This travel requirement rules out having a bulky device to lug around, but you still need the performance and capabilities to do real work away from your desk.
As an engineering student, you need a laptop that is easily portable between home and college/university.
If you need the best laptop for engineering software and you work at a professional level, I expect that you need a computer that can travel a lot between home and office or between the office and sites. Best Laptop for Engineering Software: Requirements While they are not as cost-effective as building a machine yourself, they do offer time savings and warranty/service advantages for businesses or busy individuals. This year, I also have an article looking at pre-built engineering computers you can buy ready to run. You get a lot more performance per dollar compared to any laptop you can purchase. I strongly recommend looking at a desktop computer if you’re looking to use a computer at a fixed location without the need to move around. With major releases from AMD early this year, and Intel later in the year, we’ve seen some stunning performance boosts as the rivalry between AMD and Intel heats up like it hasn’t for decades. Last year, I also wrote a guide to building an engineering desktop computer, this year that has also been updated with the latest advancements. All of this means that this year’s list of potential laptops to consider for engineering applications has grown substantially, leaving you spoiled for choice. Finally, we’ve seen more laptops jump to the latest generation of graphics cards. We’ve also seen a growth in battery capacity in terms of watt-hours, which combined with newer technology in processing power offers better battery performance. This year we’ve seen a major refresh of most models, with a shift to 10th generation Intel for most models, or to similar performance options from AMD.
Most of the laptops that were considered had 8th generation Intel processors, and there were no AMD processors in the list at all. The majority of options considered for the list last year were running 7th generation processors, and therefore got ruled out of consideration entirely. A year ago, I wrote an article about buying a laptop for engineering software. Over the past year, many CAD spec laptop series have taken a great leap forwards as new models have come out.