The best college laptops you can buy

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The Insider Pick:

• If you're going off to college and want a laptop that's powerful enough to handle any of your coursework through graduate school, you'll want Huawei's MateBook X Pro. It has a beautiful, high-resolution touchscreen, plenty of memory, processing power, and storage. Plus, it weighs less than three pounds.

Besides your tuition, textbooks, and room and board, the most money you're going to spend before you step onto campus for the first time is a laptop. It's the machine that's going to get you through four (or more, depending on your program) years of papers, projects, and YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, and Spotify binges. 

You need a machine that isn't going to slow down after a couple of years or crash constantly while you're trying to get your work done. You'll also need to consider your major before picking a machine since some will require you to do work that's way more demanding than others.

To help you find the perfect college laptop, we've rounded up the best ones we've tested along with a couple of others that made the cut based on their performance and price. But before we get to the picks, here are a few general things to keep in mind before making your choice. 

Each of the laptops in our guide runs one of the three major computer operating systems: Windows, MacOS, and ChromeOS. Each OS has its own set of pros and cons. 

• Windows: Windows is the most popular PC operating system, and you'll have no problem finding the right software to help get your work done. It's also the best operating system for games if that's how you plan on spending some of your free time. The downside is that because it's so popular, hackers and other malicious programmers target Windows first, so it's important to run antivirus software regularly and update the operating system as patches get released.
• MacOS: Like Windows, MacOS is a fully fledged operating system with a robust library of available software. If you need a popular app to get your work done, it's almost definitely available for the Mac. The downside is that MacOS only runs on Apple hardware, which is typically a lot more expensive than Windows alternatives. The two upsides are that MacOS has fewer viruses than Windows, and it shares many of the same apps as the iPhone. If you're an iPhone user, your photos will automatically sync with your Mac, and you'll be able to send and receive iMessages from your computer. 
• ChromeOS: ChromeOS is different than MacOS and Windows because it's entirely based on Google's Chrome browser. You won't have access to the same types of software as you would on a traditional Mac or PC, but you can still use Google's G suite to write papers, prepare presentations, create and edit spreadsheets, and more. Because it's not a traditional operating system, you won't have to worry about getting infected with viruses, or your computer slowing down because it's full of random files. But, like MacOS, ChromeOS only runs on Chromebooks, which are less powerful (but more affordable!) to begin with.

Your laptop's specs will determine how well it'll run on a daily basis, and how long it should last before it gets replaced. All of the laptops below have enough processing power, storage, and memory for an average user to use them for five years or so.

Of course, the more powerful machines will be faster and could last a lot longer, but they're more expensive. You'll have to work within your own budget, but the cheapest laptop in this guide costs $449, the most expensive one costs $1,799, and I have no problem recommending both of them to just about anyone. All I can say for sure is that the days of having to spend over one thousand dollars to get a worthwhile laptop are long over.

Here are the best laptops you can buy for your college student:

• Best overall: MateBook X Pro 
• Best for Mac users: 13 inch MacBook Pro 
• Best 2-in-1: Lenovo's Yoga 730 
• Best Chromebook: ASUS Chromebook Flip 
• Best budget buy: ASUS VivoBook F510UA

Read on in the slides below to check out our top picks.

The best college laptop for Windows users — and best overall

Business Insider / David Slotnick

Why you'll love it: Huawei's MateBook X Pro is an incredible machine, with a high-resolution touchscreen, powerful processor, ample memory and storage, and extras like a fingerprint scanner.

I'll be blunt, Huawei's MateBook X Pro is the best laptop I've ever used, and it's the perfect choice for almost any student. 

The laptop has a quad-core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD, which are tech specs that should suit your workload whether it includes writing papers or high-resolution video and photo editing. Its 13.3-inch touch display has a resolution of 3,000 x 2,000 pixels, so everything from the text you write for class to the YouTube videos you watch for fun will look excellent.

Huawei managed to pack such powerful components into a machine that weighs 2.9 pounds and is 0.57 inches thick when closed. That makes the laptop extremely backpack friendly, and easy on your shoulders. 

The MateBook X Pro has a super fast Thunderbolt 3 port, a USB-C port, and standard USB port, so it's ready for the accessories you own today and the ones you'll buy in the future. Huawei also includes a Thundetbolt 3 adapter with the laptop, which has an HDMI port, regular USB port, VGA port, and USB-C port on it. The adapter lets you use even more accessories at once, and allows you to easily connect to your classroom's TV or projector.

Besides covering all the main bases, the MateBook X Pro has a couple of little extras that put it over the top, including a webcam that flips up from beneath a key in the keyboard, to a fingerprint reader that's so good you won't need to remember your password. If you like Windows, and can afford to spend over $1,000 on a laptop, you'd be hard pressed to find one better than this.

Pros: Excellent tech specs, very thin and light design, future-proof ports

Cons: Pretty expensive

Buy the MateBook X Pro from Microsoft for $1,199.98

The best college laptop for Mac users

Hollis Johnson/Business Insider

Why you'll love it: The 13-inch MacBook Pro was just updated to have a quad-core processor, better keyboard, and a display that's easier on your eyes.

If you're a Mac user who plans on pulling some all-nighters, the 13-inch Touch Bar MacBook Pro was recently updated in ways that make it an excellent choice for college students without a strict budget. 

The machine has a 13.3-inch screen with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels and support for the full P3 color gamut. This means the screen can show colors more accurately than most laptops on the market — and any of the others on this list — making it the absolute best choice for video and photo editing. The screen was also updated with Apple's True Tone technology, which adjusts the screen's color balance to be easier on your eyes depending on the light of the room you're in.

This new version of the 13-inch MacBook Pro has a quad-core i5 processor, 8GB of memory, and 256GB SSD, which means this laptop should be powerful enough to carry you through college, med or grad school, or your first two or three years in the "real world." It's also thin and light, weighing a little over three pounds and measuring only a little over 0.6 inches when closed. 

The MateBook X Pro is still thinner and lighter, but the difference there isn't huge. A bigger deal is that Apple built the MacBook Pro with two ThunderBolt 3 ports and nothing else. That means you'll need to either invest in all new USB-C and ThunderBolt accessories (both ports use the same connector) or buy adapters. This makes an already expensive machine even more expensive.

This model has Apple's touch bar, which replaces the traditional row of function keys with a high-resolution touchscreen that changes depending on the app you're using. Depending on the app, the touch bar can display custom shortcuts to actions you perform all the time, which can save you time in the long run.

There's no getting around the fact that this is an expensive machine, but it's also incredibly powerful, runs MacOS, and received a new version of Apple's new keyboard when it was updated. The old keyboard was prone to breaking after a small speck of dust got under the key, which is the last thing you want to have happen in the middle of a paper.

Pros: Powerful, thin, light, excellent display, TrueTone mode

Cons: Very expensive, only has ThunderBolt 3 ports

Buy the MacBook Pro 13-inch at Best Buy for $1,799.99

The best college laptop for people who also want a tablet

Brandt Ranj / Business Insider

Why you'll love it: Lenovo's Yoga 730 is a powerful laptop with a touchscreen that can flip all the way around to act like a tablet.

Two-in-one laptops try to give you the best of the laptop and tablet world, and Lenovo's Yoga 730 does a very good job of striking the right balance. 

As a laptop, it's a thin and light — at 0.55 inches thick when closed and 2.55 pounds respectively — and pretty powerful. The machine has a quad-core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD, which are competitive with the higher-end machines on this list. Like Huawei, Lenovo put both Thunderbolt 3 and standard USB ports on its laptop, so it'll be compatible with all of your current accessories right out of the box.

Its display is worse, though. It's only 1080P, which is absolutely fine for most day to day schoolwork, but isn't great if your coursework includes video or image editing. Despite its lower resolution, the screen makes up for it by being touch sensitive. Touchscreens on laptops are typically only OK, but it serves a really important purpose on the Yoga 730. 

The screen can be completely flipped over, and Windows 10 automatically enters a "tablet mode," which can run all the same apps with more touch-friendly controls. In tablet mode, the Yoga 730 has a software keyboard for typing and can be turned vertically, which makes reading long-form articles or homework a lot easier.

At over two and a half pounds the Yoga 730 is definitely heavier than most standalone tablets, but being able to switch seamlessly between laptop and tablet mode is a pretty major feature, especially since it works so seamlessly. 

If you're looking for a laptop you can use in class or doing work, and a tablet you can use while you're relaxing, the Lenovo's Yoga 730 lets you check both boxes with one device.

Pros: Pretty powerful, both laptop and tablet modes work pretty well

Cons: A little heavier than a tablet in tablet mode, the screen looks a little weird when it's held vertically

Buy the Lenovo Yoga 730 on Amazon for $754.99

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