Best Laptops for Students

From budget to high-end, we've picked out a laptop to suit every need.

6. ASUS X550CA-XO113H Laptop

Key features:Impressively quiet and cool

Decent touchpad and keyboard15.6-inch, 1,366 x 768 screen

If you have around £300-£350 to spend, the Asus X550CA-X0113H is a great Windows 8 laptop on a budget. The 15.6-inch ultrabook features an Intel Celeron 1007U 1.4GHz processor, 4GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive and a DVD drive. For connectivity, there’s a VGA port, two USB slots, HDMI support and an Ethernet port.

5. Samsung Ativ Book 9 Lite

Key features:Stylish design and solid build

Comfortable keyboardDecent battery life

The 13.3-inch ultrabook packs a 1,366 x 768 resolution, quad-core 1GHz AMD A6 APU and 4GB of RAM. In the battery department it manages around 5-6 hours beating a host of £1,000-plus laptops we’ve tested.

4. Asus Transformer Book T100

Key features: Excellent valueFlexible design

Great battery lifeThe 10-inch device runs on full Windows 8 so you can install desktop applications to get that traditional desktop experience. The 1,366 x 768 pixel screen will not blow you away but it's acceptable considering the price. Throw in an impressive 12-hour battery life and this tablet-laptop Windows 8 hybrid is the best budget option available at the moment.

3. Toshiba Chromebook

Key features:Plenty of connectivity options

Quick boot-up timesUp to 9 hours battery life

Toshiba Chromebook is the first with a 13-inch screen and thanks to Intel’s Haswell-generation processors offers a speedier overall performance and vastly improved battery life. The screen, like so many other Chromebooks, is decidedly below par and you do have to rely on having a Wi-Fi connection to get the best out of it.

2. Sony Vaio Pro 13

Key features:13.3-inch 1,920 x 1,080 touchscreen display

NFC enabled touchpadWeighs an incredibly light 1.06kg

Sony Vaio Pro 13 is the world lightest ultrabook and our pick of Windows-based ultrabooks. Built from flexible carbon fibre, the 13-inch Pro 13 weighs 1.06kg, making it lighter than the 13-inch MacBook Air. Aside from its lightweight credentials, it features an exceptional 1,920 x 1,080 resolution screen, a comfortable backlit keyboard and plenty of connectivity support.

1. Apple MacBook Air 13-inch 2013

Key features:13.3-inch, 1,440 x 900 resolution screen

Weighs 1.35kgRuns on 1.3GHZ dual-core Intel Core i5 CPU

We've tested a lot of laptops and the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch still remains out on top when it comes to offering impressive staying power. Averaging around 10 hours of battery life, the new fourth generation Intel Haswell processor plays a major part in the Air comfortably getting through an intense day of work and play.