Top 10 Best Laptops For Engineering Students in 2021

If you are looking for the best laptop for engineering students because your kid just passed its college and ready for the university but after searching the whole internet you get more confused about which one to buy.

Let me tell you one thing if you think an average fancy-looking laptop can do the best job for an engineering student you are living in the paradise of idiots. In my opinion, the use of a laptop for an engineer is much more than we use to have in a decade back.

Either your kid is going for an electrical engineering, chemical engineer, civil engineering, or computer science engineering, a power-packed laptop is the need of this field. Without having a good-speed laptop with the power-house performance he/she cannot stand out in the engineering field.

Keep in mind that for engineers the importance of a high-quality laptop is paramount. The applications such as Alibre, Catia, ChemCad, Matlab, Civil 3D consume lots of power and you need to have a high-quality super-fast laptop at your dispense.

After researching several sleepless nights, checking their reviews and ratings I have compiled a list of top laptops for engineering students. These laptops are powerful enough to handle any high intensive work or engineering software such as AutoCAD, MATLAB, Adobe Premiere, or Visual Studio without any rendering error. So without further ado, here are the Top 10 Best Laptops For Engineering Students in 2021.

Best laptops for engineering students in 2021

1. Lenovo ThinkPad P53s

Best Overall Laptop for Engineers

If you are really after a good laptop to run apps such as CAD/CAE without rendering, freezing or slowing down, have Lenovo Thinkpad P53s on board. The laptop renders workstation level performance with its 8th Generation Kaby Lake R Intel Core i7-8550U Quad-Cores Processor.

The fastest processor reaches the clock speed up to 4.0 GHz, with an 8MB cache. The processor may look old, but its clock speed is as fast as a workstation, as I mentioned above, it is famous due to its high-processing performance. With the highest amount of on-board cache memory size, 8MB you are going to get the skyrocket performance in processing.

Look at its graphics card, this is the specs you cannot customize, you are locked into this NVidia Quad-core P500. This is the size of the GPU; an engineering student requires running apps like CAD and others.

Though from the looks, the laptop might not amaze you, like a MacBook Pro. It comes with a tactical typing experience keyboard which renders immensely satisfying performance. The keys got a good travel speed and generously spaced, with a separate Numpad.

The keyboard also hosts a Thinkpad signature red TrackPoint button, that little cursor akin numb uses to point the cursor whenever you do not feel right touching trackpad. The laptop packs a 4K UHD screen with impeccable 3840×2160 resolutions. The colors it displays are sharp, wide viewing angles, IPS panel’s integration with FHD display.

In your day to day usage, you will find the ThinkPad P53s a standout laptop and appreciate it. With the immersion of 16GB DDR4 RAM and 512GB SSD drive, the machine boots up quickly and runs well and handles applications without freezing. The laptop is smooth with 3D modeling and video editing; you can have this on-board for the video editing tasks as well.

As long as the battery is concerned, the laptop is a bit of a mixed bag. In my checking process, I did not witness it withstanding more than 3 and a half-hour of screen-on time. The average session can go beyond this without high-definition videos, but that’s not as fabulous as I expected.

 2. Apple MacBook Pro

Best Laptop for Premium Engineers

The latest released Apple MacBook Pro lets you tap your creative energy with its redefined shape and performance. It comes with an 8th generation quad-core processor with Intel core i5 processor.

The latest model of MacBook Pro elevates the notebook to a new level of performance and portability. Whenever you want to use this laptop for something creative, the faster than ever and high-performance processor with advanced graphics will let you do that without any hiccup.

With the latest integrated Intel core processor, it lets you reach new height’s new performance in processing. The 13-inch model with eight generations quad-core processor lets you do even the toughest tasks with great ease. The processor reaches up to 4.7 GHz clock speed which is enough to render the 3D model, compile codes, layering multiple tracks, and encoding videos.

The 13-inch model comes with 8GB DDR4 RAM which helps you run through apps such as SolidWorks, Inventor, Pycharm, Visual Studio, Brackets, Sublime Text, and Civil 3D.

The model features an integrated graphics card with 128MB of embedded DRAM, which helps accelerate graphics and visual tasks quickly. This means you can have this to create amazing work without rendering graphics error at all.

The laptop comes equipped with 128GB SSD hard drive which helps you read/write files at blazing speed. The notebook also equipped with the Apple T2 security chip, the second generation custom Mac Silicon designed chip which makes everything you do secure and safe.

The model features retina display in MacBook Pro, good for eyes. It also features LED backlight with a high contrast ratio, renders deep blacks and bright whites. You are going to enjoy your videos, without missing out on a single color.

3. Acer Predator Helios 300

Best Portable Laptop for Engineering Students

Acer Predator Helios 300 is a hands-down choice for engineering students to run engineering-oriented applications at great speed. The laptop is equally fitted for gaming purposes and makes you have the latest games run on it without any error.

The notebook is a reasonably priced laptop; you cannot have a better laptop under $1000 than this. It runs 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8750H 6-Core Processor with up to 4.1 GHz speed.

As I have mentioned above in our introductory lines, gaming, as well as engineering, filed requires an abundance of space and power to cope with a load of work coming. The laptop tackles the heavy loads of applications such as CAD Electrical, SPICE, LabVIEW and others.

The notebook comes with a 15.6 inches FHD screen with a maximum resolution screen of (1920 x 1080) IPS panel integrated and backlit keyboard. The laptop is equally good for 3D modeling and video editing as well, with its high-resolution power you will have a great edge as an engineering student.

Helios 300 is a good combination of entertainment and work, features high-resolution and the fastest graphics card with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060. You can have an idea of gaming with the dedicated graphics card on-board, plus a 16GB DDR4 DRAM is going to blow away you with its amazing multitasking power.

As long as the storage section is concerned, you have a 256GB SSD card, with an extended slot to add another drive if needed. The laptop comes equipped with an extended runtime battery life. It provides you continuous 7-hours with a single charging; of-course time recoded is not for playing video games.

The laptop also features an amazing system temperature controller system. It lowers the overall temperature down to an optimum level, without reaching out to the maximum temperature inside.

The laptops also have required connectivity ports such as USB 3.0, USB 3.1, HDMI port, Ethernet and SD card reader which is definitely a good add-on for safe data transfer.

4. LA Lenovo ThinkPad E15

Best Laptop for Budget Buyers

Another laptop from Lenovo in the list of laptops for engineering students, it seems like you cannot really leave the brand out of the picture in penning down a list for engineers. The brand is a one-stop-shop for all engineers as it provides performance more than aesthetics and luring looks.

The cost of the laptop is not that high compared to its performance, though, other specs may look left out, but the added features are directed for engineering student who gets to use CAD software, students of electrical engineering, chemical or software.

The laptop is powered with Intel 8th generation Core i7-8550U Quad-Core processor with up to 4.0 GHz speed and 8MB cache. The added processor blaze through heavy apps such as CAD software and renders an amazing speed range with 4 plus clock speed.

Lenovo offers you a 512GB SSD drive, which I think should compel you to buy this little beast. The added integrated UHD Graphics 620 is something you need the most to go through visual performance.

The laptop features a 16GB DDR4 RAM which is a quite good add-on, and you would not feel lag behind in running heavy apps that are needed the most if you have an engineering backdrop. It also comes with extended slots for RAM and storage, so if you feel like having more, get it done with the space allocated in it.

The main advantage of having this laptop onboard is its great display. The laptop houses amazing durability, top-notch keyboard, extended long battery life. You are going to have a smooth ride with the beast, as it can process anything you throw at it.

It comes with required connectivity ports, as electrical and computer engineering students also feel the absence of required port as they are addicted to blow up their laptops with external devices.

5. RAZER Blade 15

An Engineering Machine to Out-perform All Others

If you can afford a sky-high price and are looking for a machine to out-perform others in the list, RAZER Blade 15 is the product for you. The laptop features the same design as the old version, with a more expensive 9th generation Intel CPU configuration.

The laptop is largely taken a gaming laptop as it features the specs similar to the gamers. Our needs are similar to the gamers as well, as we are going to run heavy apps that are not lesser hard to load than high-ended games.

Razor Blade 15 has earned a huge place in the market due to its excellent performance for engineering-related filed. It is called a mobile workstation, and expensive as well.

It is powered with 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H 6 core processor with up to 4.5 GHz speed. The range of processors should give you an idea about the speed and application running over there. I cannot think of any application, the laptop cannot run.

Razor Blade 15 features an advanced level of GPU, NVIDIA GeForce 2060 RTX is something that should amaze you, other than the price. Yes, its thin CNC aluminum unibody is something most compelling with 0.78 inches thinning.

The 15.6 inches FHD 144Hz matte display laptop offers an edge-to-edge display, with RGB backlight. You are going to have amazing high-resolution video experience along with running your engineering-related applications such as Catia, SolidWorks, ANSYS, Matlab, and Civil 3D. Without a single shadow of a doubt, this is the laptop, a nice blend of power and portability.

With 512GB SSD hard drive you are going to store hell of your data, along with 16GB extended RAM to take care of your multi-tasking. It also comes equipped with multiple USB 3.1 devices directly; you will face no issue in connecting any external device with this incredible performing beast.

Though the sleek form and ultra-strong laptop should have come with an extended battery, at least running for 15-continuous hours, that section is a letdown. The laptop only provides juice for 8-hours in single charging, if you can settle with this range of battery, the other specs are right on your engineering criteria for sure.

6. Dell XPS 15

Best for Performance and Portability

Again, if the price is not a problem for you, Dell XPS 15 is a great pick, a nice blend of performance and portability. The laptop due to its amazing range of performance is taken as a powerful workstation. ready to render an amazing range of performance in gaming and multi-media as well.

I must say, the laptop is a most functional, and engineering-oriented laptop around with its best configuration. The laptop is powered with 9th Generation Intel Core i7-9750h processor and 12MB cache along with up to 4.5 GHz clock speed. Can you imagine the level of processing with this range of processor specifications?

The laptop is all for engineering-related tasks. Students who need to run apps like Matlab, Excel, Mathcad, ChemCad, and programming apps can have the laptop on-board to carry out their doings.

It is a great portable machine, with 4.5 pounds of weight, and 32GB of memory. The added RAM is more than enough for any kind of 3D modeling, high-graphics oriented tasks, and even running video editing apps. With 1TB SSD drive you can have a hell of space to store your data.

The visual processing is one step ahead in the future with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card with 4GB VRAM. This range is enough to take your CAD and Autodesk apps running smoothly, even machine learning.

The 15.6″ screen offers a UHD display with a maximum resolution of (3840 x 2160). The anti-reflective screen is combined with 400-nits brightness to render seamless UHD display experience without missing out on any color. The wide viewing panels provide you amazing experience so that you can share your screen without missing any.

As though, the sky-high price demands a longer runtime battery, which could not be found, unfortunately. The laptop in its heavy performance only withstands for 6 hours, a glaring downside though. Still, you must not overlook other impeccable features, especially the latest 9th generation processor with 12MB cache and 4.5 GHz clock speed.

7. Microsoft Surface Laptop 2

Powered with 8th Generation Core Processor

If you are looking for a best powerful laptop at a mid-range price, to run over your engineering-related tasks without any hiccup, look nowhere other than Microsoft Surface Laptop 2.

The laptop is powered with 8th generation core processor to render more performance and an extended battery to watch your favorite series after getting tired of hectic study schedule.

The laptop comes equipped with fast touchscreen controls. This helps your ideas flow through your finger-prints. You can note down your thinking without missing any, just swipe your laptop screen and has it recorded momentarily.

The laptop as the name suggests is a Microsoft product. The unit comes integrated with Windows core features such as password-free windows hello sign in and Cortana intelligent assistant. The other apps such as Office 365 come with premium licenses, no spending on buying on stuff like that.

The laptop offers an elegant look surface Arc mouse, designed to conform your hand and fit in the bag easily along with the laptop itself. It also provides you an ergonomic keyboard with good spaced keys and palm rest. You are going to type on the keyboard for hours without getting bored or feeling tired.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Pro offers a 13.5 inches FHD screen with vibrant colors and wide viewing angles. The Microsoft designed laptop features 8GB RAM with 256GB SSD hard to help improves your tasks related to engineering.

The elegant looking laptop comes with improved speed and performance, and if we look at the price, it seems the mobile-laptop hits the right chord and falls right on our criterion.

8. ASUS VivoBook Pro 17

Intel Core i7 Processor to Skyrocket your Processing

The ASUS designed 17-inch laptop houses all features required for engineering students. I checked the laptop’s core features and also beheld the rating; and found this exceeding our expectation.

An engineering laptop should come with a latest-generation processor and maximum display resolution for better user-experience. The laptop checks these two benchmarks and provides the 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor to skyrocket your processing. Its turbo Speed up to 4.6 GHz and 8MB cache is something amazing to witness at this price range.

The laptop also features a good range of graphics card, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card is something you must count-in while making a list. The bigger 17.3 inches FHD display is good for viewing complex engineering drawings, 3D modeling, Video editing, and efficient apps heavy apps running.

The laptop comes equipped with 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD hard with an extended slot to have storage with Windows 10 home basic installed. Though the storage department may let you down, the price does not give the brand to take the liberty of adding 1TB SSD hard. The 16GB memory is more than required to have the apps on run related to engineering and other tasks.

The laptop comes equipped with fast internet connectivity using 802.11a. You will have a constant continuous internet connection, with less turbulence. It comes with a full-sized keyboard with a backlit display, a separate Numpad. The laptop comes with powerful speakers, and they can fill a small conference room with the audio, for sure.

9. Dell G5 Gaming Laptop

Smooth, Hassle-free Engineering Experience

Though, the laptop’s feature helps gamers to have a smooth, hassle-free game experience. The same needs go for engineering-related tasks, here as well; the laptop should be powerful enough to go through the apps and other tasks. It has maintained a good pace ever since with its released and out-performs others in the race of laptops under $1000.

Dell G5 features 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H processor with clock speed up to 4.5 GHz and 12MB cache. The visual section of the laptop outshines others. With NVidia GeForce GTX 1650 with 4GB GDDR5 Graphics, you are going to achieve the highest level of expectation.

Even the range of graphics cards makes you run through the heavy high-ended games. Rest assured, your apps, what an engineer can come across, could never compete for high-ended games. A game required more power and visual processing than the heaviest app related to engineering. I have checked many apps on it, and all goes like running a ship in undisturbed water.

The laptop features a 15.6 inches FHD screen with a maximum resolution of (1920 x 1080). The FHD screen is further integrated with wide viewing angles, IPS panels, and anti-glare technology to give a seamless video watching experience without hurting your eyesight.

The storage section is entertained with a 1TB SATA drive. Though the level demands SSD integration, this is where the brand has to cut the corner to level the price. You cannot have a 1TB SSD drive at the price range, along with an NVidia Gtx 1650 and latest generation processor.

The brand is taking new leaps with an innovative cooling system. With its latest designed cooling system, it helps you to lower down the temperature to an optimum level without teaching at thermal throttling.

The laptop also comes with the required ports and connectivity. As engineering students demand more than required connectivity slots to connect any external device on the go. You get everything more than required onboard, and without giving a second thought, press the purchase button.

10. Acer Aspire 5 15.6″ FHD 1080P Laptop Computer

Top-notch Display

The Aspire series really raised the bar higher for other brands in the mid-range price. The series has uplifted the brand and has made it one of the best line-ups, especially Acer Aspire 5. The laptop houses many down the line appealing features which help an engineering student to go through their tasks without facing any trouble.

It comes equipped with Intel 8th generation core i7-8550U Processor with up to 4.0 GHz clock speed. The latest generation processor integration ensures that you would not get any lag behind the performance.

With NVIDIA GeForce MX150 with 2GB dedicated DDR5 memory, you are going to have better visual processing than others at the same price range. The laptop also houses an SSD drive, not plenty of space though, stills a good add-on, if you take price before.

The laptop is equally good at running games. The games such as Fall out and Fortnight can be played with low-to-medium settings. Same goes for the apps, engineering requires to run. The heavy-loading apps, Pycharm, Visual Studio, Brackets, Sublime text will experience a seamless running without rendering.

As for as the screen and display are concerned, it comes with a 15.6 inches FHD display, with backlit and IPS panels integration. The use of wide viewing angles and antiglare technology helps you to have the screen watched for extended hours without any big harm to your eyesight.

The display offers enhanced, vivid, rich colors, without missing out any. That’s all coming under $800, are you going to believe it?

1) Portability

If you are the one who has to rush between one classroom to the other to attend lectures, you need to have something portable, the laptop which could slip into the bag easily and that would not weight you down.

I would like to suggest a laptop with a weight of around 4-5 pounds. Yes, the size of the screen adds to the overall weight, larger the screen, hefty the notebook would be.

2) RAM

Random Access Memory is one of the important aspects to look into a laptop for an engineering student. Of course, we all know the larger RAM size is good to go in every situation. But, here we would like to tell you about the recommended size. The RAM size which could fit the needs of a student and to run the heavy apps mentioned in it.

In the latest case study, Minumum 8GB RAM Upto 32GB size is good to have if you want to run heavy software without freezing error. The size is adequate to handle any of the mentioned heavy apps, though the graphics play a major role in giving these apps a run, still, RAM helps you in handling more than one tabs in one go.

3) Adequate Storage

Drafting, designing, modeling, programming, and running apps linked to these functions need good-sized storage. The application likes of CATIA, ANSYS, SolidWorks are bulky software and would require at least 512GB space to give the best value.

Yes, you always give priority to SSD drive as they are quick and give a solid retrieval speed without any delay. If the budget comes as a hindrance, do not worry, you can have a combination of both SSD+HDD. These days, many line ups are coming with the combo, the best grab to get speed and abundance space in the budget.

4) Display

Though, a good-sized screen with high-resolution is preferred for tasks related to engineering. But, that bigger screen adds to the weight which makes them difficult to carry around at the campus.

A good size for an engineering student would be around 14-15 inches with 1920×1080 pixels resolutions. This range of screen resolution will let you handle more than one tab in a single go.

5) CPU

CPU is the first and most important thing to look at when buying a laptop for an engineering student. The whole processing of a laptop lies on its processor and its speed. Look out the latest-generation processor, as latest as possible.

The processor plays a great role in handling heavy software like AutoCad, ChemCad, and similar. This software goes with a huge database and lots of space to run it. The more space requires more processing and if the processor is not that good, you will have to wait to get the processing done. Look for a minimum 8th generation quad-core or Hexa core processor.

6) GPU

In engineering, students mostly have to run heavy software. Software such as Work Area, Cad, MATLAB, and solid works are used for 3D environment application and video rendering.

This is where the graphics card comes into the play. This section processes the visual commands and hand-over it to the CPU. Apps and heavy software running largely depend upon the graphics card integrated into it.

If you need a seamless, error-free performance to run those apps, have at least a 2GB DDR3 graphics card. This range will be enough to fill the bill, with this, you will even run high-ended games with mid-to-low settings.

Q#1: Which laptop brand you should go to?

In my opinion, the brand should be a less-followed criterion in the hunt for a good laptop for an engineering student. Sometime in the persuasion of a good brand, we miss out on other products that are way better than that brand.

Yes, the brand gives us reliability, peace of mind, but if a friend of yours is all in praise for a product, that is less reputed, you should at least give that statement a thought.

If you are asking specifically about brands, it would be good to consider ASUS, Acer, Lenovo, Dell, and MacBook.

Q#2: Can Engineering Students use Macs?

Yes, An engineering student can use Macs and I have added a MacBook Pro in the list as well. In fact, the MacBook checks all the right boxes. They are good at processing and provide power to go through any application you throw at them. They come from a reputed brand and portable as well.

On the flip side, they are expensive and cost arms and legs. So, if you are looking for something good for your eyes as well as good at performance, have the product onboard. Otherwise, you can have many other products, with advanced and abundant features in way lesser price than MacBook.

Guru’s Verdict

After spending hours, I have chosen these laptops, best for an engineering student. I did not specifically follow one engineering program, I had about all engineering programs or the apps an engineer come across while penning down the list. I am pretty sure that these laptops would help your advanced studies and make you stand out.

Though you can have better laptops than these in the market, they would cost arms and legs. I restrained my-self up to the budget laptop. Though, some of them are really expensive but some are also very budget-friendly which can easily afford any student.

I can hope that these laptops would help you in getting better at your studies. If you like the guide, please share it without your friends, so that we could reach out to more people around on the web.