Best laptops for students 2025, tested by a tech expert

Whether you’re just starting school or studying for your master’s degree, having the right laptop can help you stay on top of your workload. The best student laptops are fast enough to

handle academic work, easy to carry between lecture halls and home, and affordable enough to be gentle on the bank balances of skint university students. With so many student laptops to

consider, it can be hard to know where to begin. If you have a preference for MacBooks, your decision is straightforward enough – the newest MacBook Air walks the line between price and

performance, and refurbished models aren’t as expensive as they once were. Look beyond Apple and you’ll find a much wider variety of excellent and affordable Windows laptops and Chromebooks,

all built to suit different needs. Depending on your work, you can save money by choosing a less powerful student laptop. For everyday jobs such as web browsing, emails and penning essays,

a cheap and cheerful Chromebook with a display that’s comfortable to look at during long writing sessions could be perfect for you. Meanwhile, if your coursework involves specialist jobs

such as complex coding and simulation, or processing large files when video editing and sound engineering, you’ll want to invest in a laptop with a decent CPU (or even a discrete GPU) and at

least 16GB of RAM that won’t buckle under the strain. Keep reading for our full review of the best student laptops for all needs and budgets in 2024. HOW WE TESTED THE BEST STUDENT LAPTOPS

We spent weeks testing all of these laptops, considering their suitability for a range of different types of users. Value for money was our primary consideration for most students, but we

also took into account each laptop’s potential for watching entertainment, handling specialist tasks such as coding and graphic design, as well as light gaming, because we all need some

downtime. WHY YOU CAN TRUST INDYBEST Steve Hogarty is a tech writer with more than a decade’s experience in the technology industry. His round-up of the best student laptops is the result of

hundreds of hours of reviewing laptops for IndyBest – his opinions are unbiased, honest and based on real world testing, so you can trust his verdict. THE BEST LAPTOPS FOR STUDENTS IN 2025

ARE: * BEST OVERALL – Asus Vivobook S15: £599, Currys.co.uk * BEST BUDGET BUY – Asus Chromebook Plus CX34: £249.99, Amazon.co.uk * BEST FOR PERFORMANCE – Dell XPS 13: £1,199, Amazon.co.uk *

BEST MACBOOK – MacBook Air (M3, 2024): £849, Argos.co.uk * BEST ULTRABOOK – Asus Zenbook 14 OLED: £599.99, Amazon.co.uk