How Much RAM Do You Really Need? And Other College Laptop Questions, Answered

The best college laptop is different depending on what you study in school. My college experience power-walking through city streets with a heavy backpack is wildly different from some of my co-workers, who studied remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Whatever your college experience looks like, chances are you need a laptop. What you need out of that laptop depends on you: what you’re studying, where your classes are and what fills your downtime. I spoke with the team at NBC Select to select our favorite laptops and honed in on some advice to keep in mind when shopping.

SKIP AHEAD The best college laptops in 2024 | How to shop for a college laptop | Why trust NBC Select?

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How we picked the best college laptops

We asked fellow staffers at NBC Select about the laptops that got them through college. Combining their favorites with market research and my personal experience as a tech reporter, we choose models while keeping the following in mind:

Operating system: Your operating system (or OS) is the software at the root of your laptop — it manages almost every other process on your computer. Most laptops come with either Apple’s MacOS or Microsoft’s WindowsOS, and some software may only be available on one system, not the other. We included options with MacOS and WindowsOS, so you can choose whichever you prefer.
Size: Most of the NBC Select team want a light, compact laptop, especially for rushing around campus between classes. That’s why our selections favored laptops between 13 and 14-inches.
Battery life: Carrying around a charger adds weight to your bag. We selected laptops with at least 10 hours of battery life, so you can leave the charger at home.

The best college laptops in 2024

Our top picks come from brands like Apple, Asus, Microsoft and Acer. Below each recommendation, we listed a few key specifications we think you should know as you consider different options to shop for, like battery life, weight and storage capacity.

Best Mac: Apple MacBook Air 13” (M3)

What we like

High resolution screen
Excellent battery life
Magnetic charger

Most students looking to get a Mac should consider this MacBook Air (M3). It is compact and lightweight, perfect for storing in a bag that may be already filled with textbooks, says NBC Select commerce editor Lindsay Schneider, who used an Air during her college years. It can tackle essays, research, spreadsheets, streaming and video calls with ease.

Another travel-friendly feature is the MagSafe charger: a charging cable that magnetically snaps in and out of the charging port. If anyone accidentally trips over the cable, it simply snaps out of the port without dragging your laptop to the floor with it.

The MacBook Air M3 also comes in a 15-inch version, though we think that model is a little big for students. If you are video editing or 3D modeling, consider a more powerful laptop like the MacBook Pro (see that model recommended here).

Best PC: Asus Zenbook 14” OLED (2024)

What we like

Huge amount of storage
16GB of RAM
Touch screen

Something to note

Only a full-HD (1080p) screen

This Asus Zenbook hits a sweet spot between power, portability and price for a Windows laptop. The model linked above comes with a whopping 1000GB of storage space and 16GB of RAM, a large difference compared to most laptops at this price point.

It’s about as big as a MacBook Air (M3), weighs almost the same amount, and gets similar (if slightly lesser) battery life. It has a slightly less detailed full-HD screen, but the screen is an OLED display, which means it has rich color contrast compared to other laptops

If your budget is under $1000, you can also get a less powerful version of this laptop for around $800, but it has a slower processor, half the storage space and half the RAM.

Best budget Mac: Apple MacBook Air 13” (M1)

What we like

Lowest priced MacBook
High resolution screen
Great battery life

This M1 MacBook Air launched in 2020, but still delivers excellent performance in a compact size, especially at this price. NBC Select editorial projects manager Rebecca Rodriguez has used this model for years to tackle emails, spreadsheets, task management and streaming. While it won’t match the speed of the newer M3 version, if you are mostly doing web-based tasks, you may not notice the difference, in my experience.

Best budget PC: Acer Aspire 3 15” (2023)

What we like

Competitive price
Touch display
Good amount of storage

This laptop can tackle most college tasks and cost much less than the competition. It’s a Windows PC with a 15-inch touchscreen display, perfect for larger spreadsheets or watching shows. It also comes with 512GB of storage, a good baseline that should be able to handle most classes.

The 15-inch screen does make this laptop a bit larger and heavier for traveling around campus. It also has a slightly less detailed HD (720p) webcam.

Best 2-in-1: Microsoft Surface Pro (2024)

What we like

High resolution display
Convertible design
Lightweight and compact

NBC Select SEO editor Nikki Brown used a Surface Pro during graduate school in combination with a detachable keyboard (sold separately) and matching computer mouse. It is by far the lightest and most compact option on our list . You can detach the keyboard and use the laptop like a tablet.

Brown would use the computer as a tablet for class readings and watching movies, then switch to laptop-mode for writing or class. While she doesn’t have the latest model, hers still runs smoothly after many years of use.

Best for gaming: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024)

What we like

Fast, high resolution screen
Tons of storage
Excellent performance

Asus makes some of the best gaming laptops — I used a ROG (Republic of Gamers) laptop similar to this one during my college years. Linked above is the latest version of their compact G14 gaming laptop. It has a dedicated graphics card (GPU) that is significantly more powerful than most other laptops on our list. That translates to smooth gaming, but also good performance for other graphically-intense tasks like video editing and 3D modeling.

It has slightly less battery life than our other picks at 10 hours, but trust me, 10 hours is a lot for a gaming laptop (many can only manage up to five).

Best for creatives: Apple MacBook Pro 14” (M3 Pro)

What we like

Super hi-res screen
Excellent performance

Multiple NBC Select staffers used a MacBook Pro to get through college (and many still use one at work). “I pretty much did all of undergraduate and grad school online — this computer was a lifesaver,” says NBC Select associate updates editor Zoe Malin. “It handled every video call, magazine layout and 80 page essay like a champ.”

While we haven’t used this latest M3 version, we have used M2 and M1 MacBook Pros — they handle most creative tasks with ease. The screen is gorgeous, with vibrant colors and the highest resolution of any laptop on our list. While it is not a gaming laptop, I have played less demanding games like Hades on a MacBook Pro without issue.

It is a pricey computer, though. I would only recommend it to students regularly working with demanding photo editing, video editing, 3D modeling or game development software.

How to shop for a college laptop

Shopping for a college laptop has a lot in common with shopping for a laptop generally. You want to find a good balance of features without paying for performance you may not need. Below are a few things to keep in mind when shopping.

How much power do you need?

Everyday tasks, like browsing the web, writing documents, sending emails and watching shows, are easy for most computers to handle, even ones under $600. Most computers with at least 8GB of RAM should be sufficient for these tasks.

Tasks like photo editing, video editing or game development often require a more powerful computer to run smoothly. If you will be using programs like Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, Unity or Unreal Engine often, we recommend a laptop with at least 512GB of storage, 16GB of RAM and a more powerful graphics processor.

Do you need the latest model?

If you don’t need a blazingly fast computer, you can often save some money by purchasing a model from the previous year. Laptops that are a year old still perform well, in our experience, especially for less demanding tasks.

What other devices do you use?

Most laptops these days have a way to sync to your phone or tablet, meaning you can send texts and access photos from your computer. Android phones do this more easily with Windows computers, while iPhones sync more seamlessly with Mac computers.

Why trust NBC Select?

Harry Rabinowitz is a reporter at NBC Select who covers technology, with recent guides to fitness trackers, TV brands and Bluetooth speakers. For this piece, he combined his own experience using laptops in school with that of NBC Select staffers to select the best laptops for college students. He also researched top-rated models to better understand current offerings and their technical specifications.