Image: IDG / Brendan Nystedt
If you’re a teacher, you know what a difference it makes to be prepared with the right tools and supplies. While pencils and sanitizer are no doubt important, a proper laptop is an essential tool for today’s educators. Of course, you’re going to want value for your purchase, with a focus on the right specs. You’ll need something that delivers powerful processing performance. Ample storage is important as well, so there’s no concern about storing a multitude of documents and media files. If you’re not sure where to begin your search, don’t worry. The team at PCWorld has done most of the heavy lifting for you. In this article, we’ll highlight the best laptops for teachers available right now.
It’s back to school season and that means it’s the perfect time to take advantage of the great offers available and score a killer deal on tech for teachers. To see the very best deals around check out our roundup of the best back to school deals for more. And for even more recommendations, see our roundup of the best laptops.
Updated 07/30/2023: To include the Acer Aspire 3 as our new choice for best budget option. Read our summary below to learn more about this great affordable new pick.
Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra – Best laptop for teachers overall
Pros
Solid performance and great battery life
Gorgeous, powerful OLED screen
A 1080p webcam with Windows Studio Effects
Good interaction with Galaxy device ecosystem and apps
Cons
Average keyboard, trackpad
Audio needs some tweaking
With its superb battery life, lightweight form factor, and powerful CPU performance, the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra has a lot to offer. The 1080p webcam is a nice addition for remote learning, too. As for the battery life, our tests showed that it trounced the competition with 13.1 continuous hours of use, which means you can kiss those outlet-hunting days goodbye.
The Galaxy Book3 Ultra features a 13th-gen Intel Core i7 CPU, the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. With that kind of power this machine should have no problem handling productivity tasks as well as day-to-day use. It also comes with a 16-inch OLED display that boasts a resolution of 2880×1800 and a refresh rate of 120Hz. Visuals should be both vivid and detailed. If you’re looking for a laptop that ticks all of the productivity boxes and more, then the Galaxy Book3 Ultra is well worth consideration.
Read our full
Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra review
Acer Aspire 3 – Best budget option
Pros
Spacious keyboard with number pad
HD webcam
Solid video playback performance
Decent business app performance
Workday-long battery life
Cons
Poor gaming graphics performance
Basic 1080p display
Small 128GB storage drive
The Acer Aspire 3 is a great option for budget-conscious teachers out there. It’s reasonably priced and performance is fast enough for everyday tasks like writing e-mails, online research, and grading homework. The full-size keyboard provides loads of room, which is perfect for longer typing sessions. While that’s all well and good, the internal bits are really what makes this laptop a good value buy.
This laptop has an Ryzen 3 7320U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of PCIe SSD storage. The 15.8-inch display has a resolution of 1080p and decent color quality. Also, in our tests we found that the battery should hold a charge for up to eight hours of continuous use—enough for the average full workday. The design, while a little utilitarian, is one of the sturdiest builds we’ve seen on a budget laptop. All in all, the Acer Aspire 3 gives you plenty of bang for relatively few bucks.
Acer Aspire Vero 14 – Best eco-friendly option
Pros
Peppy performance
Strong battery life
Thunderbolt 4
Eco-friendly materials
Convenient, fast fingerprint reader
Cons
Bloatware
Weak speakers
Soldered-on RAM, not upgradeable
For the eco-conscious teacher, the Acer Aspire Vero 14, made from 30 percent post-consumer recycled plastics, is a great option. Acer should be commended for its design of the Vero 14, which is not only eco-friendly, but attractive and includes a few unique touches that help it stand out. It’s no slouch in the performance department either, sporting a Core i7 processor, Iris Xe integrated graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a fast 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD. The Vero 14 is an attractive ultraportable for the eco-conscious educator.
Read our full
Acer Aspire Vero 14 review
Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen – Best 2-in-1
Pros
Attractive, thin design
Excellent OLED display
All USB-C ports support display, power
Touchscreen with bundled active pen
Cons
Underwhelming graphics performance
Only one USB-A port
More expensive than 2022 model
Lenovo’s flagship line of Yoga laptops have always been top-tier 2-in-1s, but the latest Gen 8 version has taken it a step further. Lenovo’s new Yoga 9i upgrades previous versions with a new 13th-gen Intel processor and a beautiful OLED screen. Thanks to the aforementioned Core i7 processor, Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 512GB SSD, there is plenty of performance for everyday productivity tasks. It’s also a sleekly designed svelte laptop that’s just over half an inch thick and weighs a mere 3 pounds. There are some great extras for teachers with this laptop as well. These include the 1080p webcam, which helps you look nice for online lessons and meetings, an OLED touchscreen display, and an included stylus pen for when you want to flip the screen back and use the device in tablet mode.
Admittedly, it’s a bit pricey, but all of the great performance and features you get with the Yoga 9i make it good value for the money. 2-in-1s in general make great tools for teachers as they are flexible enough to fit into any setting and they can fulfill multiple roles. For anyone looking to purchase a 2-in-1, the Yoga 9i should be at the top of your list.
Read our full
Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 review
HP Dragonfly Pro – Best MacBook alternative
Pros
Premium materials
Powerful AMD Ryzen chip
Surprising four speaker setup
Good battery life
High degree of value for the dollar
Cons
All myHP keyboard keys should be remappable
No user upgradeable components
No headphone jack
Only 2 high-speed USB-C ports
Apple’s line of MacBook Pro laptops are known for their attractive design, incredible efficiency, and great performance. But they are also extremely expensive. Now HP has created a worthy competitor with the Dragonfly Pro. They partnered with AMD to create a svelte laptop that packs the latest Ryzen 7 processor with 8 high-performance cores and a powerful Radeon 680M graphic card. The design of the laptop is spot on—it’s thin and attractive with a high quality feel made from aluminum and polycarbonate. The main drawback is that, just like the MacBook Pro models, this laptop takes a minimalist approach to ports, meaning that those who rely on plug-in accessories will need to find work arounds. Also, while the display is good enough, it just doesn’t quite live up to Apple’s best. Still, for a laptop that is significantly cheaper than any of the MacBook Pro models, this Dragonfly Pro laptop from HP is an excellent option.
Read our full
HP Dragonfly Pro review
Acer Chromebook Spin 514 – Best Chromebook
Pros
Great processor performance
Sturdy, premium design
Top-notch keyboard and touchpad
Two USB-C ports with Power Delivery
Long battery life
Cons
A bit heavy for a 2-in-1 device
Display could be brighter
Android game performance is unreliable
Expensive compared to Windows alternatives
If you prefer using ChromeOS over Windows, the Acer Chromebook Spin 514 is a fantastic option. It has great battery life and a spectacular keyboard and touchpad. According to our reviewer, the Spin 514 features a “wide keyboard layout with large, easily located keys.” In addition to the dual USB-C ports with power delivery and a sophisticated-looking design, CPU performance is also quite peppy.
The Spin 514 comes equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 5625C CPU, AMD Radeon graphics, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of SSD storage. The display, which folds back 360 degrees thanks to the 2-in-1 form factor, features a resolution of 1920×1080 and is touch-enabled. The picture should be clear enough for day-to-day use like checking e-mail and social media feeds. The $699.99 price tag is a little high for a Chromebook, but if you’re working with a flexible budget, then this machine won’t disappoint.
Read our full
Acer Chromebook Spin 514 review
Read our round-up of the best laptop chargers.
How we tested
The PCWorld team puts each and every Windows laptop through a series of benchmarks that test GPU and CPU performance, battery life, and so on. The idea is to push the laptop beyond its limits and then compare it against others we’ve tested. Chromebooks, on the other hand, go through a series of web-based tests. It wouldn’t be possible to run the same kinds of tests on a Chromebook, as they’re Chrome OS-based machines. Below, you’ll find a breakdown of each test.
Windows laptops
PCMark 10: The PCMark 10 benchmark is how we determine how well the laptop handles general use tasks like web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, streaming, and so on.
HandBrake: HandBrake is more intensive than PCMark 10. It measures how long a laptop’s CPU takes to encode a beefy 30GB file.
Cinebench: Cinebench is a brief stress test of the CPU cores. It renders a 2D scene over a short period of time.
3DMark: 3DMark checks if 3D performance remains consistent over time by running graphic-intensive clips. This is how we test a gaming laptop’s GPU.
Video rundown test: To gauge battery life, we loop a 4K video using Windows 10’s Movies & TV app until the laptop dies.
Chromebooks
CrXPRT 2: The CrXPRT 2 benchmark tests a Chromebook’s battery life.
Speedometer 2.0: This test determines a Chromebook’s web browser performance. It simulates this by adding, completing, and removing a to-do list.
Basemark Web 3.0: This benchmark gauges how well a Chromebook can handle web-based applications.
Kraken 1.1: Kraken 1.1 is a JavaScript performance benchmark.
Jetstream 2: Jetstream 2 is a combination of WebAssembly and JavaScript benchmarks. This is how we gauge how well a Chromebook runs advanced workloads.
FAQ
1.
How much processing power do I need?
You won’t need a ton of processing power when it comes to lightweight tasks like grading homework, researching topics, answering student e-mail’s, and so on. That’s why we recommend aiming for something with an Intel Core i5 processor. It’s zippy enough for everyday use while still being reasonably priced. If you need more power, shoot for an Intel Core i7.
2.
What about RAM?
To get the best performance out of your laptop, we recommend at least 8GB of DDR4 RAM. This will help your machine run smoother, especially if you’re using multiple programs at once. 16GB of RAM is obviously better, but it might be a little overkill depending on what you’re doing.
3.
How important is storage?
If you’re saving homework and other important files to your laptop, you’re going to want at least 512GB of SSD storage. Solid state drives are faster and quieter than hard disk drives. They’re also more durable and power efficient. If you’re using a Chromebook, you don’t need to worry much about storage, as you can save everything to the cloud.
4.
How much should my laptop weigh?
A portable laptop should weigh about three pounds or less. In terms of portability and value, we suggest getting a laptop with a 13- or 14-inch display.
5.
Does screen quality matter?
Teachers spend a great deal of time in front of a screen. If you suffer from eye strain or tension headaches, don’t settle for anything less than 1080p resolution. If you can stretch your budget a bit more, 4K should provide a very sharp picture, and OLED tends to be more color accurate.
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