Laptops for students: from designer to lawyer – models in comparison

Regardless of whether law, computer science or sports – every student needs a laptop, but not every student needs the same notebook. While graphic designers and computer scientists tinker with Photoshop or virtual machines, historians and sociologists tend to delve into writing programs and research. Because Photoshop and virtual machines require a lot of power, the processors and graphics cards in laptops are naturally a bit more expensive for design and computer science students. Otherwise, the notebooks for college students have the following specifications:

Laptop for students: the humanities scholars

For aspiring lawyers and historians who want to work with Windows, this is a formidable laptop. The fast SSD hard drive holds 256 gigabytes of data, which is sufficient for PDF and Word documents. At 15.6 inches (39.92 centimeters), the display is a pleasant mix of handiness without getting too small. The full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) is suitable for work as well as for the series marathon. The processor is an Intel Core i5 1135G7 with four cores that work at 2.4 gigahertz in normal and 4.2 gigahertz in turbo mode. The main memory of eight gigabytes is normal, but could be a bit larger. Nevertheless, it should be sufficient to work on the device up to the master’s degree or exam (in the standard study period).

Those who value a higher resolution with a smaller display prefer to use the. Its display has a resolution of 2256 x 1504 pixels at 13.5 inches (34 centimeters). The SSD storage with 256 gigabytes is exactly the same as the main memory with eight gigabytes as in the Galaxy Book. The only drawback: The built-in Intel Core i5-1035G7 processor comes from the previous generation of Intel chips. But it doesn’t matter, because in terms of performance, the processors of the Galaxy Book and Surface Laptop 3 are comparable.

Humanities scholars who prefer to work with MacOS should go to the grab with M1 chip. Why not a MacBook Pro? For one thing, the MacBook Air is 100 grams lighter. In terms of performance and connections, the MacBook Air and Pro – almost. The MacBook Air gets a slimmed-down M1 graphics chip that has seven instead of eight graphics cores. The displays offer the same resolution with the same diagonal.

The only difference in the display: The display of the Pro version offers a slightly brighter maximum brightness. The speakers and microphone on the MacBook Pro are also slightly better, although the webcam is the same on the Air and Pro. There is one fundamental difference with the keyboard: Apple has given the MacBook Pro a touch bar instead of the special keys “Esc”, “F1” and so on. There is no Touch Bar for the Air, the keys remain keys here.

Design and video: MacBook Pro the laptop of the hour

The MacBook Pro is a great laptop for creative people. There are several reasons for this: Design students benefit from an excellent display that shows colors true to the original so that photos and films can be printed out or appear on the screen as they do on the display. The high display resolution is also an advantage for designers when they zoom in closely on an image or video in order to make fine adjustments.

A lot of power is also important because the programs that students use to create their digital work of art take a lot of power. Final Cut, Adobe Premiere and Photoshop use not only the processor, but also RAM and graphics card. A graphics card integrated in the processor is usually too weak here – with the exception of Apple’s M1 chip.

Only the top models from Apple, Dell and HP combine all of these properties. In terms of price, however, they are all so close that the main argument against Apple (the high price) does not play a role in the decision.

Whether Windows or MacOS is the right operating system depends on which programs the students use. If the university teaches with Final Cut and Apple Motion, college students cannot avoid MacOS. The Adobe Suite, on the other hand, runs on both platforms – Apple’s advantage. Is the Pro version from Apple worth its approximately 350 euros additional cost compared to the Air?

Not for everyone: The one more graphics core in the MacBook Pro is definitely noticeable during longer, computationally intensive work, and the battery offers around 15 percent more power. In addition to the differences listed above, that was it. For the vast majority of students, therefore, it should offer a more consistent price-performance ratio.

Special case of computer scientists: the Linux lovers

The most particular special cases among students are computer scientists. This is because the computer specialists of tomorrow (or even today) come into contact with programming languages ​​such as Python, Pascal, Swift, R & Co. while studying. Programming on Windows computers can be a pain because the Microsoft operating system does not support the Portable Operating System Interface. MacOS and Linux, on the other hand, do. So here it makes sense to turn your back on Windows.

A MacBook should not necessarily be the first choice because the price-performance ratio for computer scientists is not right. For example, Apple attaches great importance to a great display for its mobile computers, which is always nice – but anyone who develops a program for machine learning benefits much more from a powerful processor in its test runs than what they did when working in true-to-original colors high resolution to see.

Computer science students are therefore a little bit pinched, because manufacturers of Linux laptops are rare. The German manufacturer is worth mentioning in this country, where buyers even have the choice between high-end AMD and Intel processors. Nice: Many models also offer the option of adding an LTE module. Practical for everyone who travels a lot.

Price tip around 500 euros for all students

That is a real price-performance hit and it is interdisciplinary. Why? With the new AMD Ryzen-5-5500U processor, Lenovo has installed a very powerful six-core CPU. Sure, it doesn’t quite come close to top models and is about 25 percent below the performance of Apple’s M1 chip. On the other hand, the laptop costs less than half of Apple’s top model. A good compromise. Of course, the screen is also not as true to color and the battery life is not as long as Apple.

Nevertheless, no entry-level model comes closer to the upper class than this one. Computer scientists are pleased that Alternate is the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15ALC (82KU00PAGE) without operating system sold. You can set up a fresh Linux distribution on the notebook. Humanities scholars, on the other hand, have to find a Windows 10 key and create a USB stick from which they can install the Microsoft operating system.

Buying tips for the student laptop

The processor

Humanities scholars are in the most comfortable position when choosing a laptop. Usually they only work with a few programs at the same time, i.e. have PDF documents, Word and the browser open with several tabs. These are all easy tasks for a computer. Nevertheless, you should also make sure that you have at least one quad-core processor in your laptop. Computer scientists and graphic designers need a stronger arithmetic servant because of their area of ​​application.

Student laptop: RAM

In a device with only two cores, the laptop could get hiccups despite simple tasks, which spoils smooth work. The main memory is also important. Anyone who tends to open ten or more tabs in the browser benefits from the fact that the processor has enough space to store its tasks in the main memory in order to access them again quickly. 8 gigabytes are currently the standard. But more memory never hurts.

System memory

Humanities scholars can neglect the system memory because Word and PDF documents are relatively small. If no photos or videos are stored on the laptop, 256 gigabytes should be sufficient. Photo and video students need the largest internal memory because photo and video documents are getting larger due to ever higher resolutions. We recommend at least 512 gigabytes and external storage media for data management. Computer scientists should also know 512 gigabytes or more of memory in the laptop because they may need it for their virtual machines.

operating system

When choosing the operating system, humanities scholars and design students should rather distance themselves from Linux, because hardly anyone will help them when LibreOffice, GIMP & Co. fail and the important housework goes flat. Here, Windows or Apple users at least have a contact person for the company’s customer support – whether he can help is an open question. Computer scientists, on the other hand, feel comfortable with Linux. And let’s be honest: if you have problems, they explain to customer support what to do.

Squint at fellow students

A look over your shoulder is not only helpful during the exam: Most students work with the Microsoft Office Suite, i.e. Word, Excel and PowerPoint. For a more pleasant work in the group, it is an advantage if everyone works with the same programs. And the popular office software only runs on MacOS and Windows. At the end of the day, every student here has to ask the question of faith.