Best Laptops for Medical Students and Professionals

Electronic gadgets like laptops, tablets, and mobile phones have become integral to our lives in the modern technological era. These gadgets have grown increasingly important in the health and education sectors worldwide.

While studying medicine, you must have the right tools to complete your journey through medical college. A laptop is one of the most essential electronic tools a medical student should possess. Not only will a good laptop help you greatly with your studies, but it will also serve you well for years, even after graduating from medical college.

Unfortunately, many medical students are clueless when choosing the best laptops for medical college.

Therefore, I have put together this comprehensive guide that contains a list of the best laptops for medical students and some of the important considerations to keep in mind when buying a laptop for medical college.

5 best laptops for medical students

Let’s go through my picks for the top 5 laptops available for medical students.

1. Apple MacBook Air

Apple is a trendy brand name in most parts of the world. The Apple MacBook Air is a great choice for medical students because of its surprisingly lightweight (weighing only 2.8 pounds), luxurious design, and powerful features. It features an M2/M1 chip (if you opt for an older version), the fastest CPU ever made by Apple that performs up to 3.5 times faster than the previous generations.

The laptop also includes 8GB of RAM and offers 256/518 GB of SSD storage space to choose from. Despite its excellent performance, the MacBook Air still provides an impressive battery life of more than 13 hours, allowing you to spend more time working without worrying about your laptop shutting down abruptly.

The MacBook Air also features a 15.3-inch/13.3-inch Retina display with a sharp, crystal-clear image. Moreover, its keyboard has a unique scissor mechanism that gives you a smooth typing experience. Also, Siri and Touch ID remain in use for the MacBook Air. However, it is a premium laptop and not an ideal choice for medical students with a tight budget.

Also see: Best MacBooks for Students in 2024: Ranked

Other Apple laptops that you can look for are:

2. Dell Inspiron 15

The Dell Inspiron 15 is a great choice for students who want a decent performance at a reasonable price. Although this model isn’t too expensive, it nevertheless gives a premium feel by virtue of its sleek exterior. Most medical students will find its 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage space sufficient for multitasking and carrying out daily tasks at an excellent speed.

The Inspiron 5 features a full-size backlit keyboard with a numeric keypad, allowing you to work under low light conditions comfortably. It also comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 processor (instead of the standard Intel Core processors) and an AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics card to let you do light gaming in your free time.

However, the Inspiron 5 is not the best choice for outdoor use because it’s on the heavier side, weighing about 4.3 pounds. Nevertheless, it would be a suitable option if you only need a reasonably priced laptop to use at home for your online classes or research for medical college.

Related: Dell Laptop Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals

3. Asus ZenBook Duo

If you’re seeking a 2-in-1 laptop model, consider the ASUS ZenBook Duo. Unlike most modern laptops, its unconventional design gives it a very stylish look. It offers highly versatile connectivity with its Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.0 ports. Moreover, its Intel Wi-Fi 6 will keep you perpetually connected to the Internet.

Apart from its 14-inch Full HD NanoEdge touchscreen glossy main display, the ZenBook Duo also includes the ScreenPad Plus – a secondary 12.6 inch-matte touchscreen right above the keyboard. It is a unique touchscreen that allows students to view multiple windows simultaneously – an excellent way of maximizing productivity.

The laptop loads lightning fast by virtue of its 8GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage space, and robust Intel Core i7 processor. It also features a special ErgoLift design that tilts the keyboard upwards to a more comfortable position while simultaneously improving cooling and audio performance.

The ZenBook Pro weighs just about 2.6 pounds, making it a portable device that every medical student can easily carry around. However, you’ll have to keep its charger at hand because it has a relatively short battery life of approximately five hours.

4. Acer Aspire 5

Medical students with a restricted budget are naturally inclined towards cheaper laptops. However, just because a laptop is inexpensive doesn’t mean it has to be poor in terms of quality. In this vein, the Acer Inspire 5 is one of the best budget laptops that guarantee excellent performance.

The Aspire 5 has all the crucial features you’ll require, such as a Windows OS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a sufficiently powerful processor that delivers a high processing speed. Moreover, it has up to 16 GB of RAM and up to 1TB of SSD storage space. As a result, you likely won’t experience any lag even when multiple tabs are open on your web browser. Apart from all the necessary ports, the laptop also has an HDMI port for users who want to extend the screen.

With the Acer Aspire 5, you will also get a luxurious 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 HD display for an exceptional visual experience. It is quite portable as well, weighing just under four pounds. However, you’ll have to keep its charger at hand because its battery only lasts up to seven hours.

5. Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3

The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 is a highly lightweight laptop, weighing only about 3.3 pounds. As a result, it is effortless to hold and carry around – especially with its narrow bezel design. Also, its 14-inch display with a full 1920 x 1080 resolution is the right size for medical students to go through their notes and study without straining their eyes.

Despite its size and weight, the IdeaPad 3 has reasonably powerful specs. It features an Intel processor, up to 12GB of DDR4 RAM, and up to 1TB of SSD storage space. It also includes an Nvidia GeForce RTX3050 graphics card to help medical students easily handle most multimedia applications. These specs also allow it to smoothly handle video editing in case the user needs to put together a video presentation for creating a documentary or documenting work. To relax after a hard day of studying, you can also play a good range of games with this laptop.

What should a medical student look for in a laptop?

For a more in-depth guide, see Beginner’s Checklist for Buying a New Laptop.

To find the best laptops for medical college in a market filled with dozens of options, you must consider some important factors to filter out products that don’t meet your requirements and choose from a shorter list of more suitable laptops. These factors include:

1. Display

Medical students need to watch videos of surgical procedures, read medical journals, and take notes during the learning process in college. Therefore, your laptop’s display must be crisp, clear and protective for your eyesight.

Ideally, you should buy a laptop with a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution for excellent image quality and clarity for an affordable price. A laptop’s panel also affects the quality of the display, and models with IPS panels are generally more recommendable.

Since the display size is more of a personal preference, you can choose a product based on yours. Most modern laptops are available in the range of 11 inches to 17 inches.

2. Weight and portability

Medical students often use their laptops in outdoor areas such as libraries and cafeterias. Therefore, your laptop should be lightweight and portable. On average, a portable laptop should weigh about 4 pounds or less. You’ll likely have trouble carrying it around if it's heavier than that.

Usually, the bigger the size of a laptop, the heavier it is. However, there are some models that possess a pretty large screen size but are still lightweight enough for optimal portability. On the other hand, portability might not be an issue for day scholars who frequently study at home.

3. Processor

A laptop’s processor is a key component determining its overall performance. The Intel Core i3 is an entry-level processor that serves the basic needs of most medical students. At one level higher, the Intel Core i5 processor offers an ideal balance between budget and performance.

If you want an even better performance than the i5, consider the Intel Core i7 processor. It is rather expensive but offers a solid performance, allowing you to perform a wider range of tasks.

Apart from the well-known Intel Core processors, another incredible budget option available in the market is AMD processors such as the Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7. However, these processors tend to get hot, so ensure your laptop has a decent cooling system.

4. RAM

Your laptop’s RAM (random-access memory) determines how smoothly all the applications can run together on the device. The more RAM a laptop has, the more applications it can run simultaneously in a smooth manner.

Although 4GB of RAM should be sufficient for light uses, you’ll likely start experiencing lag when multitasking. Therefore, I recommend going for 8GB of RAM as it is more suitable for heavier and more complex programs. Also, it will let you run more browser tabs smoothly.

You’ll find laptops with 16GB and even up to 32GB of RAM in the market, but they aren’t necessary to get you through medical college. However, it’s better if your laptop can be upgraded for more RAM because you never know when you might need additional RAM.

5. Storage space

Most medical students should be happy enough with a storage capacity between 256GB and 512GB. However, it’s more important to consider the type of storage because it determines how well your laptop performs.

There are two types of storage systems – HDD (mechanical hard drive) and SSD (solid-state drive). I don’t recommend any device with an HDD because it is generally much slower than an SSD. Fortunately, most top laptops today include an SSD, but you should still stay aware, just in case.

6. Battery life

Since you will be using your laptop frequently, choose a product with a battery life of seven hours and above, which is usually enough for half a day. Make sure you charge it beforehand if you don’t want to carry the charger around.

However, remember that the marketed battery life of a laptop is not usually fully accurate because every user utilizes it differently. To learn more, you should read other buyers' reviews and what they use the laptop for.

7. Budget

Finally, your budget is one of the most crucial aspects to consider. Due to the presence of various specs on the market, laptop prices can vary greatly. Remember that the best laptops for medical students aren’t the ones with the highest specs but the best performance for your budget.

Laptop prices can range from as low as a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars. However, an ideal range for medical students is somewhere between $500 to $3000. Always set a budget first and look for the best laptop within it because it’s pointless to empty your bank account for a superior laptop you might not fully utilize.

Conclusion

Electronic devices are an integral part of our daily lives now. As a medical student, you must have an efficient laptop. However, because of the huge selection of laptop models on the market, finding the ideal one for your requirements is challenging.

After reading this guide, you should have all the necessary information to find the best laptop for medical school. If you keep the above considerations in mind, you can narrow your search and purchase an appropriate laptop to make your college life easier.

Last update on 2024-10-06 using Amazon Product Advertising API.