When I was a student, long ago in the beforetimes, all you needed was a pencil, some paper and whatever book that class required. Sometimes you’d have to go to the library to do some research, but mostly, that was it. Not today. Now, students who want to make the grade (and get the grades) absolutely need a laptop to keep up and succeed. But, will any old laptop do? Or should you maybe invest in a gaming laptop, the perfect power portable for a power student? Read on and let me give you some pointers.

Gaming laptops deliver more power

You will likely be sacrificing portability and a bit of battery life if you choose a gaming laptop over a traditional laptop. But, that’s because you will be getting a heck of a lot more power in return. A gaming laptop will have a better motherboard and CPU, meaning you’ll be able to perform more intensive tasks on your machine. That is optimum if you are using your laptop for any sort of programming or coding, or especially for designers. Those powerful processors and high-performance components can also help make your internet browsing faster, too, so you can get your research done more efficiently. If nothing else, the additional RAM in these laptops means a lot more browser tabs open at a time. And, if you decide to go with maybe a smaller gaming laptop, you could potentially mitigate the portability and battery hit altogether.

Get better graphics with a gaming laptop

Gaming laptops are all about performance. They are designed to deliver sharp, clear and amazing graphics for a truly immersive and eye-popping gaming experience. That’s going to translate to everything you do looking that much better for you, from your personal snapshots or selfies, to your streaming videos, video chats and, of course, games. If you are doing any sort of graphic design work, you absolutely want to have a superior video card, too, which you’ll only find in a high-end gaming laptop. And, during your downtime, don’t you want to be watching Netflix in sweet Full HD or maybe even 4K? You study so hard; don’t you deserve it? Of course you do.

Gaming laptops are built to last

Most gaming laptops have solid builds to withstand the repetitive keyboard pounding and other abuse gamers rain down on their laptops. So, expect a gaming laptop to have a well-made keyboard, likely with customizable lighting and nice, satisfyingly solid keys for mashing. You’ll also usually find a lot more ports on a gaming laptop, just because gamers like to plug a lot of crap into their rigs, like a gaming mouse, gaming headset, and even additional monitors if you stream. For students, that means lots of options for additional storage drives, plugging into a desktop monitor at a friend’s house, or for charging all your stuff while you study.

Gaming laptops may be upgradable

As the specs needed to play the latest and greatest games keep skyrocketing, gaming laptops often give you the ability to upgrade certain components in order to keep up and keep playing. You likely won’t find that capability in a traditional laptop. You won’t find it in all gaming laptops, either, but you definitely have a higher chance of being able to upgrade things like RAM or a solid-state drive with a good gaming laptop. That means you will be able to keep running windows updates and applications long after most standard laptops are obsolete. That means your investment is going to last that much longer. So, maybe you will be spending a little bit more at first, but in the long run the longevity of the machine will outweigh that initial dropping of cash.

Gaming laptops just look cooler

Gaming laptops are visually distinct. Thanks to their high-end design, gaming laptops just look cooler. They’ll feature nice, defined lines and are usually constructed of higher grade plastics, rubber and metal, so they totally stand out. You won’t look like everyone else at the library or common room. And, the majority of gaming laptops out there on the market come with all these funky lighting features. So, you can light up your student life with your favourite colour or colours and set it up to pulse or cycle though colours while you work or listen to tunes.

And they play games too!

In addition to being more solidly built, with better components and more power than a traditional laptop, your gaming laptop is going to be able to play, yes you guessed it, games! I know, I know, that’s like saying your orange juice is going to taste like oranges but hear me out. If you invest in a gaming laptop, you won’t need two computers. You won’t need one for school and one for play. It is all in one. So, when you get bored of studying or doing research, you can just double click, and you are instantly sneaking up on enemies in Fortnite. The current generation of gaming laptops are also almost as powerful as their desktop counterparts, too. So, you don’t have to worry about missing out on gorgeous graphics, awesome ear-popping audio and lag-free gaming. Remember what they say. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. You don’t want to be Jack. You want to play games!

The final word

You are going to need a laptop if you’re a student today. There is no getting around that fact. You need to be online, and you need to be able to work on your projects and connect with your social network. So, why settle for something traditional? You aren’t like everyone else, so why should your laptop be like everyone else’s?

Invest in a good gaming laptop and you will be getting a machine that not only looks better and is much more customizable, but it is also more solidly built, and built to last much longer than a normal everyday laptop. And thanks to those higher-end components, you will be able to have a higher-end experience in terms of both work and play. Higher performance means you’ll work more efficiently. Your projects will look better, and so will your photos and videos. Streaming will be smoother and in much higher definition, and you won’t be getting those frustrating pauses during playback. And, you get to play the newest and best games whenever you want, wherever you want! So, what are you waiting for? Check out the latest selection of gaming laptops available online at Best Buy.

Steven Hill
I am an award-winning writer, freelance journalist and blogger who is a self-confessed geek and tech lover. When not playing the latest video games or salivating over the newest gadgets, I enjoy cooking for my family, mountain biking or snowboarding the deep powder on Whistler Mountain.