If you are not in nursing school yet, it is important you don’t skip the intro as this is VITAL information for you to buy the best laptop for nursing school.

1. Reports, captstone projects and exams are going to be a weekly concern. 

– This pretty much means you’ll be staring at the screen for LONG periods of time: rules out small displays.
– Being able to multitask with at least TWO windows next to each other: requires a high resolution display.

2. Lectures are going to be extremely summarized and packed with details:

– A clichet low travel keyboard which lets you hit your fastest typing speeds is a must.
– Recording crystal clear audio (you can attach audio clips to notes) & perhaps adding a 2-1 device (tablet) for note taking too.

3. Clinicals will require you to move from building to building and back to lecture.

    – You want something that’s extremely portable too and has a LONG battery life.

It takes no genius to figure out that a laptop with the above characteristics is going to be sort of like 2-1 in laptop or an ultrabook as these are more likely to have very high resolution displays, top notch keyboard and weight next to nothing.

A few quick examples that come to mind are the iPad Pro and the Surface Pro 9.

Now since these are EXPENSIVE….and most of you came here looking for budget machines. Don’t worry I will add some very good alternatives soon.

Best laptop specs for Nursing School

Before I list the best laptops for nursing school I’ve found as of 2023. I want to talk about a bit more on the kind of features you want on a laptop so you can choose a different model on your own and you are not necessarily stuck with my 5 choices. 

The last section of this post includes way more details about the hardware and nursing school if you’re interested.

Weight: 3lb

#1 concern indeed as stupid as it may sound! But if you think about it , it’s always better to bring your laptop with you and have it ready to go for max productivity plus you will need it quite a lot anyways. What’s lightweight? 3lbs and below, anything more starts to take feel heavy specially with textbooks next to it.

Battery: 10h
What’s the use of bringing something everywhere if it can’t turn on right? You want a laptop that can last you all day long with a single charge (like a phone), how much is that? 8 hours to 10 hours is good! If you buy used or refurbished laptops beware that battery may be much much shorter than advertised.

Display: FHD or QHD
More resolution means more space to have multiple windows next to each other and less need to scroll down. Although you can in theory get away with HD+ resolution as shown below:

It’s always best to maximize resolution unless you’re on a budget. 

CPU: Modern 2017-2023
Don’t worry much about CPU power. Note-taking, lecture recording and even visualizing 3D organs do not require any CPU power. As long as you get something made from 2017 onwards you should be fine.

RAM: 8GB
Much more important than CPU. If you get less than 8GB RAM and Windows 10 or Windows 11, you will lag. There’s no need for more than 8GB either. It’s just that Windows take 3.5GB and having 4GB instead of 8GB leaves you with not much RAM for your laptop to run optimally.

Storage: 256GB SSD
All modern laptops have SSDs now and it is important you make sure yours one has too if you go for older models. If you fail to get it right, your computer will slow massively. Storage isn’t an issue, even 128GB will be fine, pdf documents & videos will never fill up a 128GB device.

Top 5 Best Laptops For Nursing School

All laptops shown next are lightweight, fast and have great displays & keyboard. For some of these you will have to give up the high resolution display or low weight if you want something more affordable. If budget is not a concern, then consider switching to a note-taking laptop device like an iPad Pro or Surface Pro as slides are handed digitally nowadays and taking notes on top of it it’s very efficient.

 

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1. Surface Pro 9

Best 2 in 1 Laptop for Nursing Student

  12th gen Intel® Evo Core™ i5 or Core™ i7

  8GB-16GB RAM DDR5

  Intel Xe Graphics

  128GB-1TB PCIe NVMe SSD

  13” IPS ‎2880 x 1920

  1.96lbs 

  +10 hours

The best laptop for anyone in the medical field.

You’ve probably come across several reviews on youtube about how awesome the Surface Pro is for students but I bet you haven’t come across this nurse who years ago preached about the Surface Pro and has finally graduated and is now working as a nurse.

You can read her last take on the Surface Pro (though it’s on a much older model) in this link.

 Design

It’s relevant to the Surface Pro 9 because only the hardware has changed, the 2-1 in tablet mode and the stylus feature is still the same (the latest models are more and more accurate). In fact, if you are on a budget, you can go for the older models, they’ll still have the same features of the latest Surface Pro 9 with the sole exception of the CPU which as we’ll cover soon is basically irrelevant for nursing school.

 

Can you give me a summary of this stylus + note taking feature?

I’m going to save you hours of videos about the Surface Pro by saying this: it’s basically a digital notebook, it’s a carbon copy of the iPad with the addition of a full blown operating system like Windows 11 which lets you install software.

So it’s basically like an iPad where you can write notes and even draw diagrams or drawing, mathematicians and artists use it too. It pretty much feels like writing on a physical notebook.

Once you attach the keyboard which attaches to the hinges shown below:

It turns into a laptop and since it has Windows 11 home natively installed it works just like a laptop. This is why it’s like iPad + a laptop at the same time.

How difficult is it to use the stylus to take notes?

It only took me a few days to get used to it. It wasn’t really about getting used to the stylus that was quick, what takes a while is getting used to the software to store, organize and annotate notes on top of slides. In this case, the software is One-Note and I suggest you stick with it because there’s just no better replacement in the windows store. 

Display: 2880 x 1920 resolution

The latest Surface Pro is the same size (13”) as a portable ultrabook (which we’ll talk about next) so you will not be limited by screen space. In fact, you’ll get more screen space out of it because the resolution is much much higher than what’s found on regular laptops and some ultra books (usually FHD). 

The good news is that All Surface Pros and even the oldest models (pre Surfce Pro 4) have the super high resolution which makes a bit easier to study histology images (very common questions on quizzes and exams)

  Hardware

The latest Surface Pro 9 lets you choose between a Core i5 and Core i7 both from the latest 12th generation and both overkill for nursing school since the most hardware demanding software you’ll be using is probably a 3D application to study the human body. As for multitasking, well the truth, any modern CPU will make multitasking a breeze, even a Core i3 from 5 years ago will get you the same performance. 

What really dictates how much you can multitask is RAM. You ought to have at least 8GB RAM, now the Surface Pro 9 comes with 16GB by default but this is not entirely true for the much older models so if you’re buying make sure you get 8GB RAM or just don’t buy them, it’s going to be painfully slow.

Basically you want to choose a Core i5 + 8GB RAM + Any storage capacity in any of the newest or older models. You’re not comprimising anything and you’ll be saving yourself hundreds of dollars.

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2. M2 MacBook Air

Best Mac Laptop for Nursing Students 

  8-core Apple M2 Chip

  8GB-24GB RAM Unified Memory

   10-core Apple M2 Chip GPU

  256GB-2TB SSD

  13.6” Retina Display 2560 x 1664

  2.7

  14 hours 

If we are talking about full blown laptops, the macbook air is the best laptop for nursing students. 

Just so we are clear , I’m not saying you should only buy the M2 MacBook Air, any of the older models (as far as the 2015 models) are good enough for nursing school, you can see this nursing students right here using the 2017 version (she has some tips too):

 

We are not picking laptops for nursing school based on hardware but rather design so we’ll discuss that first and what’s next applies to every MacBook Air.

  Design

All MacBook Airs , including the latest models, weigh ~3lbs (including the 2009 models) with the 11 inch models (obsolete but found as refurbished) weighing around 2.2 lbs. They all have more or less the same thickness, they can easily fit inside a physical notebook and they all share the super long battery life: 10-15 hours (oldest to latest). If you buy a 2015 refurbished MacBook or a 2017 MacBook Air (refurbished), chances are you’ll get 8 hours but for the price (they sell for about 250-350 dollars), i’d say it’s a great deal.

Lastly, the display, this is the only real difference (besides hardware which again is irrelevant for nursing school) between the latest (post 2020) and the oldest versions (pre-2020), the latest have retina resolution while the older models have nothing but HD+ resolutions which is pretty low but as you can see in the video, it’s still possible to have two windows next to each other and multitask.

It’s definitely going to be a lot better on the latest MacBook Air so buy it if you can afford it.

OSX: Operating System

Now I bet you’re questioning the MacBook because the operating system may not be compatible with nursing school software.

You are not going to be running a lot of software save for a couple mainly simulations of the human body and 3d animations which you can also run on computer labs.

Now the problem is going to be exams, what if  the exam software you use only runs on Windows?

It is very unlikely these days with the MacBooks being so popular in the medical field but in case they are given to you in .exe  files (windows format) all you have to do is install Windows on your MacBook Air, even the oldest MacBooks support windows with the latest requiring you to install parallels first.

  Hardware

Virtually every MacBook Pro and MacBook Air including those models from 2015 have enough CPU power for all the multitasking you have in mind, in fact, the 2015 MacBooks, which can cost as low as 300 bucks will run applications FASTER than modern windows laptops under 300 dollars.

The hardware found in 2023 MacBook Pros and MacBook Air are OVERKILL for nursing students and the only reason you should buy the latest ones (post 2020) is the extra resolution and the battery which is ~15 hours on the M2 MacBooks. 

Recommended Models:

Now you don’t have to buy 2015 MacBooks if you are on a budget because the 2017 MacBooks are just as cheap and will have slightly better battery due to having less battery cycles.

You don’t have to worry about RAM either, unlike windows laptops, OSX does not require you to have 8GB RAM in order for you to multitask with no lag. Since OSX is more memory efficient than Windows, 4GB RAM and even 2GB RAM will be fine.

Though I would advice against 2GB RAM MacBooks if you’re one of those people that has dozens of web tabs open. I’d advice you instead for the 8GB RAM MacBooks and if buying the latest M1 or M2 MacBook Air, just buy whatever configuration you can afford. 

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3. Newest ASUS ZenBook 14”

Best Windows Laptop For Nursing Students

  Intel Evo i5-1240P

  8GB LPDDR5

  Intel Iris Xe Graphics

  512GB PCIe NVMe SSD

  14” 2.8K OLED 90Hz

  3.06lbs

  10 hours

This will be the last soft of ‘expensive’ ultrabook on this list. The next two that follow are much much cheaper options.

The reason why I’m posting a third one is because this one is quite cheaper than the MacBook Air and has A LOT of the same features. 

 Display & Design

Starting with the weigh, the newest ZenBook is just as light as the MacBook Air ~3lbs.

It has the same thinness (although older models were thinner) but it is BIGGER (14.5”). This is still not a 17 inch laptop so it’s still easy to fit in a backpack and easy to carry.

Display: QHD+ resolution

It also has the same resolution, actually, it’s a bit higher than the MacBook Air and if you add the fact that it has bigger display that translates to significant extra screen space.

Battery: Only 10 hours

10 hours is still quite long for a Windows laptop but a lot less than the MacBook Air, that’s the only real drawback and it’s really hard to avoid when you have a much bigger display (which will naturally use more energy) and Windows (which again uses more energy). 

  Hardware

All ASUS ZenBooks, even the first version which was released in 2017, has enough hardware for heavy multitasking on Windows 10 or Windows 11. You don’t need to worry about hardware.

In fact, you can take advantage of this fact and go for the older versions if you can find them and if they are cheap (they’re hard to find as of Feb 2023).

Either way, I’d advice you to squeeze your budget a bit more and buy this model instead because of the QHD resolution display which is a great deal for a 600 dolar laptop.

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4. Lenovo Ideapad 1 14

Best Budget Laptop for Nursing School

  Core i3-1215U

  8GB RAM DDR4

   Intel UHD Graphics

  256GB SSD

  14”  1366×768 (HD) TN Panel

  3lbs 

  10 hours

  WiFi 6 AX

 

When you start shopping for budget laptops, you have to be very careful with hardware. Yeah I know I said hardware doesn’t matter for Nursing School but that’s only if you have enough RAM for Windows 11 to run properly.

Some of these budget laptops may come with as low as 4GB RAM and Windows in S Mode which only lets you install software that’s available on the Windows App Store (sort of like an android device).

You want to pick a laptop with 8GB RAM and one that has an Intel Core CPU or Ryzen CPU as the bare bone minimum.  Once you meet those two requirements, you no longer have to worry about being slowed down to a crawl when multitasking.

  Design

Now this is not the only budget laptop with 8GB RAM there’s MANY MANY more options and I’ll include one more soon but this laptop is the most lightweight budget laptop with the latest hardware you’ll find. This laptop has a 12th generation Core i3 CPU and 8GB RAM, it’s almost 15 inch and only weighs 3lbs!

It’s like a cheap ultrabook! It doesn’t get better than this for a budget machine.

Now there’s one drawback: it doesn’t even have a FHD resolution, it has a HD+ resolution, which is the lowest resolution found on laptops! That’s exactly how the manufacturer was able to fit in such good hardware while making it lightweight. 

But if you’ve seen the video above (the one where the nursing student was holding a MacBook Air), that MacBook also had an HD+ resolution which was an older model so it’s something you can work with.

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5. Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-347N

Best Cheap Laptop For Nursing Students

  Intel Core i3-1115G4

  8GB RAM DDR4

   Intel UHD Graphics

  128GB PCIe NVMe SSD

  15” IPS full HD 

  3.64 lbs

  8 hours

This is the cheapest laptop for nursing school on this list. 

  Hardware

It’s got the bare-bone minimum hardware we’ve talked about : The SSD, the 8GB RAM & Intel Core CPU.

This configuration is only 30 dollars cheaper than the Lenovo Idapad 3i which costs on average 380 dollars but if you also find it too expensive, you are welcomed to buy the 312 dollar model which only has 4GB RAM.

Just remember you’re going to have to do the upgrade to 8GB RAM sooner or later if you want to switch out of Windows S mode. 

 Design

Unlike the Lenovo however, despite being cheaper, it has a FHD resolution display. However, it’s thicker and it’s somewhate heavier ~3.6lbs, still sort of portable but nonetheless not as portable as any of the four laptops we’ve talked about.

Windows 11: 8GB RAM 

The 8GB RAM version which is featured here also has Windows 11 in S mode but again you can just do the switch to Windows 11 Home by going to the settings which will take you to the Windows store (the upgrade is free).

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How To Choose A Laptop For Nursing School

Use this section to buy a laptop on your own in case all of the models or the alternatives in the preceeding section are no longer available or just not available in your region.

The Nursing Program

It’s always wise to check your department’s website and what they have to say about computers. There could be a windows requirement as some of the software they use only runs on Windows or they may even have a partnership with some laptop brands that can get you discounts for laptops. 

Laptop Requirement and Other Devices

There may also be a requirement to bring a handheld device like a tablet because classes will perhaps be tailored for the student participation through the use or tablet or some apps used during lectures may be required too. Clinicals are most likely the place where apps and tablets become almost a requirement as access to records and clinical information is much efficient to use through tablets.

Operating System

This is probably your #1 concern: check IF Windows is a requirement. Fail to do this and you will face compatibility issues with software that may be run during class or even during exams. Now, if you buy a MacBook, the issue can be fixed by installing windows (even the latest macbooks support windows) so its more of an issue for laptops with Windows in S mode & Chrome OS.

Exam software : a good example of this is ExamSoft. Only compatible with Mac OSX and Windows and not Chrome OS. If they use another software and it doesnt run on your laptop , don’t panic they always have extra laptops for this situations.

Review courses: some  NCLEX review courses apps and programs   only run on Windows too.

Software Used in Nursing School

Some of these are going to be obvious but they are listed here for the sake of completeness.

• Microsoft Office (Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc)
• Adobe Reader (for lecture notes, homework assignments, etc)
• Flash, Shockwave,Java,QuickTime (To run videos, quick animations, instructional videos,podcasts, etc)

Some obscure apps to you right now (these are examples, alternatives may be used depending on your school):

• Typhon clinical logs (track patients data during Clinicals)
• Lexicomp (a library of medication information)
• Epocrates (all encompassing reference)

Virtually every laptop can not only run all of the software above fast but also let you open all of them at the same time and just as fast any ‘fast’ and ‘expensive’ laptop. In fact, even tablets, can run all of the software above with ZERO issues (if they are compatible with tablets of course, the first three apps can all run on tablets though while the latter three may be accessed through web apps).

Note Taking

Before we go over the computer specs, its important you’re aware WHERE exactly a tablet or a laptop will come in handy:

• Record a lecture  
• Take notes on top of the slides (Type it if laptop or writte it if tablet)
• Attach audio clips on top of slides (both laptop and tablets have microphones).

Doing any of the above may sound too extreme but most nursing students do that anyway, after a few weeks you’ll realize how important it is to extract as much information as possible out of a lecture to avoid wasting time reading extra dozens of pages off a textbook. Remember the lecture has been prepared so you can get the most important details, that along with the homework, is what will show up on tests. 

Recommended Specs

Since you’re only using this laptop for study purposes , hardware is not an issue. Instead, it is better to focus on ergonomics.

A) Ergonomics

1. Weight

Number one feature to look after and the feature you should spend most of your budget on is weight.

3lbs and under:  Laptops with this much weight are SO easy to carry you are likely to bring it EVERYWHERE with you and that’s a good thing in terms of productivity.

These laptops also easily fit in a back because they are very very thing.

Only laptops under 13” will have this much weight. Unfortunately, they are very very expensive to manufacture. You can find them as low as  700 dollars on a good day. Im talking about Windows laptops, chromebooks may be cheaper but they dont support a lot of the software we talked about.

3lb-3.5lb:  This is still somewhat portable but it’s still going to be expensive. They’ll be either ultrabooks with too much power or high quality laptops (MacBooks).

3.5lb-4lb:  best weight you can hope for a cheap laptop (350-450 dollars). Anything higher than 4lb is too heavy to carry.

Q: Is there a lightweight laptop for less than 300 dollars? 

There are two options:

• ChromeBook: the only problem you’ll have is examsoft or software similar to examsoft not being compatible.
• MacBook Air (old): there are no compatibility issues. This would be the best solution. The laptop will be refurbished (pre-2017 models) but it will still last just as long, if not longer, than your average brad new windows laptop.

2. Battery Life

You want a battery life that’s got at least 8 hours, this is enough to last you a full school day with a single charge (assuming you don’t run any heavy apps unrelated to school).

Here’s a few things to know about laptops and their batteries:

• Ultrabooks (3lb thin laptops) can output at least around 10 hours. Ex: MacBook Air, ZenBook, Dell XPS.
• Core i5 and Ryzen 5 laptops (450-600 dollars) will output 7 hours.
• Core i3 and Ryzen 3 laptops (350-450) will output 8 hours.
• Laptops with higher than FHD resolution (QHD) will output 1-2 hours less.
• Laptops with HD or HD+ resolutions will output +1 or 2 extra hours
• Any laptop with a dedicated GPU (gaming) will only output 3 hours tops.
• All Chromebooks will have +10 hours of battery.
• Newest MacBooks will have 13-15 hours

3. Display

You want to get as much screen area as possible out of a display. Why? Well it’s not a MUST but if you have a high budget, it is much better to spend money here rather than on hardware you’ll never put to good use. A bigger screenarea means more stuff you can simultaneously have on your screen (notes, videos…etc) without having to ALT+TAB between applications.

Because getting a bigger display means getting a bigger and heavier laptop that means you don’t want to increase the size of the display to achieve this.

Resolution

What you want to do is increase the resolution. Increasing resolution means having more pixels and when you have more pixels your computer can render more stuff in the screen (think of pixels as if they were buckets of paint).

Thus you want the highest resolution you can afford.

HD+: This is low resolution (900p) you’ll find on this on budget machines mostly 350-450 laptops and also on the old macbook air. It’s not something to avoid though, you can still work with two windows side by side but theres not going to be a lot of space for each.
FHD: This is the ideal resolution to work with two windows next to each other and still have plenty of space on each side. It’s also the ideal resolution for histology questions.
QHD: This resolution is much higher than FHD and only becomes useful if you want to have 3 windows open simultaneously. It’s obviously super useful but can make a laptop very expensive. If you’re doing clinicals it also becomes a little extra you can use for accurate diagnosis is resolution and this is good resolution to get accurate histology diagnosis. 

B) Performance

Truth be told, most laptops out there (about 95%) even those around 300 dollars will have all the performance you need and this section becomes pretty much useless if you have a high budget (+400 dollars).

However…

If your budget is under 350 dollars or around that, chances are , you may come across laptops with hardware (mostly RAM) that will not be sufficient to run Windows 11 or Windows 10 Home fast enough for you to be productive (in other words: lag when multitasking). So this is what this section will be about, otherwise you can ignore it and call it a day.

1. CPU 

Windows 10 or Windows 11 Home will run fast with modern (Intel Core or Ryzen) CPUs. A good sample list is shown below but it’s not necessarily complete:

Intel

CPU	Base(GHz)	Turbo(GHz)	Cores(Threads)
i3 10050G1	1.2	3.4	2(4)
i3 10100U	2.1	4.1	2(4)
i3-1115G4	3	4.1	2(4)
i3-1215U	3.3	4.4	2/4
i5 8250U	1.6	3.4	4(8)
i5 8265U	1.6	3.9	4(8)
i5-1035G7	1.2	3.7	4(8)
i5-1035G1	1.0	3.6	4(8)
i5 1115G4	2.4	4.2	4(8)
i5 1240P	3.3	4.4	12(8)

AMD

CPU	Base	Turbo	Cores
Ryzen 5 5500U	2.1	4.4	6(12)
Ryzen 5 4500U	2.3	4.0	6 (12)
Ryzen 5 3500U	2.1	3.7	4(8)
Ryzen 3 5300U	2.6	3.8	4(8)
Ryzen 3 4300U	2.7	3.7	4 (8)
Ryzen 3 3300U	2.1	3.5	4(8)

 

You can choose the CPUs above or similar (the numbers may be different) or use the following tips to rule out “slow and outdated” CPUs:

• Intel Celeron & Intel Pentium
• Intel Core with Y or M letters somewhere. Ex: Intel Core m3 8100Y is no good where as Intel Core i3 8100U is good.
• Any AMD CPU that doesn’t have the word Ryzen. Ex: AMD A4-4300M
• Tablet CPUs: MediaTek & Atom CPUs
• Lastly, Intel Core CPUs from the 7th generation and below. Ex: Core i5 10210U is a 10th gen where as Core i5 6100U is 6th gen.

If you discard all CPUs with the rules outlined above, you’ll be left with the list of CPUs I’ve listed in the table above.

Core i7 and Ryzen 7

These are too fast and consume too much energy plus they are too expensive. You don’t want them UNLESS you’ve found a laptop that’s portable and has all the extra cool features at a good price.

The fastest CPUs you should go for are the Core i5 and Ryzen 5 (any generation in the table) or the Core i3 and Ryzen 3  (the latest 11th and 6th).

Chrome OS & Windows in S

Laptops that come with these operating systems can run on pretty much any CPU even those I told you to avoid but again nursing school software (at least one or two) will not run on these laptops due to compatibility issues. If you can find a way to use those software on another machine (perhaps a desktop or borrow a laptop for a few ocassions) why not? All power to you!

2. RAM

This becomes more crucial than CPU. You may make up for the lack of CPU power if you have enough RAM and a few other things in check(we’l talk about it later). 

The amount of RAM you need will be correlated to what operating sytem you use and how many apps you run simultaneously.

4GB RAM: If we are talking about Windows 10 or 11 Home or Professional, this is not enough. Those versions of Windows take most of it and that leaves you nothing for any extra stuff to run in the background. This is a good number for Windows in S mode and Mac OSX.
8GB RAM: Bare minimum you want for Windows Home whether it’s 10 o 11.
2GB RAM: Only good for Chrome OS.

Upgrading

If you’re on a budget and can only afford a 4GB RAM laptop like the 300 dollar Acer Aspire 5, don’t panick. This is still a good move because you can upgrade RAM up to 16GB on most laptops ON YOUR OWN. I have a tutorial on how to upgrade RAM here but you can just take it to the IT department of your school and they will do it for you. The only laptops that cannot be upgraded are the following:

• Any thin laptop (ultrabooks, basically those 700-900 dollar laptops that weigh approx 3lbs)
• ChromeBooks (most chromebooks are not upgradeable but you don’t need to upgrade them anyways).
• 11 inch laptops are not upgradeable.  That means you can’t install an additional 4GB RAM. I would just stay away from 11 inch laptops unless they’re one of those premium ultrabooks like the Surface Go. Virtually all of them will run Windows 10 slow.

3. Storage

When you have a low budget (less than 250 dollars), you will come across HDDs (Hard Disk Drives). If you’re building a desktop, you’ll also come across HDDs. 

To make it short and sweet:

SSD stands for solid state drive and that makes a huge difference in the overall speed of your computer, in other words:

• SSDs will boot up your machine in split seconds
• Launch software in ia flash
• Find particular words throughout the computer (and look inside docs too) instantly
• Slightly longer battery

There are many types of Solid State Drives, usually by the name of PCIe NVMe, SATA III or they may have ‘extra lanes’ (Up to 4) . You can forget about all that confusing stuff, as long as that laptop says SSD (Solid State Drive) you are good.

Size

As for the size, it doesn’t matter, 128GB is plenty for all the textbooks, videos and pdf files you’ll store in a span of 10 years. Most laptops have twice that : 256GB!

4. GPU (Graphics Card)

You don’t need to worry about graphics card for whatever task you have in mind.

X-ray images or any high resolution image out of CD or USB drive or during an exam will be crystal clear regardless of what graphics card you have.

All laptops have graphics cards by default.

The one most laptops have by default is integrated and this is fine for pretty much everything even 3D gaming. Just ignore this piece of hardware.

C) Tablets & 2 in 1 Laptops

This is an important topic because 2 in 1 laptops , iPads and tablets are replacing tradditional laptops for nursing and the medical industry. I’ll just leave the details to the video down below. Watch all of it , if you’re really serious about 2 in 1 devices (those you take notes through a touch pen) and if you have the budget (they are at least 800 dollars!).

 

Q: Do you recommend one?

Of course, they’re ultra portable cheap and can replace pretty much all of your school supplies. They’re also ideal to record lectures and write notes on top of slides and on top of that you can organize ALL of your documents nicely as if it were your own personal wiki. Read my review on the Surface Pro 9 above for more details.

But I still think you should also get a laptop….

Because. truth is when you’re writing reports , you can’t be nearly as productive with tablets as you would with a real computer that has a much bigger screen or that has a much better keyboard.  NCLEX software doesn’t run on tablets either but it will run on 2-1 Laptops or any device that has Windows Home.