A laptop for a student: what to look at

Ten browser tabs, Word and Zoom open at once is more than 8 GB can handle. Do not take less than 16 GB: on many laptops the memory is soldered to the board and cannot be added later. Get 512 GB of storage; 256 GB fills up by the second year.

A laptop carried in a bag every day should weigh no more than 1.6 kg. A 14-⁠inch screen fits a bag easily: the Dell Inspiron 14 weighs 1.54 kg and the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED 1.2 kg. A 15.6-⁠inch laptop gives you a number pad, which accounting and engineering students like.

Lecture halls do not always have sockets. Apple M5 laptops run 15 to 18 hours, most Windows laptops 7 to 10: look at the battery’s capacity in watt-hours and aim for more than 50. The Zenbook has 75, the Inspiron 54 and the HP Laptop 15 has 41 Wh: with the HP you will carry the adapter in your bag.

Ask your lecturers which software the course uses. The full AutoCAD, 1C and some statistics packages run only on Windows. For design, video and programming the MacBook Air 13″ is comfortable, and it is silent because it has no fan. If you want a bigger screen there is the 15-⁠inch version.

With the Hissə card a laptop is split over 12 months with no interest: the HP Laptop 15 at ₼1,449 comes to ₼120.75 a month. Without the card you can apply for store credit at checkout and get a preliminary decision in a few minutes. The terms are on the instalments page.