A couple of years back, if someone had told you that your child will be studying from home, you wouldn't have believed them. But suddenly things have taken a drastic change and here we are. Schools, colleges and many offices have become vacant and everyone is working from home.
Laptops have become our primary source of knowledge now. It is the bridge between students and teachers. It is of utmost importance that you get a great laptop since it would be terrible to be frustrated halfway through the presentation and your laptop freezes up.
We have curated a list of the best laptops for students and teachers to use during their online classes.
These are the laptops that have aced our list:
Mi Notebook 14
Buy from AmazonProcessor: Intel Core i5-10210U processor
RAM: 8GB DDR4 RAM
Graphics Card: Intel UHD Graphic
Storage: 256 GB SSD
Display: 14-Inch (1920X 1080 )Full HD Anti-Glare Screen
Mi is relatively new at making laptops, but that hasn't stopped them from making one and they have made one which is really a show stopper. The laptop has the perfect balance of power and pricing that this is really the one you should have.
The laptop is lightweight and has a powerful Intel processor that makes your sessions smoother and hassle-free.
Power and Performance
The laptop is powered by a 10th generation Intel Core i5 - 10210U processor. The processor is a quad-core processor with support for multi-threading. With each core having two cores it has 8 threads to support multi-tasking.
The processor has a base clock speed of 1.60GHz. This is the speed at which the processor runs normally. And if you need more power, the processor can run at up to 4.20 GHz for short spans of time to give you enough power.
The graphics in the processor is an inbuilt graphics card. The processor comes with an Intel UHD graphics card. This card is built into the processor.
You can run software such as Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, etc and also do video calling simultaneously. Opening multiple Chrome tabs also will be a breeze due to the processing capabilities of the laptop.
Storage and RAM
The laptop comes with 256GB of SSD. This should be enough for most uses. If you find that this is not enough, you can use an external HDD to expand the storage.
SSD also helps in increasing the speed of the laptops. Traditional Hard Disk Drives were really slow and that, in turn, made the laptop take longer to start and applications to start. With an SSD data transfer is faster and therefore helps in faster booting and application load times
It has 8GB of DDR4 RAM. This cannot be upgraded but you wouldn't feel like this is not enough at any point. The RAM will help you with multi-tasking and even opening multiple apps at the same time.
Display
The display on the laptop is a 14" display. It has a resolution of 1920x1080 making it a 1080p display. The display is an anti-glare screen.
The bezels around the display are thin making it look really good.
The image quality is crisp and sharp so you can enjoy movies.
Miscellaneous
The laptop has a strong metal body and this is something rarely seen in laptops at this price range. The metal body helps keep the laptop sturdy and reduces flex. The hinges are strong and sturdy.
The laptop comes with Windows 10 preinstalled.
The laptop weighs 1.5kg and makes it portable. It has a battery life of up to 10 hours which should see you through your entire class without a charger.
The webcam in the laptop is a 720p camera.
The laptop has stereo speakers with great audio quality.
Ports
- 2 x USB 3.1 port
- 1 x USB 2.0 port
- 1 x HDMI port
- 1 x 3.5 mm audio jack
Verdict
Overall the Mi laptop is great in terms of performance and strikes a balance between value for money, performance battery life, and portability. This makes this one of the best laptops to use for online classes.
Lenovo Ideapad L340
Buy from AmazonProcessor: Intel Core i5 9th Gen processor
RAM: 8GB RAM RAM
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GTX 1050 3GB Graphics
Storage: 1TB HDD
Display: 15.6-inch FHD screen (1920X1080), Anti Glare
Lenovo Ideapad is a powerful laptop. A laptop that believes in 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. It has a graphics card powerful enough to game a lot. You can play games and have fun in the evening with this laptop.
The laptop is equipped with an Intel Processor, an Nvidia Graphics card, and Dolby Audio to make your college/school time memorable.
With just 2.19 kg and 23.9 mm thickness, the laptop is slick and stylish, and portable and makes it a great option for online classes if you game a bit too.
Power and Performance
The laptop is powered by a 9th generation Intel Core i5 processor. The processor is a quad-core processor that has a base clock speed of 2.4GHz which can go up to 4.1 GHz with turbo boost. The processor also has multithreading which lets the laptop do heavy tasks easily.
Turbo boost is the technology by which Intel processors gets a small boost in the processing power of the laptop. This is only for short periods since the laptop will heat too much if the processor runs at this high speed for a long time.
The graphics card in the laptop is an Nvidia GTX 1050. The graphics card will let you do occasional gaming supporting most of the latest games. The graphics card comes with 3GB of internal memory; which means it has a virtual RAM of 3GB and doesn't have to use the RAM in the laptop for gaming.
The processor and the graphics card make this laptop a decent gaming system. It lets the laptop work smoothly doing even the hardest of tasks.
Storage and RAM
One of the major things we look at while getting a laptop is the storage and Lenovo doesn't disappoint as in this. The laptop comes with a 1TB HDD (Hard Disk Drive) which is more than enough for most.
If you want to seek out more performance from the laptop you can consider upgrading the storage to SSD (Solid State Drive). SSDs don't have any moving parts and therefore offer faster data transfer.
For temporary storage, the laptop has 8GB of DDR4 RAM. This is the optimal amount of RAM for most of us. If you want you can upgrade the RAM to 16GB or 32GB also.
Display
The laptop has a 15.6" display. This is the standard size of laptop screens and offers enough and more for most uses. You can also get external monitors if you want a lot of screen size.
The screen has a resolution of 1920x1080. That is FHD display. The screen also has an anti-glare coating so that light from other sources doesn't reflect and cause discomfort.
Lenovo also provides protection for the eyes in the form of a blue light filter software from Lenovo itself that keeps reduces blue light during the night.
Ports
- 2 x USB 3.1
- 1 x USB-C 3.1
- 1 x HDMI 2.0
- 1 x RJ45
- Combo of 3.5mm Stereo Headphone
Miscellaneous
The laptop weighs just 2.19 kg, making it extremely lightweight and portable for a gaming laptop.
One of my favourite features about the laptop is the 180-degree hinge. This means you can make the laptop lie straight. This is particularly useful when using the laptop in bed and all so you can bend the screen back for perfect visibility.
The keyboard on the laptop is backlit with a blue colour.
With a battery life of 6 hours, you can work on it without power for a long time.
The laptop comes with a 1-year warranty so that you can use the laptop with peace of mind.
All this makes this laptop perfect for usage for online classes irrespective of if you're a teacher or a student.
Verdict
Overall a great laptop with great value for money. Would strongly recommend this laptop for anyone who'd want a great experience not only just during learning but also to have some fun.
HP Pavilion x360
Buy from AmazonProcessor: 11th Gen Intel Core i3-1115G4 processor
RAM: 8GB DDR4 RAM
Graphics Card: Intel UHD Graphics
Storage: 256 GB SSD
Display: 14-Inch FHD (1920 x 1080)
HP is one of my favourite laptop manufacturers. They make laptops that stand the test of time. These laptops are good and are built to last.
This laptop is a 2 in 1 laptop which means you can convert it and use it as a tablet if you want to. This is a great selling point for online classes because you might not always be taking your class on a table. You might want to lie down or find some comfortable posture and HP Pavilion lets you do all that and more.
Let's take a look at what specs the laptop has to offer.
Power and Performance
This laptop is powered by an 11th generation Intel Core i3 processor or more specifically Intel Core i3-1115G4 processor. The processor is a dual-core processor with Turbo boost technology. This helps the processor to have a maximum clock speed of 4.1GHz.
The processor has a 6MB cache which makes the laptop fast.
The graphics card on the laptop is an in-built graphics card, an Intel UHD graphics card. This offers a great viewing experience while watching movies and all.
Storage and RAM
The laptop comes with 256 GB of M2 SSD. The SSD offers a boost in performance while using the laptop. This boost is because SSDs do not have a moving part like traditional HDDs. SSDs are more like pen drives whereas HDDs have a moving disk inside which is slow.
The SSD helps in loading data faster for faster processing. If data is loaded faster, the laptop can process it faster and making the laptop faster overall.
The laptop has 8GB of DDR4 RAM. This much RAM will help you breeze through all your tasks easily. The RAM is expandable up to 16GB.
Display
The display on the laptop is a 14" Full HD display. It has a resolution of 1920x1080.
The screen is touch-enabled. This helps in ease in using the laptop. You can easily navigate the laptop since it is touch-enabled.
The display is a micro-edge display which means the bezels that run around the screen are extremely thin. HP calls the display edge to edge display.
Ports
- 1 x SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Type-C (5Gbps)
- 2 x SuperSpeed USB Type-A (5Gbps)
- 1 x HDMI 1.4b
- 1 x RJ-45
- 1 x SD card reader
Miscellaneous
The laptop has an HP TrueVision HD camera as a webcam for better clarity.
It weighs 1.58kg and has an average battery life of 7hrs. The battery should see you through the day unless you do some heavy computational tasks. Also, the battery is a fast charge battery so you can get it back to full charge in a few hours.
The HP Pavilion comes with Windows 10 preinstalled.
It has a 1-year warranty to keep your peace of mind.
Verdict
Overall one of the best laptops for online class that can give you a lot of peace of mind and a great time while working.
Apple MacBook Air
Buy from AmazonProcessor: Apple M1 chip with 8‑core CPU and 8‑core GPU
RAM: 8GB DDR4 RAM
Storage: 512 GB SSD
Display: 14-Inch (1920X 1080 )Full HD Anti-Glare Screen
Apple is one of the greatest companies that want to push the limits so much and makes groundbreaking products and the MacBook Air is no exception.
The greatest innovation about this laptop is the M1 chip that powers the laptop. Intel used to manufacture chips for Apple until one day Apple felt that it can do better and came up with the M1 chip.
Power and Performance
The M1 chip is extremely powerful and makes the new MacBook Air more powerful than most of the Apple lineup. The processor is extremely energy-efficient making it last for hours on a single charge.
The M1 chip is an octa-core processor that is capable of doing any tasks that you dare throw at it. Apple claims it offers 3.5x more power than the outgoing MacBook Air making the laptop really fast.
The laptop also has an 8 core GPU that helps render video and use software such as Photoshop or video editing pretty seamlessly.
The laptop is so energy efficient that it needs only one-tenth the power that a normal laptop requires for the same task.
One of the coolest things about this laptop is its lack of fans. It manages to stay cool despite not having a fan.
Storage and RAM
The laptop comes with multiple configurations for storage and RAM. The base configuration for storage is 256GB SSD which can go all the way up to 1 TB.
The SSD is very fast which helps in reducing the boot times for the laptop.
You can't configure a MacBook so once you have one, you have it.
For RAM the laptop comes with 8GB of RAM. This low latency RAM helps share data between CPU, GPU, and the neural engine.
Display
The display on the laptop is Retina Display. It has a resolution of 2560x1600. This is far higher than most of the laptops.
The display also has a wider palette of colours. It has around 25% more colours than sRGB.
The MacBook is also able to adjust the colours on the screen to ambient light so that you get the most correct colour on your screen.
Ports
- 2 x USB C ports
- 1 x 3.5mm audio
Miscellaneous
The keyboard has a fingerprint sensor that makes things extremely easy. You don't have to type passwords anymore.
The trackpad is a force trackpad that can measure the amount of force you apply and do multiple tasks based on it.
The Wifi on the laptop is WiFi 6 which gives a throughput of up to 1.2Gbps.
The two thunderbolt ports on the laptop help charging, data transfer, and video output all on a single port.
Verdict
Overall the MacBook is a versatile device that you can use everywhere. The laptop has great potential and has great build quality. Buying one of these will last you for years to come.
These are the best laptops for online classes. Hope you have a great time using one of these in your classes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need a laptop with a dedicated graphics card?
Dedicated graphics cards are used to do hardcore stuff such as gaming and video editing. If you want your child to game on the laptop, we would definitely suggest getting a laptop with a dedicated graphics card. Otherwise, the answer is a definite no.
How much RAM is needed for laptops for online classes?
For online classes, we would recommend 8GB of RAM, but 4GB also won't feel sluggish. Anything below 4GB and you might find yourself lacking in power.
