In today’s modern world, humans cannot function without electronics. You need your phones, tablets, laptops, everywhere you go! So it makes sense that if you use something so frequently, you ought to invest in it thoughtfully, right?
Functionality is not the only criteria to select the right laptop for your needs. It’s the most basic of them all! Functionality, along with productivity and efficiency, is what makes a laptop or any other electronic device, right for you.
With technology entering into every sphere of a student’s lives, with classes taking place online and a completely new field of online courses emerging, the student community needs a durable and powerful laptop that fits well with all their needs.
My well-researched list of the top 10 best laptops for computer science students, gives you a wide variety of options, all of which offer a great combination of comfort, performance, and durability, making your laptop search a whole lot easier!
BEST LAPTOPS FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENTS
1. Acer Aspire 5 A515-46-R14K Slim Laptop
Product Information
The Acer Aspire range of laptops has been in the market for quite a few years now, but the Acer Aspire 5 laptop comes with added benefits. It is the next generation, smooth functioning laptop with high storage space and processing speed, making it the perfect fit for almost every user.
Its long-lasting battery life has ensured that it consistently makes it to the top of the list when it comes to business uses as well as for students.
Some consumers require laptops on a widespread basis throughout the day, sometimes even for hours on end! It has a 3.5 GHz ryzen_3 processor and 4 GB DDR4 RAM, which means it is the next generation, smooth functioning laptop and doesn’t end at just that!
Another important thing in today’s time is that the internet and the Acer Aspire 5 laptop support multiple Wi-Fi networks due to its super-fast Wi-Fi card.
It has a 15.6-inch display, 1080p resolution and AMD Radeon Vega 6 Graphics reduce the laptop's overall footprint and make it easy to use for day-to-day tasks. You can download as much as applications from the Microsoft store and all these apps come with Microsoft-verified security and protection.
Acer Aspire 5 is equipped with WiFi 6 that gives you a super-fast Wi-Fi networks. Doesn’t it sound just perfect for all our needs and this is why it is the best laptops for computer science students.
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2. Apple MacBook Air
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The Apple MacBook Air is an iconic piece of technology. Even after several years of its release, it does not fail to impress! It is the best laptop for computer science students that you'll be able to spot in the hands of every other student, in school and on college campuses, and even businessmen.
A 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display with 2560-by-1600 resolution which is sufficient for computer science students. An 8GB RAM makes it convenient to operate multiple tabs at a time.
It has a System on Chip (SoC) Apple M1 chip. So it boasts of a high processing speed owing to its Apple chip. It has an 802.11ac Wi-Fi wireless networking technology and a 5.0 wireless technology.
Most believe that the Apple MacBook Air has just the right amount of storage required by a student. This laptop is equipped with an 256GB SSD which further improves the performance.
It is an all-purpose laptop with great battery life and a vibrant range of colors that can make any laptop screen look alive.
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3. Microsoft Surface Pro
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Next up in my list of best laptops for computer science students comes the Microsoft Surface Pro. With its sharp features and wide display, this laptop has been a great leap forward for the company. It is a heavy-duty laptop with exceptional power and performance that can easily be used for all the needs of a computer science student.
It is equipped with a 7th generation Intel Core i5 Processor, 256GB storage, and 8GB RAM. So it gives you fast performance and weighs only about 1.69 lbs, so it is one of the lightest Surface Pro’s ever made by the company!
In addition to that, with this laptop, there have been absolutely no compromises with the battery life, making it the perfect fit for both students and business persons alike. It has a 12.3-inch PixelSense touchscreen display and 2736 x 1824 resolution. So the screen and display are showered with a vibrant color palette making the screen look lively.
The battery lasts for up to 13.5 hours on a single charge. So students can carry it to college and use it all day without the need of charging it often. If you want to share notes with your friends, you can use the 4.1 Bluetooth Wireless technology and Wi-Fi as IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compatible.
Apart from this, this laptop can be used in laptop mode, studio mode, and tablet mode. With its high battery life and ultra-portable design, you can create, work, or study virtually. So this laptop is highly recommended for computer science students.
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4. ASUS Zenbook 13 Ultra Slim Laptop
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It is an 8th generation ultralight, ultra-thin and powerful, performance oriented laptop. It also features a long battery life, which makes working on it comfortable with no wastage of time. The sleek aluminium body and nano-edge bezel display gives it a chic look.
The ASUS Zenbook 13 has a great processing speed and an excellent storage and memory. The audio system fitted in this laptop delivers powerful immersive sounds to enhance your listening experience.
In addition to all this, it also has a thoughtful selection and placement of ports for connecting external hardware devices such as pen drives or hard drives, etc. The name itself suggests that it’s lightweight and has comfortable portability and elegance.
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5. Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop
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Acer Predator Helios 300 is an excellent gaming laptop with an amazing display, speed and features. It’s Intel Core i7 processor gives it a great processing speed, which is especially needed since it’s a gaming laptop.
The Acer Predator has a wonderful display on a screen wider than most laptops in the market, and has a palette of colors to its screen, and display, that gives all the feels while you’re gaming!
It not just has a good storage space, but also provides a provision for those users who need the extra storage by means of all the hardware ports that it features.
As far as the sound is concerned, this laptop has got premium speakers that really bring out every tune and note in whatever you listen to and make you feel like you’re actually inside your game setting! Another thing that gamers are usually concerned about is the battery life of the laptop.
With the Acer Predator Helios 300 gaming laptop, you don’t need to worry about that as it has a good battery backup. Its sporting red accents and black chassis with geometric lines adds to the gaming drama. I really recommend this best laptops for computer science students.
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6. ASUS VivoBook S
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ASUS VivoBook S offers a perfect combination of style and performance and the company has evidently outdone itself with this model. Rather than using the traditional HDD, ASUS went with the 256GB SSD for this laptop and it surely makes it worth the money as with SSD the boot time is considerably reduced.
It is a very slim and stylish laptop and the fingerprint scanner gives a very rich and clean finish to it, also making it suitable for a work environment. One of the best laptops for computer science students.
It has a long-lasting battery life so you can work efficiently without having to deal with any issues. This is one among the best laptops for computer science students.
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7. Asus FX504 TUF Gaming Laptop
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For all the gaming geeks out there, Asus has a power-packed laptop for you, so your fun never stops! This laptop is what every person interested in gaming wants, not just because of its specs but also because of the killer looks it has, and the red backlight keyboard adds extra brownie points to the looks.
That’s not all! This model comes with Gears of War 4 and Age of Empire definitive edition. The high-grade processor and graphics card are capable of running high-end games very smoothly with an immersive array of colors.
With the kind of specifications this laptop has, you’re getting a portable desktop gaming experience. But, let’s not forget that laptops are not just for gaming. Of course, this laptop is practical for other uses as well. Durability is a significant selling point for this laptop.
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8. HP Pavilion 15-cx0020nr
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HP’s gaming laptops have always been one of the best ones in the market. Apart from HP Omen and Omen X, HP also has a mid-budget gaming laptop so that no one misses out on the joy that gaming offers. This mid-range laptop is none other than the HP Pavilion 15-cx0020nr.
Don’t mistake it for a normal laptop! Right from its looks, it shows that it is aggressive and heavily packed with features. It has a very unique and eye-catchy acid green and matte black colour scheme and it looks extremely sharp and slim.
But just the looks are not what makes this laptop special, it is loaded with new and powerful technology! It has a stunning display and a crisp and sharp sound owing to its HP dual speakers. Its Intel Optane memory offers a near SSD performance with an HDD, without sacrificing storage for a gaming laptop.
For all those people out there, who think that gaming laptops don’t have good battery life, think again, because this laptop has a long-lasting battery life!
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9. MacBook Pro
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The Apple MacBook Pro is unarguably one of the best laptops for all purposes that a student might need a laptop for and is bound to suit the needs of every student out there. It’s stylish yet elegant and also comes in a variety of colours, from chic to plain.
It’s known for its immersive display featuring slimmer bezels and is currently believed to be one of the densest laptops in the market.
The device offers heightened security owing to the new unlocking system and is filled with numerous user-friendly features as well, such as, spotlight search, trackpad gestures, etc. the new Apple MacBook Pro is said to be the most powerful Mac launched by Apple till date.
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10. Dell XPS
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Last but not least comes the Dell XPS, which is one of the first bezel-less laptops in the world, and is specially designed for business students. The unique bezel-less design makes it compact & attractive and its panel enhances the whole viewing experience, especially the wide-angle viewing.
The 8GB RAM gives an opportunity to keep most of the apps in memory. The Dell XPS is one of the very few laptops in the market that starts within seconds (10 seconds, precisely) & loads apps almost instantly.
For the ties when you are on the move or when you need just a quick battery boost, this laptop also features a fast charger. You could also transfer the files locally with the SD card slot and the multiple other ports that enable one to connect external hardware devices such as pen drives or hard drives or memory cards.
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BUYING GUIDE FOR BEST LAPTOP FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENTS
When we talk about computer science, coding, web development, machine learning, artificial intelligence development, etc. comes as a by-product in our minds. It is because these are the domains in which a computer science student would be looking to build his career. All these fields are diverse and different from one another, but what unites them is that they need a laptop to perform their respective skills.
In this post, we will discuss all the things that a computer science student must look into before finalizing his purchase of a laptop.
Processors: A processor is like a computer's brain because that is where most of the complex computation happens. As a computer science student, most of your work involves coding, running programs, etc., and to ensure that the program runs smoothly, you need a good processor. Many students also go into domains like game development, which will also require a dedicated graphics memory along with the processor.
Making the most sensible choice in terms of processors can be difficult. Because there will be a lot of jargon that’ll be thrown at you, but to keep things simple, just go with the latest series of available processors in the market. As your domain is computer science, going with a quad-core processor or i5 processor would be a sensible decision.
Battery life: If you are a computer science student, you know the number of hours you need to put into coding before getting an error-free output. Now when we are talking in hours, we can’t ignore the fact that most of the laptops aren’t that great when it comes to battery backup. To ensure a seamless user and product experience, it is essential to look for a laptop with great battery life. A great battery life ensures that your laptop would survive your daily grinds and won’t embarrass you when the need be.
RAM: When we talk about laptops for working in such domains, RAM also plays an important role because this kind of work involves switching between apps and multitasking. An ample RAM ensures that most of the applications that you have opened will remain in memory without the need for you to open them every time. This saves a lot of time and also protects from unwanted data losses. These days, even the applications have become quite RAM-hungry. So, anything below 8 GBs would be a downgrade.
Conclusion
I hope that my list of best laptops for computer science students gives you valuable insight into the specifications, pros, and cons of some of the best laptops available in the market currently. These laptops suit the needs of both students and people in the business world, alike. All of these laptops are roughly in the same price range, with the significant differences being only in their specifications.
It is evident that durability, along with performance and looks, has been kept in mind before choosing the laptops mentioned above from the market. They are all user-friendly, even though the operating systems, such as Chrome OS, Windows OS, or macOS, might vary. All of the above-listed laptops have a good display with a wide color scheme, with some minor differences.
Any laptop that you choose to pick from the list above, is bound to fulfill all your requirements, ranging from simple word documents and presentations to complex applications and uses, such as, Adobe Illustrator for designing and so on. Happy choosing!
FAQ
Operating systems do matter as they stand between the hardware and you. To make the most out of the user experience, go with the most familiar OS.
As long as your primary goal is coding and media watching, the inbuilt graphics memory would be more than sufficient. If you are into gaming, opting for a dedicated graphics memory would be sensible.
As a student, most of your time will be spent in front of laptop screens, and cheap quality screens can damage your eyesight. Hence, screens do matter, and going for an IPS LCD screen would be something that you should look for.
