Are you an engineering student or recent grad? Then we want to hear your thoughts! I'm working with our computing team on updating our Best laptops for engineering students guide with some up-to-date real-world advice from current engineering students — and we'd love to know which aspects you most value in your hardware.
I've put together a super quick poll that we'd be really grateful to have your thoughts on, here (you can pick up to three options):
As well as your poll votes, I'd really appreciate your comments on this topic, which we may use in our updated guide. What advice do you wish you'd been given when you were shopping for a laptop to complete your degree with? What did your school of engineering advise, or was it a little vague?
My dad and partner are both working engineers (mechanical and aerospace, respectively) but they graduated during the dark ages so haven't offered much of an opinion beyond "uh, plenty of horsepower for CAD and Excel."
I think we can all agree that a lag and crash-free experience when loading hungry programs and handling multiple data points is the basic goal. But what makes all the difference at 10pm on a Sunday night when you're cramming or chasing a project deadline?
Is there an optimum screen size, in your opinion, that would enhance prospective students work?
I've already sought opinions from our wonderful Tom's Guide Forum members, where COLGeek said, "Discrete GPU is a must for a workstation class laptop that is ideal for engineering students.
"The ability to easily upgrade memory, storage, etc is a major plus. The Dell Mobile Precision series does these things well."
On another Tom's Guide Forum thread from last year, TannerT posted, "I just finished my first year at NC State University studying Engineering. If you're studying engineering, get something with power behind it. I'd go with the Dell XPS 15 or MacBook Pro 14" if you're running CAD, MATLAB, or anything heavy. Both handle demanding software without lag.
"For something more affordable but still solid, the Lenovo Legion 5i runs most tools fine and gives you dedicated graphics. Avoid low-power laptops. You’ll regret it once the projects start piling up. Hopefully this helps someone."
Coincidentally, we also rated the Lenovo the best value laptop for engineering students, after our computing team's extensive testing of hundreds of laptops.
And finally, bendenvor111 offered a genius hack for disciplines where GPU is important, "I bought a gaming laptop to handle all of these softwares and it's been working out for me. Alienware for the win!"
Do you agree? Engineering is of course a pretty broad umbrella, so have your needs evolved as you've taken on more specific projects (that you may not have envisaged at the outset)? Tell us in the comments below. And if you're still a student, good luck with the rest of your studies!
