What kind of laptop should students buy?

By Harry Slater. It's your biggest investment and most crucial piece of equipment, so choose carefully. Topping the list of university essentials is a lightweight, well-equipped and robust laptop. It should be portable enough to be easily carried from halls to lecture theatres to the library. It needs to boast the hardware and software for essay writing, note-taking and every form of procrastination in between. And ideally, it will last the length of your course. The space-saving, lightweight champion is the netbook. An affordable choice, they're ideal for lecture to library use. A good looking model with adequate Ram and hard drive space (4GB and 400GB respectively should cut it) can be picked up for £300-£350. More...