Your field of study decides your laptop choice, not trends or personal preferences.

For humanities majors, an Intel i5 or Apple A-series chip, along with 8GB RAM and 256GB storage, will suffice. Spend the saved cash on a good pair of headphones to block out campus noise.

Computer science students should go for at least 16GB RAM, as compiling code and running virtual machines can be resource-intensive. A bit of extra power won’t hurt either; your future self will thank you when handling complex modules.

Graphic designers and photographers need a laptop that’s also a portable studio. Look for screens with 100% DCI-P3 or P3 coverage, along with at least 512GB storage to accommodate all those PSD files.

If you’re into video editing or working in 3D, you’ll need serious horsepower: an Intel i9 or Apple M-series Pro/Max, and a dedicated GPU. Big projects often require big power.