| Laptops are the perfect educational tool for | | | | want to use your notebook for any extra |
| students. They can handle an innumerable | | | | curricular activities, such as gaming or |
| amount of tasks and serve many different | | | | multimedia production. |
| functions that allow students to consolidate | | | | |
| all of their class assignments and home | | | | Unless you intend to do higher-level |
| studies into one convenient location, which | | | | networking, or unless your school requires |
| simplifies workflow and increases | | | | domain-based authentication to access the |
| productivity. | | | | school network (check with your IT |
| | | | department), Windows XP Home Edition should |
| The two most important things to look for in | | | | more than meet your needs for an Operating |
| a student laptop are portability and battery | | | | System. |
| life. This laptop will likely be carried in a | | | | |
| backpack or shoulder bag from class to class, | | | | Lastly, you will need some office suite |
| so you will definitely want a system that is | | | | software to process and edit your reports and |
| light and easy to transport. There is also no | | | | class assignments. Microsoft Office Basic |
| guarantee that you will have access to an | | | | will be able to handle most of your needs, |
| auxiliary power supply in your classroom or | | | | however, if you plan on doing any slide-show |
| on campus, so you will most likely want a | | | | presentations or website creation, you will |
| battery that lasts up to several hours per | | | | want to go with Office Pro. |
| charge. | | | | |
| | | | These are the main things you need to know |
| Desktop real estate can be limited in your | | | | and consider before purchasing a student |
| class, so you want to make sure your laptop | | | | laptop. This is just a general outline. Feel |
| is compact and economical in size, preferably | | | | free to make additional customizations if you |
| around 14" X 10" in general dimensions. | | | | have specific requirements for school. |
| | | | |
| As far as individual specifications, you can | | | | Please, check out these recommendations for |
| get by with most base configurations. A | | | | the best notebook computers for students. |
| 1.66GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, a 40GB hard | | | | |
| drive, and a standard DVD/CDRW drive should | | | | This article may be republished freely as |
| suffice, but you may wish to upgrade certain | | | | long as this copyright notice and box of |
| components depending on whether or not you | | | | resource links are included at the bottom. |