Best Surface devices for students and back to school (2023)

FAQs

Which is the most powerful Surface device? ›

The Surface Laptop Studio is hands-down my favorite Surface device ever, and while it didn't get a refresh in 2022, it's still one of the best Surface devices you can buy. This is the most powerful Surface laptop yet, and it comes in a unique form factor that's simply great.

Best for students: Surface Laptop Go 2

It also has battery life that will last you the school day, paired with a capable Intel Core i5 processor, up to 8GB RAM, and up to 256GB of storage.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 is a good laptop for school use. It's easy to carry around since it's thin and lightweight, and its aluminum chassis feels sturdy, with excellent build quality.

Best for individuals

If you're a student (or a parent of one) looking for a device that can handle both work and recreation, the Surface Laptop Go is an excellent choice.

The Surface is better for multimedia viewing, as its display has a better resolution, gets brighter, and has a larger gamut with far more accurate colors. Also, it's more portable, feels better built, with a backlit keyboard and a better-quality webcam and microphone.

The Surface is better for most uses, with a high refresh rate 120Hz display that's sharper, brighter, and more color accurate, a much better touchpad, and a far superior webcam and microphone that are better for video conferences. Additionally, it's much more portable since it's lighter and more compact.

The Surface Slim Pen 2 is the best pen for the Surface Pro 9. It replicates a pen-to-paper feel thanks to the haptic motors inside the pen. It's also flat and sits inside the Type Cover keyboard to recharge.

If you need a machine for work, you can really buy either a Surface Laptop or a Surface Pro as they'll both do well with productivity. But if you specifically need an ultra-portable work PC, Surface Pro PCs are the better buy — they're lighter, and they'll still help you get your work done and help you relax later.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 is good for students. It has a full aluminum chassis that feels exceptionally well-built, and it's very portable due to its thin profile. The keyboard is comfortable to type on for long periods, the touchpad is responsive, and the display is large enough for split-screen multitasking.

Is Surface Pro basically a laptop? ›

The Surface Pro and Surface Go options are more of a tablet-first approach but can be used as a laptop with the keyboard cover accessory.

That gives the laptop a faster option than the Surface Pro 7, which is limited to 10th-gen Intel low-power Core i3-1005G1, Core i5-1035G4, and Core i7-1065G7 CPUs. In terms of processor performance, the Surface Laptop is the faster option by a wide margin. Graphics performance is more similar.

I would think with proper care and maintenance that a Surface Pro would function properly for several years (2 to 3). They utilize the latest Intel processors (same used by Apple) and the latest Windows OS. The battery would be the main limiting factor as like all batteries it has a limited number of charge cycles.

The three basic types of learning styles are visual, auditory, and kinesthetic. To learn, we depend on our senses to process the information around us.

There are 4 predominant learning styles: Visual, Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinaesthetic. While most of us may have some general idea about how we learn best, often it comes as a surprise when we discover what our predominant learning style is.

Laptop 3 runs on quad-core 10th Gen Intel Core i5 and Core i7 chips that are more powerful. with 8 gigs of RAM in the base variant, going all the way to 32GB. In term of Storage, the Surface Laptop Go starts at 64GB while Laptop 3 starts 128GB and obviously gets a faster SSD.

The Surface Laptop 5 is a disappointment. It's a design I like, and many of the essential elements are solid. The keyboard is great, the port selection has what you need, and the 3:2 display is pleasant to work on. But as a laptop released in 2022 at this price, it's falling behind.

Our most portable Surface PC is optimized for note-taking, sketching, and touch with Windows 11, and is an outstanding 2-in-1 value that can replace both your tablet and laptop.

However, the Microsoft is a tablet with a kickstand and detachable keyboard, while the HP is more of a traditional laptop with a 360-degree hinge. The Microsoft provides a better user experience overall because it has a sharper and brighter display, a more comfortable keyboard, and a more responsive touchpad.

There's no question here: if you want raw performance, the MacBook Pro models are the way to go, or at least the 14-inch and 16-inch models. The Surface Pro 8 is available with quad-core Intel 11th Gen processors, all with HyperThreading so that they can act as eight virtual cores.

Is Surface better than Dell laptop? ›

The Surface Pro 9 is the better detachable tablet 2-in-1, in terms of its inking experience, performance, and battery life. It's also more expensive than the XPS 13 2-in-1, which does offer 5G connectivity in its Intel version.

Windows 11 is designed for education

Deliver high-quality learning tools for students of all abilities with Windows 11 for education on devices that are secure, easy to deploy and manage.

Customers who are already running Windows 10 Education can upgrade to Windows 10, version 1607 through Windows Update or from the Volume Licensing Service Center. We recommend Windows 10 Education to all K-12 customers as it provides the most complete and secure edition for education environments.

Start up fast, switch tasks quickly, connect smoothly, and enjoy long battery life.

Windows 10 Education comes with specific features that benefit educators and students, while Windows 10 Pro is designed for professionals of all types to use. Windows 10 Education is effectively a variant of Windows Pro equipped with education-specific default settings and without Cortana.

HP Pavilion, Lenovo IdeaPad, Acer Aspire 7, and ASUS VivoBook are some of the top laptops for students 2021. You can select a good laptop for yourself or your kids from the various options available. You can find budget friendly laptops for students online for their educational requirements.

The Surface Pro 9 is a thin, light, and powerful tablet that runs a full version of Windows 11, making it great for office productivity on the go. It has a laptop-sized screen, a well-built hinge to keep the tablet at a perfect angle, and two USB-C ports.

Small laptops with 11- or 13-inch screens are a great choice if you have a strict budget, need extreme portability, and only need to complete basic tasks, such as Web browsing, e-mail, and word processing.

4. Microsoft Student or Teacher Discount: Free. If you're in college, you may be able to get Windows 11 for free, just by being enrolled. Microsoft offers students attending certain universities and high schools the ability to get Windows 11 Education at no cost (it's unclear if you can get Windows 10 this way anymore) ...

As an enrolled student, you are eligible for a FREE Windows 10 operating system download to upgrade your computer. This full license is yours to keep, even after you graduate.

What operating system do schools use? ›

Overall, 95 percent of schools reported using Windows 95 or a newer version of Windows, or Mac OS 7.6 or greater most frequently on their instructional computers (see table 10)⁶.

Verdict: A Long-Lasting Laptop That Needs More Attention

Microsoft's Surface Laptop 5 is, like its predecessor, a well-built laptop that prioritizes portability and a modern feature set. The construction looks and feels high quality, the screen looks nice, and the battery is long lasting.

You're going to also have to consider your specific requirements. If your college has physical LAN and no Wi-Fi, you have to choose a laptop. If you need to print a lot of stuff and format documents, again, a laptop. If you need to do video editing, image editing, and yes, gaming, you need a laptop.

A laptop is the ideal WFH computer, but spec it higher

While there's nothing wrong with a desktop PC or all-in-one computer, for most people a laptop makes the ideal computer for working from home.