In college, your Laptop can be your best friend or your worst enemy. A good laptop can last you for years after graduation and a bad laptop will have you running to the nearest computer store as early as one semester. That being said, I want you to have a great laptop so you can save yourself from the frustration that only a bad laptop can bring. Read on to learn the 5 factors that college students should consider when they purchase a laptop.
- Price
Let’s start off by addressing the elephant in the room; what’s your budget? It’s true, you can find capable laptops as cheap as a few hundred dollars and super laptops expensive as several thousand dollars. The laptop that you decide to go with will ultimately be determined by your price range. That being said, the very first thing you should do when looking to purchase a laptop is to decide what your price range is so you can narrow your options. Please keep in mind that more expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better. Depending on your goals, a basic laptop might be all that you need.
- RAM
No, I’m not talking about the Dodge Hemi Ram but rather the random access memory (RAM) that every computer has. You want to pay to attention to the laptop’s RAM because the more RAM a computer has, the more you’ll be able to multitask. If you see yourself simultaneously typing a paper, listening to music, randomly chatting on Facebook and cruising the web all from your laptop, consider a computer that has at least 4 GB of RAM.
- Storage
Answer me this: What good is a laptop if you don’t have enough room to store your documents? In college, as you probably guessed, you’re going to experience a very heavy course load. Often times this translates into spending many nights writing papers. That being said, you want to make sure that your laptop has enough storage for all your needs. A good rule of thumb to choose a laptop with at least 1 TB of storage; this will give you plenty of room to last you all throughout college and even a few years after! For my uber-techy readers, choose a laptop with a solid-state drive opposed to the standard hard-disk drive; you’ll appreciate the speed that SSDs offer.
- Screen Size
I don’t care what anyone says, SIZE MATTERS; screen size that is! Obviously this all comes down to personal preference. Someone that is purely work orientated, you might be ok with a smaller laptop screen. (12.1″ – 13.1″)If you are someone who is using your laptop for entertainment purposes, they are more likely to favor larger laptops. (15″ – 17″) Again, this all comes down to personal preference.
- Screen Resolution
Depending on what your major is, screen resolution can be of the utmost importance! For example, if your major was film at Maryville University, you probably want to have a high-resolution screen. A good rule of thumb is shoot for 1080P, this will allow you see a vivid images. Here’s a quick tip: Be sure to look at your laptop from all angles to keep an eye out for glare. Without pointing fingers, certain laptops tend to resist glare better than others.
