows laptop, the VivoBook Flip 14 has a vibrant screen and a comfortable backlit keyboard, but its trackpad is slippery and it chugs if you try to multitask.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $480.
If you need to save some cash but still run Windows, get the Asus VivoBook Flip 14, which has a solid processor, 128 GB of solid-state storage, 4 GB of RAM, and a bright, 14-inch screen. It’s by far the best Windows laptop you’ll find for the price. But we strongly recommend saving up for the Asus ZenBook 13 UX333FA, which will feel faster to use, is quite a bit smaller and lighter, and has double the storage, as well as a better keyboard and trackpad. To read more about the VivoBook Flip, check out our review of the best laptops under $500.
What about an iPad?
Our pick
Apple iPad (6th generation, 32 GB)
The iPad has long battery life and a lightweight body, but it can’t run Windows- or Mac-only apps.
Buying Options
*At the time of publishing, the price was $250.
Best Mac For College Students 2018
Can an iPad replace your laptop? Simply put: If your school requires any Mac- or Windows-only apps, you can’t use an iPad in place of an actual laptop. But if all you would need a laptop for is browsing the Web, sending emails, and using Microsoft Office, consider the 9.7-inch iPad (6th generation). Although a tablet doesn’t support desktop apps, the iPad does run longer on a charge than any of our picks and weighs less. Head over to our reviews of the best tablets and pro tablets to read more about these picks.