Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 (Gen 10)

The Chromebook that feels like a far pricier laptop: a metal 14-inch machine weighing about 2.6 pounds, with an OLED screen and a fast MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 chip. Its battery ran 19 hours in PCWorld's ChromeOS benchmark and almost 15 hours of video playback in Expert Reviews' test, so a charger can stay at home. For coursework that lives in Google Docs, the web and Android apps, it is an easy machine to own, since ChromeOS updates itself in the background. The 16GB model with 256GB of storage is the one to buy; the cheaper version drops to 12GB and 128GB and loses the touchscreen. It can't run Windows or Mac desktop programs, so check course requirements first.