Nearly two-thirds of students say they couldn't live without their laptop – spending 40 hours a week using it for coursework, Zoom classes, video games, and social media.
Hard-working college or university students spend seven hours of their weekly laptop time getting on with coursework, and a further six hours using it for Zoom classes or lectures.
And when they are not using it for their education, the most popular extra-curricular activity is playing video games for seven hours a week, according to the poll of 600 Brits, who have been a student in the past five years.
This was followed by streaming Netflix shows, using social media, and online shopping, which take up a combined 20 hours of screen time each week.
More than six in ten (63%) of student say they couldn't live without their laptop, with 36% considering it to be an essential piece of kit.
But with 65% of those who went to college or university stating their laptop was bought for them by someone else, such as parents or a relative, more than a fifth (22%) said they probably didn’t use it as their donor had envisaged.
It also emerged that while most used laptops for general learning, 37% did so for graphic design, and 36% for coding.
And over half (56%) use their machines to taken on performance-heavy courses, such as video and music production.
A spokesman from technology company NVIDIA, which commissioned the research, said: “There is clearly a huge requirement when it comes to student laptops, and not just for learning.
“Laptops are used as part of daily life, from gaming to watching their favourite shows – as well as many needing certain specs that can deliver on more tech-demanding courses.
“However, sometimes it can be difficult to make an informed choice on what will work best for you and your budget.”
When buying a laptop, people would look out for a good spec, performance, and price.
Great battery life and loads of storage were also viewed as critical for their tech to include.
However, nearly half (48%) were lumbered with a machine that didn’t cater for their needs, according to the OnePoll data.
Unfortunately, 47% didn’t do enough research on laptops to make an educated choice, with over a third (35%) regretting their purchase.
And 63% tried to cut corners when buying the gadget in a bid to save some cash – with the average spend on their model of choice being just £254.
Of those who did do their research, 47% looked to Google reviews, friends and family recommendations, and online buyer guides.
Heading to the high street was the most popular way to buy, followed by purchasing straight from the manufacturer – with only 35% buying online from marketplaces such as Amazon.
The spokesman from NVIDIA added: “Sometimes you simply cannot cut corners when it comes to performance and quality.
“It’s critical to buy correctly the first time, rather than to buy twice during the length of a course once you realise a computer doesn’t meet your needs.”
