Even though college is some time away for most students, it may be a  good time to start looking for a laptop for college. Among the sea of laptops that hit the market this year, there are a two choices that stand out from the crowd. Both of them are very portable and should be able to handle most college tasks. However, keep in mind that buying a new laptop is only really necessary if the laptop that you currently own is slow or maybe does not work.

One of the best laptops for a college student is the recently released Apple MacBook Pro 13 (without the Touch Bar). The laptop is portable coming in at 3.02 pounds and only 11.97 inches wide. Apple is able to achieve the screen size of 13 inches in such a small form factor because the bezels of the display are so small. Other specifications include a 6th generation Intel processor, 256GB of PCI-E Flash Storage, and 8GB of RAM. To top everything off, Apple crammed a 54.5-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery into the chassis, which generates a claimed 10 hours of battery life. The base model of the MacBook Pro (without the Touch Bar) cost $1499, but the specifications can be upgraded causing the price to increase. Spending another $300 will buy the base model of the Apple MacBook Pro 13 (with Touch Bar). The MacBook Pro is quick, long-lasting, and will breeze through everyday tasks such as Microsoft Word, and some light Photoshop.

On the other side of the PC market are Windows devices. In the past, Windows laptops have not been able to compete with the quality of Apple MacBooks, but they have been progressively getting better. The best Windows laptop on the market right now is Microsoft’s own Surface Book with Performance Base. Like the MacBook Pro, the laptop is portable with its weight of 3.63 pounds and a width of 12.30 inches. The screen of the Surface Book is a Pixel Dense display with a resolution of 3000 x 2000. With that resolution, documents in Word and other applications will be the same size as the physical copy. Inside the Surface Book, Microsoft put in a 6th generation Intel processor, a 256GB SSD, and 8GB of RAM. And to put a cherry on top, Microsoft some how fit a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M mobile GPU into their laptop. Lastly, Microsoft claims 16 hours of battery life, but reviews have seen it closer to 10 hours. Overall, the Microsoft Surface Book is a great buy if consumers can swallow the $2399 price tag.

Honorable mentions are the HP Spectre x360, the Razer Blade, and a Chromebook.But when should a consumer upgrade? Only upgrade a laptop if your current laptop is way too slow, and is almost unuseable. However, try to take it to a repair store to see if they can help. If you prefer to use macOS, buy a MacBook Pro 13; if you prefer using Windows, buy a Microsoft Surface Book with Performance Base.