15 Best Laptops for High school Students | Full Review

There are some essential features to look out for while selecting the best laptops for High School students. An ideal laptop for a high school student should be compatible, fast, and reliable.

The laptop should have a high-resolution screen and most importantly should have a durable performance rate that includes battery life. This means that a fully charged laptop should last an entire school day.

So in this article, I’m going to show you some of the best laptops for high school students and will further narrow it down to help you find the best laptop for a high school student that you should get.

Meanwhile, click on the table of contents below to have a peep into what you’ll find in this article.

You see! It promises to be an interesting read. So do really take your time to read through for all it has to offer.

Does a high school student really need a laptop?

Yes! The truth is, there is so much you can achieve with ease if you have your own personal laptop. This is why I say so: If you have your laptop, you’ll have the liberty and freedom to work on your academic assignments anytime and anywhere too.

A personal laptop will allow you to do your assignments and projects from the comfort of your dorm or room and also allow you the flexibility of effecting changes to the assignments if need be at ease. This will save you the stress of going to the school’s computer lab always.

But conversely, if you can’t afford to buy a personal laptop while in high school, it doesn’t show or mean that you’re not going to succeed or have a good time in school.

Some phones too are powerful enough to perform the same tasks a laptop performs. So you can as well get a good phone for your schoolwork.

What are the specifications of a good laptop?

Before buying your personal laptop, you need to know the vital features of a laptop that makes it an excellent device. Look here to see the specifications to look out for before buying your school laptop.

Battery Life:

This is one of the very important specifications to look out for while selecting a school system. A good laptop should have a battery life that lasts long. Yes! If a laptop battery lasts one hour or two, it’s not good at all.

Some batteries last up to four hours, those ones are just fair and not really good enough. But If a laptop provides 7 hours plus battery life, it is enough for any work. That’s the one you should get.

Processor:

The processor is somewhat like the brain of a laptop. It shows the performance level of a computer. It is unarguably one of the things you must check before getting a school laptop.

As the processor of a laptop is powerful, it will run faster and allows the user to run a large program such as photo editing, graphic design software.

A good laptop with a good processor speed will not keep you and your work hanging in between an important project. Intel provides a range of processors such as Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, etc.

This is the time of the Core i7 processor. So you should know which processor you should go for now.

RAM:

The RAM is the memory of your laptop. It indicates how your laptop is going to process commands given to it and how many programs it can actually run. When the memory of a laptop is more, you can run more programs on the laptop.

Goodlaptops now have at least 4 GB RAM. 2 GB isn’t good at all. It will give you a hard time because your laptop will be so slow especially when you have heavy programs on it.

So you need a laptop with more RAM. Now you can find 8 and16GB RAM laptops are available in the market.

Hard drive:

The hard drive or storage is another thing that you should think about when you want to buy a laptop. It is mainly two types. One is the HDD, and Another type is SSD.

The HDD can store a lot of data. You will find such kind of hard drive in most of the laptops. But SSD has a low capacity for storage. It also does not have any moving parts. But it saves your battery.

Most of the 2-in-one laptops contain this type of hard drive. SSD is much faster than HDD. That means an SSD PC will be faster than an HDD laptop. That’s why people are choosing SSD storage.

What are Best Laptop brands for High School Students?

There are so many laptop brands in the market but it’s not all you should consider when you want to get a laptop for your school.

In this section, I’ve listed some of the best laptop brands you should look out for when you are going to get a school laptop.

See them below.

• DELL XPS 13
• APPLE MACBOOK AIR
• INSPIRON 15 5000 LAPTOP BY DELL
• ASUS VIVOBOOK 15
• ACER ASPIRE 5 SLIM
• HP 2018 TOUCHSCREEN
• ASPIRE E 15 LAPTOP BY ACER
• HUAWEI MATEBOOK 13
• ACER CHROMEBOOK 15
• MICROSOFT SURFACE 7 PROS
• ASUS ZENBOOK 13
• LENOVO IDEAPAD 310
• SAMSUNG NOTEBOOK 9 PRO
• RAZER BLADE 15
• MICROSOFT SURFACE GO

You may also want to see our article: 20 Best Tablets for College Students on a Budget | 2024

1. DELL XPS 13

The Dell XPS 13 is the best laptop for high school students. An ideal laptop for a high school student needs to be powerful, offer great value, be rigid enough for daily use, and have a sound design that younger consumers would want to use. XPS 13 is a super-portable laptop with a gorgeous display and excellent performance.

The laptop can also be personalized with a choice of color; silver or rose gold, coupled with improved battery life. It would not be controversial to state that the XPS 13 from Del is the perfect laptop for high school students because the laptop combines portability with versatility and power.

Key features

• Intel Core i5-8250U processor
• Storage capacity; 8GB RAM
• It has a 13.3-inch display
• A Thunderbolt 3 port alongside
• USB-C 3.1 port
• 15 hours of battery life

Pros

• Supper battery life
• Highly portable
• It’s a 2-in-1 machine meaning it can be converted into a notebook
• Alpine-white and gold chassis is gorgeous
• A machined aluminum case for a classy look and feel
•  Full Thunderbolt 3 USB C ports
• Comes with a backlit keyboard

Cons

• The keyboard could be better
• The vertical spacing between keypads has been reduced to accommodate all the keys on the tiny space

2. APPLE MACBOOK AIR

Apple MacBook Air is one of the best laptops for high school students because of its compatibility or portability. It’s the leanest and meanest laptop you can buy or carry around with you anywhere to your college, university, or to your school.

It’s quite sleek and you can actually get the work done with high efficiency and best performance. Every high school student would want an extraordinary laptop to enable them to do their assignments, projects, and presentations more easily and effectively.

Key features

• STORAGE CAPACITY OF 128GB (2015 MODEL) OR 256GB (2017 MODEL)
• 1.8 GHz DUAL-CORE INTEL CORE I5 PROCESSOR
• INTEL HD GRAPHICS 6000
• 13-INCH DISPLAY
• TWO USB 3 PORTS
• A THUNDERBOLT 2 PORT
• HAS UP TO 12 HOURS OF BATTERY LIFE
• 5MM JACK AND AN SDXC CARD SLOT
• MAGSAFE 2 POWER PORT

Pros

• High-quality screen with an excellent pixel density
• Reasonably priced
• Tiny in size and highly portable
• Fantastic battery life

Cons

• Their prices are somewhat high
• The screen isn’t as smooth as the Retina screen which comes with MacBook Pro

3. DELL INSPIRON 15 5000

Inspiron 15 5000 laptop is one of the best laptops high school students. With an impressive display, this laptop comes with plenty of other amazing features.

It’s 15.6 inches full HD touchscreen display which can be used to write down notes as you would on a regular piece of paper which is one amazing thing a high school student would love. You can also use it to draw or play games. It’s also very lightweight, slim and very easy to handle.

Key features

• 15.6 INCH FULL HD TOUCHSCREEN DISPLAY
• CORE I5
• STORAGE CAPACITY; RAM 8GB, 1TB HDD
• GOOD BATTERY LIFE

Pros

• Gorgeous and attractive design
• Good battery life
• Highly portable
• 15.6-inch touchscreen display
• Beefy hardware

Cons

• Integrated GPU (not too great for demanding games)

4. ASUS VivoBook 15

Vivobook 15 is one of the best and most versatile laptops for high school students in terms of connectivity,  high performance,  Screen display, and Compatibility. In terms of screen display, Asus Vivo book 15 has a 15” screen and 1920 x 1080 resolution and it is very compatible.

It is also incredibly lightweight (Ultra-slim 5.7mm bezel), giving an amazing 88% screen-to-body ratio for supremely immersive visuals. The keyboard is tilted up to make typing easier and more comfortable. This 15.6-inch laptop runs on Windows 10 S.

Key features

• 15.6 INCH FULL HD DISPLAY
• INTEL CORE I3-8145U PROCESSOR
• STORAGE CAPACITY; 8GB RAM AND 128GB M.2 SSD
• EXCLUSIVE ERGOLIFT DESIGN FOR AN IMPROVED TYPING POSITION
• USB 3.1 TYPE-C, USB 3.1 TYPE-A, USB 2.0, AND HDMI
• A MICRO-SD CARD READER
• 6 HOURS BATTERY LIFE

Pros

• Versatile in terms of connectivity
• Very compatible
• Exceptional performance
• It has an ergonomic key dish keyboard design, which makes typing easier.
• Good battery life

Cons

• Not the cheapest laptop you can find

5. ACER ASPIRE 5 SLIM

Students who are having issues with size and weight in selecting a laptop should have nothing to worry about anymore.

Acer Aspire 5 slim is one of the thinnest, most lightweight student laptops you can buy. It has a 15.6 inches Full HD screen with 1920 x 1080 resolutions with AMD Radeon Vega 3 Mobile Graphics. This will make your project work and seminar presentation more appealing and professional.

It has 8GB RAM and 1TB Storage with Intel core i5 i5-8265U, Quad Core-4 core processor which gives a speed of 1.60 gigahertz.

The Acer Aspire 5 slim is one of the best laptops for high school students when it comes to compatibility and portability. It also has HDMI USB 2.0 port 1 USB 3.0 port, 1 USB 3.1 generation 1 port and USB type c that lets you connect your laptop with other devices for data sharing. It has other exciting things to help students do their assignment work or project work.

Key features

• 7 TO 8 HOURS’ BATTERY LIFE
• 15.6 INCHES FULL HD (1920 X 1080)
• STORAGE CAPACITY; 8GB RAM and 1TB Storage
• Intel core i5 i5-8265U, Quad Core-4 core processor

Pros

• Good battery life
• Excellent connectivity and portability
• Exceptional performance
• User-friendly design

Cons:

• Not the cheapest laptop you can find

6. HP 2018 Touchscreen Laptop

High school students need a device that can help them with their learning, while also making studying more fun. HP 2018 Touchscreen Laptop comes with a huge 15.6 screen which is equipped with an easy-to-use touchscreen display.

Interestingly, despite the machine being reasonably large and feature-packed, it weighs a paltry 4.52 pounds, making it lovely for high school students. The laptop comes with a 3-cell Li-ion battery that lasts seven hours. It is also an 8^th generation intel core i5 processor which is very powerful.

Key features

• 7 HOURS BATTERY LIFE
• VERY COMPATIBLE
• 8^TH GENERATION INTEL CORE i5
• STORAGE CAPACITY; 2TB HDD AND 128GB SSD
• 15.6 INCH FULL HD DISPLAY

Pros

• Touchscreen display
• Light in weight
• Good battery life with Powerful 3-cell Li-ion battery
• Generously sized display with a 15.6-inch diagonal display
• Exceptional performance

Cons

• Its case appears cheaply built with some cheap looking plastic

7. ACER ASPIRE E 15

Acer Aspire E 15 is the 8th generation Intel Core i5 CPU with a maximum speed of up to 3.4GHz. which makes it perfect for high school students. It also has a large storage capacity of 8GB RAM, as well as 256GB SSD that is enough to serve you as a student.

This laptop comes with plenty of features that makes it superior and the best laptop for high school students.

Acer Aspire E 15 has a good battery life that can keep it running for as much as 15 hours straight. Isn’t that awesome?

Another wonderful thing about this laptop that it has a dedicated graphics card, which is GeForce MX150. This makes it capable of running some pretty demanding programs and, of course, many recently-released games which makes it attractive.

Key Features

• AN 8^TH GENERATION INTEL CORE I5,
• STORAGE CAPACITY; RAM 8GB, 256GB SSD
• 15 HOURS BATTERY LIFE

Pros

• Good battery life
• Not expensive
• Fast processor
• Uses 256GB SSD

Cons

• Doesn’t feature a touchscreen
• Not so durable

If you are looking to diversify your income in school, see our article on 30 Highest Paying Side Hustle Ideas For Students In 2024

8. Huawei Matebook 13

Huawei Matebook 13 is a premium laptop from the Chinese technology giant that comes with an 8^th generation intel core i5 or i7 processor (CPU) and a fantastic touch display. Speaking of sizes, the laptop is pretty slim, thus very convenient to handle and carry along. So carrying it in your high school backpack will not cause any strain on your shoulders and back. It has the following features:

Key features

• An 8th-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU
• 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD.
• 13-inch touchscreen display
• Up to 7hours battery life

Pros:

• Excellent 3:2 “2K” display
• Exceptional performance
• User-friendly design
• Stylish but very muted
• It is built to last
• Optional GPU

Cons:

• Not the cheapest laptop you can find
• No Thunderbolt 3
• No USB Type-A port

9. ACER CHROMEBOOK 15

This is one of the best Chromebook for high school students. It runs on Chrome OS (an operating system by Google). Chromebooks come with built-in storage for offline access to your most important files and an additional 100GB of Google Drive space to ensure that all of your files are backed up automatically.

Acer Chromebook is a 2-in-1 laptop for high school students that you can use it as a tablet as well. It has 15.6 inches display screen with 1920 x 1080 resolution which makes it perfect for your educational purposes.

It has a great performance rate that is enhanced by 2.4 GHz Intel Celeron processor with dual-core, 4 GB DDR4 RAM and 32 GB Flash Memory Solid State. It has the ability to do multiple tasks at once and it will never slow down a bit.

This laptop which is one of the best for high school students comes with built-in  virus protection, updates automatically, boots up in seconds and continues to stay fast over time.

With its wireless Bluetooth and ports, students can share data as well as connect other devices.

Chromebook is very portable and light in weight. It is 4.41 pounds in weight and 14.9 x 10.1 x 0.8 inches in dimensions. You can carry it along with you anywhere.

Key features

• 15.6-inch HD display
• STORAGE CAPACITY; 4 GB DDR4 RAM and 32 GB
• 12-hour battery life

Pro

• Runs on Chrome OS, an operating system by Google.
• Reasonable price
• Good battery life
• Excellent connectivity and portability

Con

• The speakers are not really durable

10. MICROSOFT SURFACE 7 PROS

Microsoft surface 7pros has all the latest features that every high school student would wish for. It has a 12.3 inches display screen with 2736 x 1824 resolution to give you crystal clear, bright, and sharp images to enable you do your assignment and projects with ease. It uses windows 10 operating systems.

It also has a high connectivity rate which enables students to share data as well as connect other devices. It is light in weight about 1.7 pounds and you can take it with you easily. The laptop is very flexible, allowing you move from tablet to laptop.

It is ultra-slim and has better connectivity with USB-C & USB-A ports. In addition to its lightweight, the laptop has the ability to go from empty to full faster with up to 10.5 hours’ battery life.

The Microsoft Surface 7 pro laptop is powered by a 10th Gen Intel Core processorwhich helps students with more multitasking speed, stunning entertainment, incredible Wi-Fi performance.

It also has 8 GB DDR RAM and a large storage capacity which makes it powerful and unbeatable! Microsoft Pro 7 adapts you as a high school student.

Key features

• 12.3-inch touchscreen with pen input
• 10.5 hours of battery life
• 10th Gen Intel Core Processor
• 8 GB DDR RAM
• USB-C & USB-A ports

Pros:

• Ultimate in versatility
• Good battery life
• Excellent connectivity and portability
• Exceptional performance
• User-friendly design

Cons:

• Not the cheapest laptop you can find

11. ASUS ZENBOOK 13 LAPTOP

Asus Zen-book 13 laptop is one of the best laptops for a high school student to get. With its compatibility and portability, students can carry it comfortably without stress. It comes with a great performance of Intel i5 CPU, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD with 13.3 inch full HD display.

Key features

• STORAGE CAPACITY; RAM 8GB, 256GB SSD)
• 13.3 INCH FULL HD DISPLAY
• 8^TH GENERATION INTEL CORE i5

Pros

• Not that expensive
• With great performance
• Lightweight and compact
• Reliable and durable laptop

Cons

• Its display is not too large

12. LENOVO IDEAPAD 310

For those high school students who love streaming music or binge-watching videos online but don’t want to spend money on features you don’t need, the Lenovo Ideapad 310 is the perfect system for you.

It runs an intel 6^TH generation core processors and 15.6 inches full HD (1920 x 1080) display. Also, you can choose the display resolution that’s right for you. Your documents and designs are sure to come with ease and crystal clear images too.

The system’s storage capacity is just amazing. Students won’t have to worry about storage space for their data, documents, photos, and videos because with its 2TB HDD storage you are covered.

The laptop has superb connectivity which allows you to connect to different devices and share data with other students through wireless Bluetooth as well. 

This laptop offers very fast internet speed; it offers 802.11 a/c Wi-Fi connectivity comes standard on the system, making it the best for high school students for their fast browsing, unending streaming, and downloading of anything they want.

Key features

• INTEL 6^TH GENERATION CORE PROCESSORS
• STORAGE CAPACITY; 2TB HDD, 8 GB DDR4
• 15.6 INCH FULL HD (1920 x 1080) DISPLAY

Pros

• Superb connectivity
• Powerful processor
• Great Performance rate
• Reliable and durable

Cons

• Not the cheapest laptop you can find

13. RAZER BLADE 15

Razer Blade 15 is the best gaming system for a high school student. This system is a 9^th generation Intel Core i7-9750 CPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM computer which makes is fast in everything. With its 15.6 inches full HD display, the laptop makes the high school’s students’ school works attractive and presentable.

It can be configured with NVIDIA RTX 2080 Max-Q dedicated GPU which enables you to play most modern PC games. It has an RGB keyboard which can be fully customized, and you can use the huge Precision touchpad for standard tasks.

Razer blade 15 comes with exciting ports like HDMI, Thunderbolt 3, Mini DisplayPort, and USB-A 3.1, which enables students to connect external monitors or any other external device.

Key features

• 15.6 FULL HD DISPLAY
• 9TH GEN INTEL CORE I7-9750 CPU
• STORAGE CAPACITY; 16GB OF DDR4 RAM, AND 512GB SSD
• HDMI, THUNDERBOLT 3, MINI DISPLAYPORT, AND USB-A 3.1 PORT

Pros

• Good battery life
• Excellent connectivity and portability
• Gorgeous 4K and FHD display options
• Best gaming performance
• Enormous Precision touchpad

Cons

• Quite Expensive
• Normally Runs hot

14. SAMSUNG NOTEBOOK 9 PRO

This is another good laptop for high school students. It has an amazing 15 inch full HD (1920×1080) resolution with Touch Screen Panel with Stylus Pen Included. It also has AMD Radeon 540 Graphics with 2GB GDDR5 Graphic Memory which gives them a bright and glossy screen display that will add more details to their images.

Being an 8th Generation Intel Quad-Core i7-8550U Processor 1.8GHz, with up to 4GHz and 8 MB SmartCache, 8 Treads, and 720P HD Webcam, it has a high performance rate and storage capacity that enables students to store their project works, assignment and PDF files.

The battery life of this system is simply amazing, with 4 Cell Li-ion polymer the battery that can last up to 12 to 14 hours. When it comes to connectivity, it has 1 x USB-C up to 5Gbps, 4K display out with optional adapter, charging 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x Card Reader, 1 x Headphone-out/Mic-in Combo 1 DC-in. This is just more than enough, I tell you.

Key features

• STORAGE CAPACITY; 16GB 2400MHZ DDR4 SDRAM, 1TB SSD
• 15.6 INCH FULL HD LED DISPLAY (1920 X 1080)
• 8TH GEN INTEL QUAD CORE I7-8550U PROCESSOR 1.8GHZ, UP TO 4GHZ
• UP TO 13 HOURS’ BATTERY LIFE
• HD SPEAKER

Pros

• Ability to rotate the full HD screen 360 degrees
• Good battery life
• Excellent connectivity and portability
• Exceptional performance
• User-friendly design

Cons:

• Not the cheapest laptop you can find

15. SURFACE GO

Surface Go is the smallest, lightest and most portable surface 2 in 1 laptop. It weighs less, rocks a good battery life, and allows you to quickly complete tasks at school.

It has a 10-inch screen display with an 1800 x1200 resolution and 3:2 aspect ratio. This allows high school students to do their school work with ease.

Hardware includes up to an Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD, with 4G LTE option which is enough to help a high school student tackle his or her everyday productivity tasks.

The ports include USB-C, a micro SD card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The portability of this laptop is its selling point.

Key features

• STORAGE CAPACITY; 8GB OF RAM, AND A 128GB SSD
• 10-INCH DISPLAY WITH 1800X1200 RESOLUTION
• INTEL PENTIUM GOLD 4415Y CPU

Pros

• Excellent portability
• Optional 4G LTE connectivity
• Premium compact design
• Beautiful touch display
• Good battery life
• low price

Cons

• Limited ports
• Not enough performance for some

Best Laptops for High School Students: FAQs

Conclusion

It’s important not to rush when you want to get yourself or a close pal a laptop for high school. You must take your time to conduct some research and ask questions. This is so you don’t make some choices you’ll regret afterwards.

That is the reason I’ve written you this review to help you compare the various available options that you can choose from. If you aren’t sure which to choose, please tell an older person to help you choose. Good Luck!!

Author’s Recommendation

• 20 Best Laptops for Engineering Students 2024| With Specifications 
• 15 budget apps for college students in 2024 | Best Reviews 
• How To Compare & Research Colleges Online 2024: Tools and Websites 
• 20 Powerpoint Presentation Tips for Students | 2024
• 10 Homework Helper Apps For International Students In 2024

Sources

• centerforcollegeaffordability.org
• laptopsconsider.com
• windowscentral.com
• fatherly.com
• orphanlaptops.com
• laptophungry.com

Does this article meet your immediate needs? If yes, leave us a 5-star rating in the Review Box below. If no, leave us an opinion in the comment box to express your concern, or ask a question and we will get back to you as soon as possible.