When selecting a laptop to use for online teaching, efficiency, and affordability should both be top priorities. Online educators need a machine that’s both cost-effective and capable of handling their day-to-day duties, making laptops with excellent features affordable yet impressive performance ideal. There are many such models out there.
If you want to skip the reviews, we say get the Acer Aspire Vero 14″ IPS 2023.
Best Laptops For Teaching Online Reviews
Acer Aspire 5
- 8th Generation Intel Core i5-8265U Processor (Upto 3.9 gram Hz) | 8 GB DDR4 Memory | 256 GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- 15.6 Inches Full HD (1920 x 1080) Widescreen LED-backlit IPS Display | Intel UHD Graphics 620
- 1 - USB 3.1 Type C Gen 1 port, 2 - USB 3.1 Gen 1 Ports (one with Power-off Charging), 1 - USB 2.0 Port &...
- 802.11ac WiFi | Backlit Keyboard | Fingerprint Reader | Upto 9.5 Hours Battery Life
The Acer Aspire 5 laptop is an excellent option for anyone seeking a machine with long battery life and reasonable pricing.
Starting at around $400 for Intel processor models or $350 for AMD processor models, the Aspire 5 provides affordable laptop computing that will handle most basic tasks as well as light photo or video editing duties.
This laptop is also extremely lightweight at just over an inch thick and 3.8 pounds (1.7 kg), making it easy to transport while traveling; in fact, we consider this one of the thinnest and lightest laptops with 15.6-inch displays that we have reviewed.
While the display quality may not be great at this price point, IPS screens with standard resolution 1080p offer good viewing angles, natural colors, and decent contrast levels and decent viewing angles while poor brightness may require you to use this laptop indoors or in shaded outdoor locations in order to avoid glare issues when outdoors.
Acer’s laptop boasts an SSD for fast data access and 8GB of RAM to deliver reliable performance for web browsing, office applications, and light photo or video editing tasks.
If your needs require something more powerful to accommodate complex or demanding tasks like photo or video editing or more advanced graphics/faster CPU capabilities such as the Dell Inspiron 14 3000 series laptop.
Another option would be the Acer Aspire 5, now equipped with the 10th generation Intel Core processor and faster SSD. While you will pay more, this upgrade provides better graphics performance as well as a more comfortable keyboard experience.
The Aspire 5 may not have the sleekest appearance available, but its clean and straightforward design should appeal to most users.
While it lacks metal components or fancy bezels or modern chassis found on other laptops, such as those made by MSI or Lenovo, for a lower price it may still make an ideal option. Unfortunately, though, its lack of a backlit keyboard can make typing in dim lighting challenging at times.
HP Stream 11.6-inch HD Laptop
The HP Stream is what Windows netbooks were always meant to be: at $200, it provides many users with all of the apps, services, and features they require in an affordable package.
Perfect for students doing basic coursework on the go; even beats Chromebooks when it comes to battery life and screen quality!
As is typical with budget laptops, the Stream is not intended for intensive tasks. Although its Intel Celeron processor can manage basic work, anything more demanding may prove challenging for it.
Battery life averages seven hours; screen brightness might turn some users away; however, portability and lightweightness make the Stream an attractive option.
Another feature that sets this laptop apart from others in its price range is its solid construction. Made of plastic, its chassis is sturdy enough to withstand regular use while looking sleek and sophisticated; featuring glossy finishes on both its lid and body that features half-HP logos with horizontal ridges running along their bottom edges and soft matte surfaces on other parts. Finally, there’s the keyboard.
The Stream’s meager internal storage capacity is supplemented by two cloud services, Dropbox providing 1TB of free storage per year and OneDrive preloaded with Office 365.
There are other helpful utilities, like HP Orbit which links your phone with your laptop (similar to Samsung SideSync) so you can manage both devices from a single app; Bluetooth and WiFi b/g/n are available, plus two USB 3.1 ports as well as Kensington security slot on its left and an HDMI port on its right for managing both devices simultaneously.
The Stream’s storage performed admirably in our CrystalDiskMark tests, though its speed fell short of matching that of an SSD. While fast enough for most uses, you might benefit from upgrading to an external hard drive if your files exceed this capacity; don’t forget that the device offers multiple formats of SD media card readers for expansion!
Dell XPS 15
- 62 percent larger touchpad, 5 percent larger screen, and 5.6 percent smaller footprint
- 16:10 FHD plus edge to edge display equipped with DisplayHDR 400 and Dolby Vision
- Integrated Eyesafe display technology
- Quad speaker design with Waves Nx audio
- High-polished diamond-cut sidewalls
Dell XPS laptops have long been considered the pinnacle of portable Windows computing, with this latest iteration continuing its great performance across both daily tasks and high-end gaming.
One notable change is an awe-inspiring OLED display featuring Dell’s Infinity Edge bezels with thin bezels that appear seamless when viewing; this results in a 92.9 percent screen-to-body ratio making this model almost impossible to miss!
Dell has further upgraded the internals of this XPS 15 with 8th-gen Intel processors and Nvidia graphics cards to deliver impressive multitasking and gaming performance.
I was easily able to run multiple Chrome tabs, Slack conversations, Spotify streams, YouTube videos, and downloads without experiencing any slowdown or loss in quality – a testament to this machine being truly all-purpose.
Like its predecessor, the XPS 15 boasts superior build quality. There’s no sign of flex or twist in its lid, keyboard tray, or chassis border; everything feels incredibly well-built; few other laptops can match its quality in terms of build.
This attention to detail is especially noticeable in its hinge, which features a double-clutch mechanism to open with just one hand while holding the display securely in place.
Though the Dell XPS 15 doesn’t offer many external ports, its slim and lightweight body allows me to comfortably plug in two USB-C cables and a power adapter without feeling cramped or overwhelmed. Plus it comes equipped with Thunderbolt 4, supporting up to 40Gbps of transfer.
The XPS 15 offers several OEM-branded apps and utilities, without much in the way of unnecessary bloatware.
You’ll find Dell Update, Digital Delivery, and myDell for customizing power, audio, and display settings; Killer Intelligence Center and SupportAssist provide troubleshooting assistance; while Game Booster lets you optimize gaming setup while altering various settings.
Apple 2020 MacBook Air Laptop M1 Chip
- All-Day Battery Life – Go longer than ever with up to 18 hours of battery life.
- Powerful Performance – Take on everything from professional-quality editing to action-packed gaming...
- Superfast Memory – 8GB of unified memory makes your entire system speedy and responsive. That way it...
- Stunning Display – With a 13.3 inch Retina display, images come alive with new levels of realism. Text...
- Why Mac – Easy to learn. Easy to set up. Astoundingly powerful. Intuitive. Packed with apps to use...
The MacBook Air (M1, 2020) marks Apple’s inaugural laptop to feature its M1 processor. Additionally, its updated display supports P3 color gamut support, making it one of the premier 13-inch laptops for digital creatives today.
Perhaps most significant though is that this version now runs fanless – meaning less power use and quieter operation overall.
This laptop remains highly portable, and its battery easily lasts through an 8-hour workday for light productivity.
The display is vivid and clear, as are its keyboard and touchpad; though it does get somewhat hot under load compared with fanless machines; though only having two USB-C ports, adapters will need to be brought along if additional hardware needs connecting.
Apple’s M1 chip excels in benchmark tests like Geekbench, with strong single and multithreaded performance, as well as decent GPU, compute performance compared to dedicated graphics cards.
As a result, it makes the MacBook Air an excellent lightweight laptop solution for students and other users who require productive tasks in a lightweight form factor.
On the downside, however, this laptop may not be as silent as you may expect. Although most times it runs silently, its lack of fans does mean internal components can heat up to an extent that may result in hearing an audible whine from time to time.
Furthermore, its display might not always look accurate depending on the application unless using Apple’s True Tone technology.
The Apple MacBook Air is a premium thin and light laptop available at an attractive price point.
Easily portable, featuring an excellent keyboard and large and responsive touchpad as well as an attractive webcam for video calls, its powerful processor also outpaces similar models such as ASUS ZenBook UX330 while offering greater battery life thanks to M1 processor technology.
Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 13.3”
- QLED DISPLAY - Stream and browse on a gorgeous QLED touchscreen which touts virtually 100% color volume...
- SLIM 360 DESIGN - Seamlessly convert your ultra-slim, Royal Blue aluminum device from laptop to tablet in...
- POWERHOUSE PROCESSOR - Enjoy minimal lag, near-instantaneous startup, and 512GB of storage with the...
- LONG-LASTING BATTERY - Work and stream to your heart’s content thanks to the fast-charging battery that...
- BLUETOOTH PEN - Make your screen a canvas as you take notes, sketch, or use intuitive gestures to start...
The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 13.3″ laptop represents a major advancement from previous efforts from this manufacturer.
Drawing features from other parts of its empire such as TVs and tablets, its display boasts one of the slimmest bezels around; in addition, its performance makes it suitable for students and young professionals who may need to do some work while watching Netflix or just relaxing.
This laptop from Samsung marks its inaugural use of QLED technology, which uses quantum dots instead of regular LEDs to produce a brighter and more colorful screen.
It’s ultra slim and light; boasting an outstanding contrast ratio (1,213) while reaching up to 460 nits in brightness; though pushing this high will quickly deplete battery life.
Our tests demonstrated excellent color accuracy, with 100% coverage for sRGB and 85% coverage for Adobe RGB – meaning this display accurately displayed photos and videos while being suitable for most professional creative tasks.
Furthermore, its touch-enabled display was an added benefit; you can use both fingers or the included stylus. However, responsiveness wasn’t as great as you’d hope – you cannot tap with two fingers simultaneously on its touch-sensitive display for instance.
One great addition is a built-in stylus dock on the left side of the chassis that allows users to charge and connect their stylus at once – this feature makes life much simpler compared to using a tethered pen with other laptops such as Dell XPS 15.
Bloatware on Windows 10 PCs has become significantly less of an issue over time, yet Samsung Galaxy Book Flex still comes equipped with apps that may not be essential for its target audience. Thankfully, these are nonintrusive and do not consume system resources in the background.
The Galaxy Book Flex’s impressive battery life is an attractive selling point for student buyers. Our web surfing test revealed an outstanding runtime of 15 hours and 44 minutes – far surpassing that of either the Dell XPS 15 (4K non-OLED: 8:48) or HP Spectre x360 OLED (7:14).
Acer Aspire Vero 14″ IPS 2023
- 【12th Gen Intel Core i5-1235U】Latest Powerful and Efficient 12th Generation Intel Core i5-1235U...
- 【Upgraded Powerful Storage】16GB LPDDR4x, 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD. Substantial high-bandwidth RAM to...
- 【Display and Graphics】14" Widescreen IPS LED-Backlit FHD (1920 x 1080) Display, 60 Hz Refresh Rate,...
- 【Connectivity and Ports】Intel Wi-Fi 6E (2x2/160) Gig+ and Bluetooth 5.2; 1x Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C...
- 【Intel Iris Xe Graphics】Impressive performance for creating, gaming, and entertainment. A new level...
The Acer Aspire Vero is an excellent budget-friendly notebook, boasting enough power for daily student tasks while being relatively comfortable to use and offers great battery life.
Furthermore, its use of recycled materials helps lower carbon emissions; but there are green laptops that offer more performance at the same price point, such as Apple MacBook Pro, Dell XPS 13, or HP Envy 13.
Acer’s Vero laptop features a 13th generation Intel processor and 15.6″ Full HD IPS display, 16GB RAM, and runs Windows 11 home operating system.
Furthermore, this laptop comes equipped with features like Bluetooth connectivity, an SD card reader, and a touchpad made from recycled ocean plastics – adding another touch of environmental friendliness!
This IPS display is excellent for web browsing and working in Office programs, featuring a 1,920×1,080 resolution with a matte finish.
However, its brightness levels may struggle in bright sunlight; the contrast ratio is also relatively low; the keyboard is comfortable but lacks spaciousness while speakers do not produce low bass notes making video calls challenging to understand.
While the Acer Aspire Vero may be budget-friendly, it isn’t the most energy-efficient notebook for students. Dell XPS 13 and HP Envy 13 use less energy while providing superior keyboard experiences.
The Acer Aspire Vero is an impressive budget laptop. Its powerful Intel processor and long battery life are certainly major attractions; plus its sleek design features and use of recycled materials add another plus factor.
If you are willing to spend more, other green laptops like Samsung Galaxy Book Flex or HP EliteBook Folio G1 may provide more power and features at similar prices; but for an eco-friendly notebook with both style and performance in mind then this may be worth your consideration; help save the planet while doing homework or research papers!
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 – 12.3″ Touch-Screen
- Next-gen, best-in-class laptop with the versatility of a studio and tablet, so you can type, touch, draw,...
- Faster than surface pro 6, with a 10th gen intel core processor – redefining what’s possible in a...
- More ways to connect, with both USB-c and USB-a ports for connecting to displays, docking stations and...
- Standout design that won’t weigh you down — ultra-slim and light surface pro 7 starts at just 1.70...
- All day battery life up to 10.5 hours, Plus the ability to go from empty to full faster — about 80...
This lightweight laptop was created to meet your diverse needs, offering multiple modes to meet them. Use it as a digital whiteboard, meetings platform, and collaborative computing device with its sleek design and exceptional audio quality helping keep you focused and productive.
The Surface Pro 7 is an iconic 2-in-1 with high-speed performance and built-in security, making it an excellent choice for students needing lightweight computers with plenty of ports such as USB-C for faster file transfers and charging accessories.
Plus, its updated processor makes this model more responsive than ever resulting in great battery life!
Fast enough to support demanding apps while running multiple programs and applications simultaneously, its 12″ PixelSense Display delivers stunning, true-to-life colors and incredible detail with its 3:2 aspect ratio, while its touch-sensitive pen feels natural to use while writing with Surface Dial’s intuitive gestures for navigation and selection.
Your Windows 10 Home will give you all of its power and capability, along with familiar features like password-free Windows Hello sign-in. Plus, OneDrive cloud storage keeps all your photos and documents safe!
Microsoft introduced an innovative new feature to the Surface Pro 7 this year – a USB-C port. This port allows it to be charged by portable battery packs as well as standard chargers; you can charge from 5-10% in approximately an hour. Furthermore, this port can also connect displays and docking stations.
Intel’s 10th Generation Core U-series CPUs make the new Surface Pro 7 faster than its predecessor in Geekbench 4 and PCMark 10.
A fanless Core i5-1035G4 model outscored last year’s Core i7 Surface Pro 6, even without fan cooling requirements. Furthermore, this device boasts quieter operation thanks to an enhanced thermal design that requires less cooling for cooling purposes.
One major drawback of the device is that it lacks an anti-glare layer on its screen, which may increase eye fatigue. To combat this issue, however, you can purchase an anti-glare screen protector for it.
Other notable improvements include instant on and wake on open which make the device ready to work when needed and improved battery retention with estimates indicating up to 80% retention after seven hours of standby time.
ASUS ZenBook 13 Ultra-Slim Laptop
- Aspect Ratio:16:9.Voltage:20.0 volts.Keyboard layout:qwerty
- Intel Evo Platform - The perfect combination of performance, responsiveness and battery life. Enjoy...
- 13.3 inch OLED 400nits Full HD (1920 x 1080) Wide View 4-way NanoEdge bezel display
- Latest 11th generation Intel Core i7-1165G7 Processor 2.8 GHz (12M Cache, up to 4.7 GHz) with Intel Iris...
- Windows 11 Pro
If you need an ultra-slim laptop that can meet both teaching needs and leisure activities, the Zenbook 13 is an excellent option. This model boasts an OLED screen, a powerful processor, and long battery life while being cheaper than many of its competitors.
The Zenbook 13.3-inch display offers full HD resolution and bright viewing, featuring a wide color gamut for vibrant yet natural-looking hues.
Furthermore, its antibacterial coating claims to kill 99 percent of bacteria within 24 hours – the active stylus also comes equipped with 4,096 pressure levels for pressure sensitivity recharging via USB Type-C as well as interchangeable tips.
Zenbook starts at $899, featuring a Core i7-8550U CPU, 8GB of RAM and 512GB SSD storage. With up to 12 hours of battery life per charge and available discrete Nvidia graphics options at around $100 more a version with discrete Nvidia graphics is also an attractive choice.
Though the Zenbook offers many desirable features, it also has some drawbacks. For example, its battery life doesn’t match that of some rivals in our Blender test; taking 4 minutes 19 seconds to render a 3D image was slightly slower than Dell XPS 13 or Acer Swift 5, or Apple MacBook Air M2. Furthermore, Zenbook lacks several ports.
Purchasing this model should include checking out its latest version – 2021 models feature Intel’s 11th-Gen Core processors which offer improved performance as well as support for Thunderbolt 3.
However, for future-proofing purposes it would be wiser to buy an older model equipped with 10thGen processors at a lower cost; you may even find versions featuring AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors which provide even greater value and power!
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