It is that time of year where we count down the top five laptops for students, but this year we have something very special planned. We have three separate student guides coming. Today’s is all about the best laptops for most students. These are the laptops that cost around $1,000 or more and are really the best for most of you. Then after this, we have two more videos coming. The best laptops for students shopping on a tighter budget. And then the best laptops for students who want a powerful GPU. This is for students who want to do some serious gaming while at school. maybe some video editing or even ondevice AI. So, make sure that you’re here’s what we heard from the students that we met. Most students don’t care what their laptop looks like or feels like, but they really care how it runs. Students want to know that all applications they need will run and will run well. That means solid battery life was a big thing. No one wants to worry about having to find an outlet or carry a charger. Students also want a laptop that has a screen large enough to get real work done, but they don’t want a laptop that’s so big and heavy it’s a pain to carry around. They also want a screen that is bright enough to work around campus, especially of course in coffee stores. On the screen itself, several said they do like having a touchcreen, and multiple students mentioned that the hinge being sturdy was important so that the screen just didn’t topple over. When it comes to ports, students specifically called out the need for an HDMI port. Say you want to plug into an external display to share your work with other students. that’s on campus or just plug into an external monitor when at home. Most students just don’t have the money to spend on one of the new or more expensive monitors that runs everything off a single USBC cable. So, HDMI still dominates on campus. And of course, students do not want to carry around an adapter. Performance was a very big factor. Every student we spoke to brought that up, but it was by far the most misunderstood. I heard the usual, “My computer is slow because I don’t have enough memory. I have lots of browser tabs open and Task Manager says my memory usage is high. This is not how modern computers work. Browser tabs that are not active are just paged out to storage. Now, paging to and from a modern SSD, it’s a pretty quick operation. You’re unlikely to notice any lag. Plus, modern operating systems always max out your memory. If there is spare memory, they try to predict what you’re likely to use and just keep that in memory just in case. So, saying your memory usage is high, it does not necessarily mean you need more. The only students who really need more than 16 gig are those working with very large data sets in their application themselves like video editors do or those who plan to run a virtual machine on their laptop or large language models. This last one by the way it actually uses VRAM i.e graphics memory rather than system memory though. I’ll cover this topic in much greater detail in that other video I have coming for students who are buying a laptop with a powerful GPU. Anyway, for most students 16 gig is fine and if you are seeing a slowdown, it is likely due to another bottleneck. But more memory, it’s always a good thing to have. Now, on the other bottlenecks, the absolute worst point of confusion, though, was which CPU to get. One student spent $1,000 buying a new laptop and asked me why it was so slow. When I looked at it, it had a 12th gen Intel U processor inside. That is a low powered processor from 4 years ago. She was tricked. To make your life as easy as possible, I’ve compiled a guide of which processor you should go for. You’ll find it on screen right now. My favorite ones for students are Apple’s M4 or Intel’s Luna Lake, also known as Core Ultra Series 2 with a V at the end. Guys, no wonder people are so confused. Anyway, both these processors give you enough performance, long battery life, little heat and fan noise, and a decent integrated GPU. The Apple processor is definitely more powerful than the Intel one, and better for more intensive tasks like video editing or programming. But some people may not want Mac OS, particularly those who like to game. Intel processors are going to be better for light gaming. If you want to do some of that while at school, if you want a more powerful processor for a Windows laptop that is competitive to Apple’s M4 performance, I’d recommend either an Intel Aerolake H processor or an AMD Ryzen 9 one. Those chips are on screen right now. These will give you similar performance to Apple’s M4 chips, but you will get less battery life, unfortunately, when compared with a MacBook. Now, you may see laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors being marketed heavily at students. For example, Microsoft Surface laptops. All Qualcomm laptops run the ARM version of Windows. Some Windows applications, they don’t run on this version, specifically specialized applications, or they just don’t run well. Even if the applications you run today work perfectly on one of these laptops, please keep in mind that you’re going to be at school for a very long time. You don’t know what you’re going to want to run during that time. Laptops with these processes, I feel they’re more viable for students shopping on a very tight budget who need to make big trade-offs. But today’s video, it’s all about the best laptops for most students. So, I will not be recommending any Qualcomm Snapdragon laptops today. Now, with that out of the way, here are our top five laptops for students. Number five, HP’s Omnibook Ultra. If you’re looking for a Windows laptop with very strong CPU performance, this is a great option. It comes with one of AMD’s excellent Ryzen 9 processors. These give you a ton of performance, especially for a 14-in laptop. You can think of these chips as the next level up from Intel’s Luna Lake that I mentioned earlier. They compete with Intel’s Arole H chips. Normally, you’d have to buy a larger, more expensive laptop to get such a processor in one, such as a gaming laptop. In fact, talking about pricing, you can often find the Omnibook Ultra on sale for around $1,000 with 32 gig of memory. This makes it an absolutely killer deal. Other laptops at this price point with a powerful processor just feel cheap when compared to the Omnibook, like Asus’s ZenBook 14. Now, this being said, the Omnibook Ultra, it isn’t without its flaws. Its screen only refreshes at 60 Hz. And if that’s a dealbreaker, just get the ZenBook I just mentioned. Other than that, the OmniBook’s keyboard feels a little low travel. It is also on the heavier end for a 14-in laptop. And it is missing an HDMI port. If you’re outside the USA, Lenovo’s Yoga Pro 714 is a nice alternative. It has a larger 14.5 in panel, but here in the USA, that laptop is very hard to come by. Number four, Lenovo Slim 7i or Edition. There are two of them, a 14-in and a 15-in version. We like both, but for different reasons. The 14-in gives you insane battery life, the best of any laptop we’ve tested. The 15-in is very compact and lightweight for a laptop with such a large display. Both of these include Intel’s Luna Lake chips. In fact, the 15-in actually feeds its processor a couple more watts of power than most laptops with one of those chips, so it performs a bit better. Both 7i include one of Lenovo’s signature super comfortable keyboards. It’s awesome. They both have a good variety of ports, including USBC, USBA, and HDMI. The 14-in even gets a micro SD card reader. It’s weird that the larger 15-in doesn’t get one. In terms of cons, the Slim 7i’s trackpads, they feel a bit cheap when compared to other laptops on today’s list. They still get the job done, though. Other than that, the 14-in panel only has a resolution of 1920 x 1200. So, small text just won’t look as sharp as on other higher resolution panels like the one in the 15-in version of the Slim 7i. That being said, the 14-in panel is one of the best 1920 x 1200 ones out there, and it is OLED. In fact, its lower resolution panel also brings with it some benefits. It requires less power to drive it, so it helps give you that crazy long battery life. Now, the 15-in slimized cons are that its battery life is a bit mid for such a laptop and its display isn’t OLED. That being said, it is still a solid IPS panel, so I wouldn’t make that a reason to not buy it. Number three, the HP Omnibook Ultra Flip. the best allround student laptop. Everything about the Flip is just good to great and it’s even a twoin- one with pen support. If you’re looking for a laptop that can do it all and be used as a tablet, this is the one to get. Just like the Sim 7i, it has Intel’s Line Lake processor inside. It has a good OLED highresolution fast refresh rate display. It has charging capable USBC ports on either side so cables won’t get in your way, and it feels nice and premium. It even has a haptic trackpad. So, what are its cons? Well, the Omnibook Ultra Flip lacks an HDMI port. In fact, it also lacks a USBA port. Its display isn’t as bright as others on our list. Its haptic trackpad, while mostly accurate, is really large, and occasionally when you rest your palms on it, you may notice palm rejection issues. That’s where your mouse just suddenly jumps to a location you didn’t intend. All right, we’re down to the final two. And no surprises given how many of these you see on campus, they’re both Apples. In fact, I have something very funny to share with you. When we were on campus giving away free laptops to students, Apple’s MacBooks were the ones we were scared of. We knew that we couldn’t run up to a student who had one to give them a free laptop because the one we were giving them probably wasn’t better than the one that they already had. Anyway, coming in at number two is my personal favorite laptop of all time, the MacBook Pro 14. If you could afford one and you’re not doing something that requires a Windows laptop, these really are the best laptops that you can buy. They are really wellb built. They feel very premium and they have a phenomenal display. Bright, fast refresh rate, high resolution, 14.2 in. You’ll be able to see a ton of content on it. Its keyboard is very comfortable. It has the best trackpad of any laptop. It has the best speakers of any 14-in laptop. It has a great webcam. It even includes a variety of ports, including Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, and an SD card reader. But wait, there is more. The MacBook Pro comes with one of Apple’s phenomenal M4 processors. The M4 Pro chip in particular is very impressive in this laptop both in raw CPU performance, GPU performance, and power efficiency. They sip power when compared to Windows alternatives. This is particularly noticeable in realworld use when MacBook Pros significantly outlast Windows competitors. Look, the MacBook Pro 14 is the laptop that you just don’t have to worry about. You buy it and it does almost everything really, really well. So why is it number two and not number one then? Well, in the context of students, it’s really expensive. The configuration that I feel makes this laptop shine is the one with the M4 Pro, 14 core chip, 24 gig of memory, and 1 TB of storage. That will allow you to do pretty much everything on this laptop. We’re talking intense video editing or intensive coding. But for that config, you’re looking at around $2,000, and that’s when it’s on sale. So, yes, it is awesome, but it’s also expensive, and it isn’t upgradable in any way after you buy. By the way, Sierra did bring up a point that there are other laptops out there that you could buy at this price point like Asus’s Safaris G14 and G16, but I’m not going to talk about them today as I feel that they don’t have as broader appeal as the MacBook Pro 14. Many students, they won’t want a laptop with a dedicated GPU that will just make their laptop run hotter and drain their battery faster. We’ll cover those laptops, I promise you, in that other student buying guide that I mentioned for people who want a laptop with a dedicated GPU. Anyway, with that said, it’s time to announce our winner. Our number one pick for the best laptop for students is, you guessed it, Apple’s MacBook Airs with M4. As I mentioned, MacBooks, they ooze quality. They feel very well built. Their design is top-notch. Their creature comforts like webcam, speakers, and trackpad are all good, which is rare on a Windows competitor. MacBook Airs are also super portable, being very lightweight and compact, particularly noticeable on the 15-in version. Plus, the M4 processors inside them are fantastic. As I said, what seals the deal, though, is that Apple actually reduced the price of their MacBook Airs this year, and they increased their starting memory. This just makes them an incredible buy for students. In fact, it’s crazy that the MacBook Airs are now the best value for money student laptop that you can get. Now, we do like both screen sizes. The 13-in, obviously, if you want more portability, and the 15-in if you want more productivity. By the way, do not be scared of the 13-in smaller 13.6 in display. Mac OS has excellent type fonts and MacBooks have very bright highresolution displays. This means you can see more content on screen than a similar sized Windows laptop. The main cons of the MacBook Air is other than the displays just don’t give you a fast refresh rate. They also have very limited ports and they don’t have a fan to cool their processors. So the M4 chip in them, it runs slower than it does in a MacBook Pro. Actually, they do have smaller batteries, too. So even though the M4 chip does sip power, it’s kind of negated by its smaller battery. This means that the MacBook Airs are no longer the best laptops for battery life, more like a very good laptop for battery life. All right, that’s our top five. But before I go, I do want to give you two honorable mentions. These are laptops for a very specific type of student. First is the Dell XPS 13. If you’re looking for the prettiest laptop to have on campus, this is probably it. It’s built incredibly well. It looks fantastic, and it is very compact. Its main downsides are its limited ports. It doesn’t have a physical function row and its trackpad is built into its palm rest so it can be hard to find. Its battery life is also less than the slim 7i that I mentioned earlier as the XPS has a smaller battery. Second honorable mention is the Asus Zenbook S14. This is the one to get if you want a super portable laptop for school that doesn’t compromise its build quality. It is very compact and portable, especially considering it has a 14-in display. That, by the way, is an OLED display and gives you a fast refresh rate and a high resolution. And bonus, it includes an HDMI port. Its main negatives are that its display just doesn’t get as bright as we’d like, and its screen is super glossy and very reflective, so best used indoors in a slightly dimmer environment. Well, I hope this guide helped. For more recommendations and luck at school. Make your parents proud. Until next time, go do something awesome with your day and I will catch you later.