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Back-to-school season is here, and for most college students starting out, that often means purchasing a new laptop. While price and battery life remain priorities, a new study commissioned by Nvidia finds that students are becoming more discerning about performance, with AI tools increasingly part of the learning process.
The study surveyed 1,000 undergraduate students who own a laptop, and about 61% said their academic workload has become more demanding. Their current use includes AI, coding, data analysis, content creation, heavy multitasking, or gaming, and at least 66% said they use computers in their school labs every few weeks because their personal laptops can’t keep up.
Not having a capable laptop could also be affecting students’ psyches. Of those surveyed, 43% said they felt disadvantaged because of an older or less capable laptop.
The choice of major is a crucial factor here. STEM students make significantly heavier use of AI tools and demanding software, the study says. For Computer Science students in particular, AI is now part of their everyday coursework, and at least 40% run AI models locally on their devices.
The study also sheds light on how students use AI: 60% of them use it for research, while 47% use it for productivity tasks, such as data analysis, writing improvements, image generation, and software or app development.
When asked what improvements they’d like to see in their laptops, nearly half the students said that battery life needed to improve; 45% wanted faster speed and responsiveness, 38% wanted better multitasking capabilities, and 24% wanted better support for coursework software.
As far as purchase considerations are concerned, storage, price, and battery life remain top priorities, with the ability to run specific software and RAM capacity coming in next.
Concerns about price come amid a memory crunch that has forced some PC makers to raise prices. Shipments are expected to decline by 11.3% this year, with Q4 projected to see a 20% fall year-over-year, IDC says. A survey by PCMag’s parent company, Ziff Davis, also found that 73% respondents were willing to hold on to their old devices for as long as they worked.
About Our Expert
Jibin is a tech news writer based out of Ahmedabad, India. Previously, he served as the editor of iGeeksBlog and is a self-proclaimed tech enthusiast who loves breaking down complex information for a broader audience.
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