The best laptops for students

Whether you’re off to immerse yourself in fluid dynamics or Gide, need a lightweight laptop for lectures or a powerhouse for creative software, or simply want something cheap for your fourth child’s GCSEs, there’s a laptop here for you. And if you're after a tablet, be sure to take a look at our guide to the best tablets.

Best for portability: Acer Chromebook 14

Pro: Great value for money
Con: Chrome OS might be too limiting for some

A laptop thinner and lighter than a MacBook Air, with a Full HD screen and 10 hours of battery life, for £300? There must be a catch.

And there is, of sorts. The Chromebook runs Google’s Chrome OS, a Linux-based operating system that mainly exists to launch the Chrome web browser.

For many students, this could be all they need. Google Docs can take care of your word processing and spreadsheets (and can import Word and Excel files), while Google Keep is great for notes. You can store all your files in the cloud in Google Drive, and the Chromebook can keep several gigabytes of documents in local storage so you can carry on working when offline.

Chrome OS even now works with USB printers, although setup can be fiddly. If web applications are all you need, a Chromebook is a great budget choice – and it can also work as a portable counterpart to a more versatile desktop PC.

Best Mac on a budget: Apple MacBook Air 13-inch

Pro: A Mac for under a grand
Con: Showing its age

It is possible to get your hands on a new Mac laptop for under £1,000 – as long as you’re willing to accept some compromises.

The MacBook Air’s basic design hasn’t been updated since 2015, which means it uses Intel “Broadwell” chips from a couple of years ago. Apple has at least bumped the speed of the base model’s processor to 1.8GHz, and 8GB RAM means it has no problem running macOS Sierra.

The design may look a little dated next to the MacBook and MacBook Pro, but it’s still slim and weighs just 1.35kg, and the keyboard is excellent. There are no USB-C ports, but you do get a couple of USB3 sockets, so can plug in most devices without needing an adaptor. Battery life is an amazing 13 hours.

The chief compromise is the screen: its 1,440x900 resolution is low by current standards, and its image quality is below par.