10 Best Laptops for College Students in India 2021 (Apple, ASUS, and more)

Let's go through the products list below featuring the best laptops for students in India from top companies like Apple, Dell, ASUS, Lenovo, and more. Choose one that best suits your requirements and budget. 

The below sections will help you choose a laptop with the right features for your needs. Read through to know more about operating systems, storage, memory, and more. You can use what you learn below later while shopping from our top 10 list.

You already know that a computer needs an operating system to run. And the operating systems that commonly come with laptops are MS-DOS, Linux, Ubuntu, Windows, macOS, and Chrome OS. Microsoft Windows is the most popular and widely used operating system in the world. The total price of the laptop also includes the original Windows installed in it with lifetime activation. 

If you already have a Windows installation disc with a license key or if you plan to install Ubuntu or Chromium OS (not the same as Chrome OS), which are free operating systems that can be downloaded from the internet, you don't have to pay the extra money.

We recommend using Windows as there is an infinite number of applications available, most of them not available for other operating systems. macOS is developed by Apple and only comes with MacBooks. It is less prone to virus attacks, but the availability of apps is limited.

Of course, Microsoft Office is available for macOS, but if you need any other software for your studies, check its availability in macOS. You will also come across Chromebooks when you shop for laptops. A Chromebook is a portable computer (basically a laptop) that uses the Chrome OS. It is lightweight and faster than other operating systems.

The drawback of using a Chrome OS is that most of the apps require an internet connection to work. But Chrome OS allows installing apps from Google Playstore, which means you can download MS Office and use it for free (MS Office is a paid software for Windows and macOS).

A convertible laptop or a 2-in-1 laptop is a device that works as a laptop and as a tablet. A touchscreen, detachable keyboard, and control buttons on the sides of the screen are common features of a convertible laptop. This type is usually lightweight, portable, and cost-efficient.

Students who study fashion designing or interior designing will find a convertible laptop extremely useful. You can use a stylus pen to draw directly on any graphics editor or painting program like Microsoft Paint. There is no need to draw on paper and scan it to make a digital version of it.

Some convertible laptops come with a dual-camera setup. A front camera you can use for attending online classes and a back camera when you want to use it as a tablet. Convertible laptops can come with Windows or Chrome operating systems. 

We all know that the bigger the RAM, the faster the laptop will be. And bigger the graphics memory, the higher the graphics quality would be. But there is more to it. If you want your laptop for browsing the internet and working on MS Office applications, 4 GB of RAM would do. 

Suppose you have MS Word and MS Powerpoint, with an antivirus program running in the background and multiple tabs of Google Chrome (a high RAM consuming browser) open, you are likely to experience some lagging.

If you think your studies are going to demand such usage, buy a laptop with at least 6 or 8 GB.  Another benefit of having a bigger RAM is, applications will open faster.

While shopping for laptops, you will come across the terms integrated and dedicated graphics card. An integrated graphics card is built onto the CPU of a laptop, while a dedicated graphics card is connected separately. Laptops with dedicated graphics cards will have more video memory than the ones with only integrated graphics.

If you study animation or if you are a video post-production student, consider a laptop with a dedicated graphics card or GPU (graphics processing unit) as it will render projects faster. AutoCAD is another designing software usually used by mechanical and aeronautical engineering students. Your college curriculum will most probably only require integrated graphics.

But if you want to develop your skills on your own or see yourself becoming a design engineer, we recommend referring to the Autodesk AutoCAD 2021 system requirements. Otherwise, invest in a laptop with as much RAM as possible so you won't face any lagging issues even when you have several applications working simultaneously.

Laptops commonly use three types of storage technologies—HDD (Hard Disk Drive), SSD (Solid State Drive), and eMMC (Embedded Multimedia Card). An SSD is the fastest storage type and the most expensive. On average, an SSD can provide 10 times faster read speeds and 20 times faster write speeds than an HDD.

On the other hand, HDD is the most commonly used storage technology in laptops. You can find laptops that have both SSD and HDD or just one of them. The boot time and software loading time of a laptop with an SSD will be much faster than an HDD. Affordable laptops will have 256 GB or 512 GB SSD, which can go up to 1 TB HDD.

You can find mid-range laptops with 1 TB HDD and 256 GB SSD. But check the specs to make sure other features you want are compromised. The third type, eMMC, is commonly used in convertible laptops. In terms of performance, eMMC comes between HDD and SSD. Laptops that use eMMC provide capacities of 32 GB, 64 GB, or 128 GB.

Would you want to take your laptop to your college? Whether you choose to carry it in a laptop sleeve or a bag, it's better to buy a lightweight one. The weight can range anywhere between 1 - 1.6 kg. 

But high spec laptops (intended for 3D modeling, gaming, etc.) can go up to 3 kg as they have more components like extra cooling fans and storages, sturdy keyboards, and bulkier motherboards. It's not just the weight that matters, but the thickness too. A thin laptop has an elegant look and is easy to hold in your hand. 

The thickness can be as little as 0.52 inches (Apple MacBook 12-inch) or go over 1inch like the Acer Nitro 5. Even if you plan to buy a laptop bag to carry your books, too, go for a thin and lightweight laptop for optimum portability.

Battery life is one of the commonly overlooked laptop's specifications because we prefer performance over everything else. But what if you want to take your laptop to college? There won't be a power socket for every student in the classroom, and you don't want to lag behind others because your laptop dies quicker than the others.

We recommend buying a laptop with at least 7 hours of battery life. But note that laptop manufacturers mention the battery life based on in-house tests like continuous video playback and internet browsing. If you run background apps(like an antivirus), browse the internet, and run multiple applications (like MS Office apps) simultaneously, your battery life can go down significantly.

You definitely won't see the battery life promised by the manufacturer. Your best is to find a laptop that strikes a balance between performance and battery life. When you need more battery backup, adopt practices like shutting down unwanted background apps, limiting the number of open browser tabs, switching to power saver mode, and more.

A laptop running out of storage space is not uncommon. Buying an external hard disk will help you during those times and also back up your assignments and projects. Talking about assignments, having a printer at home will save your time and energy you spend running to a shop. 

While you are attending an online class or watching a YouTube video, playing the audio on the laptop speakers may be disturbing to the people around you. If you wear earphones, you won't be able to hear if your family calls you. A wearable speaker will play audio that is audible just to you. Follow the links below to learn more about these products and shop from our top 10 list.

Most people will have a budget in mind before buying a laptop. To make an easier decision, we recommend focusing on what's most important for your studies. Do you want more storage, speed, or graphics memory? If you research a lot, download and save videos for future reference, storage will be of utmost importance.

If you study 3D animation, video editing, etc., you need to consider speed, storage, and graphics memory while shopping for a laptop. Find the product that meets your requirements even if there are compromises like a smaller screen and bulkier design.

Author - Arun F Xaviour