If youre a student making your way through the education system, whether at school or university, a good notebook is increasingly a must-have item in your arsenal of technological weapons with which you can aim to get better grades.Of course, theres a bewildering array of laptops out there, so what should you focus on when choosing a machine to use to further your education Lets start with a few general pointers.School of hard knocksFirst off, consider build quality, because ideally you want a portable which is built to take a few knocks.
We obviously dont mean a fully rugged laptop, but ideally the model you choose should have a fairly solid chassis, and be able to stand being chucked in a rucksack (or similar) and possibly getting knocked around a little.At the same time, you want something thats reasonably compact, and not too thick or heavy, so itll fit easily into your bag (and not weigh you down when carrying the thing around).
In short, you need to strike a balance here and choose something reasonably portable, yet still well-built enough to take a little punishment.Note-taking in classes or lectures or indeed elsewhere will likely be a primary concern, so getting a laptop with a touchscreen and stylus might be high on your list of priorities.Thatll probably mean a hybrid (2-in-1) device, which can be used as a normal laptop, or as a tablet for jotting things down (generally these have either a detachable keyboard that can be removed, or a 360-degree hinge that allows you to fold the keyboard right back against the screen, effectively making the device a thick tablet).Youll be typing, as well as scribbling, of course, and if youre going to be writing long essays or papers on your laptop, the keyboard will obviously be an important concern.
Thats where a hybrid with, say, a detachable keyboard may fall down slightly, as these dont always provide the best typing experience.You really want a keyboard with a good typing action reasonably firm, and with decent key travel that registers key presses nicely and preferably no plasticky or wobbly keys in sight (and indeed you dont want the chassis to flex as youre typing, either).Reviews can help in this respect, as we always take the typing experience into account when it comes to reviewing laptops here at TheIndianSubcontinent.
Alternatively, you could head to a retail outlet and actually try the machines keyboard out yourself, which is always a good idea if its at all possible.Finally, selecting a notebook with a decent battery life is an obvious plus.
The more battery longevity, the merrier, and you certainly want your portable to be able to make it through a full day at school or uni.Budget concernsBudget can be something of a thorny issue.
Not every student is strapped for cash, but making ends meet while managing everyday expenses at university can be a challenge to say the least, so you may well be looking at the cheaper end of the laptop market.However, even if you can only stretch to a budget notebook, the good news is you dont have to worry too much about how powerful the hardware is, because for general computing tasks using a word processor, browsing the web for research, and so forth you really dont need one of the latest processors (CPUs).
And you certainly dont need anything like a powerful discrete (separate) graphics card.In terms of the hardware you should be looking at to fulfil basic computing needs, a simple dual-core Intel or AMD processor will suffice (if you can get a CPU from Intels Core family, all the better).
You should also make sure you have 4GB of system RAM, as while you may be tempted by super-cheap systems with 2GB of memory, thats skating on thin ice when it comes to running Windows 10.And at the low-end of the market, youre probably going to want a traditional hard disk rather than an SSD, as you wont get much capacity with the latter on a tight budget and youll likely need more storage space.A cheap laptop will likely be perfectly fine for getting on with your work, and you might well be surprised at what you can get for your money if you hunt around for laptop deals weve got you covered on that score right here or indeed wait for big sale events like Black Friday.Also dont forget that weve picked out all the top notebooks across a whole spectrum of different price brackets in our roundup of the best laptops for college students.Chromebook cornerStill considering the lower end of the market, another option for a cheap laptop is to get a Chromebook as opposed to a Windows notebook.
These run Chrome OS rather than Windows, and its a much less demanding operating system, which means these laptops can have lesser-spec components, which in turn makes them cheaper.Chromebooks also use Googles mighty cloud empire to store files online, meaning you need less local storage.
And this route also means you can use G Suite, which is an impressive productivity suite these days, and lets you avoid having to fork out for Microsoft Office.
Chromebooks have also become increasingly more flexible in recent times, and some models can now run Android apps or Linux software.Getting specificUp to this point, weve talked in general terms about the components and features which will likely be useful to all students.
However, those at university studying certain courses might have more specific requirements for a notebook.For example, engineering students will need a more powerful laptop or even a portable workstation, which sports a beefy graphics card to cope with the sort of heavyweight calculations and apps involved in these courses.Creative types on art or design courses may hanker for a touchscreen-toting device with a seriously high quality display with good color accuracy, and perhaps a high resolution along with a responsive stylus with zero lag that boasts a suitably high pressure-sensitivity level.Obviously there are a host of different courses out there, and we havent the space to cover every individual need here.
The point is that while many students will get by with a general-purpose laptop even a budget one others may need something a bit more tailored to what theyre studying.If you fall into that category, its probably worth talking to your tutor or indeed other students already taking your course to see if there are any considerations that you should bear in mind aside from what weve covered here.This article is brought to you in partnership withhTyh5qLY3DSWpx6Lpyo8RT.jpg#