A laptop’s price-to-performance ratio is the most important factor, followed by battery life, size and weight, keyboard and trackpad, and good-enough performance. We test dozens of laptops every year, and for this guide we’ve rounded up the picks from our other guides that are the best for students. But choosing the right laptop can be more challenging than writing a thousand words on Proust.
College is expensive-including tuition, housing, and textbooks, not to mention food and other miscellaneous costs-so students need a reliable laptop that’ll last for years of taking notes, writing papers at 3 in the morning, and editing slides for a group project.
