 If there's one thing we know about school here at Linus Media Group, it's that things should be left until the very last second. So here is a laptop roundup for back to school that is dropping days before school starts. Speaking of at the last minute, if you wanted to instantly see your current and past network activity, you should check out GlassWire. You can detect malware, block badly behaving apps on your PC or Android device, and you can use offer code LINUS to get 25% off at the link below. So our first category for our top five, sort of here, is the budget machine. Being a student is pretty much synonymous with not having disposable income, or at least not having any leftover after your shopping cart is full of ramen noodles and your binge drinking. So what's the best way then to get something that is functional enough on the cheap? You might think that you want a Chromebook, but you don't. Yes, 90% or even 95% of the time, it'll work fine. But that other 5 to 10%, well, let's just say that no one is going to be clamoring to be in a study group with you. Like, having to use the online version of Microsoft Office or Matlab is functional for the most part, but in the end, you'll have wasted a lot of time just getting to where everyone else started. So with that out of the way, let's talk about what you should look for. To get the best value, we can't be too picky about the exact model, but 8 gigs of RAM and an SSD are both musts these days. And as for the CPU, well, per-core performance hasn't changed much in the last couple of years, so any dual-core is going to do us pretty nicely, but power efficiency has. So look for a sixth or seventh generation Intel on sale. We ended up finding a Dell Inspiron 15.6-inch that met our requirements for 95 bucks off at Best Buy. That's under $300. So if we were to grab that and slap this $35 SSD in it, we're sitting pretty. If you've got a bit more to spend though, we'd recommend the Surface Go. It's super small and unlike previous cost-down surfaces like the RT, it runs full fat Windows 10 for when you need it. Now, it isn't the fastest little laptop or the cheapest, but for $600 including their touch cover keyboard, the Surface Go is hard to beat. It's got an excellent screen, it's got a touchscreen, it's got solid battery life, and it's got a pretty good little keyboard on it, with little of course being the operative word. So it's got everything a student needs, and if you grab an optional stylus for it, it is fantastic for taking notes in tablet mode. The next step up from there is to go from the small and portable Surface Go to the slightly larger, but also very portable LG Gram. With a great IPS display for watching movies, a decent amount of power coming from its quad-core processor, and heaps of battery life, you can leave your power brick at home without worrying about locating a plug later on in the day. The stocking lightness of the Gram will also have your back thanking you for not getting that gaming laptop. Though with that said, if you are a hardcore gamer, and you can't rely on a secondary cheap desktop for your fix, we do still have some options for you here. First up then is the Acer Nitro 5. Coming in at $800, this guy packs some serious punch with a 4-core Core i5 that goes up to 4 GHz and a GTX 1050 Ti. This thing can handle basically any game on the market, as long as you don't expect to crank up the in-game settings. Alongside this one is also the Dell G3, which has pretty much the same specs, but it'll cost a bit more with the benefit being that you don't have to go to meetings carrying around the flashier Nitro 5, which is probably enough to sell this thing to a lot of people. Finally, if the 1050 Ti doesn't quite have the grunt that you're looking for, then the GTX 1060 and the Predator Helios 300 is available for not much more than those two. All three of these devices are highly recommended, assuming though that you don't mind trading some battery life for performance. Now, everything up until now has had its nice little niche carved out for it, but what if you're looking for the all-rounder laptop? Power, portability, battery life, and style. Well, my friend, then you are looking for the Dell XPS 15 with a quad-core CPU, a GTX 1050, one of the best keyboards in the biz, not to mention an awesome screen. The XPS 15 is maybe the most laptop-y laptop ever. Like, there isn't a whole lot that you can point at and say is really special about it, unless you opt for the two-in-one version, but everything that it does, it does to near perfection. That is, as long as you don't need to be on lots of conference calls because the webcam kind of looks up your nose. So that's it for what's in front of me, but in response, before you say, but Linus, the only way to get laid in college is with an Apple logo. First of all, that's not entirely correct, but if you have to have an Apple laptop, we will still tell you which one's the best one to pick, in our opinion. Frankly, you're an idiot if you buy the MacBook Air before it gets its rumored refresh, because it currently rocks a fifth-gen processor when almost everything else on the market has moved on to eighth-gen. The MacBook isn't too bad, but it is still a processor generation behind, and as for the MacBook Pro, well, the one without the touch bar is behind the times, meaning that if you must have a Mac, we're gonna recommend the MacBook Pro 13-inch. With an eighth-gen Intel chip, it's got the best touchpad around, and it's got a great screen, though we are still annoyed that you're paying that much money for a laptop without a touchscreen. I personally find that a touchscreen makes a much bigger difference than you might expect. Speaking of expectations, you were probably expecting a word from our sponsor, Squarespace, and you got it. You can create a beautiful website with Squarespace's all-in-one platform. Their award-winning templates make creating a powerful online identity easier than ever, and each template can be a starting point for a wide range of projects. Squarespace provides 24-7 customer support via live chat and email. 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