Selecting the best budget laptop for college students in 2024 is the best step depending on the tasks in college to avoid spending much money. Competition has led to the development of affordable laptops that are good for both basic and slightly more intensive uses such as typing, browsing, research, and games among others.
Here in this guide, we will be reviewing some of the best budget laptops in 2024 for students in terms of the performance, portability, battery backup, and more importantly its affordability rates.
The Acer Aspire 5 is the best budget laptop for college students on the market at the moment. There is a 15.6-inch Full HD touchpad and the latest generation Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen microprocessor, and up to 8 GB of RAM. Ideally suited for use when taking notes, general web use and even making video calls.
- Pros: Cheap, reasonable performance, displaying in Full HD
- Cons: Average at best, does not perform well under heavy workloads and multitasking ability.
- Ideal For: Users who require a reliable machine for basic purposes at a low cost.
In terms of portability and convertible factor, the HP Pavilion x360 has a 2-in-1 design, a laptop with a detachable display touchscreen. The laptop has a 14-inch Full HD touchscreen that can be used as a tablet specifically for drawing or viewing videos and taking notes.
Gluing to the Intel Core i5 and with-up-to-eight-gigabytes of RAM offers enough resources for college activities.
- Pros: slim and light, hybrid kickstand, multitouch touchscreen, long battery life
- Cons: A little thicker in tablet mode
- Ideal For: Users who want a hybrid laptop that can function as a tablet plus a touch screen laptop.
Read Also: Best Mid-Range Laptops for Students in 2024
Currently, the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 stays among the best budget laptops for students. AMD Ryzen 5 or Intel Core i3 processors, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD are the highlights of the laptop that can provide good performance for standard use.
Yet another thing is that because the laptop is lightweight, it is easily movable and can be taken around by students.
- Pros: Affordable price, easy to carry, good features for its price
- Cons: Basic display quality
- Ideal For: Students who require a compact and affordable gadget that can be used for school assignments and leisure.
Dell Inspiron 15 is an affordable laptop that offers good performance coupled with a large 15.6 inches screen size. Powered by an Intel Core i5, 8 GB Ram and 512 GB SSD, though it’s not that powerful to run heavy software yet it can multitask and intensive web browsing in case of students with different projects to work.
- Pros: They employ excellent built-in storage, and have moderate to high capabilities when it comes to multitasking.
- Cons: Average build quality
- Ideal For: Students, who focused on the necessity of having bigger space for storage and display of the work to be done.
Asus VivoBook 15 is one of the best budget laptops in this price segment that includes a slim body, Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 5 processor and 15.6-inch NanoEdge display.
It also has features for charging and discharging and again it comes with a fast charging feature which will be beneficial for the students on the move.
- Pros: Slim design, fast charging capability, affordable at a given price level
- Cons: medium battery life
- Ideal For: It is perfect for students, who are in need of stylish and comfortable portable laptops, which at the same time should provide high performance.
If a student wants a premium build quality at an affordable price range, then the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 is a good choice for the student. The tablet has PixelSense, 12.4 inches, is perfect for writing notes and making presentations. It is a slim and lightweight notebook, but it is powerful enough to work with an Intel Core i5 processor and 8GB of RAM.
- Pros: High quality, agility, touch screen.
- Cons: Less screen space, fewer connectors
- Ideal For: Those students who require an impressively designed ultraportable notebook for everyday use and multimedia purposes.
The HP Chromebook 14 is ideal for students who only need a device for basic web-oriented functions like browsing, Google Docs, and streaming. Chromebooks work on Chrome OS – a lightweight platform that is optimized for the cloud and uses speed. With a 14-inch screen, the device provides enough space for lectures, and given a favorable battery lifetime, students can use it during the day.
- Pros: Extremely cheap, long battery time, fast for everyday operations
- Cons: Lacks multiple utility without using the internet, works solely on Chrome OS
- Ideal For: People who require a simple and affordable device for occasional Internet browsing and writing/typing tasks.
Read Also: MacBook Air M2 vs MacBook Pro: Which One Should You Choose?
- Acer Swift 3
The Acer Swift 3 delivers more than just an impressive design for a price-conscious portable computer that should fit well in a student’s budget.
It is fitted out with an Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 7 which should be quite sufficient to handle most tasks students are likely to perform. It also comes with a slim structure and a long-lasting battery, which allows the student to continue lessons after going from class to class.
- Pros: High performance, portability, and long battery life
- Cons: Uncomplicated layout, below average sound.
- Ideal For: Classified as students who require good performance output but not a heavy build.
Conclusion
When it comes to college students, everyone is looking for something different; maybe it’s a 2-in-1 laptop, a lot of storage space, or even the battery life. There are a lot of options for best budget laptops in 2024.
The Acer Aspire 5 and Aspire 5 Slim laptops as well as ASUS VivoBook 15 offers quality laptops students can afford. When selecting the best budget laptops for academic and personal use you need to look at elements such as efficiency, battery life and portability.
