Best Laptop PCs Under $500 for College Students

Almost all college students either have or need a laptop PC. The best laptop PC to buy for under $500 depends on how the student will be using it. The way the PC is used is dependent on what the student is majoring in. Some students may find a larger screen beneficial. There may be a need for more memory or a larger hard drive. The graphics chip set, operating system, and communication connections could also be major factors. Wireless and DVD capability is standard on most laptops.

Best Laptop PC for Technical Students - Toshiba mini NB305 10.1" Netbook

Technical students tend to work in harsher environments. These students require a PC that can hold up to some abuse. Toshiba makes some of the best and toughest laptop PCs on the market. The Toshiba mini NB305 has 11 hours of battery life, Windows 7, and is highly portable. The 250 GB hard drive is more than enough. The standard 1GB of RAM should be upgraded with a 2 GB memory module. The price of the basic unit is under $400 keeping the price under $500 even with the additional RAM purchase.

Best Laptop PC for Business Students - HP G62T

Business students require a mobile laptop PC with a lot of battery life. The best business laptop should have good performance and security. The good-looking HP G62T fits the bill with 3 GB memory, a 320 GB hard drive, a 15.6 inch HD display, and a full size keyboard. It comes with a web cam and digital microphone to make video conferencing a breeze. This laptop PC is available directly from HP for $449.99.

Best Laptop PC for Art Students - Compaq Presario CQ61z

Art students require a high end video card and a good processing power. This Compaq CQ61z has a lot of features for the price starting at $379.99 from HP.It has a 15.6 inch display, an ATI Radeon HD 4200 video card with 128MB of video RAM, an AMD Sempron M100 processor running at 2GHz, and Windows 7 Home Preium 64 bit OS. The student can use the extra savings below $500 to buy art supplies.

Best Laptop PC for Journalism Students - Samsung R480-11

Journalism students need the best laptop that can do simple word processing for most of their work . The students also need intense graphic editing capability. A large hard drive is handy to store large amounts of files and this Samsung R480-11 has the right stuff to do the job. It also has an HDMI port and is Blu-ray enabled which will be great to have for video production work. Prices just under $500 at $499.99 from Best Buy it comes with a 14 inch display, 4 GB Memory, a 320 GB hard drive and Windows 7 home Premium 64 bit operating system.

Best Laptop PC for General Students - Dell 17R

This Dell 17R works well for most student demands. It is thin, has three color choices and is beautifully designed. It has a large 17.3 inch HD display, up to a 640 GB hard drive, a seven-in-one media card reader, an integrated 1.3 MP web cam and microphone. With almost 8 hours battery life this Dell will get the student through the day and for only $499.99 directly from Dell.

Sources: Personal and professional experience