BEST Laptop for Mechanical Engineering Students

Which laptop should you buy as a mechanical engineering student? Should you get a Windows or a Mac? In this video I explain which criteria I would use to choose a laptop & give some examples of good laptops for engineering school.

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My video editor: @Tomas_Pedevilla on Twitter

⚙️ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:32 University Deals & Discounts
0:56 Laptop Size
1:29 Operating System - Windows or Mac?
2:20 Storage
2:56 RAM (Random Access Memory)
3:59 CPU (Central Processing Unit)
4:26 GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)
4:52 Screen
5:25 Battery Life
5:50 Ports
6:37 Laptop Accessories
7:22 Function over Style
7:49 Popular Laptop Models for Engineering Students

*Some of my links are affiliate links which means that I earn a commission if you make a purchase - at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting me 🙂

[lukewhite]

Oh my god finally an actual engineer who actually knows what they’re talking about. All I’ve seen so far is just tech bros talking about whether I can game or something

[deankastler]

The Dell XPS 15 has served me well and is fairly popular at my school. Runs well with a lot of apps open at the same time. Decent battery life too.

[yellowboxster]

Excellent points. I’ve been a long time MacOS user and it pains me to have to switch back to Windows for CAD applications. The only work around for me has been to run Windows in Parallels virtual environment or previously to configure a dual-boot Mac using Boot Camp. While these solutions can work they can also add cost to a Mac ecosystem. In the end the virtual machine seems to be the best option as long as your CAD application supports virtual environments.

[thrill.]

Video notes:
SSD, 16+ GB RAM, i5 at least, need a dedicated graphics card, a lot of battery, no OLED for battery life, touch screen not needed, HDMI, USB A AND USB C, get a bluetooth mouse, low weight

[BilTekinYT]

I'm an Electrical Engineering student, and an honest advice from me, don't get macOS if you use it for engineering tasks. If you use it for daily life is fine, but not for professional works. Even if you install windows on Mac, the performance is not as good as Windows. I intensely tried M1 MacBook Pro for one month, and this is my conclusion. It will be a pain in your as*.

[roboarmy]

I wish I had seen this video 3 years ago when I got my laptop. I got a gaming laptop, the Dell G7. It definitely is powerful but the battery life is awful so that means I have to lug around this gigantic charger everywhere which is frustrating. The battery life at full power is only like 1 and a half hours while doing LIGHT tasks. Very annoying. It also has this problem with the fan where it just keeps blowing randomly like it’s a passenger jet about to take off. Really embarrassing when you’re at the library. Anyways rant over but thanks for the video Anna!

[ComeAsKurt]

Thank you so much. I’m a french mechanical professor and you’re video is good. I’ m tired of watching video where random tech youtubers recommand macbooks for students. It’s a very bad idea in our field.

[Raine_R]

I am soooo glad I watched this video before getting my laptop. I had been looking for one for about a month, and just when I was going to give up looking, I found this. So I guess what I am trying to say is... great video, I'm subscribing!

[wowmath]

I'm an Ethiopian mechanical engineering student and right now in Germany as an exchange student in HKA and since my former PC is running too slow especially when I open Ansys 😂 I'm thinking of buying. Danke😊

[andeanplateau]

Hi Anna, this is an excellent video! Thank you so much for making it! I don’t know if you made this response to my question in the comments of one of your earlier videos, but I’m choosing to believe so 😁. Anyway, you brought up a lot things I hadn’t thought about such as the screen material and the webcam location. I’m still shopping so this is really perfect timing for me. Thanks again and keep up the excellent work!

[thomasraffestin]

I am student in a french Engineering School and I bought an M1 MBA the year before, almost no regret of my choice : my battery life is way longer than my mates using Windows laptops and I can charge it through usb-c whereas others often have proprietary charging port (they’re in pain when they forgot their adapters). Moreover my M1 MBA is silent (low heat and no fan) and has good performances, even in a Windows VM (but not as good as M1 optimized programs). And for specific heavy softwares like CATIA, we use the desktop machines in dedicated rooms or for remote work, the school gives us an access to a VDI (virtual desktop infrastructure) under windows 10 gathering all the softwares we need. But I prefer the physical desktop machines because interfaces are smoother than the one’s through vdi. But I recognize that 13 inch display can be painful for eyes when focusing on details.

[JPGl]

future mechanical engineering student, gonna be going into uni soon and loved watching this!! thank you som much :) (also what sweater are you wearing it’s super cool 😭)

[misuru]

Thank you so much for this!! I’m just about to start my first year of Chemical Engineering and this is exactly what I needed to know what to look out for 😊

[Kevin-fjoe]

If you're going to do engineering stuff and seeking similar video like this to justifying your decision to buy MacBook, you're just wasting your time and get a windows laptop.

[vivekkrishna]

Thank you very much for the advice ❤🙂👏This video helped me a lot

[SirousCyrus]

Well I have got a Lenovo ideapad L3 which in the beginning was not what I really wanted !
But I empowered it ! it is a 15 inch one !
with a 1T HDD,
RAM : 4GB + 4GB ( I added myself )
1 Kingmax PCI SSD 256 GB !

and Now it works very well and is trully enlightened! I have installed a lot on it ! any design-platform you may use in Mechanical engineering

[brickstudios]

Seems like you have helped a lot of people including me! Very informative and helpful video. I will definitely take your points into consideration. Thank you!!!😊😊

[eronmahmudi]

Third year mech e student here. This is my second time going through this laptop search as my dell xps 15 9500 recently quit life on me for the second time. Already replaced the motherboard on the device for $300 and with it quitting again I decided I’d rather fork out the money for a new more reliable laptop rather than gamble on this one. It was only 2 years old and I’m writing to say go with a Microsoft laptop instead the xps reliability is a joke imo

[TheNigerianStudentPodcast]

Thanks a million for the advice
I was thinking Mac was better 😂

[friendlymart]

Really a well informational video by a well informed person on laptops for Mech or Aero Engineers. Thank you for this one