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You don’t have to pay through the nose for great back to school tech. Whether you’re looking for a capable study buddy to type essays on, or a gaming-capable powerhouse, we have budget-friendly laptop (and tablet) recommendations that won’t hold you back and won’t break the bank.
Asus ZenBook UX330UA
The light and compact Asus ZenBook UX3300UA is the best laptop for students looking for a good all-purpose computer to handle everything from research and typing essays to light data analysis and occasional photo editing. It isn’t powerful enough to be the only computer for a design or video major, but despite its low price, it can capably handle most other tasks a student would expect from a laptop. The Zenbook’s battery lasts through a full day of classes and it comes with a useful mix of newer and legacy ports (two USB 3.0 ports, one USB-C port, a Micro HDMI port, an SD card slot, and a microphone/headphone jack) to accommodate whatever equipment you may end up borrowing from the school for various projects. Its trackpad isn’t the mos responsive, but you’d have to spend several hundred dollars more to get specs this capable in a nicer body.
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017) with 128 GB storage
If you need a Mac, either because of personal preference or school requirements, we recommend the 2017 non-Touch Bar 13-inch MacBook Pro. It has all-day battery life, a lightweight aluminum body, and a fantastic trackpad and display. But the keyboard is shallow, and it has only two Thunderbolt 3 ports, with no legacy ports to connect to older printers, hard drives, or most monitors. We recommend getting the configuration with a 2.3 GHz dual-core 7th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB (or 256 GB, if you can afford it) solid-state drive. While it’s the most affordable MacBook we’d recommend for general college use, it’s still expensive, so we recommend checking out refurbished models first to see if you can get a good deal. If you want more info on Mac options, check out our guide to finding the right MacBook.
Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming
If the thought of leaving your gaming rig behind when you leave for school seems like too much to bear, we think the Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming is the best laptop for students who play PC games. It’s much bulkier than an ultrabook, but the configuration we recommend packs a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q graphics card that will allow you to play most modern, demanding games and have enough speed to support VR during your free time. Additionally, its decent keyboard and trackpad will capably handle day-to-day note-taking and essay writing duties. Although it’s powerful enough to handle photo and video editing, there are better options if that’s your primary need.
9.7-inch iPad (6th Generation)
For students who prefer to pack light, a tablet like the 9.7-inch iPad (our pick for the best all-around tablet) can accomplish a surprising amount for its diminutive size. We like the iPad because iOS has the largest selection of dedicated tablet apps out of any tablet operating system so there’s tons of great options for taking notes, annotating and reading PDFs, word processing, and other studying aids. Typing on a touchscreen isn’t very comfortable, but you can pair it with a keyboard case for a more comfortable typing setup—or get an Apple Pencil stylus for handwriting recognition. An iPad can’t entirely replace a real computer yet, but it can reduce your reliability on a personal laptop if you’re willing to become a frequent user of on-campus computer labs.
2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim
In this day and age, a cloud storage service, like Google Drive or Dropbox, is all you need to move smaller files from device to device. But larger files, like video or design projects and large datasets, can still be faster to backup and transport using a portable hard drive. Our pick, the 2 TB Seagate Backup Plus Slim has room for backing up your entire laptop, and plenty left over for other large files. It’s reliable, lightweight, and one of the fastest drives we tested. Every other 2 TB portable hard drive we looked at was either larger, slower, or had a higher failure rate (as determined by analyzing thousands of user reviews).
Incase Icon Backpack
A comfortable and stylish laptop backpack will carry and protect your valuables between classes and on off-campus jaunts. The Incase Icon Backpack’s sleek, professional design doesn’t skimp on the internal organization features that students need, and can transition seamlessly from classroom to summer internship without looking out of place. Its back padding and adjustable straps make it comfortable to wear even when it’s loaded with books and heavier laptops.
These picks may have been updated. Click through to see the current recommendations or availability updates for the best laptop for students, the best macbooks, the best tablets, our favorite laptop backpacks, the best portable hard drive.
