Best Laptops for Computer Science Students

If you are a computer science student and you want a good laptop. And if you want to make a good career in this field. And you want to buy a custom laptop from a long list that will help you advance in this field. So this list is so long that it will take you nowhere to decide. If you want a laptop that can complete every task with ease. Then we have made a list for you which are the best laptops for computer science students. We along with our team, have considered your needs and also included laptops, which are budget laptops and will not drain your entire savings.

Our list has two categories. In one, we made a list of good laptops, ignoring the budget and only considering the work. You don’t want a very expensive laptop like a gaming laptop, but a professional laptop that can do coding and programming well. For programming another article the best laptops for programming is here.

This list If you want to read only some of the articles by going through the trouble, you can pick the laptop of your choice from the list.

Many people have this question in mind that this is a small task that does not require much specification. For special web development, it’s not like when your code crosses a thousand words, it starts to lag; similarly, if you move to Visual Studio or Android development, render the code to the application. In case you have to display and set code simultaneously, who said any ordinary laptop can get the job done?

Which are the best laptops for computer science students?

We carefully reviewed the applications used in all computer science semesters and consequently set specifications so that if you buy a laptop with them, it certainly will satisfy you in this study.

Processing Power

If you buy a laptop with an Intel Core i5 8th Gen processor, it will save you lags in application building. I have actually checked out the processors of its Kim. The screen starts getting sticky, which begins to frustrate you. In such a situation, work becomes difficult, and because of this, learning is a process. Now that you are a student then in such a situation, you should not even start backing away from making a career in it. So, it is better to choose a processing power above the recommended limit, as the list we have selected for you contains processors above that.

RAM and Storage

RAM and storage must also be combined with processing power and GPU. See, if you have a laptop with a good processor and the RAM you have installed is 4GB, then it will hang because the RAM is not full according to the processing power, and in case of multitasking, it hangs. And if these two things are fine, but the old HDD is installed. Now, in this situation, also the same problem that even if the system hangs in data saving and retrieving, then there will definitely be a lag due to not being able to provide the required speed.

So, to make a good combination, it is better to use more than 8 GB of RAM and SSD storage. It is better to have 16 GB of RAM and at least M. 2, 500, and 12 GB of storage.

Screen

There is no denying the fact that the purpose of a laptop is very particular with portability; otherwise, you should get a good desktop. But it is also a fact that coding work is such that you have to read the entire code, even in small written code, and also where you get stuck and to diagnose the code. So the small and non-standard screen needs to be clarified, which makes you tired quickly. And leave the work target or their assignment incomplete. So you would need a laptop with a good screen and a larger screen. And for me, it must be anti-glare. As long as the old laptop that I used to code on, my eyes were sore and dry, but it’s not been like that for three or four years because I now have a Retina display in the MacBook that’s designed to protect the eyes and others. Whenever buying a laptop, my advice is anti-glare. Full HD resolution is best; if you get more than that, even better.

Battery Life

What is a laptop without good battery life? So, whenever you buy a laptop, you must consider its power, budget, and battery life. Now, even if it’s a cheap laptop that has other good power, you should still be looking for more than four hours of battery life. I said this less, but see, when the budget comes to cut, sacrifices will have to be made in some way or the other.

List of the best laptops for computer science students

High Performance Laptops

1. Apple MacBook Pro M3 
2. Apple MacBook Air M3 
3. Dell XPS 17
4. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
5. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Mid Range Laptops

6. Asus TUF Gaming F15
7. Microsoft Surface Laptop 4
8. Asus Vivobook 16x

Budget Laptops

9. Acer Swift 3
10. HP Envy x360

Apple MacBook Pro M3

The Apple MacBook Pro is a long-lasting laptop with Apple’s new M3 chip technology, which will prove to be an excellent choice for computer science students. Its battery life is also very good. When it comes to coding and video editing, the MacBook Pro doesn’t excel because Apple never designed it for gaming. But still, if you are a gamer, the MacBook Pro can play with low settings compared to the MacBook Air.

Although both have the same M3 chip, the Apple MacBook Pro offers better performance.

Featuring an M3 chip processor with 8 cores and a GPU with 10 cores, it features a powerful processor. This is the best chip for coding and video editing that Apple has started making itself; now, depending on the new Apple MacBook models, the M1, M2, and M3 chips are coming, and it’s from the previous two. Faster and comes with better performance.

It has eight GB of RAM and you can choose one TB or 512 SSD storage for storage. It excels at multitasking and is free from hangs and lags.

The Fourteen has a two-inch screen and can display HDR content with 1000 nits with the Retina XDRX trim feature. It also comes with SDR with six hundred nits. The 4K resolution of this screen meets with current price competitors. The Liquid Retina Display protects the eyes and also prevents them from getting tired from looking at the screen for a long time.

The battery life is excellent, and you can use it for up to 18 hours, which will support you even on a long flight.

It is also light and portable. I would recommend this laptop to students studying computer science. It will stay on all day and support you in your work while also draining the battery until you go home and finish work.

Apple MacBook Air M3

It costs about a thousand dollars less than the Apple MacBook Pro and is a completely portable machine. It is extremely thin and lightweight as well. Air is designed without a fan. It has been designed to have enough air quality to keep it cool. But when there is no thermal system at a very high load, it is obvious that some performance will be affected. But still portable, and travelling people like it because of its lightweight and easy-to-carry laptop. Of course, that’s why I like it more.

Here, I have chosen the MacBook Air with the latest M3 chip because it is much better to use something modern with a small price difference. 

Among the M3’s features are an eight-core CPU and a ten-core GPU.

It comes with 8GB of RAM and 512 or 256 GB of solid-state drive storage, whichever you choose, which is perfectly fine for coding, even if it is 256.

With a 13-inch Liquid Retina display and enough brightness of 600 nits, you can do your work outdoors and in full light.

Apple has done a good job on the battery, in the case of the MacBook, many of the Android models in mobile come with longer battery life. While the MacBook Air is also a laptop with a very good battery life like the Pro and can last for a long time on a single charge.

Yes, if you are a gamer, this might disappoint you. Play small games, but there are other suitable laptops for heavy gaming.

Dell XPS 17

It is a good large-screen laptop, and its performance is further enhanced with dedicated graphics. It’s definitely worth the price, which is why we included it in the high-performance list that ignores the budget kit and focuses on performance.

It has Intel’s latest processing power, an Intel Core i7-13700H processor with 14 cores and 20 threads, 24 MB of Intel cache memory, and a max turbo frequency of 5 GHz.

16GB DDR5 RAM prevents it from losing in multitasking. At the same time, it comes with 1 TB of storage, which is SSD.

It has a dedicated graphics card, which is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 with 6GB GDDR6 virtual memory.

Whether you play games or code, you won’t face any problems.

The large screen, which is 17 inches and full HD, is also anti-glare.

Judging by its specifications, this is a laptop built with a combination of good specifications and a good ability to complete heavy tasks.

It’s not very portable. Obviously, a laptop with a large screen and a graphics card makes it a little bigger and heavier, but not as heavy as gaming laptops. It weighs 5.1 pounds.

Battery life is also good. And takes more than twelve hours. These features make it a good laptop for computer science students. And if you like to play games, then no problem, you can play. It can also run heavy games easily. But keep in mind that you have to complete your work and coding too not just playing games.

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

A good laptop with good portability and durability is Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. The latest model comes with Intel’s Core Ultra 7 processing power, while Intel started making Intel Arc Graphics in 2023. It doesn’t have dedicated graphics, but Arc integrated graphics, which is quite good in gaming and also in application speed.

It is not a cheap laptop, but it is a high-performing laptop and is of military-grade tested level. It is a durable and high-performance laptop.

The Intel Core Ultra 7 115H has 16 cores with 22 threads for excellent processing power. Goes up to a max frequency of 4.8 GHz.

With 32GB of LPDDR5X-6400MHz RAM, multitasking can be done without worry. It also comes with 2 TB of M.2 Gen4 storage which is just what you need to store your files. The speed is also good.

14-inch anti-glare and anti-reflective screen with a resolution of 2.8K at 120Hz while the brightness of 400 nits does not prevent you from working in sunlight.

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

This is a good gaming laptop. And it’s also powerful with a combination of AMD’s processor and NVIDIA GeForce. If compared to expensive and high-powered laptops, it will be a low-cost concept. However, it is a little more expensive than other laptops.

It is designed in a portable style and is lightweight and slim compared to other gaming laptops of its competition.

AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS processors power this laptop. While NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 comes with dedicated graphics. If we talk about the processing power, it is definitely a gaming processor with eight cores, 16 threads, and 8 MB cache memory.

With the combination of 16GB RAM and RTX 2060 graphics, it can enjoy AAA games with good FPS and resolution without any lag. A 1TB SSD memory can be great for big games, and as a student, you can store your files. And it has no problem with multitasking either.

Display resolution 1920 x 1080 at a refresh rate of 120Hz on an HD OLED panel. And the screen is bright, you can do outdoor work well.

Its keyboard is responsive, and the backlight also has customization options, which you can change according to the environment.

It has two fans, and the thermal system is also good so that it will be less hot even at high load.

Battery life will be good on its low performance, but if you play games with high performance, then gaming laptops are battery-hungry, too. And that, too, will not last more than 4 hours with gaming performance.

Overall, this is a great laptop and, with its lightweight, can be a great choice for students, especially if you are fond of application development and gaming.

Asus TUF Gaming F15

Asus TUF F15 Gaming Laptop is a low-budget gaming laptop and in our list, it is the mid-range laptop in this list because we have taken into consideration the performance and performance of each class of students. And if we look at gaming laptops, in this case it can be called a budget laptop.

It can be a better choice for application building and gaming. Its metallic body makes it feel heavy and sturdy. However, it’s not an ultra-portable machine either. Compared to a normal laptop, it is a bit thicker and heavier as well. If you are looking for a light computer, then look no further than this will be a good choice for you.

When it comes to gaming budget laptops, this one can convince you with its performance.

An Intel Core i5 13500H processor powers it and comes with a dedicated graphics card, GeForce RTX 4050. That, combined with 16GB DDR4 RAM, will give good performance for all kinds of gaming and multitasking.

The keyboard is fine with a few hard keys, which are fine in accuracy. The rest of Asus has also excelled in cramming the keys into less space. The laptop will also have a number pad and a pack of function keys.

The rest can set the performance of P-CORES and E-CORES, which also makes a significant difference in battery performance. Similarly, you can switch to a dedicated graphics card. If you don’t want to play games, etc, then use a laptop with integrated graphics. Get as much battery as any normal laptop, and if you want to play games and go to high performance, then the battery will last you for 4 hours.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 4

Slim, lightweight, and budget-friendly, the Surface Laptop 4 from Microsoft is perfect for travel. Microsoft has improved this model more than its previous model. In which its processing power, screen and battery life stand out.

If you talk about its body, it is slim and gives a touch similar to Dell and Apple slim laptops. And it’s easy to carry from one place to another by putting it in a bag or holding it in your hand. Its lid is made of platinum and is not flexible. Its platinum color and black color design look even more beautiful.

It comes with an AMD processor and its 15-inch model comes with an 8-core processor, meaning it’s more powerful than a 13-inch laptop. It has AMD Radeon Vega 11 integrated graphics.

The fast storage of 8GB DDR4 RAM and 512GB solid-state drive makes it great for multitasking as well.

It has a touch screen and quite a bright screen with a 2496 x 1664 resolution.

And if we talk about the battery life, then the previous model could have had a better battery life. Its battery life, which the company itself claims is 18 hours, but according to our tests, 12 hours have been extracted, which is great and can go up to 18 if you use it sparingly and do some low-performance work. But if even 12 hours are seen, it will be considered excellent battery life.

It is also robust for its budget. It is not military-grade tested but still able to withstand extreme heat and pressure.

Asus Vivobook 16x

A large screen and AMD processor power make the Asus VivoBook 16X a great budget laptop. According to the list we made, it is a mid-range laptop. It is heavier than other portable laptops but lighter than gaming laptops. Obviously, when the screen size is bigger, some weight will increase.

There is also a model with Intel and dedicated graphics available, but it is expensive, and as an alternative, there are higher priced and powerful laptops mentioned above.

Integrated AMD Radeon graphics and an AMD Octa-Core Ryzen 7 5800HS processor make this laptop a powerhouse.

Two terabytes of SSD storage and 24GB of RAM make this a very powerful system.

Despite its 16-inch size, the screen doesn’t have an OLED display and has a resolution of 1920×1080. And with the ultra-large screen, the resolution is low, but the effect of the price cut is also visible somewhere.

Its keyboard is backlit and has softkeys. You will not get tired of long typing. The keys are large and clear, as is the number pad.

Battery life is average, not a very good battery. Build quality is also good, but you can’t call it a rugged laptop.

Acer Swift 3

Acer Swift 3 is an Intel Evoque brand laptop that is slim and smart, affordable, and performs well. You can easily move from home to college and college to home.

If we talk about the build quality, this is a laptop that comes with a good build quality. Its bezels are thin, and the white backlight with the gray keyboard in white silver color makes it attractive. Opening and closing is super smooth but you won’t be able to open it with one hand.

Integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics run alongside Intel’s Core i7-1165G7 processor. If we talk about new laptops, now Intel’s Arc Graphics are also coming; earlier, Iris XE was the latest graphics quality of Intel.

The combination of 8GB LPDDR4X RAM and 512GB SSD storage would have been quite good.

Battery life is not excellent, but it is definitely the best in a low-price package. If you can get 4 hours on a single charge with a low-budget laptop, it can be called a good battery life.

HP Envy x360

HP Envy x360 is an affordable two-in-one laptop. It is one of the most popular models after the Dell Inspiron 16 or Lenovo Yoga 7i 16. By the way, HP’s Specter x360 models are also 360, but they are expensive. And HP introduced the affordable model HP Envy x360 in two-in-one. Its body is made of metal and there is a slight weight difference between it and its competitors. Most 360-degree laptops are lightweight because they are designed to be used in tablet mode as well. And that’s with a weight of 4 pounds.

It is powered by an Intel Core i3-1315U processor with 10 MB of Intel Smart Cache memory and a max boost frequency of 4.50 GHz. It has Intel’s UHD integrated graphics.

There is 256 GB storage with 8 GB RAM. A touchscreen IPS panel and a Full HD resolution are featured on the 15.6-inch screen.

When it comes to battery life, its battery life will be at par or better than comparable laptops at this price point. That means a battery life of up to 12 hours is rarely found in notebooks of this low price.

If you are very much into portability, then you might not like it, but overall, its performance, battery life, and a two-in-one laptop is a good laptop and in the list of the best cheap laptops.

For computer science students, which is more powerful needed, processing power or GPU?

As a computer science student you need more powerful processing power than a graphics card, but you need both a powerful CPU and GPU to get better performance.

In coding and programming applications, you need strong single-thread performance. So, consider on core i5 8th minimum or i7, i9 processor for better results. If you want a good laptop for machine learning, data analysis, and gaming, then you need a good CPU as well as a GPU.

Why is Linux more considerate for computer students?

Many reasons ahead for computer science students. A lot of customizations can be made to this open-source operating system. Linux is also free and open source. A high level of customization allows the system to be customised to meet the needs of the user.

 In coding and programming, there are too many built-in packages available in this operating system, and it supports many programming languages. It is very stable and secure, one of the most widely used operating systems, making it a great option for experienced developers.

Windows users can create partitions and install Linux OS.