When you’re in college, your laptop is everything. In fact, even after college, you will probably find yourself relying on your laptop in order to complete dozens of tasks each day. What model and specifications you ultimately buy will be dependent on how you intend to use your laptop.
Naturally there are a lot of other things you want to think about before buying a new computer. Here are 5 factors for college students to consider when purchasing a laptop.
- Size
The size of your laptop is very important when you’re a college student. On the one hand, you don’t want it to be too large because you’re probably going to be taking it all over the place with you. Usually a 13-inch screen is about as large as you want to get. However, you probably don’t want your laptop to be too small, especially if you need to work heavily with photos or video, otherwise, you just won’t be able to see things very well.
- Weight
You don’t only want to think about the size of your laptop in regard to its dimensions, but you also want to think about its weight. You are probably going to be carrying that thing in your backpack or in a briefcase and walking from class to class – all over the place. That’s why you want to be sure that your laptop is as light as possible while still containing the size and specs you need to accomplish your major tasks. If it’s too heavy, you could end up giving yourself some major back or shoulder problems.
- Storage
While you do want to make sure that your laptop isn’t too big or too heavy, you might need your computer to hold quite a bit of storage. If you are like most college students, you are going to have a lot of photo, video and music files that you collect and keep. If you want to have a light laptop, but have a lot of data to store, you can either invest in a large external hard drive, or you may want to store all of your data on the cloud.
- Screen Resolution
If you are studying film or photography at University of Cincinnati, or any other college for that matter, you are going to want to invest in a laptop with a good screen. In some fields, screen resolution is everything. You can’t really edit photos and videos very well if you can’t see what they look like on a high-resolution screen. The same goes for people who build and develop websites. So be sure that you know whether or not this is something you should invest in.
- Price
At the end of the day, the price of the laptop is going to be one of the greatest defining factors when it comes time to selecting the one you want. You can get an idea of all the ideal specs you would like in an ideal world, but if you can’t afford those things, then you have to make some compromises. Then again, there are also a lot of retailers that will offer you a payment plan so that you can pay for it in smaller monthly installments.