WIRED’s latest best college laptops list puts Apple’s MacBook Neo at the top for students, with reviewer Luke Larsen arguing that its price, weight and build quality make it the strongest fit for campus use. The recommendation matters because student laptops get abused in ways spec sheets rarely capture: lecture-hall desks, crowded backpacks, too many browser tabs and budgets that do not care about anyone’s keynote slides.
Larsen, who says he has reviewed laptops for more than a decade, selected the MacBook Neo as the best overall college laptop. According to WIRED, the machine weighs 2.7 pounds and starts at $599. Larsen recommends the $699 version because it adds double the storage and a Touch ID fingerprint reader.
The case for the Neo is less about raw speed than the parts students touch all day. WIRED cites its compact footprint, smaller display, trackpad, screen quality and color options as reasons it works well for lecture halls and daily coursework. Apple’s cuts show up elsewhere: the Neo has 8 GB of memory, fewer ports, lower performance than pricier MacBooks and support for only one external display at a time, according to Larsen.
What is the best college laptop for students in 2026?
WIRED’s answer is the MacBook Neo for most students, mainly because it keeps the price lower than the MacBook Air while preserving the parts of the laptop students notice constantly: the keyboard area, display and portability. Students who keep many apps, tabs and background processes running may want more memory than the Neo provides.
For buyers who do not want an 8 GB laptop in 2026, WIRED points to the Asus Zenbook A14. Larsen says it ships with 16 GB of memory and weighs 2.1 pounds, which makes it lighter than the Neo. He also notes that the Zenbook A14’s price moves around, often appearing at $600, $830 or $1,000, depending on deals.
WIRED also mentions a 2026 Zenbook A14 model with Qualcomm’s second-generation Snapdragon X2 chip, but Larsen says its $1,600 price makes it hard to justify for this use. That is a useful bit of anti-marketing: newer silicon does not automatically make a better student purchase if the price runs away from the assignment.
Apple MacBook Air (M5, 2026): WIRED says it costs several hundred dollars more than the Neo, but brings twice the memory, twice the storage and stronger GPU performance.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch, 7th Edition: Larsen calls it a strong MacBook Air alternative, with good battery life and a taller 3:2 display, though he says it is less portable.
HP OmniBook 5 14: WIRED lists it as a cheaper option that often sells for $600 or less, with more memory and storage than the MacBook Neo and an OLED display. The touchpad is the weak point, according to Larsen.
Acer Chromebook Plus 516: WIRED recommends it for shoppers who want a low-cost Chromebook, citing its under-$500 price, 16-inch screen, decent display, touchpad, ports and build quality.
Chromebooks remain part of the budget conversation, according to WIRED, especially for students who live mostly in browser-based tools and word processing. Larsen still says the HP OmniBook 5 is the safer cheap pick for many buyers because Windows avoids the app compatibility limits that can come with ChromeOS.
WIRED discloses that its editors independently select featured products and that the publication may receive compensation from retailers or purchases made through its links.
This story draws on original reporting from WIRED.
