Buyer’s Guide: Choosing the Best Laptop for Students

In recent days, laptops have become an integral part of the education process for students. With no signs of the Covid-19 pandemic coming to an end, the majority of students are required to attend virtual classes until further notice.

This has given rise to laptop and tablet demand across all IT retailers in Malaysia. And it is most likely that your search for a new laptop led you to this article.

Before even diving comparing various laptop brands and models, here are 5 important things to consider in order to pick the best laptop for students.

1. Budget, budget, budget.

As simple as it sounds, this step is often overlooked. Having a clear understanding of how much you intend to spend not only helps narrow down the options but also helps avoid any unnecessary tension between the buying parties. 

With laptop prices ranging from as low as RM1,000 to over RM10,000, they can generally be categorised into three main tiers:

Tier	Price Range	Description
Low-Range	RM 1,000 – RM 2,499	Suitable for short-term and light usage. Example: Microsoft office, video conferencing and web browsing.
Mid-Range	RM 2,500 – RM 5,999	Suitable for most average users navigating between office work, gaming, video editing.
High-Range	RM 6,000 and above	Suitable for avid gamers, heavy video editing and multimedia usage, 3D modeling and computer-aided design (CAD).

The above table serves as a rough guide in setting an appropriate budget.  As a recommendation, always consider going straight for a mid-range laptop regardless of usage if you can afford to do so.

2. Type of User

It is crucial to note that noot all student’s requirements are the same. While a low-tier laptop is more than sufficient for a student’s primary and secondary education, a college student pursuing a degree in design or video production will definitely require at least a mid-tier laptop. 

Separately, it is also important to consider whether the laptop will be used used for other leisure activities such as gaming or watching Netflix? If so, purchasing a low-tier laptop may not be the best option as most low-tier laptops do not come with integrated graphic cards.

As such, be sure to consider how you’ll be utilising the laptop, both its main function and potential leisure usage. Laying out these pointers will definitely help further narrow down the options.

3. Must-Have vs Nice-to-Have

As depicted in the venn diagram above, the truth is that we can’t have it all. With that in mind, it is crucial to first identify which features are must-have and which are nice-to-have. It is important to remember that there is no right or wrong, but rather solely based on individual preferences. 

For example, as a college student, you may prioritise the need for a laptop to be light and portable as you travel to and fro from school every day. Or perhaps music is the heart and soul of everything you do and therefore looking for a laptop with superior built-in speakers is the priority.

Regardless, here’s a list of commonly considered feature(s): 

• Light and Portable
• Touch Screen
• Good Built in Speakers
• Long Lasting Battery
• Solid-state drive (SSD)
• High internal storage capacity
• High Screen Resolution & Refresh Rate
• Dedicated Graphic Card
• Quad Core Processors

As for us, we strongly recommend prioritising the need for a solid-state drive (SSD) and quad core processors.

4. Understanding the Lifespan of a Laptop

Nothing lasts forever aside for our love for all things tech. Likewise, your brand new laptop isn’t going to last you forever. The typical lifespan of a laptop is between 3 – 5 years. While the laptop may not die on you within that time, it’ll certainly become less capable of running advanced applications. On top of that, due to the rapid advancements in technology, laptops may become incapable of supporting newer applications.

Knowing this fact is important for two main reasons:

1. While purchasing an older model laptop will save you quite a bit of money, there’s always a risk that the laptop may last you a shorter duration due to its inability to support the latest applications.
2. Splurging on a high-tier laptop does not ensure that the laptop will last longer. It’ll only perform better during that same period of time.

At the end of the day, spend rationally and moderately. 

5. Bare Minimum Requirements

We’d like to end this guide by reviewing the recommended requirements by some of the more commonly used applications by students.

I. Zoom

	Recommended
Processor	Single-core 1Ghz or higher
Ram	N/A

II. Microsoft Office 2019 (Word, Powerpoint, Excel)

	Recommended
Processor	1.6 GHz or faster, 2-core
Ram	4 GB
Hard Disk Storage	4 GB

III. Adobe Photoshop 2020

	Minimum Requirement
Processor	Intel or AMD processor with 64-bit support, 2 GHz or faster processor
Ram	2 GB
Hard Disk Storage	3.1 GB
Graphics Card	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 or equivalent
OS	64-bit Windows 7

IV. Adobe Premiere Pro 2020

	Minimum Requirement
Processor	Intel® 6th Gen or newer CPU – or AMD Ryzen™ 1000 Series or newer CPU
Ram	8 GB
Hard Disk Storage	10 GB
Graphics Card	2 GB of GPU VRAMFor a list of recommended graphic cards, see Recommended graphics cards for Adobe Premiere Pro.
OS	64-bit Windows 10

By identifying the minimum requirements needed to run these applications, that will also help filter out any laptops that fall short of the standards. 

Conclusion

Whether you are a parent or a student looking for the best laptop for students, we hope that this guide serves you well. At the end of the day, the ‘best laptop’ can only be determined by you based on your budget and requirements.

In today’s competitive and fairly saturated laptop market, there’s really no one laptop that is far more superior than another.

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