Buying a laptop these days can be something of a minefield – especially if you’re not exactly rolling in cash. There’s no pain in the world quite like that of blowing hundreds of pounds on a new computer only to realise a few weeks later that you made a big…BIG mistake. The seller won’t take it back and there’s no way you can afford to buy yet another, so technically you’re stuck for a good while at least.

Of course, making the right choice all comes down to who you are and what you need – students for example having a totally different wish-list to most others. So assuming you’re on the market for a laptop perfectly suited to a student’s lifestyle, what kinds of things should you be looking for?

Overall Power

It’s always tempting to look at the CPU and RAM a laptop boasts and base your decision on this and this alone. But ask yourself – how much power do you honestly think you need? Are you buying a laptop for the sake of your studies, your social life and your general entertainment, or are you really in need of a high-power gaming and video-editing leviathan of a machine? Things have come so far as of late that even entry-level specs in terms of overall power are usually more than you’ll ever need in a basic workhorse computer.

Hard Disk Space

The more of the stuff you have to play with, the better. The reason being that while you’ll of course need to back up your files, it makes life so much easier if you can have the primary copy of everything of importance all in one place. There’s nothing worse than having a thousand external hard drives, USB sticks and DVDs scattered all over the place and not having a clue where the files you need are.

Anti-Virus

Chances are you’ll be doing a hell of a lot of web surfing and downloading, so don’t for a minute overlook the importance of the strongest anti-virus protection…even if you have to pay for it!

Backup

And along with physically backing up your most important files, be sure to go with a package that includes some kind of cloud storage or backup facility. After all, a flood or fire could always wipe out the whole lot, but a cloud backup is secured against pretty much everything.

Battery Life

A laptop with a 30-minute battery is about as much use to a student as a pen with no ink. Be sure to look into battery life before spending a penny and think realistically about how much you need.

Portability

A pretty obvious point really – you’ll face the prospect of carrying the thing around to and from all manner of places in all weathers, so you really don’t want a half-ton brick that’s the size of a small hatchback. Maybe consider a 9-inch or 10-inch notebook.

Durability

And finally, it’s inevitable that pretty much everything you own will get bashed and battered to hell while being subjected to student life. Which means that while you can’t expect a bullet-proof laptop for £200, you can at least look out for one that’s got a good reputation for durability and won’t fall to pieces the first time you sneeze on it.