Best Law School Laptop 2022

Just got into law school? It’s a good time to hunt for the best law school laptops.

Law school is daunting, intense, and competitive. Law school students tend to spend a lot of their time researching, reading, and writing. In a law school, you’ll often find people buried in books, or immersed in whatever research paper they are working on. As such, finding the best laptops for law school is highly important.

When you’re hunting around for the best laptops for law school, you can rest easy knowing most ultrabooks will fit the bill just fine.

Ultrabooks are great since they tend to have long lasting battery life, a thin and light design, and decent performance. However, even if we narrow down the best laptops to just ultrabooks for our law students, there are too many options out there to pick from.

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We’ve saved you the trouble, and conducted our own research and testing to find the best laptops for law school.

Top 3 Law School Laptop Comparison

How We Choose The Best Laptops For Law School Students

While law school students certainly don’t have it easy when pursuing their degree, they actually have a lot in common with other college students. Any college student is going to spend a considerable amount of time in front of their laptop. A lot of time is spent on reading, writing, and researching.

So, for our law students, the best laptops would be those that make their experience comfortable, and maybe even enjoyable to some extent. A law student should focus on three things when looking for the best laptop: The keyboard, display, and battery life. Other things such as storage space and performance are also important, but the former three take higher priority.

This is because a law student is going to be carrying their laptop around all the time, and subsequently, typing on it all the time. Law school students need a laptop with good battery life, so they’re not always hunting for a power outlet. You’ll often find that you are working at campus and coffee shops, as much as you would be at home.

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Since you are going to be typing so much, the keyboard experience is critical. Having a comfortable keyboard to type on is important. This way, you won’t get fed up with your work too quickly. The best keyboard on a laptop is the one that you don’t notice. It should work well, not make a lot of noise, and be generally comfortable.

Last but not least, law school students should also focus on finding a laptop with a good display. While they don’t need something color-accurate or something with a crazy high screen resolution, a good display goes a long way. Of course, you also want to enjoy watching videos when you’re just relaxing, so that’s also why a display could be important.

To summarize, the best laptops for law school should combine all three of these things to make a law student satisfied. Performance is always important, but we’ll talk later about why we aren’t going into detail about it.

With all of that in mind, we set out on our hunt for the best laptops for law school students. We found that many ultrabooks would be perfect for most law students, and our choices reflect that.

After finding ten of the best choices, we scored them based on individual categories and then ranked them accordingly. Here’s what we ended up with.

Top 10 Laptop For Law School Students

1. Microsoft Surface Pro 8 – Editor’s Choice

Size: 13 inch | CPU: Intel Core i5 1135G7 | GPU: Intel Iris XE Graphics | RAM: 8GB | Storage: 128GB SSD | Battery: 16 Hours | Resolution: 2880×1920 | Refresh Rate: 120Hz

For many law school students, the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 is by far the best laptop for law school. This is because the Surface Pro 8 is by far the most enjoyable experience for many law students, and it functions even better as a tablet. It’s hard to beat this one for its versatility and overall comfortable experience.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 competes with other 2-in-1 laptops like the Thinkpad X1 Yoga and the HP Envy x360. However, when it comes to the most efficient and complete touchscreen laptop experience, the Surface Pro 8 takes the crown.

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So, what’s so special about this device? Well, it all starts with that design. The Surface Pro line has always been well-designed, and the same is true for the Pro 8. Law students will always appreciate a lightweight laptop, especially one with low fan noise. Apart from that, anyone will be able to appreciate the sturdy hinge on the back, which allows you to adjust the viewing angle as you please.

We don’t believe many law school students may have had experience with a 120Hz display in the past, so it’s great that the Surface Pro 8 is offering that. Dragging windows, switching between full-screen and split-screen, and the overall animations have never felt smoother on Windows 10.

Compared to its predecessor, the Surface Pro 7, this Surface Pro 8 mainly brings us significant improvements like the 120Hz display and performance improvements.

If you would like, you can also get the Surface Pro 8 with Windows 11 pre-installed directly from Microsoft. Performance is good enough for our law students, thanks to the 11th Gen Core i5 inside this thing. You won’t notice any slowdown while working on Powerpoint presentations, word documents, or even while having several tabs open.

The fact that this laptop is equipped with a fast SSD also helps the performance quite a bit. Unfortunately, the base model comes with a 128GB SSD, so stick with the 256GB model for this one. You can upgrade to a terabyte of SSD storage, but that is going to cost you quite a bit.

Battery life is fantastic on the Surface Pro 8. Microsoft claims that you can get up to 16 hours out of this machine. Of course, if you were to use the pen constantly, that number will drop quite quickly. However, don’t expect most law students to be drawing a lot on this device. Still, even if you’re using the pen to take notes, battery life will still last you all day.

All of that sounds great so far, but the already expensive Surface Pro 8 gets pricier when you consider you’ll be buying the keyboard cover separately. This is a poor move from Microsoft and one that diminishes the value somewhat.

Fortunately, you will not be disappointed when you get the keyboard cover. It features a gigantic trackpad and backlit keyboard, which feels great to type on for longer sessions. It’s well worth the price, but it’s still frustrating that you need to get it separately.

The Surface Pro 8 is the best laptop for law school mainly because of its versatility. It’s great when you want to get serious work done, but works just as well when you want to relax and use it as a tablet. On top of that, you get perky performance, a comfortable typing experience, and fantastic battery life.

Rating:

• Performance: 8.5/10
• Battery: 8.5/10
• Display: 9/10
• Value for Money: 8.5/10
• Overall Rating: 9/10

2. [Best Seller] Apple M1 Macbook Air – Best Premium Laptop For Law School

Size: 13.3 inch | CPU: Apple M1 | GPU: Apple 7-core GPU | RAM: 8GB | Storage Capacity: 256GB SSD | Battery: 15-18 Hours | Resolution: 2560×1600 | Refresh Rate: 60Hz

The Apple Macbook Air has been the go-to laptop for many college students for a long time now. Throughout all of its revisions, upgrades, and design changes, the Macbook Air has never lost its popularity. This is mostly thanks to the sleek lightweight design. With the 2020 M1 refresh, the Macbook Air has never been better.

Many law students will likely be familiar with the macOS operating system. A lot of people prefer it because, like most Apple products, it just works. In our opinion, the Macbook Air is the perfect machine for law school students due to its performance and long battery life.

On the Windows side, the Thinkpad X1 Nano and HP Envy 15 come close both in terms of the lightweight design and overall features. However, the M1 processor inside the Macbook Air is really powerful and efficient, which also gives us the best battery life around this price.

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Design-wise, the M1 Macbook Air is quite similar to the 2018 version. It has the same keyboard layout, sharp angles, and rounded corners. It’s a design that stands the test of time, but the thick bezels are starting to grow old quite quickly.

While the 2020 Macbook Air is quite similar to the 2018 and 2019 versions, it is the M1 chip that brings us most of the performance improvements, even including better battery life.

The old design also means that this laptop is lacking more ports than usual. It only has two USB-C ports, both of which are Thunderbolt. The limited port selection is quite common with ultrabooks but can be a bit of a nuisance if you need those Type-A ports.

Apart from the bezels, the display here is quite good. It uses a high resolution 2560 x 1600 panel, with good colors and great brightness.

Furthermore, the speakers on this Apple laptop are excellent. We would say that the speakers on the Macbook Pro are still the gold standard for laptop audio, but these are quite good as well. Of course, the headphone jack is still present near the left side of the machine.

The laptop also features a fingerprint reader with TouchID built-in. Another interesting thing about the design is that the Macbook Air does not have a fan inside it. It’s impressive just how powerful and efficient this machine is while being completely dead silent.

Both the keyboard and trackpad here are great as usual. The keyboard uses the design from the 2018 Macbook Air, and it still works well here. This is a backlit keyboard, which is great for those long writing sessions into the night.

The trackpad is still the best we have yet to see on any laptop. Many Windows laptops have come close in the past, but Apple’s consistency with the feel of their trackpad is very hard to beat.

Of course, the Macbook Air has its downsides. The thick bezels and somewhat pricey storage options for one. Even then, that doesn’t stop the Air from providing a seamless experience for our law students out there.

Rating:

• Performance: 9/10
• Battery: 9/10
• Display: 8/10
• Value for Money: 8/10
• Overall Rating: 8.75/10

3. ASUS Vivobook S14 S433 – Best Budget Laptop For Law School

Size: 14 inch | CPU: Core i5 1135G7 | GPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics | RAM: 8GB | Storage Capacity: 512GB SSD | Battery: 9-11 Hours | Resolution: 1920×1080 | Refresh Rate: 60Hz

Both the options that we talked about above, the Microsoft Surface laptop and Macbook Air, are great options for the long-term. However, we know that college students would like to save money wherever possible, and that’s why the ASUS Vivobook S14 is so appealing. It’s nothing out of the ordinary, but just a solid, well-rounded, and affordable laptop.

It has everything you could want from a law school laptop. The specs or design here isn’t overwhelming, but it is sleeker than most of the laptops near this price. There aren’t a lot of 14-inch laptops you could get for this price either.

The HP Envy 14 comes to mind, but that one is more expensive than the Vivobook. The real competitor then would be the Lenovo Flex 5, which is a 2-in-1 laptop. From there, it comes down to if you prefer a clamshell design for better durability.

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For the money, the Vivobook S14 is quite sleek and well equipped. The S433 model we are looking at comes in four colors: Indie Black, Gaia Green, Resolute Red, and Dreamy White. We think the last option looks the cleanest and visually more appealing than the rest.

There is an odd design quirk here. The Enter key has a yellow strip running around, for whatever odd reason. It throws off the otherwise clean look of the laptop and is certainly a bit garish for the first couple of hours between use.

As for the specs, we’re getting a respectable quad-core 11th gen i5, a generous 512GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, and a 1080p display. That display does have thick bezels, but that’s par for the course for laptops around this price.

The port selection in itself is also quite good. We get two 2.0 Type-A ports, along with a microSD card slot on the right. On the left, we get an HDMI port, a USB 3.2 port, a USB-C with Thunderbolt, and of course, an audio jack.

It’s great that there are so many ports, but that’s to be expected since this laptop is thicker and heavier than both of the options above. It’s not uncomfortable to carry around, but it’s not lightweight either. The laptop weighs 3.09 pounds.

The screen on this ASUS Vivobook is adequate, but nothing more. The viewing angles are great, and so are the colors, thanks to the IPS panel. Unfortunately, the panel just isn’t that bright, which makes the display somewhat muted.

Finally, the keyboard and trackpad feel great, especially for the price. The backlit keyboard features a great layout and is comfortable to type on. The glass trackpad is also precise and a joy to use. Still unsure about that yellow Enter key, though.

To sum it up, the Vivobook S14 is a great deal in terms of performance, and you can usually find it even cheaper on sale. It’s a great budget laptop for law school.

Rating:

• Performance: 8/10
• Battery: 8.5/10
• Display: 8/10
• Value for Money: 9/10
• Overall Rating: 8.5/10

4. Dell XPS 13 9310 (OLED) – Best OLED Laptop For Law School

Size: 13.4 inch | CPU: Intel Core i7 1185G7 | GPU: Radeon 7 graphics | RAM: 32GB | Storage Capacity: 1TB – 2TB SSD | Battery: 8-10 Hours | Resolution: 3456×2160 | Refresh Rate: 60Hz

The Dell XPS 13 throughout its many revisions remains one of the best laptops for students. It is popular among students for many reasons. Great battery life, a stunning display, and a top-of-the-line design to name a few. The 9310 OLED version is the best version of the XPS 13 yet.

Laptops like the Macbook Air and the Surface Laptop 4 are the closest competitors. Both of those are great laptops, but if it’s the most complete and premium ultrabook experience that you are after, the Dell XPS 13 is what you need.

You can configure the XPS 13 according to your liking. That sounds great but certainly seems confusing. The base model has an i5 1135G7, 256GB SSD, and 8 gigs of RAM. If you want the OLED model we have here, that comes with an i7 1185G7, anywhere from 512-2TB of SSD storage, and 16-32 gigs of RAM.

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Of course, the highest-end model is quite overkill for a laptop intended for law school students. We recommend going with the OLED model but 16 gigs of RAM and that 512GB SSD for the best price/performance.

We had to explain that since the configuration situation is quite confusing, especially on Amazon.

The 9310 version of the XPS 13 is a significant improvement over its 2019 revisions, bringing us performance and battery life improvements. The OLED screen is also a step up.

If you get the white version of the Dell XPS 13, you’ll be quite pleased with the clean and minimal design. Even the keyboard area of the XPS 13 is decked out in that white color, giving it that sleek and stylish look. Also, the exterior features a carbon fiber finish, which feels great to the touch.

Not only does this laptop look good, but the lightweight design means you can carry it around all day with ease. Because of that lightweight design, we only get two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt, a microSD card slot, and a headphone jack. Not great, but it’s par for the course for many ultrabooks.

As usual with the XPS lineup, both the keyboard and trackpad are high-end. The typing experience is great here, and so is the keyboard layout. The keys have just the right amount of travel and feel comfortable. Apart from that, the trackpad is also precise and feels great.

Now, the star of the show is that stunning 3.5K OLED display. The price is a tough pill to swallow, but once you see the screen in person, you’ll realize it truly is worth the money.

Performance is great as well, which is to be expected with 16 gigs of RAM and an 11th Gen i7 processor. Fortunately, battery life holds up relatively well, as you can get 8-10 hours of screen time.

To sum it up, the Dell XPS 13 is impressive, and it is one of the most complete ultrabook experience out there. It’s just that it will cost you good a quite bit of money.

Rating:

• Performance: 8/10
• Battery: 8.5/10
• Display: 9/10
• Value for Money: 7.5/10
• Overall Rating: 8.5/10

5. LG Gram 16 (16Z90P) – Best Battery Life

Size: 13.4 inch | CPU: Intel Core i7 1185G7 | GPU: Radeon graphics 7 | RAM: 16GB | Storage Capacity: 1TB SSD | Battery: 12-14 Hours | Resolution: 2560 x 1600 | Refresh Rate: 60Hz

We just talked about how the Dell XPS 13 is highly impressive, and how it’s the most complete ultrabook experience out there. Well, the LG Gram 16 certainly does not lag, and if it’s the battery life that you are after, the jaw-dropping endurance of the Gram will leave you impressed.

At this price, the Gram 16 is not without its competition. The XPS 13 is an obvious one, but even the LG Gram 14 and LG Gram 17 could be better options for those looking for a smaller or even bigger screen. As far as battery life is considered, well, not many can compete here.

The newest LG Gram family of laptops makes some new additions. All of the models now have a 16:10 aspect ratio, thinner bezels, USB-C charging, and more. LG has sort of changed the vision of the Gram lineup from simple thin and lightweight laptops to all-around great machines for everyday use.

The LG Gram 16 does not have a predecessor, as this is the first time LG has made a16″ laptop. It’s the perfect size for those who thought the 2019 or 2020 LG Gram 14 was underpowered or considered the screen too small.

Design-wise, they have done a great job here. The LG Gram 16 has an industrial aura about it, and the attention to detail here is impressive. For example, when you open the device, it tucks some of the bezel behind the keyboard deck. This makes the already thin-bezel design look even better.

As for the display, the 16-inch model has a 2560 x 1600 IPS panel. This panel looks great, and the color accuracy, brightness, and overall image quality are superb. However, this is a glossy panel, which means it is highly reflective outdoors. Some might prefer that, but those who work outdoors a lot will not be swayed to this.

For our law students, typing is very important. Fortunately, the LG Gram fares well here. The layout is great, and so is the key travel. Of course, this is a backlit keyboard. Furthermore, the gigantic trackpad feels great thanks to the smooth glass surface.

Performance is where things get interesting. The Gram 16 is using a Tiger Lake 11th Gen i7 chip, so it performs well. However, that i7 is limited a bit by the design of this thing. Given more thermal headroom, you would normally get even better performance. Still, for day-to-day tasks for our law school students, it’s quite good.

The port selection is surprising here. We have two USB-C with Thunderbolt, HDMI, two USB-A, and microSD. This is proof that a thin and light design does not mean you need to sacrifice connectivity.

Last but not least, the LG Gram 16 is the champion of battery life. LG makes bold claims about a “25-hour battery life”, which is unrealistic. However, with real-world usage, you can easily get over 10 hours with the LG Gram. When it comes to Windows laptops, very few. of them come even close.

Rating:

• Performance: 8/10
• Battery: 9/10
• Display: 8.5/10
• Value for Money: 8/10

6. Lenovo Yoga 9i – Best 2-in-1 Laptop For Law School

Size: 14 inch | CPU: Intel Core i7 1185G7 | GPU: | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 512GB SSD | Battery: 8-10 Hours | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | Refresh Rate: 60Hz

Lenovo makes so many laptops that it is quite easy to lose track of the models very quickly. As such, they are no stranger to 2-in-1 and convertible laptops. The Yoga 9i is the ultimate version of that, and it is currently one of the best 2-in-1 laptop on the market. For law students, it’s a very alluring option.

The only thing holding back the Yoga 9i is its closest competitor, the HP Spectre X360 14. The latter is better looking and has a 3:2 aspect ratio. However, the Yoga 9i is more affordable, has better speakers, and has an arguably better keyboard. It’s close.

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The standout feature here is the sound quality. Like any other laptop, this one features two downwards firing speakers woofers on the bottom. However, it also has tweeters hidden in the hinge, which almost serve as a soundbar. This means that sound is always being fired at you from the hinge.

This is a 2-in-1 laptop, meaning the hinge can be rotated 360 degrees. Essentially, whenever you rotate the hinge, you are also rotating the tweeters inside of it. This means that sound will always be clear and precise. The mechanism here is a result of very intelligent engineering.

Fortunately, it’s not just the design of this speaker system itself that is impressive, as the speakers sound great. The volume could easily fill a room, and there is quite a good amount of bass. We’ve never experienced this from a laptop before.

The sound is further complimented by the excellent 1080p display. This is a touchscreen, of course, and it looks and feels great. Watching content on it is quite enjoyable as well. However, the 16:9 feels strange on modern 2-in-1 laptops, as a 3:2 aspect ratio would feel more comfortable for multitasking.

Performance-wise, the Lenovo Yoga 9i holds up quite well. This is to be expected thanks to the 11th Gen i7 and 16 gigs of RAM found inside. Fortunately, battery life is just as good as this as a laptop that can provide all-day battery life.

If you are a law student looking for a 2-in-1 laptop, this is one of the best out there.

Rating:

• Performance: 8/10
• Battery: 8/10
• Display: 8/10
• Value for Money: 8/10
• Overall Rating: 8/10

7. Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen 9 – Best Business Laptop For Law School

Size: 14 inch | CPU: Intel Core i7 1185G7 | GPU: | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 256GB SSD | Battery: 10-12 Hours | Resolution: 1920 x 1080 | Refresh Rate: 60Hz

Lenovo’s Thinkpad laptops have always been aimed at the consumer who wants to get real work done. It’s the polar opposite of a Macbook, forgoing a sleek design for the sake of functionality and durability. The Thinkpad X1 Carbon manages to be popular among students despite that reputation.

This 14-inch laptop features a great screen, an unbeatable keyboard, and ports galore. Similar productivity-focused laptops like the Dell Latitude 7420 and Razer Book 13 come close, but the Thinkpad X1 is still the better choice out of all of them, mainly due to the keyboard.

The Gen 9 revision of the Thinkpad X1 carbon brings us the 11th gen processors and a slightly bigger battery. This means this thing is heavier than its predecessor, but that’s well worth it. The matte-black look is iconic at this point, and this magnesium alloy chassis is extremely durable, considering it passes the MIL-STD 810G certification.

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Another thing separating this from the pack is the port selection. Laptops like the Surface Pro 8 and Macbook Air only feature USB-C ports. Fortunately, the Thinkpad has two Thunderbolt Type-C ports, HDMI, and two USB 3.2 Type-A ports. It’s thicker than a lot of ultrabooks, but it’s also better equipped.

Compared to the Gen 8 version of the Thinkpad, we get a wider 16:10 display this time around, better performance, and surprisingly, even better battery life.

The Thinkpad X1 Carbon also offers 4G or 5G connectivity, which is an optional upgrade. It’s a bit of a shame that there is no option to get an OLED panel with this Thinkpad, as that would elevate this to a different status.

The latest Thinkpad X1 Carbon also makes the return of the famous backlit keyboard. This keyboard features the best layout out there, with dedicated arrow keys, and other keys such as the two which are used to place and end calls.

Just like previous Thinkpad laptops, this keyboard feels snappy and has that old-school membrane feel to it. It feels great to type on, despite being slightly noisy. While the trackpad is not huge, it still feels quite precise.

The only thing holding the Thinkpad back then is the price. It is a very complete package, but considering it lacks an OLED screen, it is quite expensive. No high refresh rate here either.

However, if you want a laptop to get serious work done on the go, this one is worth considering.

Rating:

• Performance: 8.5/10
• Battery: 8.5/10
• Display: 7.5/10
• Value for Money: 8.5/10
• Overall Rating: 8/10

8. Surface Laptop 4 – Best 15-inch Laptop For Law School

Size: 15 inch | CPU: Intel Core i7 1185G7 | GPU: | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 256GB SSD | Battery: 10-12 Hours | Resolution: 2496×1664 | Refresh Rate: 60Hz

If it’s a big screen size that you are after, we don’t think it gets better than the Surface Laptop 4. While its starting price is higher than its competitors, it’s also sleeker, has an excellent screen, and is quite lightweight for a 15-inch laptop.

The Surface Laptop 4 is not without its competition, however. The Surface Pro 8 is similar in its sleekness, and so are the Dell XPS 15 and Razer Book 13. However, there’s something about this unique design with that 15-inch screen that makes this laptop hard to ignore.

Straight out of the box, the Surface Laptop 4 immediately impresses due to its matte finish on the exterior. You can get the 15-inch version in either black or gray colors, both of which look great. The 13-inch version comes in Sandstone and Ice Blue finishes as well, which look even better.

The Surface Laptop 4 offers incremental improvements such as better performance, better battery life, and more configuration options than the Surface Laptop 3.

The design for this laptop is simply quite impressive. With the Surface Laptop 4, we are seeing the attention to detail rarely seen on other laptops. The magnesium alloy build feels lightweight yet incredibly sturdy as well.

As for the display, while it’s not using an OLED panel or even a 120Hz display, the high screen resolution means that pictures are sharp, and the image quality is incredible overall. This laptop is also using a 3:2 aspect ratio, which works quite well with that large 15-inch display.

Apart from that, the performance is quite good. The 16 gigs of RAM make sure that the laptop never feels slow, and this also means that this laptop will hold up in the future. For the price, a dedicated GPU would be even better, but maybe Microsoft wanted to conserve the battery life.

Speaking of which, this is one of the best 15-inch laptops out there in terms of battery endurance. The Surface Laptop 4 lasts easily for 10-12 hours, and all-day battery life is pretty much a given here.

Finally, the keyboard and trackpad also feel superb. The keys have a good amount of travel, and this is one of the most comfortable keyboards to type on for long sessions. The same is true for the trackpad which feels precise and has a good bit of room for moving around.

So, the Surface Laptop 4 is great if you need a 15-inch screen. It’s expensive, and while it’s lacking ports and is quite expensive, we don’t think there are many better alternatives out there.

Rating:

• Performance: 7.5/10
• Battery: 8/10
• Display: 8/10
• Value for Money: 8.5/10
• Overall Rating: 7.75/10

9. Razer Blade 14 – Best Performance-Focused For Law School

Size: 14 inch | CPU: Ryzen 9 5900HX | GPU: GeForce RTX 3070 | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 1TB SSD | Battery: 6-7 Hours | Resolution: 2560×1440 | Refresh Rate: 165Hz

Razer laptops have long been the go when you need a gaming laptop, but also need something portable and easy to carry around. It should be no surprise then that Razer laptops tend to be popular among a younger audience, especially students.

While it may seem a bit of an odd choice to include a gaming laptop when it comes to the best laptops for law school, the Razer Blade 14 works well as a laptop for school too. If you can look past the price, you’re in for a fantastic experience overall.

The Razer Blade 14’s main competition comes from the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14. Both are lightweight gaming laptops focused on performance, and both are expensive. The Blade 14 is better configured and costs a bit less depending on that configuration.

Speaking of which, the model that we are specifically talking about is the one with a Ryzen 9 5900HX, and an RTX 3070. Those specs alone should tell you more about the performance than we need to.

The Razer Blade 14 is a well-rounded version of its 2018 and 2019 predecessors. A faster screen, jaw-dropping performance, and even more configuration options are some of the few major improvements.

The Razer Blade 14 can handle almost any game that you would want to throw at it with high settings. Pair that with the 165Hz refresh rate, and you’re in for a treat.

Speaking of which, that screen is truly a sight to behold. The Blade 14 has a high resolution of 2560 x 1440, and at 165Hz, it is fluid and fast. It’s great for both gaming/productivity, and even for just watching videos.

Of course, we can’t talk about this laptop and not talk about the design. This thing is sort of like the Macbooks of the gaming laptop world. It has a sleek unibody design, a sturdy hinge, and a matte black exterior. The only loud element here is the green Razer logo on the back.

The keyboard is backlit and powered by ChromaRGB. You can cycle through different colors and modes via the software. The trackpad also feels superb, which is rarely true for most gaming laptops.

So, if you’re a law school student who also wants to enjoy gaming in a portable form factor, the Razer Blade is the way to go.

Rating:

• Performance: 9/10
• Battery: 7.5/10
• Display: 9/10
• Value for Money: 7/10
• Overall Rating: 7.5/10

10. Google Pixelbook Go – Best Chromebook Laptop For Law School

Size: 13.3 inch | CPU: Intel Core m3 | GPU: Intel UHD Graphics | RAM: 8GB | Storage: 64GB SSD | Battery: 12 Hours | Resolution: 1920×1080 | Refresh Rate: 60Hz

The Pixelbook Go is by far the most different laptop on this list. Partly because it runs ChromeOS, and partly because of other features that make it stand out. This pricey Chromebook alternative is not for everyone but is great if you’re into that ultraportable look and feel.

Truth be told, there are no real competitors here. The only other ultraportable laptop in this price bracket is the Surface Go 3. While that one has better specs and is newer, we know some will prefer the lightweight and easy to run ChromeOS for a few reasons.

First off ChromeOS has noticeably less bloat than Windows. The source code behind ChromeOS is not that complex either, meaning it is easier to run. So, while this machine is not powerful on paper, it flies through everyday performance with ease.

Of course, you won’t be editing any videos or editing photos on this thing, but it’s great for typing up documents. The keyboard feels great to type on and is also backlit. The trackpad is sizeable and feels quite comfortable while also being precise.

As for the device itself, well it is very sleek and lightweight. The bottom has a textured back to it, almost reminiscent of a washboard. This Chromebook is rounded, and the matte black finish allows it to fit into business meetings as well as the classroom.

Surprisingly, the screen is quite decent here as well. It gets plenty bright, the resolution is sharp, and the colors are great for watching videos, so no complaints there.

Of course, the Pixelbook Go falls victim to most of the downsides of your average Chromebook. It’s a tad bit overpriced, feels underpowered, and the storage is low. The last of which is remedied by using cloud storage and web apps such as Google Docs.

Some people will never be a fan of ChromeOS, however, many have come to appreciate it. For students, the Pixelbook Go is a great laptop, if you give it a chance.

Rating:

• Performance: 6.5/10
• Battery: 8/10
• Display: 7/10
• Value for Money: 7/10
• Overall Rating: 7/10

Worth Mentioning Laptops for Law Schools

• Asus Zenbook
• Acer Swift 3
• Dell Inspiron 14

Best Laptops For Law School – Buyer’s Guide

If you’ve gone through some of our picks and read the beginning of the article thoroughly, you’ll realize a lot of ultrabooks are great options for law school students. This is because most ultrabooks fit the bill perfectly of what law students are looking for.

If you’re still unclear and what makes a great laptop for law school, here are some things to keep in mind.

Performance

When you’re comparing laptops against each other and trying to find the right one for you, performance matters. No matter if you are a law school student requiring a basic laptop. Performance should be important to you because if your laptop fails to perform daily tasks your studying experience can get troublesome.

Any laptop with a recent i5 processor will do you just fine in terms of processing power. We recommend 8 gigabytes of RAM, but if you can spend more and are multi-tasking a lot, go with 16 gigs. Still, 8 gigs of RAM will be fine for 90% of students out there.

Lastly, storage comes down to how much data you save in the cloud vs how much you save locally. Most people use Google Docs these days to collaborate, and you can backup your Powerpoint presentations to either OneDrive or another form of cloud storage. So, 256GB of storage is enough for most students, while 512Gb will be more comfortable.

As you can see, most of the laptops we chose match the above specs, and some even go above and beyond that. If you’re getting these specs within your budget, anything above that is a bonus and not something that you will fully take advantage of.

The Typing Experience

We’ve talked about this quite a bit already, so we don’t need to tell you again why typing is important for law students. Instead, let’s talk about what makes for a good typing experience.

For the bare minimum, every laptop these days should feature a backlit keyboard. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the case. You may think you’ll get away from a non-backlit keyboard, but you’ll regret that decision whenever you’re working late at night without proper brightness.

Apart from that, a good keyboard feels natural to type on. Some laptop keyboards will have stiffer travel, and some will feel too soft. Neither of those results in a good typing experience, so the perfect balance is between the two.

If you’ve ever typed something on a Macbook, you’ll want to aim for the closest experience you can get to that.

Battery Life

These days, the battery life on many ultrabooks and laptops, in general, has gotten better. Manufacturers have finally caught up to the fact that high-end specs are only good as long as the battery life can power the laptop for an extended period.

Gaming laptops still suffer from this, but even they are getting better. Fortunately, six-eight-hour battery life is the norm on most ultrabooks these days. All of the laptops in our roundup for the best laptops for law school lost longer, which is great.

If you’re buying a laptop that has an Intel 11th gen or later processor, look for the Evo certification. This implies the laptop has Wi-Fi 6, fast charging, all-day battery life, and Thunderbolt.

FAQs

What laptop is best for law school?

Generally, ultrabooks such as the Dell XPS 13 and Macbook Air tend to be the best laptops for law school. This is because these laptops have all-day battery life, a great keyboard, and premium displays.

Is Macbook Air or Pro better for law school?

The Macbook Air is the better choice for law school by a long mile. The newer Macbook Pros are great, but law students can’t take advantage of all that power. You are better off saving money with the Air.

Is 256GB enough for law school?

While 256GB of storage is a bit limiting, it’s still enough for law school. You’ll have to save some of your presentations and files either on a hard drive or in the cloud, however.

Do law students need laptops?

While it is by no means mandatory for any law student to have a laptop, most of them will certainly need one. Taking notes, writing research papers, and even taking classes is easier with your own laptop.

Can I Use a Chromebook for law school?

Most people can get away with using a Chromebook at law school. However, if you want to use the school’s printer and other technical facilities, some of them may only be compatible with Windows or Mac.