Ultimate Laptop Buyer’s Guide For Students In STEM/Art/Design

For STEM, Art and Design students, the best decision you will make for your studies is finding the ideal laptop for you. It is the most important tool you will use through out your time at university, as you'll be expected to use high-processing softwares such as Adobe suites, VSC, MATLAB, or install the VMware for further Linux environment build-up, which all require strong performing laptops, so making sure you have a laptop powerful enough can be a daunting task, which is why we wanted to provide the ultimate laptop buyer's guide to help you find the perfect laptop that will complete your tasks promptly, leaving you more time for the important stuff like gaming and watching that series everyone is talking about.

Performance is and will always be the most important factor of a laptop for any student. Only a reliable performance can guarantee that you will finish your projects and assignments on time, so it is strongly advised that you look for high-performance models. CPU & GPU are two critical components that will primarily determine the laptop's performance. For CPU, it’s better to choose a laptop featuring Intel H/HX or AMD HS series processor. Compared with U or P series processors, the H/HS/HX series processors sport more cores and higher clock speed, promising smoother execution of professional apps.

As NVIDIA continuously widen the support of graphics for professional software most used by STEM students such as Adobe, MATLAB or AutoCAD, the GPU is one of the most vital components of your laptop. The exclusive CUDA cores is also a critical element for AI-related workloads, so it’s always better to go for laptops with discrete graphics from NVIDIA like GTX or RTX series. and what's more, you can also count on it for intense PC gameplay.

If you want to ensure your laptop lasts longer, the memory and SSD must be upgradable. We advise that it’s always better to go for laptop models with at least one memory slot & SSD slot. Dual memory slots are even better because you can upgrade your laptop with two identical memory sticks, promising even better compatibility & performance.

It’s always safer to choose the models with at least 16GB RAM and 512G SSD. We will even recommend going for 32G memory for virtualisation applications like VMware, or editing software like Photoshop for intensive design/editing. And as for storage, if the main purpose of your laptop is for extreme gaming (we wont tell your lecturers) then it is recommended to go up to 1TB to ensure smooth performance.

Programming will no doubt be a critical component of any STEM study, and a laptops keyboard can make or break that experience for students, as any student will know that with a great keyboard means greater efficiency. We recommend going for a laptop with at least 1.5mm of key travel distance, which can provide a satisfactory tactile key press. You must also consider backlighting, especially if you're prone to late-night coding/essay writing. Some gaming laptops even feature per-key RGB backlit keyboards, which allows you to highlight the most frequently used keys with different backlight colours.

When purchasing a laptop, you should also consider the Numpad, especially if your a student who will frequently use MATLAB or Excel. It is a an easy feature to overlook, and with more & more laptops being manufactured without numpad, you need to check before you buy.

Even though there’re plenty of adapters or dongles available on the market, it’s still annoyingly inconvenient to carry around, so it’s always better to go for laptops with versatile connectivity. Besides the most commonly used USB-A and USB-C, HDMI is probably the most important port that you can count on for attaching a projector or monitor. If your laptop has one or two more video output ports like DisplayPort (via USB-C) or MiniDP, you will be amazed by the superior productivity that comes with multiple screens. Last but not least, even with the growth in popularity for wireless headphones (or earbuds), it’s a good idea to keep your options open by choosing a laptop with headphone jack port, promising you wider & more flexible headphone compatibility.

Now that you have a better idea on what to look for in a laptop that best suits your studies, you can now go forth and make a worthy purchase! It must be mentioned that as a leading performance laptop brand, MSI recently unveiled a series of new models featuring the latest Intel 13th gen H/HX series processor and RTX 40 series graphics, and all the features that have been dicussed in this article. And you'll be happy to know that along with the varied range of models to choose from, they come with a wide range of prices, giving you more flexibility and control for your purchase.

If you’re looking for a laptop with greater performance and even better upgradability with the price tag from around £1500, the Katana 15 is a truly solid option. The built-in Cooler Boost 5 cooling can push both CPU & GPU further, delivering more performance for all kinds of workloads; Its dual memory & SSD slots provides even higher upgradability, ensuring it lasts even longer. You'll also have greater productivity with its HDMI and USB-C ports with DisplayPort output support. You can even attach 6K or even 8K displays to it thanks to 2.1 version of HDMI.

The Vector GP is one of MSI's strongest models, that can withstand the most comprehensive of softwares. It offers boundless solutions and brilliant perfomance, ensuring you the utmost efficiency, so whether your in STEM or game on Steam this laptop is an ideal work/play companion.

We hope with this buyer's guide you now have a broader understanding for laptop features and know what to look for in your next laptop purchase! Don't forget to check out the new product lineup from MSI, as you might just find the perfect laptop for your studies!

Why not check out some of latest deals in the MSI Back to School Promotions 2023:https://uk.msi.com/Promotion/back-to-school-2023