A guide to choosing a laptop for students and office workers

The price is just secondary; the parameters are the main thing.

In many of our articles, we often say that laptops are very diverse; you can choose to buy any laptop that your budget allows and is still suitable for you.

That is still true, not wrong. But especially for students, office workers, laptops are almost indispensable in the process of studying and working; we recommend that you, no matter how tight your budget is, should try to invest in a laptop. The laptop is powerful enough and good enough to be obsolete after a few years of purchase. Rest assured, a few years is too long for the exponential rate of technology today.

To choose a good enough laptop as above, there is no other way besides reading the specifications. Readers who are students and office workers should immediately bookmark some special notes about the following parameters:

CPU

– Intel Core i5 CPU: is the best choice that balances both price and performance today. Powerful, smooth, enough to run all the office tasks and study heavy learning software without too many problems. The price will be more expensive than the Core i3, but you can use the laptop for the next few years without thinking about replacing it.
– Intel Core i3 CPU: the worst performance but your needs only stop at common tasks; Core i3 can still handle neatly is not a problem. However, you may consider replacing your laptop shortly because of the evolution of data formats.
– Intel Core i7 CPU: If your needs are high, often work with “heavy” software such as AutoCAD, Photoshop, render clips, export large image files, then consider it. Otherwise, Core i5 is enough to meet all needs.
– And some other CPUs from Intel, notably the AMD series.

RAM

– 8GB RAM: Ideally, your laptop will be able to handle all your needs, office or study tasks. The laptop will run smoothly, gently handle it, without any problems.
– 4GB RAM: also very good, still enough to meet your needs, not as smooth as 8GB but also without much difficulty when running common tasks. 4GB RAM is also a reasonable choice so that you can save your investment budget for a powerful SSD.
– 32GB RAM: too big, more than your needs, just 8GB RAM is enough. Let the money invest in other features more reasonably.

Hard Drive

– HDD: normal hard drive; if your laptop only has HDD without additional SDD, the real speed will be very slow.
– SSD: At least 3x faster than HDD, especially the new PCIe x4 series (also known as NVME), which is three times faster than traditional SATA SSD drives. We recommend buying laptops with built-in SSDs!

GPU

Also known as card, graphics chip. Suppose you are not a student of architecture, fine arts or do graphic design-related jobs requiring many graphics software and powerful graphics cards. In that case, the integrated universal graphics chip is enough to satisfy.

If you are one of the above, you should consider buying models with discrete graphics cards from AMD or Nvidia, mid-range models GTX 1050 Ti or GTX 1060, more high-end models have RTX 2070 or 2080.

Particularly for gaming enthusiasts, a gaming laptop or desktop PC will be more suitable for you because high graphics cards need to come with a new set of synchronous components to meet this particular need. If you can’t afford it, a regular card can also play games, just not providing the best experience.

There are specific needs of students, students, and office workers that you should also consider.

Size, style

The most suitable size for students and office workers is 14 – 15 inches. It can be said that this is the optimal size, compact enough to carry around in cafes, and large enough to integrate the optimal component chassis to run tasks smoothly.

It seems that they also know the needs of their customers; laptop manufacturers are also quite observant when launching more and more beautiful, sophisticated, and elegant models. So you choose for yourself the best laptop without worrying that its design will become outdated. The class will last forever.

Weight

Priority should be given to machines with moderate weight, avoiding laptops that cause discomfort when carrying a backpack to school or work every day. It would help if you chose laptops that weigh ~1.5 kg.

That is just right; if it is lighter, you will probably have to sacrifice some useful features of the laptop. Of course, it is a different story if it belongs to the expensive ultrabook line like the Macbook.

Battery life

Ideally, over 8 hours, laptops with a duration of fewer than 8 hours will not be enough to meet your regular use needs. Just imagine you stay up all night to make up the presentation, and then when the presentation computer shuts down, you will lose points with the customer.

Trademark

Better wood than good paint, a good laptop doesn’t have to be a well-known brand.

We understand and know that very well. But anyway, choosing to buy a laptop of a famous brand will make you much more secure. Moreover, the famous brand also means that the customer service and warranty service will also be much better.

Especially for students and office workers, a multi-user brand will also make it easier for you to blend in with your surroundings. Sometimes it is also a topic to discuss and share experiences.
Some famous laptop brands can be mentioned as Apple, Dell, HP, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, etc. In which, familiar to students, office students must be Dell and HP. Of course, the Apple MacBook is also very familiar, but your budget must also be relatively large to own it.

Epilogue

It can be said that students and offices are the most important target customers of laptop companies. So maybe you don’t have to worry about not choosing the right laptop model.

However, a few useful knowledge will make choosing the most suitable laptop much easier.