Are you searching for the best laptops for elementary students? Well, you’ve reached the right place.
We, at Consumer Tech Central, have done thorough research on this topic so that you don’t have to face any difficult decisions when getting a laptop for your kid.
With a ton of laptops flooding the market every single day, the art of finding the right laptop for your elementary school kid is only going to get tougher.
But we’re here to help. Without wasting any more of your time, here is the list of top laptops for elementary school kids in 2020.
Best Laptops for Elementary Students in 2020
Editor's Choice - Apple MacBook Air
The Apple MacBook Air is our editor’s choice for the best laptop for elementary students. This year Apple reinvented the MacBook Air lineup and is now more suitable for students than ever before.
The Apple MacBook Air is one of the best-designed laptops at the moment and has a solid form factor that doesn’t weigh a lot. At under 3 lbs, this is one of the lightest laptops at the moment. This fact makes this model more suitable for students, especially the younger ones at elementary school.
One of the best features of this model is the 13.3″ Retina display with True Tone technology. This display comes with a super high resolution that Apple calls Retina display. The screen has a pixel density of 227 PPI which is very impressive. If you’re sitting at a normal distance from the laptop, you would be hard-pressed to find individual pixels.
The display is great for pretty much everything. The color accuracy is on point and the pictures are sharp with an excellent contrast ratio. You will enjoy watching movies, series, and enjoy working on photos and videos as well. The viewing angles are great which makes his laptop an ideal companion for presentations.
The laptop comes with touchID and Touch Bar. Apple recently replaced function keys with the infamous Touch Bar giving the users more functional options rather than just 12 keys. Though the touch bar was not welcomed initially, we can’t say the same thing now. The touch ID, on the other hand, allows you to login with a single touch making things simpler in true Apple fashion.
When it comes to processing power, the MacBook Air is just as good as any ultrabook you can find on the market. Though Apple doesn’t dwell on specifics, the hardware inside this laptop is solid and allows you to do pretty much everything you would want to do on a daily basis. The combination of a dual-core eighth-gen Intel i5 processor and an eight gig DDR4 memory allows the user to get the job done without any fuss.
The editor’s choice model we have here has a storage capacity of 128 gigs. The reason we’ve chosen the 128 gigs model is that students don’t need a lot of space at this point in time. If you feel like your kid would need much more space, you can always upgrade to a model with more storage.
One minor disadvantage with Apple‘s MacBook Air is that it doesn’t come with a dedicated graphics card. We only have Intel UHD graphics 617 which does a pretty good job when it comes to handling graphics applications. You can even have some success playing some mid-range games which are neat.
The MacBook Air comes with two Thunderbolt 3.0 ports which are super fast when it comes to connectivity and data transfer. Though people are still not happy about the exclusion of regular USB 3.0 ports,  we can see more and more people adopting the latest USB C standard.
Another beastly advantage you get with the MacBook Air is the battery life. With regular use, you can get around ten to twelve hours of battery life from this model. If you are a student, this laptop will last you an entire day without any issues.
Overall, the Apple MacBook Air is one of the best laptops when it comes to student
- Stupid fast
- Lightweight
- Solid overall performance
- Lack of dedicated GPU
Runner Up - Microsoft Surface Pro 6
Our runner-up for the best laptop for elementary students is the Microsoft Surface Pro 6. This laptop is a generation old in Microsoft’s Surface Pro series. The reason we have chosen the 6 model over the 7 is that the six is comparatively cheaper but still offers excellent performance for elementary school students.
The Microsoft Surface Pro 6 comes with not only one but two excellent form factors that are executed well. The model can be both a laptop and a tablet depending upon the students’ needs. The good thing here is that this model does both of them well rather than just touching base. Whether you want a laptop or a tablet, you can have them both properly.
The laptop comes with a nice industrial design that looks great on the eyes. The black color gives it a stealthy look and at the same time, you can see that this is a premium device. The hinges are smooth and the stand at the back is pretty sturdy for what it does.
The display we have here is a 12.3-inch Pixel Sense display. This is another high-resolution display from Microsoft and comes with excellent colors, a wonderful contrast ratio, and brilliant viewing angles. If you are someone who values the display on your laptop then you will fall in love with this Pixel Sense display.
Since the laptop doubles up as a tablet, you have a touchscreen at your disposal. The display is super responsive to touch and it’s pretty accurate as well. If you plan to use the Surface Pro as a tablet to draw on then you are going to have a very good time.
This laptop is one of the lightest ones on the market weighing just 1.7 pounds. If you have a small kid, he or she won’t have a problem carrying this around at school all day.
Another compelling reason to buy this laptop is the battery life. The laptop can last for around 13.5 hours of video playback which is crazy good. Even with a heavy load, the laptop would last for more than eight hours and that’s excellent for the price.
How good is the processing power? The Surface Pro 6 comes with an Intel i5 processor as the captain of the ship and it does a fantastic job. There are eight gigs of ram in the memory department and they complement the processor in the best way possible. Together these two offer a seamless performance to the user and make sure that there is no lag in the performance whatsoever.
Just like the MacBook Air, the Surface Pro does not come with a dedicated graphics card. However, you can still play most of the mid-range games without any problem. The integrated graphics solution handles most graphics applications without any hiccups. If you are someone who wants to play the latest and the greatest AAA titles, then this is not the right laptop for you.
The laptop also comes with extensive connectivity options. You have a diverse selection of ports for both connectivity and data transfer.
Overall, the Microsoft surface pro six has a solid laptop and it comes with a bunch of features that are perfect for school students. If your kid is still in elementary school this laptop might be overkill, but if he or she is a creative person then this laptop is a near-perfect fit.
- Only 1.7 lbs
- Double up as a tablet
- Excellent overall performance
- No discrete GPU
Best Gaming Laptop for Elementary Students - Acer Predator Triton 700
There are some kids who love gaming and if your kid is one of them, then you will love the Acer Predator Triton 700. There are tons of gaming laptops and to select one from them is a daunting task. But this model does stand out for a number of reasons.
The first thing that gets your attention is the 15.6″ full HD display. This is an excellent display and comes with an IPS panel. Thanks to this panel, we get really good colors and the color accuracy is also pretty neat. The viewing angles are really impressive and you can catch the same picture from pretty much anywhere in the room. Having a good display is paramount for a gaming laptop and this model nails it.

Another nice feature is the keyboard. We have a nice tactical keyboard that comes with more than enough key travel. If you are a fan of mechanical keyboards, you’re going to enjoy this keyboard. One minor gripe with this laptop is the lack of a touchpad which means you have to get a gaming mouse separately and that is going to cost you extra.
There is no lack of processing power in the Acer Predator Triton 700. We have a seventh-gen Intel core processor at its helm and it runs the show. The i7 7700HQ processor comes with four cores and is one of the most powerful processors from the seventh generation of Intel chips. It can clock up to a maximum of 3.8 GHz which is quite powerful.
The processor gets ample support from the 16 gigs of DDR4 memory and together they are a force to reckon with. With this combination, you will be able to run pretty much any game you want without any issues. If you are a fan of multitasking, these 16 gigs of RAM will surely come in handy as well.
The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 is the graphics card in the Acer Predator Triton 700, and it comes with a dedicated video RAM of six gigs. This is a pretty solid GPU and will allow you to any game out there without having to mess with the settings too much. Though there are many recent GPUs that will offer better performance, this one still gives you the best bang for the buck.
The key area where the laptop let us down is in the battery department. Being a gaming laptop, this laptop also doesn’t do well when it comes to battery life. With a light load, you should be able to get 6 to 7 hours of battery life which is decent. This is the reason why it is hard for us to recommend this laptop for school work because you’re going to need the laptop to stay alive for an entire day and with a little bit of gaming that is going to be a challenge.
But if you are going to use this laptop as a home laptop then you don’t have anything to worry about.
- Excellent for gaming
- Solid processor
- Brilliant display
- Battery life is not great
Best Budget Laptop for Elementary Students - Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop
If you’re looking for a budget laptop for your elementary school kids, then this laptop with a solid choice. The Acer Aspire 5 slim laptop is one of the best low-budget offerings out there in the market that brings both affordability and features in one package.
The display on the Acer Aspire 5 slim laptop is one of its best features. We have a 15.6-inch display with a Full HD resolution. What surprises us here is the inclusion of an IPS panel even at this price range. Thanks to the IPS panel, we get excellent viewing angles and the color reproduction is on point as well.
The laptop is powered by an AMD Ryzen 3 3200U processor. This is a dual-core chip from AMD and can clock up to a maximum of 3.5 GHz. Though this is not as powerful as some of the Intel chips out there, it still does a commendable job when it comes to managing your day to day activities and even some heavy-duty workload.
For memory, we have 4GB DDR4 RAM. This is not a lot of memory but at this price point, we really can’t complain. Most elementary school students will be fine with just 4 gigs as it allows them to run a few apps side-by-side without bringing down the performance of the laptop. You can upgrade the memory in the future as it is user upgradable.
The storage we have here is 128GB SSD. We are very happy to see that Acer has gone with an SSD solution rather than sticking with a traditional hard drive disk. Thanks to the solid-state drive, the laptop does well when it comes to everyday performance. It boots up the operating system in just a few seconds and handles the opening and closing of applications with ease.
You will not find a dedicated graphics card in the Acer Aspire 5 slim laptop. However, the laptop still manages to run some of the mid-range games by meddling a bit with the graphics settings. If you are a serious gamer, then you probably should be looking at a gaming laptop that we discussed here.
The keyboard on the laptop comes with decent travel and is a pleasure to type on. You get a full keyboard with a dedicated number pad which is nice. The touchpad comes at a decent size and touch input with excellent accuracy.
The laptop comes with a ton of connectivity options. You get one USB 3.1 gen 1 port, a couple of USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port, and other regulars. The laptop also comes with standard support for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as well.
The battery life of the Acer Aspire 5 slim laptop is around eight hours. Even if you are a heavy user he should be able to get at least six hours out of this laptop which is pretty sweet considering that this is a budget laptop.
Overall, the Acer Aspire 5 slim laptop is our budget pick for elementary students as it comes with an affordable price tag and a set of features that are exceptional for school students. The hardware and the software make this laptop a good one for a couple more years to come.
- Affordable
- Full HD display
- Solid battery life
- None at this price point
Best Portable Laptop for Elementary Students - ASUS Transformer Mini
If you’re looking for a portable laptop then the ASUS Transformer Mini is a solid contender. The laptop weighs less than 1.7lbs with the keyboard attached and is only 0.6 inches thin which makes it one of the most portable laptops out there on the market.
The laptop is made from a magnesium-aluminum alloy that feels strong but is incredibly light at the same time. The hinge design it’s pretty smooth and gives you seamless moments every time you open or close the laptop. It also allows you to adjust the display to pretty much any angle you want without making any weird screeches.
Another neat feature here is that the display of this laptop is also a touchscreen that comes with handwriting support with Windows Ink. This means your kid can draw on the screen if he or she is a creative person. The ASUS Transformer Mini also comes with a one-touch fingerprint login which could save a few seconds here and there.
The 10.1-inch display has a resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels which is just a tad above HD resolution. This is not an IPS display so don’t expect amazing viewing angles of any sort. We have 128 gigs of flash storage which is a much better option when compared to traditional HDD.
The keyboard on this laptop is one of its finest features. It is both ergonomic and compact at the same time with the key travel of 1.5mm. The keyboard is perfect for typing and gives you satisfactory feedback. The precision touchpad here comes with palm-rejection technology and Windows gestures support as well. It is accurate and that’s a pretty good job.
The laptop comes with an Intel quad-core X5 processor. This processor is 10% more powerful when compared to its predecessors. The processor also is two times better in terms of graphics performance as well. The four gigs of RAM in the memory department goes well in tandem with the processor and offers the user slowdown-free computing experience.
The ASUS Transformer Mini comes with an excellent battery life. You can get around 11 hours of laptop usage which is pretty good. Even with a heavy load, the laptop will last for more than eight hours which will work great for a lot of people. Since we are talking about elementary school students here, 11 hours means that the laptop will last an entire school day without any issues.
The notebook is also sound when it comes to connectivity. It gives you access to all modern ports including USB, microSD, micro HDMI, microSD, and also a headphone jack. A nice design touch here is that the ports and available even on the tablet mode so when you switch to the tablet mode you still have a fully functioning computer in your hands.
If you’re looking for a compact and super portable laptop, then we can’t find a better recommendation that is also affordable than the ASUS Transformer Mini.
- Excellent design
- Super light
- Long-lasting battery life
- No discrete GPU
Best Chromebook for Elementary Students - ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02
Chromebooks are a great option for elementary school students.
The reason is very simple. Chromebooks run on ChromeOS which is excellent for school students as it does not come with any clutter. The operating system is clean and can’t be infected with viruses, at least for the time being.
The ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 is perfect for school students as it has an affordable price tag and at the same time, it is both rugged and water-resistant. With young kids, spilling of water and other stuff is always going to be a problem and this laptop is designed well enough to deal with that.
The laptop is light which means it will be easy for students to carry around. It weighs just around 2.65lbs and thanks to good construction, it can survive a drop from 3.9 feet. This fact alone makes this Chromebook a no-brainer especially for students who have butterfingers.
Let’s talk about the display of the model. We have an 11.6-inch screen that comes with HD resolution. The display here is an antiglare display and it has 180° hinge for easy viewing. These features come in very handy for young kids as they can be rough with hinges. Having an anti-glare display means that students can give presentations with clarity.
When it comes to color, you’re not going to get amazing results. But for a school student, this laptop presents colors in a neat fashion. The display is good enough for most purposes and you can occasionally even watch movies on this laptop. The viewing angles are not that great but at this price, it shouldn’t be a problem.
How good is the processing power of this laptop? The device comes with an Intel Celeron N3060 processor that has two cores and has a typical clocking frequency of 2.48 GHz. The processor has a 2MB cache which allows you to hold small files in memory without any problems.
For everyday performance, the laptop does a pretty good job. It can run school applications without any issues. The same can be said for office apps as well. The four gigs of RAM in the memory department does a solid job and compliments the processor perfectly. Though this isn’t much, your child will still be able to run a few apps side-by-side without slowing the system down.
How much storage does this laptop come with? Since this is a Chromebook you’re not going to get a lot of storage. The laptop comes with 16 gigs of eMMC storage which is similar to flash storage. Now, the storage is stupid fast and is much better than traditional hard drives. But the only drawback here is that you’re getting a very small amount of storage. Since Chromebooks get cloud storage for most of their operations, this shouldn’t be a problem.
One of the main disadvantages of choosing a Chromebook over other laptops is not being able to play games. With ChromeOS, you might be able to play some browser games or even some android games but that’s pretty much it. If you are someone who wants to do some serious gaming, then this is not the laptop for you or your child.
The battery life is one of the biggest advantages of this model. With a light load, you can get around 10 hours of battery life which is excellent considering the price you’re paying for the laptop. Even if you’re going to do something heavy on this machine, you can still get 7 to 8 hours out of this device which is incredible. 
Pros
Affordable
Excellent battery life
Perfect for school students
Doesn’t give you a ton of freedom with respect to the operating system
https://amzn.to/2V4MWgy
- Affordable
- Excellent battery life
- Perfect for school students
- ChromeOS is restricted
What To Look For in the Best Laptops for Elementary Students?
Here are some factors that you must take into account before you get a laptop for your elementary school going kid.
Age
How old is your kid?
If you’re dealing with a really young version of yourself, you should probably think twice before getting him or her a laptop. This is mainly because kids are not responsible enough to take care of an expensive device like a laptop. To them, it’s a toy and they’ll treat it like one.
But if your kid is old enough to use a computer at school, then he or she might take good care of their laptops in which case you don’t have a big issue. Another quick test is to see if your kids are good with phones, if they are, then you won’t have a problem.
School’s Laptop Policy
This is another important thing most parents oversee. Some schools themselves provide laptops or iPads to students so that they can use them at school and at home.
Some schools will provide computers for students at school. In this case, your kid will need a computer or laptop at home and it is better to go with the same operating system as that of the school’s computer. That way they won’t have a steep learning curve at home.
Operating System
If your kid’s school doesn’t provide a laptop, then you’re free to choose a laptop with an operating system of your choice.
If you’re a fan of Windows, then you can go with a laptop that runs Windows OS. Otherwise, MacOS is a solid choice as well. Nowadays, most schools prefer their students to have a Chromebook that runs on ChromeOS. ChromeOS is lighter than the other two operating systems and is a lot easier to use as well.
Processing Power
Kids don’t need a ton of processing power.
If you’re going with a traditional laptop, then getting a dual-core processor is more than enough for most kids.
If your kid is working on a project that needs some intensive computing, then it makes sense to go for a laptop with a quad-core processor.
Another thing to note the clocking frequency of the processor. You want the processor to have a minimum clocking frequency of 1.5GHz which might look meager but is good enough for most elementary students.
When it comes to memory, it is okay to have just 4 gigs of RAM. This amount is more than enough for multitasking and your kid will do just fine with this RAM. But you can get more RAM (8GB and more) if you plan to get a future-proof laptop. This also becomes a necessity if your child is working on media or anything that is system intensive.
Storage
How much storage does your kid need?
To be honest, elementary school kids don’t need a lot of storage. But if they are going to work on a media project, there might be some need for storage. Even then, they should be fine with 320 gigs of hard drive storage.
Solid-state drives are much better than hard drives, but for small kids, it is plenty overkill. Also, using a traditional hard drive now will make them appreciate an SSD later in their life.
Graphics
Most entry-level laptops these days come with an integrated graphics card. This is to keep the laptop’s price low and most users don’t need a dedicated graphics card to go about their work.
The same is true for elementary school children as well. They don’t need a discrete graphics card for their school work.
On the other hand, if you have a gamer in the house, then getting a laptop with a dedicated graphics card is a good choice. However, be sure not to spend an exorbitant amount of money as gaming laptops can get expensive real quick.
Portability
Since we’re dealing with small kids here, you don’t want to get a laptop with a 17.3″ screen. That’s going to add a ton of weight and most students won’t prefer it.
Elementary kids love to move around and it would be better to get them an ultrabook or something closer to that size. Ultrabooks are usually 13.3″ or smaller and are perfect for students as they don’t bring a ton of weight to the mix.
Budget
This is another crucial factor. You can’t go spending a ton of money to get the best laptop for your kid.
Depending upon the age of your kid, you can spend more money on their laptop.
If you have a small kid (young elementary), then it is wise not to spend more than $500 on a laptop. If you have a kid who’ll finish elementary schooling in a year or two, then you can spend around $700 at best.
That should be the maximum amount of money you should spend on your kid’s laptop for school.
That brings us to the end of the long post. Thanks for reading and we hope you found the information useful.
If you’re still looking for the best laptops for elementary students, then we suggest going through the ‘What to look for’ section so that you can create a ‘persona’ for the laptop you’re about to purchase.
If you have any doubts or questions regarding this topic, please let us know in the comment sections below. If you have a better option for elementary students, do tell us that as well.