Best Overall Value Laptop for Most College Students

What is the best college laptop?

We feel strongly about the HP Envy 13 and MacBook Air (M1, 2020) as the best laptops for college students. Not everyone is on a budget, but most folks will want to save as much money as possible so they can pay off student loans.?If that's you and you are on the lookout for the?best laptop deals, the Envy 13 and MacBook Air strike an excellent balance with premium specs and features at a reasonable, sub-$1,000 price.?Check out the?best Prime Day laptop deals?if you are in the market right now as there are sure to be awesome savings on some of our favorite college laptops.

The Envy 13 might be a mid-range notebook but it looks and feels like a more premium machine. The Envy also delivers fast performance from 11th Gen Intel CPUs, it has a great screen, and it's portable enough to carry around campus. Then there's the MacBook Air, which is powered by Apple's M1 processor for solid performance with otherworldly battery life, it may be the most affordable MacBook, but it's easily one of the?best Apple laptops.?

The new?MacBook Air 2022?may soon arrive on this list with an updated design, MagSafe charging, improved webcam and of course the more powerful M2 processor. At $1,199 ($1,099 for students), it's only marginally more expensive and if it holds up well in our review should be an easy recommendation here.

If you don't have a budget, consider the Microsoft Surface Pro Studio, the Dell XPS 15 or?14-inch MacBook Pro.