Best Laptops for College
Budget profile scoring applied — filtered to under $1,200 and under 2 kg for the optimal carry-to-class machine.
College laptops have a hard brief: light enough to carry across campus, durable enough to survive four years of lectures and dorms, capable enough to handle everything from essays to data science assignments, and affordable enough to actually buy.
This list is filtered to under $1,200 and under 2 kg — then ranked using our budget scoring profile, which prioritizes value-per-dollar and battery endurance. You shouldn't need to hunt for an outlet between classes.
The sweet spot for most students is $700–$1,100. In this range you can get a solid 14-inch laptop with 10+ hour battery life, a good keyboard, and enough CPU to run any standard academic software.
For students in engineering, computer science, or creative fields — filter by minimum CPU score or switch to the Creator or Business profile below to re-rank for your specific workload.