Best student laptop deals for March 2022

• Gateway Ultra Slim 11-Inch Notebook — $169 + 1 Year of Microsoft 365 Personal, was $199
• Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5i 2-in-1 Laptop — $349, was $540
• HP 17t Laptop — $440, was $610
• Microsoft Surface Laptop Go — $600, was $700
• Dell G15 RTX 3050 Ti Gaming Laptop — $700 with code SAVE17, was $1,219
• Apple MacBook Air (2020, M1 CPU) — $929, was $999

On the slimmest of budgets but need a new laptop? It doesn’t get much more economical than the Gateway Ultra Slim Notebook. It offers an Intel Celeron processor along with 4GB RAM, so you’re good to go with writing documents or performing other basic tasks such as photo editing. A compact 11.6-inch HD display means you won’t have to worry about this thing weighing you down, unlike larger laptops that can be a pain to carry around all day.

Lightweight and unassuming, it’s ideal for the average student who simply needs a work tool rather than anything more specialist. Its 64GB of flash storage is big enough to store your work files for those times you’re not near Wi-Fi and can’t access your cloud storage, and since it runs Windows 10, you don’t have to worry about being unable to use your Windows software like you would with a Chromebook.

With a great combination of modern hardware and 2-in-1 touchscreen versatility, the Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5 is a great workhorse of a laptop. It has a 14-inch fold-flat 1080p touch display, a snappy 11th-gen Core i3 processor, 4GB RAM, and a nice quick 128GB SSD for responsive file storage and app loading. Its specs are simple but ideal for working and general use, and should last for awhile.

The CPU is speedy enough that it’ll open apps and run software quickly, and while this might not be as sleek and stylish as a MacBook (see our final pick for that), it’s much more affordable. Lenovo laptops are also pretty great when it comes to sturdiness and reliability so you won’t have to worry about it taking the odd bump or knock when you’re carrying it from class to class.

If you need the extra screen space of a larger display, the HP 17t Notebook is an excellent choice for a budget-friendly student laptop. It has a 17-inch screen which gives you a lot more room to work with as you study than any of the compact ultrabooks that populate the laptop market today. Despite that, it still offers up plenty of battery life which is great for when you’re in the library or classroom all day.

An 11th-gen Intel Core i3 processor (a nice CPU to see at this price point) and full 8GB RAM provides enough power for juggling more than a few tabs and windows, while a 256GB SSD gives you some high-speed storage for your documents, projects, and work programs. It’s reasonably lightweight too, weighing slightly more than five pounds and measuring less than 0.8-inch thick, making it easy to carry around despite it being a full-sized laptop.

Clearly a little inspired by the understated simplicity of MacBooks and iPads, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go combines sleek design with no-nonsense workhorse hardware. It’s also practical thanks to its gorgeous 12.4-inch PixelSense display with a 3:2 aspect ratio. That increased vertical screen real estate will make you never want to look at a 16:9 laptop again.

The Surface Laptop Go is comfortable enough to work on for hours, but is eminently portable due to its compact size and streamlined modern design (yet doesn’t feel cramped thanks to its 3:2 screen). It’s lightweight and measures only 0.62 inches thick, so it won’t be bulky to carry around between classes. With a 10th gen Core i5 processor, 8GB RAM, a 128GB SSD, and generous battery life, you won’t be left without enough juice for work and everyday use, either.

Students love to game after class, and just because you’re on a budget doesn’t mean you can’t have a good gaming laptop. The Dell G15 offers all the best elements of a modern gaming laptop including a 15-inch 1080p 120Hz display, a reasonable weight so it’s not too bulky to lug around campus, and a discrete GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU for when it’s time to get your game on after your studies. And with a 512GB SSD, you’ve got some high-speed storage for your productivity software, assignments, music, and — of course — your game library.

For study and play, this laptop has just about everything you need while keeping costs down. With a Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM, it’ll be good for everything from photo and video editing to word processing. A nice (but not garish) backlit keyboard is nice, too, for those late-night study and gaming sessions.

Before you buy a student laptop, you need to know what you’re looking for. Perhaps the most important thing to know is your budget. Ideally, everyone wants the best and the fastest but if your budget is low then it’s smart to temper your expectations to avoid disappointment.

Laptops generally don’t make good devices for playing games, so most student laptops don’t bother with a dedicated graphics card. Instead, you want a system that is reasonably speedy with a reliable processor and sufficient storage space for the operating system. A lot of the time, you’ll be uploading files to the cloud anyway for your teachers to check so you don’t have to worry about a massive hard drive to store everything, although it can be helpful for the added flexibility.

Don’t worry so much about the screen size. Less is generally more, saving you money and sometimes providing you with superior screen quality. A 13-inch screen might sound small but you soon get used to it and all laptops tend to have a way of plugging them into a separate screen if you decide you want a monitor further down the line. A smaller screen means less to carry around too when you’re back in class and need to transport your laptop around campus.

When picking out a productivity orientated laptop, consider what operating system you want. Nowadays, you have the choice of Windows, MacOS, or ChromeOS. The majority of people are used to Windows but that doesn’t mean it’s the fastest or the best, but if you’re keen to not have to relearn anything, it might still be the most tempting idea.

Alternatively, MacOS is a very efficient operating system because it’s designed for the hardware it’s tied into. However, Macs cost considerably more than a Windows or ChromeOS-based laptop, although they do tend to last longer. They’re great as stylish systems to show off with but few students can easily afford the high asking price. In terms of value for money, they’re not great.

For a great student laptop deal, most students will be fine with a Chromebook. A lot of the time, you’ll be writing documents in Google Docs and Chromebooks lend themselves perfectly to this method. You won’t be able to play games on them but as a solely work device, they’re inexpensive and easy to use. Simply log into your Google account and you can easily save files to the cloud. There’s the added convenience of not having to worry if you need to switch to a different system either — your files will always be there via your account details. You won’t have to scrimp on style either with the devices often looking super stylish and lightweight. Expect better battery life with most Chromebooks than a Windows-based system, too.

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