Best Laptops For Occupational Therapy School

Are you looking for the best laptop for occupational therapy school?

Well, you’re in the right place.

Finding a solid laptop that’ll last you for years to come is a challenging task. With more than hundreds of laptops available on the market, you will end up confused or frustrated depending on how much you know.

That’s where we make things a whole lot easier.

We’ve done a ton of research and have come up with a select few laptops that are great for occupational therapy students.

Let’s take a look at them.

IMAGE	PRODUCT	SPECIFICATIONS	PRICE
EDITOR’S CHOICE	ASUS ZenBook 13	13.3″ Retina Apple Silicon M1 8GB DDR4 256GB SSD	View On AmazonRead Reviews
RUNNER UP	Microsoft Surface Pro 7	12.3″ Pixel Sense Intel Core i5 8GB DDR4 256 GB SSD	View on AmazonRead Reviews
BUDGET CHOICE	Acer Aspire 5	15.6″ FHD AMD Ryzen 8GB DDR4 256GB SSD	View on AmazonRead Reviews

Best Laptops For Occupational Therapy School

1. Apple MacBook Air – Editor’s Choice

Our Editor’s Choice for the best laptop for OT school is the MacBook Air from Apple.

When you’re looking for reliable laptops, MacBooks have always been excellent, and this one is no different.

The MacBook Air is excellent for occupational therapy students in more than one way. It is portable, making it easy to move around with it. It also comes with an all-day battery life which is perfect for students.

With a 13.3″ display, this laptop is not a big one. The display we have here is a Retina display that comes with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels. This gives us an excellent pixel density which in turn produces fantastic pictures.

The display is perfect for browsing the web, reading, researching, and working on office docs. This laptop has one of the best displays for media consumption.

What surprised us were the speakers on this laptop. For a small laptop, the speakers deliver superior sound. You get all the highs and lows you don’t see in notebooks with a thin body. Apple does take some help in achieving this sound magic, but if it works, why bother?

The keyboard on this laptop is a pretty good one. It takes the scissor mechanism from the older MacBook models and creates a refreshing keyboard to type on.

The keys have decent travel for a MacBook Air, and you will enjoy typing on this laptop. The trackpad is the best you’re going to find on an ultrabook. This one is on par with the one you’ll find on the MacBook Pro.

Let’s talk about the processing power of this laptop. The MacBook Air comes with an Intel Core i3 processor. This is a 10th gen i3 processor from Intel, which packs a punch.

With a base frequency of 1.5GHz, this one might sound like an underachiever, but you’re in for a surprise. You can run all your everyday applications without any issues whatsoever.

The memory department on this laptop comes equipped with 8 gigs of DDR4 RAM. This RAM has a clock speed of 2666MHz and is one of the fastest memories. With this memory in place, you can multitask without any restrictions.

Concerning storage, we have a 256GB solid-state drive. Apple is famous for its SSDs, and this one here sustains that name. We have a superfast solid-state drive for a budget ultrabook like the MacBook Air, and the laptop flies because of this.

There is no dedicated graphics card in the MacBook Air. We have an integrated Intel UHD graphics card, which will be fine for most users. If you are a gamer, this laptop is not a good fit.

Overall, the MacBook Air is a solid piece of engineering that is great for students. It comes with enough processing power, fast storage, and adequate memory with an affordable price tag making it one of the best laptops for occupational therapy students.

2. Surface Pro 7 – Runner UP

If you favor the Windows operating system, the Surface Book 7 is the best laptop.

This Surface Book 7 model is a 12.3″ laptop that comes with a form factor that is great for students. The laptop also doubles up as a tablet making it a good choice for taking handwritten notes.

With a more petite body than the biggest ultrabooks, this laptop weighs only 1.70 lbs making it the lightest laptop regarding power and performance.

The battery life of the Surface Pro 7 deserves special mention. With regular use, you should be able to squeeze out at least 10 hours of use from this laptop. Even with something intensive, the device lasts an entire day at school, which is excellent.

The display is one of the best parts of this hybrid laptop. We have a 12.3″ display with what Microsoft calls the PixelSense resolution. This is a resolution of 3200 x 1800 pixels, which takes the pixel density of this display to a new level.

This display is perfect for anything you can think of. It is excellent for everyday activities like browsing the web, researching, taking notes, etc. The display is also excellent for editing photos and small videos and watching your favorite tv shows and movies.

In addition to all these, the display is also a 10-point touchscreen. It is very responsive and is one of the best touchscreens out there. You can use an active stylus to take notes on this screen. You can also use the touchscreen to browse the OS as you would daily.

Surface Book 7 is powered by an Intel Core i5 processor that comes from the 10th generation of Intel chips. This is one of the most powerful mid-range processors out there and is well-suited for users like students.

The processor can handle a ton of work ranging from light to heavy-duty. You can throw almost anything at it; this one will take it like a boss.

The memory department comes with 8 gigs of memory that gives excellent support to the processor. The memory is of the DDR4 type and offers all you need to have a good multitasking experience. If you want more memory, there is also a model with 16GB memory.

There are 256 gigs of storage in the form of a solid-state drive. This SSD is fast but not as quick as the one in the MacBook Air. The solid-state drive gives you all the performance enhancement you need, and that’s why we’ve always preferred them over HDDs.

Overall, the Surface Book 7 is an excellent laptop and does a fine job as a tablet. If you want to transition your notes to a digital device, this one is a perfect choice.

3. Acer Aspire 5 – Budget Choice

The Acer Aspire 5 is the best budget laptop for occupational therapy school.

With a price of just over $500, you will not find a better well-rounded laptop than this one.

The laptop comes with a 15.6″ display with full HD resolution. The image quality is pretty good, thanks to the IPS panel. You will enjoy this display for watching movies, TV shows, and other everyday tasks.

This is a bigger laptop when compared with the other two laptops we’ve seen. That also significantly increases the device’s weight, making it a bit less portable.

An AMD Ryzen processor powers this laptop. The AMD Ryzen 3 3200U is an entry-level processor with enough processing power. It can be compared with an Intel Core i3 processor. This processor handles all your everyday activities without any problem.

The laptop has 4GB RAM, which is just the minimum RAM we recommend in a laptop for students. This is okay as long as you don’t do anything resource-intensive. Multitasking is a bit limited, but it is possible.

The storage is only 128 gigs of SSD storage. While this is a budget laptop, we still get faster SSD storage, and that’s nice. It helps keep the laptop’s performance on point and improves the load times of the OS and other applications.

Overall, this Acer Aspire 5 Slim laptop is an excellent device that comes with a budget price tag. It handles your daily workload and serves well for someone with a limited budget.

What To Look For In The Best Laptops For Occupational Therapy Students?

If you are unhappy with the model mentioned above and want to find a laptop on your own, that’s great.

But before you go, here are some factors you should consider before you get your new laptop.

Power

You don’t need a powerful laptop for occupational therapy school.

You’ll be OK with an Intel Core i3 processor if you’re on a budget. Just make sure that it comes with a decent clock speed so you can easily manage your everyday tasks.

If you want a slightly more powerful laptop, we recommend going for one with an Intel Core i5 processor. This one is a bit more powerful and will come with 4 cores, making your life easier.

We would not recommend going for an i7 processor. Without proper optimization, the i7 processor uses much power and will affect your laptop’s battery life. Unless you need the power, we would not prefer this one.

How much RAM will you need?

You should be OK with 4GB of DDR4 RAM in the memory department. This is great for people on a budget.

It will allow you to handle your everyday schoolwork without any issues.

But having just four gigs will restrict you outside school. You might not be able to run multiple applications together, which could impact how you do things.

So we recommend going with at least 8GB of DDR4 RAM so you can have the freedom of multitasking whenever you want.

This amount of RAM also future-proofs your laptop to some extent.

Display

This is probably the most critical aspect of the laptop.

As a student, you will spend most of your time looking at the screen. Having a good screen will not only make your life easier but will also have a positive impact on your health.

Regarding resolution, we would not recommend going for anything less than 1920 x 1080 pixels. This is full HD resolution and will give you a decent pixel density to play with.

If possible, go with a high-end display with a resolution of QHD or higher. This will improve the output quality, and you will not return once you’ve tasted this.

The size of your screen is another important criterion. It is also a matter of personal preference, as an occupational therapy school doesn’t tell you what size you need.

If you don’t want to deal with big laptops, you should go for 13.3″ laptops. They are light and easy to carry around.

If you want more screen space, then you should go for a 15.6″ screen. You will get a widescreen which will be great for consuming media and other multimedia purposes.

In any case, ensure that the laptop you’re going for comes with an IPS panel.

An IPS panel plays a crucial role in the output of the display. It impacts the picture’s color and helps get the best viewing angles for you.

Also, make sure you want a touchscreen on your laptop. Touchscreen does help, but it will increase the cost of your laptop, which is why we think it’s not that necessary.

Input System

The keyboard on your laptop must be a good one. There is no compromise here.

You will take many notes at school and won’t do well with a soft and mushy keyboard.

The laptop must have a suitable keyboard layout with well-spaced keys. It would be best if you also got decent feedback from the keyboard when you’re typing.

Backlighting is a must-have on your keyboard. It might increase the cost of your laptop, but having it is worth the price.

The trackpad on your keyboard should be a Windows Precision Keyboard. That way, it will support all the gestures making your life much easier.

Graphics

You will be outstanding with an integrated graphics card on your laptop.

As an occupational therapy student, you will not have a lot of graphics needs. There will be none.

Most integrated graphics cards are excellent these days and will handle your needs without issues.

You’ll only need a dedicated graphics card when you are a gamer or graphic designer.

Storage

You don’t need a lot of space for occupational therapy school.

More than how much space you need, what kind of storage you’re opting for is more important.

There are two kinds of storage. One is called a solid-state drive, while the other is a hard disk drive.

The solid-state drives are modern and much faster. You will find them in recent laptops. We recommend them too.

The hard disk drives are old-school and are much slower. The only advantage with them is that they’re a lot cheaper, so you can get more storage for a lot less.

Do get an SSD if you can afford it. It will change the way you work on your laptop. Once you go the SSD route, there’s no going back.

Battery Life

For a student, nothing is more important than the battery life of her laptop.

You need a notebook that will stay with you without bailing on you. Of course, schools will have charging points, but they’ll also be crowded.

If you don’t want to spend your time in school searching for power outlets, then get a machine with good battery life.

Conclusion

That’s the curtains for this post.

We hope we were of some assistance in finding the best laptop for occupational therapy students.

If you have any doubts, do contact us using the contact page. We’d be more than happy to help.