Best MacBooks for students 2025: Pick up a machine with immense performance in a portable frame

Keen to get your hands on the best MacBook fit for a student? These days they can be fairly affordable, and you know what to expect – a great screen, flawless performance as well as a portable body that means you can easily carry one around with you.

MacBooks tend to be built for long-term use, too, meaning you can won't need to shell out to replace them within a couple of years, unlike plenty of Windows alternatives. But there are questions still over whether to go with the Air or the Pro, which size to opt for, and whether it's worth dipping into a cut-price model from a previous generation.

With Amazon Prime Big Deal Days taking place between 7-8 October, check out our Live Science deals hub to make sure you're taking advantage of the best MacBook deals.

The Quick List

The best MacBooks for students and learners that we recommend in 2025

Best MacBook overall

We loved using the MacBook Air 15-inch (M4), and it's our pick for the best overall laptop for students given its portability, functionality and price point. We wrote in our review of the MacBook Air 15-inch (M2) that it's the ultimate laptop for students — with the newest version carrying through far more performance levels, a stunning screen, and a robust and lightweight build.

The 13-inch version is also a great alternative for those who want to use something a little smaller and easier to transport, but we loved the bi, immersive screen in this model — wide enough that you can immerse yourself in any visual work or while watching shows. It's a significant quality of life difference that sets it apart from smaller machines.

Performance is also on a par with the MacBook Pro, you just lose out on a handful of benefits like a better display and plenty more ports. But the sleek dimensions and weight more than make up for this — weighing just 3.3 lbs (1.4 kg) and measuring just 0.45 inches (11.43 mm) thick when the lid is shut.

That means you get the best of both worlds with a large and immersive display for viewing content or media and a fantastically portable machine that you can carry around with you when working on the go or on the way to lectures. There's also a fantastic battery life and a variety of colors you can pick up this device, including Sky Blue, Silver, Starlight and Midnight.

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Best portable MacBook

The MacBook Air 13-inch (M4) is one of our favorites, and it's been widely recognized as one of the best portable machines you can get. When you look at how much it weighs, its size, and what's under the hood — it's obvious why. That's not to mention its extremely attractive price point.

Its stunningly elegant design is coupled with a lightness you don't get with the MacBook Pro (it weighs 2.7 lbs versus the MacBook Pro's 3.4 lbs). It also performs on par thanks to the inclusion of an M4 chip. We mentioned in our MacBook Air M2 review that the device offers the perfect blend of power and portability for students, and the M4 version is no different.

With the base model available for under $1,000, you could do much worse than one of the best laptops out there — and you also get the popular MagSafe charging option, 12MP Center Stage Camera and a gorgeous Liquid Retina display.

You can also pick it up in a handful of great colors, including Sky Blue, Space Gray, Midnight and Starlight — all are gorgeous but we have a soft spot in particular for the Midnight coating. The other benefit over the previous generation of MacBook Air devices is that the base model now starts at 16 GB of unified memory — double the 8 GB you previously got — which will make a world of difference if you're hoping to multitask while on the move. Ultimately, it's an incredibly zippy and stylish laptop that's also the perfect travel companion.

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Best MacBook for battery life

No matter which MacBook you pick up, you can guarantee that you are bound to get a device that can last you a full day, and beyond if you're not planning on using it throughout. With the new M4-fitted MacBooks, you'll benefit from a better battery life than you may have encountered in previous generations, especially in the more powerful Pro versions.

The longest-lasting MacBook is the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro), based on Apple's findings around battery life — with the M4 Pro chip lasting 24 hours for video streaming versus 21 hours in the M4 Max. Real-life results aren't quite as high, but still excellent.

Sister site Tom's Guide found the the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro) lsted 20 hours and 46 minutes in its test – far better than a host of Windows competitors. Tom's Hardware recorded a similar 21 hours and 1 minute battery life, which was far greater than the 18 hours and 31 minutes the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4) lasted. Last year's Macbook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max) — which we highlighted as the previous best MacBook for battery life — lasted 18 hours and 5 minutes in the same battery test.

We would certainly recommend investing in the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro) if you're looking to marry high-end performance with ultimate battery life — but, of course, this will set you back a fair amount and it might not represent the best value for money. That is, unless, you plan on making the most of the advanced chipset and running the most intensive applications while on the move.

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Cheapest MacBook

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MacBooks are built to last, which is evidenced by the fact the M2 version of the MacBook Air is still so popular. This machine still offers reasonable performance levels compared with new Windows machines in 2025, and it has the exact same look, feel and build quality as the very newest MacBooks. That's why, if you manage to find a good deal between $600 and $800, and you're on a tight budget, the MacBook Air 13-inch (M2) is the laptop that we'd recommend.

We highlighted the design and build quality were both exceptional in our MacBook Air 13-inch (M2) review, and you should also expect a great panel and long-lasting battery life. While you don't get the latest AI features, this machine offers plenty to make it worth its price tag. You can run all kinds of basic tasks without breaking a sweat, while also powering up intensive apps like Photoshop, while streaming videos, without experiencing any hitches.

The two caveats are that it's not as future-proofed as the newest machines, and it may occasionally run warm if you use it intensely for extended periods (due to the lack of fan-cooling systems). You should also be aware that it lacks the same ports as the Pro version, as well as the expansive panel of the 15-inch and 16-inch MacBooks. But, otherwise, there are still very few flaws in what we described as the ultimate laptop for students.

Read our full MacBook Air 13-inch (M2) review.

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Best MacBook for creatives

Creatives looking to get the most out of a machine without breaking the bank should consider the MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4). This base version of the MacBook Pro series is anything but basic, and offers a tremendous amount of power and potential at a great price point.

We previously recommended the M3 Pro version of last year's MacBook Pro 14-inch, but we think the M4 chip is powerful enough to give you everything you need at a much lower price point, which is an important factor when considering the best MacBook for students.

In fact, we also recommend this machine as our best laptop overall in our guide to the best laptops for photo and video editing — highlighting its components as well as its excellent display and a tremendous number of ports that you get, including an SDXC card slot as well as HDMI and Thunderbolt 4 ports. It's also much lighter than its predecessor and you get a minimum of 16 GB unified memory — double the amount you would have gotten in the base M3 model.

The downside with the MacBook Pro is its cost — which is reasonable, but you can certainly find a laptop for much cheaper (especially if you broaden your search to a Windows machine). While we believe it represents great value for money, you may not need the performance levels you get with the M4 chip, or even the high-quality screen if you plan on using an external monitor anyway.

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Best MacBook for power

The MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Max) is an absolute beast and the most powerful laptop that anybody can buy outside of a specialized workstation, but picking one up is nothing you should do lightly. You should only really opt for this machine if you are seeking to get the most power you possibly can out of a MacBook, and money is no object.

You can throw anything at the M4 Max chip and it will hardly break a sweat — this includes AAA gaming or intensive machine learning workloads if you're a computer science student. Graphic design? No problem. 3D modeling? Fine. Thanks to its 30-core GPU, which handles graphics rendering with aplomb, you'll have a machine that's set up to do pretty much anything.

With the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Max), you'll also pick up one of the best panels on the market in the form of the 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR screen — but this is the same display as you'll get in even the base M4 version. If you're one to use multiple screens, you can rely on the GPU core count reliably plug the machine into several external monitors and expect performance to barely take a dent in how the machine runs.

We should say that the base MacBook Pro (M4) is good enough for pretty much any professional use case, let alone studying, so to upgrade to a machine with the M4 Pro or M4 Max chip really should demand a genuine need. You won't really notice a difference unless you plan to specifically tap into something like the highest graphics in gaming or for the aforementioned use cases.

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Keumars Afifi-Sabet

Keumars is the technology editor at Live Science. He has written for a variety of publications including Space.com, ITPro, The Week Digital, ComputerActive and TechRadar Pro. He has worked as a technology journalist for more than five years, having previously held the role of features editor with ITPro.

MacBook student discount

Apple has long offered educational discounts for students looking to invest in the company’s products, and that means you can save big bucks on a Mac and iPad right now.

If you’re a student or faculty staff, you’ll be able to save money on everything from the iMac, to the Pro Display XDR using your student ID credentials at Apple’s education store.

Apple also runs regular “back to school’ promotions, ranging from additional Gift Cards that can be redeemed for hardware, software, or services like Apple Music. The company also offers occasional discounts on its AppleCare+ insurance, helping with repairs for things like out-of-warranty screen cracks or water spillages. That can be particularly helpful when transporting your shiny new laptop from a dorm to a classroom and back, giving you peace of mind.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

How to choose the best MacBook for you

You should ask yourself what you're looking for in a new MacBook and how exactly you intend to use it, and how often. If you need a device for note-taking, web browsing or to watch shows and movies, then a MacBook might feel like overkill.

But, on the other hand, they're stylish, built to last and are impressively engineered. So perhaps getting a cheap MacBook Air for under $1,000 is the best way forward. If you primarily need something to work with while on the move and that's much lighter than others, the MacBook Air 13-inch (M4) is the pick of the bunch.

For more firepower and intensive creative tasks or video editing, for instance, you should consider the MacBook Pro line — which offer more power in the form of upgraded M3 Pro and M3 Max chips and more ports.

Regardless of your needs, there will be a MacBook for you. Just be wary of the price, the size of the machine and how much power you will end up needing.

How we test

Picking the best MacBook for students is a challenge, not only because it's dependent on your workload, but because of the cost involved – Apple's machines are expensive, and there's no getting around that.

We test all our laptops to the same standard whether MacBook or Windows, running various benchmarks and tests — as well as getting hands-on with the machine — to determine what it's like using it and how it performs depending on what you might be looking for in a device. We run CPU and GPU benchmarks using Geekbench 6 to test a laptop's performance, while we run CrystalDiskMark to test how well its hard drive or SSD can handle data transfers.

Testing a laptop's display involves using a specialized display calibrator that can detect brightness levels, color accuracy, color volume, any undersaturation or oversaturation in the RGB space, as well as distortions against what we expect. We compare and contrast these results to determine how well the display may be suited to, say, video editing or other uses.

We also test the battery life of all laptops we review in a consistent way to make comparisons viable. We run a looped video in specific conditions with all automatic brightness and contrast settings turned off and we measure how long the laptop lasts before it runs out of battery.

Beyond benchmarking, we use these laptops day-to-day and run informal stress tests like playing several 4K YouTube videos at once, browsing, and using other applications a typical user might open. We also type with the device and get a general feel for what it's like carrying it around with us.