MacBook Pro vs. Dell XPS, Which is the Best Laptop for Engineers?

Window Laptops have for a long time been the best laptop for engineers; however, is that still the case? The New M1 Max Macbook Pro is an amazing piece of engineering, and unlike a Window Laptop, it doesn't need to be plugged into it to run at full power.
To face off against the Macbook pro will be the Dell XPS 15.
This will be able to answer the question of what is the best choice for laptops if you are a professional engineer or studying engineering.

We will run through some of the most used software by structural engineers(Etab and RamConcept) to see which ones run faster. To ensure the software runs on the mac it needs to be run through Parallels a windows virtual machine.

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00:00 Intro
01:15 Unplugged - Opening RAM Concept
02:45 Unplugged - Mesh Generate
03:33 Unplugged - Standard Calculation
06:18 Unplugged - Etabs
07:25 Plugged In - Etabs
08:21 Summary

[Unamatrix]

Interesting comparative test between the Dell XPS 15 and the Apple M1 MacBook Pro. As a mechanical engineer that uses AutoCAD, Solid Works along with various plugins such as FEA and Cosmos along with some CFD software, I prefer my Dell XPS 15 9520 as my mobile work station and use my Intel based dual display work station in my home office and company office. The fundamental problem that the Apple MacBook Pro has is the lack of native professional engineering design and analysis software, thus requiring Bootcamp or parallels to be run. Since you are required to run the aforementioned Bootcamp or Parallels to use professional engineering software, you are therefore splitting system resources. The lack of a dedicated GPU also hinders the MacBook Pro's performance when not using natively written software that is optimized for its chipset architecture. For video editing and rendering the MacBook Pro is an ideal choice especially when using optimized software such as Final Cut, Logic for music production or X-Code for software development. Also, as the owner of my own drone photography, videography and inspection business on the side I appreciate the power of the new Apple M1 MacBook Pro's for video editing as well as photo editing, however I prefer Da Vinci Resolve and Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop on my desk top and laptop and Lumifusion and Affinity Photo on my M1 iPad Pro.

[dmb]

I use thinkpads for a portable cad laptop, bought a mac m1 14 out of curiosity and played with it for 2 weeks...started liking it but a certain lack of apps for it turned me off a little...build quality was basically perfection, I can see why people move to them for other tasks

[pcaming]

Running it through parallels, is probably the hamstring for the macs. Does it lead to many errors?

[garolstipock]

Kind of surpised to not see Dell Precisions as the suggested Engineering option for the Dell laptop.
XPS gets a lot of media hoorah, but its the workstation models that generally target the Engineering area.

[samevans]

The problem with the Mac is that I'd find myself running parallels in order to only use Bluebeam! But I'll admit the mac is nicer device I think I'd rather be using. Which was running cooler? I note the mac doesn't have many (if any) dedicated fans.

[charbelkhoury]

I bought a macbook m2 for my first year of engineering am i screwed?

[cjhickey]

I am going to be a freshman in college this year looking to get a laptop. I am a big advocate for apple having an iphone 14 pro max, airpods pro, and apple watch and am looking into getting the m2 series macbook air. A lot of people are saying to not get one because it cannot run a lot of programs necessary for the workload of an engineering student. Howerer, I already have a desktop that runs windows 10 and has 32gb of ram along with a 12400kf processor and a 2080 inside of it. Would I be okay to get a mac for notes and leave all of the heavy workloads to my powerhouse of a pc?

[jefftc]

We’ve used Dells for years. I’ve have never heard of a structural engineer using a Mac? My beef with Dell is their current JIT delivery model. Here in Indonesia their site service is hopeless. Pity as it’s a great machine.

[JasonSulvaran]

What do others recommend for a first year student? Eventually I know I’ll have to use these softwares everyone is saying since I will be majoring in engineering but I’m not sure which laptop I’m leaning towards.

[bautistap]

I will be changing from Xps 15 2018 (I7 8th gen 1050ti) to an M2 Pro in the coming months. I do not expect it to perform as well in CAD works for engineering, but it will greatly be better in battery, video-photo editing, programming, etc. I hope not to be dissappointed

[ericwang]

Hi, I'm a first year civil engineering student looking to get a laptop for the next 4 years, I really want the macbook but am scared about software compatibility should i just get the xps 15?

[banelekheswa]

I am a 22 year old chemical engineering graduate. Any advice on which machine I should invest for my future in the industry I am currently in and hope to grow in? Particularly for Explosion and Toxic based simulation software (e.g Safeti) and Plant design (e.g ASPEN) simulations. I'm leaning slightly towards the Macbook coz of the hype around apple products, especially amongst my peers and the aesthetic. But I just wanna be sure if it'll be good for me regarding my professional goals in the long run. Please advise.

[timexplorer]

Hi, does Intel Ultra 7 155H ok? (Instead of Ryzen 7 or intel core i7) 😃 I will start my class (Electrical Engineering) in few days and need the laptop tomorrow 🥲

[HallowHSalih]

This is a fact that all less experienced engineers should know, Mac computers are not for them, its only killing time as well as wasting money around something which is natively not built on their demand, the Mac OS is another cancer on the other hand because of incompatibility with Autodesk and Bently programs that widely are used by designers. Dell XPS and its sibling Precision are fit to purpose machines.

[berg]

I have a M1 max and its a shame so much technical software is WIN only... ANSYS, most of Autodesk (apart from auto cad and a few others)

[mohitvats]

Sir, please tell me the best laptop for structural engineering work.

[jn.pablovega]

You can do a comparison of how to use architecture programs, like Revit, 3Ds Max, Lumion on the MacBook?

[Satoru_Gojo]

What about mechanical engineering, what would be best? Personally I enjoy macs but I would like to know what would work better and help me be more efficient.

[falakvats]

How does mac perform for the case of nonlinear time history analysis (assuming significant hinges are formed, say for an IM matching the MCE level or higher)

[berg]

Was the Mac versions of the structural software running on Rosetta translation or M1 apple silicon optimised? Great video