4 essential laptop features for remote learning

Learning at home is an entirely different experience from learning on campus. Suddenly you are separated from your friends, and trying to understand a really complicated lecture and take notes on it, while unsuccessfully trying to drown out the sounds of the rest of the people in your house!

If you make sure you have the right laptop, it can be a powerful tool for making your remote learning experience as successful as possible.

Battery life

The most important aspect of studying from home is finding a quiet space where you can work without distractions. Whether that space is in your garden, in a spare room, or in the attic, you don’t want to have to stop what you’re doing to root about finding a charger.

That’s why if you’re looking to buy a new laptop, it’s a good idea to make sure that your laptop's battery life is as long as possible. In general, you can expect Chromebooks to have a much longer battery life than other types of laptops because they are much more lightweight and aren’t processing as much.

Some people also find it helpful to play instrumental music in their study space, so make sure your laptop has a good set of speakers or that you have a nice pair of headphones to go with it.

Access to learning apps

If you’re learning online, you’re probably going to need access to things like Zoom, and importantly the processing power to handle live streams.

You’ll also need an intuitive calendar system that’s user-friendly to help you stay on top of your work and access to note-taking software like Evernote or OneNote.

Most laptops will have access to these things in one form or another, but what’s important is that you get a laptop that makes using them intuitive. It’s also important that your machine is powerful enough to handle multiple tasks without crashing.

Touchscreen

Something to consider if you are getting a laptop for studying at home is getting yourself a laptop with a touchscreen. Lenovo offers a range of ‘2 in 1’ laptops that can function as both a tablet, including a full touchscreen, and as a laptop with a keyboard.

This is a great option for studying from home because it means that you can use the tablet to interact with learning materials, easily using your fingers to zoom in and out.

They are also small and lightweight enough that reading from them anywhere is a breeze, so if you want to study from your bed, you can… everyone needs a duvet day sometimes!

Digital pen

A digital pen can be absolutely transformational if you’re studying at home, so it’s worth getting a touchscreen laptop that is compatible with them. You can use a digital pen to quickly make notes and annotate documents so that you can keep all of your thoughts and notes in one place much more easily.

For those of you who find they remember things much more easily through the physical act of writing them down, a digital pen is an absolute game-changer.