The 9 Best Laptops for Medical Students In 2023 (Detailed Review)

Medicine is a broad field. You can’t simply carry the books and expect them to fill your knowledge jar. You need to learn so much more from different sources, download E-books, and make notes. Here, a decent laptop makes things easier.

However, choosing a laptop might not be easy. Because the market out there holds plenty of options, claiming to offer the best. And since you don’t have a technical background. You can end up making the wrong decision.

We discovered that the ASUS ZenBook 14 is a good choice for medical students because of its sturdy performance, ideal keyboard feel, and ultraportable design that allows students to comfortably carry it. However, depending on your interests, we’ve also included a few more options. Let’s check out what they offer.

Laptops aren’t easy to replace, now and then. So, we took it on ourselves and tested several well-reputed laptops to help you avoid making a terrible choice.

Top 3 Picks of Medical Laptops

Comparison Table of the Best Laptops for Medical Students

IMAGE	PRODUCT	RATING	PRICE
Top Choice	ASUS ZenBook 14 Ultra-Slim Laptop Processor: Intel Core i7-1165G7 Screen Size: 14 Inch RAM: 16 GB  Storage: 512 GB	9.9	View on Amazon
Best Value	ASUS VivoBook 15 Thin & Light Laptop Processor: AMD Quad Core R7-3700U Screen Size: 15.6 Inch RAM: 8 GB Storage: 512 GB	9.8	View on Amazon
Best Performance	Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 Processor: AMD Ryzen 5   Screen Size: 13.5 Inch RAM: 8 GB Storage: 256 GB	9.7	View on Amazon
Top Rated	Apple MacBook Pro Processor: 2.6GHz Intel Core i7 Screen Size: 16 Inch RAM: 16 GB Storage: 512 GB	9.8	View on Amazon
Best Budget Laptop	Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3500U  Screen Size: 14 Inch  RAM: 8 GB Storage: 256 GB	9.5	View on Amazon
Top-tier Display	Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 3200U Screen Size: 14 Inch RAM: 8 GB  Storage: 256 GB	9.3	View on Amazon
Power Machine	HP 15 10th Gen Intel Core i5-1035G1 Processor: 10th Gen Intel Core i5-1035G1 Screen Size: 14 Inch RAM: 8 GB Storage: 256 GB	9.4	View on Amazon
360 Degree Laptop	Lenovo Flex 5 Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 4500U Screen Size: 14 Inch  RAM: 16 GB Storage: 256 GB	9.1	View on Amazon
Best 2 in 1 Laptop	HP Spectre x360 Processor: Evo Core i7-11390H Screen Size: 16 Inch RAM: 16 GB  Storage: 512 GB	9.6	View on Amazon

How We Did the Test for Medical Laptops?

For medical students, laptops don’t need to have high-end specifications. Instead, a mid-range laptop is ideal for creating assignments and presentations, conducting research, and taking online classes. So, we began testing by using top-rated mid-end laptops from various brands. 

We chose these laptops based on their productivity performance, portability, long battery life, and comfortable keyboard. We tested the following factors to avoid confusing you and only recommend the best-performing laptops.

Performance

We tested each laptop’s performance with carefully selected games and real-world apps and a variety of benchmarking software. From machine software to hardware components, we tested everything.

Built Quality

Just like the laptop’s performance, its stiffness matters the same. So we also ran the laptops through a series of build quality tests. The laptop’s versatility, mobility, and heat-dissipating capability were all put to the test. We also evaluated the laptop’s keyboard, which is essential for students.

Pricing

Finally, we judged the pricing of these laptops based on the results of testing, the laptops’ feature set, and previous consumer reviews to ensure that they aren’t overpriced and provide greater value.

ASUS dropped the ZenBook 14 as a blessing for users who value portability. The laptop’s ultra-thin and light metal build bagged hearts. The ZenBook 14 UX435 is an upgraded version of the preceding UX425 with a better design, chipset, and a secondary display on the trackpad.

This ‘Pine Gray’ model we tested featured a sleek metallic design and was extremely comfortable to use, from carrying about to typing with excellent palm rests. The laptop is sturdy, and opening the lid requires only one hand. It has a full-size backlit keyboard with proper key spacing, making everyday typing a pleasure.

The ZenBook 14 uses a 15.6 inches HD IPS display that rests between minimal bezels for a roomy screen view. It has great contrast when watching videos and is bright enough to use outside. The touchpad’s secondary display may not appear to be useful, yet it helps in handwriting input, using Numpad, and Bluetooth calling. You can return to a spacious touchpad with proper-click buttons by pressing F6.

The Intel Core-i5 processor, dedicated NVIDIA GeForce MX450 graphics, and 8 GB of memory performed admirably in the performance tests. The laptop proved to be a superb productivity machine, with excellent performance under CPU-intensive workloads and minimal heat generation. It also includes a large 512 GB SSD that boosts performance.

Throughout this testing process, the battery test also performed well, lasting 7 hours. So for a complete taste of power combined with portability, the ASUS ZenBook 14 is just one purchase away.

Technical Specifications

Screen Size	14-inch
Resolution	1920×1080
Storage	512 GB
Memory	16 GB
Weight	3.3 lbs
Colors	Pine Gray, Lilac Mist
Material	Aluminum
Dimensions	12.7 x 8.3 x 0.6 inches
Wireless Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)Bluetooth version 5.0
USB Ports	1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type A) 2x Thunderbolt 4

ASUS has fine laptops on the shelf. Ranging from power options to budget, their laptops never fail to amaze with their offering. Similar is the case with their VivoBook 15, which mixes a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 chip, with plenty of connectivity ports and ideal portability for 15 inches at a great price.

First, it had us starring it for a while with its slate gray, slick aluminum design. The laptop is brilliantly lightweight and easy to carry around. The lid pops open and exposes a 15.6 inches display with minimal bezels that have vibrant colors to bless eyes but are a little over bright. Next up is the full-size keyboard that has shallow key travel, making it extremely pleasant to type with.

The VivoBook 15’s Ryzen 7 chip with integrated AMD graphics and 8 GB memory performed admirably in performance testing and handled productivity activities with ease. We were able to open many Chrome tabs and other large applications without experiencing any lags. The fast 512 GB SSD, which enables faster execution speeds, contributes to this fast performance.

Also, if you’re concerned about battery life, the ASUS VivoBook 15 uses an energy-efficient CPU which made it possible to work through 8 long hours during tests. Therefore, you won’t overlook a lightweight, inexpensive, yet powerful study partner, would you?

Technical Specifications

Screen Size	15.6-inch
Resolution	1920×1080
Storage	512 GB
Memory	8 GB
Weight	3.5 lbs
Color	Slate Gray
Material	Aluminum
Dimensions	14.1 x 9.1 x 0.75 inches
Wireless Connectivity	Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac)Bluetooth version 4.2
USB Ports	1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type A) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type C) 2x USB 2.0 (Type A)

Undoubtedly, Microsoft has blessed the market with its Surface Laptops lineup. And their new Surface Laptop 4 is probably the best one. The Surface Laptop was released just in time for work-from-home days, and it’s an option you won’t be able to resist taking to college.

The Surface Laptop 4 comes in a range of colors and features a sleek and lightweight design (Platinum in our case). The keyboard is very comfy, which is likely the reason for its presence in our list of recommendations.

The version we tested has a 13.5 inches beautiful and bright Pixel Sense display, with which we couldn’t turn down streaming a few videos. Surface Laptop 4’s stunning display had more vibrant colors and easily beat out the top pick, the ASUS ZenBook 14’s display.

All the productivity activities we threw at it were crushed by the AMD Ryzen 5 processor, integrated AMD graphics, and 8 GB memory. Whereas, the 256 GB SSD is large enough to store a lot of notes and research.

We agreed that it could have more ports, but what it does offer is plenty for your regular connectivity needs. Also, the good 11-13 hours of battery life received extra praise from us. So, what could be better than having company on your college trip in the form of a Surface Laptop 4?

Technical Specifications

Screen Size	13.5-inch
Resolution	2256 x 1504
Storage	256 GB
Memory	8 GB
Weight	2.76 lbs
Colors	Ice Blue, Sandstone, Platinum, Matte Black
Material	Aluminum
Dimensions	12.1 x 8.8 x 0.57 inches
Wireless Connectivity	Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax)Bluetooth version 5.0
USB Ports	1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type A) 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type C)

Apple MacBook Pro is the top-rated product on our list due to its outstanding specifications. The Apple Macbook Pro is a beast in its performance. The graphics introduced in the Apple MacBook Pro are so far the best in this laptop series. 

It has the AMD Radeon pro 5000M series making it two times faster than previous-generation models. Along with 40 compute units and 8Gb of high bandwidth memory, you can easily perform 3D rendering medical tasks.

This product has a studio-quality three-mic array which is incredible for recording music. Its mic can easily compete against any professional mics. This Macbook Pro laptop has a six-speaker sound system that is loud enough for a room and the dual force canceling woofers play a great role in the sound quality and clarity by minimizing the vibration. 

MacBook Pro has an impressive DDR4 memory of up to 64Gb which provides it the ability to effectively perform multitasking. It is equipped with an intel i9 processor that has 8 cores and 16 threads providing you the ultimate performance. It can perform heavy tasks such as graphic modeling in no time. So making assignments and presentations is not a big deal for the Apple Macbook Pro.  

The storage capacity matters a lot but is not something to worry about when you have the Apple MacBook Pro. This product has 2 variants, 512GB, and 1 TB. Furthermore, it has up to 8Tb of SSD storage which is more than enough for a medical student, so you can store any sort of information and memory. Due to the super-fast speed of the Macbook Pro, you can access the information and memory in seconds.

The Magic Keyboard of the MacBook Pro has a scissor mechanism with 1mm travel that makes your typing efficient and provides you with a comfortable typing experience. Powerful shortcuts are placed on the front and center of the touch bar. It also has a Touch ID for authentication. The inverted T arrow enables fluid navigation whereas the switching between modes and views is made easy by the escape key.

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Apple Macbook Pro has 3 thunderbolt USB-C connections that can transfer data at a tremendous speed. However, Apple needs to make improvements in its ports by adding a micro SD or SD card slot. Not having a memory card slot can put students in problems who have to regularly transfer data from their memory cards to laptops.  

The battery life of the Apple MacBook Pro is more than any other Apple notebook. This is made possible by the 100-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery. It provides you with access to your web browser for 11 hours straight which is a major benefit to medical students.

Technical Specifications

Screen Size	16-inch
Resolution	3072×1920
Storage	512 GB
Memory	16 GB
Weight	4.3 lbs
Color	Space Gray
Material	Aluminum

The Lenovo Ideapad 3 is just like any other ordinary laptop in terms of features but not in terms of price. It comes at a very reasonable price while its performance is impressive as compared to other products of almost the same price tag.  

The Lenovo Ideapad 3 is equipped with AMD’s Ryzen 5 3500U processor, AMD Radeon Vega 8 graphics, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD storage. This is enough to perform the basic daily tasks and to keep you going without decreasing the performance. So no need to worry folks because assignments and projects are not a big deal for the Lenovo Ideapad 3.

There is nothing so unique about the design of the Lenovo Ideapad 3. It is rectangular with curved corners. Abyss Blue color is the signature color of the Lenovo Ideapad 3 which is an uncommon color and looks awesome on it. Its undercarriage is made up of hard plastic.

The bad thing during our test we noticed about the Lenovo Ideapad 3 is that its display is a bit dim and provides you 250 nits of brightness. But the (1920-by-1080) resolution should also be acknowledged in this case which plays a major role in presenting a sharper image. So you can have a good experience while watching videos or making projects. 

Lenovo is always known for its comfortable keyboards. The keyboard of the Lenovo Ideapad 3 is also comfortable with the curved design of keys and has a 1.4mm travel. It doesn’t have a backlit keyboard but that’s not a big deal as this is a budget-friendly laptop.

The battery life a medical student requires is at least 7 hours on a single charge. Lenovo Ideapad 3 provides 7 hours and 30 minutes of battery life. 

The selection of ports is limited but has the basic ports that you would need. There are 2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 USB 2.0 port, HDMI 1.4 slot, an SD card slot, and a headphone and mic jack but lacks a USB-C port. But for a medical student, it has all the ports that they would need for their daily use.

Technical Specifications

Screen Size	14-inch
Resolution	‎1920 x 1080
Storage	256 GB
Memory	8 GB
Weight	3.3 lbs
Color	Abyss Blue
Material	Plastic / Polycarbonate

The Acer Aspire 5 is an economical laptop that offers a lot of good features. It is a sleek and portable device that is also really lightweight. It can be a great companion for medical students in their projects and assignments.

The Acer Aspire 5 weighs only 3.6 pounds and is also really slim which makes it easy to carry around. Laptops of this price tag are not made of quality material but the Acer Aspire 5 is made from silver aluminum with a modern design. The durability of the Acer Aspire 5 is also amazing.

The display of the Acer Aspire 5 is 15 inches which produces a fair 1920-by-1080 resolution that results in a sharp image display. The colors are also realistic when the backlight is at its best. Also, Acer Aspire 5 offers a touch screen option. It also features a 720p camera but has slightly grainy video quality.

The Acer Aspire 5 has many variants ranging from the low-end model to the streamlined Core i7 model. The base model of the Acer Aspire 5 which we are talking about is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 3 3200U processor and 4GB DDR4 RAM. It has a 128GB NVMe SSD storage and for graphics, it has an integrated AMD Vega 3 graphics card.

The keyboard of the Acer Aspire 5 is strong and comfortable, making it one of the best options for excessive typing. The keyboard is also equipped with a backlit just above the touchpad. It has a Numpad on the right side of the keyboard but the keys are not of full size.

Technical Specifications

Screen Size	15.6-inch
Resolution	‎1920 x 1080
Storage	128 GB
Memory	4 GB
Weight	3.97 lbs
Color	Silver

Hp has always been producing high-quality laptops at an affordable price and it’s better than the HP Spectre x360. Just like that the Hp 15-dy 1036nr is also a budget-friendly product that somewhat lacks in the design but has all the basic features for your routine work. It is a good option for students on a short budget. 

There is nothing special about the design of the Hp 15-dy 1036nr but that doesn’t mean it has a poor design. At first glance, it seems as if it’s made from Aluminum Hybrid but that is high-quality plastic with a brushed metal look. The lid has a logo in the center which is shiny and metallic looking.

It has a wide display of 15.6 inches and it provides a full HD display. The WLED screen provides 220 nits of maximum brightness which is a bit dim for our liking. But, if you need a laptop for internal use and not for a very bright environment like sunlight the dim brightness won’t even bother you.

The Hp 15-dy 1036nr features a quad-core 10th Gen Intel i5-1035G1 processor with a 1.0 GHz base frequency. But due to the turbo fast technology, it can go up to 3.6 Hz. Furthermore, it has 8GB RAM with 256GB of SSD storage. A dedicated graphic unit is absent, however, it has an Intel integrated graphic unit with which you may be able to play a few minor games.

The Hp 15-dy 1036nr has a full-sized keyboard with a Numpad on the right side. The keys have a fair travel and are well spaced. You won’t have to face any problems while typing on the keyboard. It has a great keyboard for long typing sessions, like taking notes in class.

It has a 41 Wh Li-ion battery which keeps the laptop powered up for 10 hours and 15 min. It provides a video playback of 8 hours and 30 min. One of the major selling points of this laptop is its battery life.

This laptop provides reasonable connectivity with other peripheral devices. It has a USB type C, 2 USB 3.1, 1 HDMI slot, a 3.5mm audio/mic jack, and an SD card slot, but lacks a Thunderbolt 3 USB port. Wireless connectivity is also possible due to Intel Wi-Fi 6 card.

Technical Specifications

Screen Size	14-inch
Resolution	‎1920 x 1080
Storage	256 GB
Memory	8 GB
Weight	3.3 lbs
Color	Natural Silver

The Lenovo Flex 5 is a 2-in-1 laptop at an unbelievable price. The features it has to offer at such a low price are hard to believe. If you want to buy a laptop that can be used as a tablet as well as a laptop, this might be the best 2-in-1 laptop for you.

On the top right of the lid, you will find the word Chrome book and on the top right, Lenovo is emblazoned. The bezel of the laptop has a medium thickness which is best for portability.

The Lenovo Flex 5 has a 2.7-GHz Intel Core i7, AMD Ryzen 5 4500 Processor,256GB SSD storage, 16GB RAM, and an Nvidia 940MX GPU with 2GB of VRAM. These kinds of specs prove that multitasking is not a big deal for the Lenovo Flex 5. Medical students can easily do their web browsing, and make projects and assignments on the Lenovo Flex 5.

Lenovo Flex 5 provides decent connectivity. On the left side, it has a USB Type-C port, USB type 3.0, HDMI slot, and a headphone and mic jack. On the right, it has a micro SD card slot, Kensington lock, and another USB 3.0 port, but it lacks a Thunderbolt 3 port.

The keyboard of the Lenovo Flex 5 is unbelievably good. The keys have a very good click and have 1.3mm of travel. The Lenovo Flex 5 will revolutionize your typing experience. The touchpad of the Lenovo Flex 5 is also impressive and of a reasonable size. It responds to Windows OS gestures like pinch to zoom and two-finger swipes.

Upon Continuous web browsing at 150 nits of brightness, the Lenovo Flex 5 stayed powered on for 8 hours and 20 minutes. That’s less than other chrome notebooks as they have an average battery life of 10 hours.

Technical Specifications

Screen Size	14-inch
Resolution	‎1920 x 1080
Storage	256 GB
Memory	16 GB
Weight	3.63 lbs
Color	Graphite Grey

HP Spectre has a fantastic design yet there is no compromise in durability. It has a range of different colors and is made from high-quality material having a brushed metal look. The size of the display is a bit smaller than the size of the laptop. The laptop has a 360-degree hinge so you can also use the laptop as a tablet.

The HP Spectre x360 has a remarkable display that provides a 1080p or 4K OLED resolution. With a display like this, you won’t mind the 13.3-inch display. The brightness is enough to use it even in bright light. The most notable feature of the HP Spectre x360 is that it has a touch screen.

The Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU and 8GB of RAM are fitted in HP Spectre x360 which contributes to providing a comfortable job. It has a 512GB M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD storage that isn’t quick enough. It took 16 seconds for the HP Spectre x360 to duplicate 4.97GB of data which is about 318MBs per second.

The HP Spectre x360 provides a great deal when it comes to connectivity. It also provides a USB type-A port that other laptops have abandoned. It has an extendable jaw port in case you need to connect to a USB 3.1 type A cable. The left side features a mic/headphone jack and on the right side, it has 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports, a micro SD card slot, and a cam kill switch from where you can cut off the power supply of the camera.

It has a wonderful keyboard that is well spaced and has two levels of backlighting. However, it would have been better if the letters on the keys were not transparent but because the font is large it is still easy to read. The travel of the keys is quite reasonable even though the laptop is slim.

A fingerprint scanner is also available just beneath the keyboard. The touchpad comes with Windows Precision drivers which is quite an update as compared to previous models. The touchpad supports all Windows 10 gestures like 2 finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom. Overall the touchpad was quite smooth and responsive.

Hp also provides a power charger with the HP Spectre x360 but you won’t need it that frequently because it comes with incredible battery life. Upon continuous web surfing at 150 nits of brightness, the battery lasts about 13 hours and 20 minutes.

Technical Specifications

Screen Size	16-inch
Resolution	‎3072 x 1920
Storage	512 GB
Memory	16 GB
Weight	4.45 lbs
Color	Graphite Grey

Laptop Buying Guide for Medical Students 

There are some basic things that medical students should consider while buying a laptop. These things affect the overall performance of the laptop and by paying consideration to them you can buy the perfect laptop that suits your needs.

Processor

A processor may be small in size but is one of the most important components of a laptop. A medical student at least requires an Intel i3 processor which can perform some basic multitasking. But for better performance, Intel i5 and i7 processors are recommended.

RAM

A student needs to go through many documents and web pages for his learning, making assignments and projects, hence, they need good RAM. For medical students, at least 8GB of RAM is recommended. If you are looking for a laptop to do basic things, you will be fine with a less RAM laptop.

Display and Resolution

Students like laptops with large displays, a 13-inch wide display is ideal for a student. In the case of resolution, the laptop should have at least a (1920-by-1080) resolution. There are also some 3K and 4K displays that give great image and video quality.

Battery Life 

If you are going to use your laptop in one place you may not need a very long-lasting battery. But if you use your laptop while traveling or have long lectures you may need at least 7 hours of battery life. Longer battery life will keep you going without even worrying about the battery running out.

Connectivity

Students usually need to connect their laptops to other peripheral devices. For this reason, they should buy laptops that have a wide variety of ports. For example USB ports, SD card slot, mic and /audio jack, and HDMI slot.

Storage

Students need to save their projects and documents on their laptops, so they need a good enough storage of at least 128 GB but if they have 256GB storage they would not need to worry about their space running out. If you are tight on your budget, then you should go for 128GB storage and save your files on the cloud.

Graphics Card

A medical student may not need a very good graphic card if he needs a laptop for research and studying but a graphic card can improve the overall performance of the laptop. So it is up to the user to decide according to his work demand. 

Conclusion

Since the outbreak, laptop prices have taken a hike, making a laptop purchase even more difficult. If you’re a medical student or doctor who isn’t tech-literate, you may come to regret your decision later. Therefore, we tested a variety of laptops based on the needs of a medical student and recommended the ones with the finest performances, so you won’t have any trouble making a decision.

But if you can make a small compromise on the performance and prefer a compact device. Then ASUS ZenBook 14 Ultra-Slim Laptop are to be paid for.

Frequently Asked Question (FAQs)