Laptop for Engineering Undergraduate

[adi.agarwalla]

I will be starting college this fall to pursue Computer Engineering. I need something to last me 4 years and should be around $1300.

What country will you be buying this in?
USA

What size notebook do you prefer?
13-15 inch

What brands do you like or dislike?
Would like to limit to Dell, HP and Lenovo.

Processor:
Ideally 3rd generation Core i5 with Intel Graphics 4000.

RAM:
4GB should be fine.

Would you consider a refurbished laptop?
No

What are the primary tasks you need this notebook for?
Web Surfing, Office and Productivity Software, Listening to Music, Video Chat and Conference, Movie Streaming and Viewing, stuff like MATLAB.


What games will you be playing?
Not much of a gamer

Where will you be using this laptop?
All over the college campus

How many hours of battery life do you need?
5-6 minimum

Will you be buying online or in store?
Either

Which OS do you prefer?
Windows 7

List the screen resolutions that interest you:
I currently have an XPS Studio with a 1366 x 768. Many people complain that this resolution is too basic but honestly, I am absolutely happy with it.

Is the laptops design important to you?
Would like it to be as thin and portable as possible, below 5 pounds.

Approximately what date will you be buying this laptop?
By August end

How long do you want this laptop to last?
4 years

Ports:
2 USB minimum and an ethernet.

How much storage capacity do you need?
Either a HDD+mSSD Acceleration Cache or a 256GB SSD. Need advice on this.

Do you want a built-in optical drive, what type?
Can sacrifice it for the portability and buy an external.

Another important aspect is the warranty. A few of HP laptops come with a 2 year where as Dell is 1 year. Needed 3 years like the Apple Care one but am not being able to find something within $1300 with a 3 year.

The ones which I am considering as of now are the Dell XPS 13, HP Spectre XT 13, HP Envy Ultrabook 6t-1000 and Dell XPS 14.

Having said all this, my university Store is giving me a 13 inch Mac Pro with Apple Care 3 years and Microsoft Office 2010 for $1260. But having been a Windows user uptil now, I am not sure whether I want to shift to a Mac.

Thanks

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

Also a Computer Engineering student here haha

Engineering is not very OSX-friendly, to be frank. While I'm not sure what policies your engineering department have, the one I go to uses only Windows software for class, even if there are OSX ports (such as MATLAB or Microsoft Office). On top of that, if you've been a Windows user for most of your computing life, I wouldn't recommend switching unless you absolutely needed to (and vice versa for OSX users looking into Windows). Speaking of MATLAB, it's not really computer-intensive, so you'll be fine with an i3. Some peers I know even run it fine on a C2D system.

The mSATA caching option is sort of a stop-gap for people that want more than HDD speeds, but do not want to pay for the price of an actually SSD (or need more storage space than what affordable SSDs offer, as in >256GB). If your computing habits are mostly the same day-in and day-out (example: you boot Windows, use Firefox, and do a lot of work in Office and MATLAB), the mSATA cache will "learn" your pattern and accelerate commonly used files and programs to SSD-like speeds. However, if your computing pattern is random, you will mostly be limited to HDD speeds (though Windows will continue to boot quickly, usually in 20-25 seconds). Personally, I'm the kind of guy that will rather have a real SSD and have external storage if I need it, but the mSATA SSD is a good compromise (comparing my W520 with an Ideapad U310 with mSATA cache that I'm reviewing).

As for a recommendation, you should look into business laptops, specifically the Lenovo Thinkpad X or T series or the Dell Latitude E series. Both are great laptop lines with great business-class warranties (though you have to pay extra for the TPP warranty for Thinkpads, whereas Latitudes have a 3yr NBD warranty by default), and both the Thinkpad and Latitude lines have durable construction that'll certainly last you for your college life, if not longer. Taking the Thinkpad T530 for example, you'll get about 6-7 hours of battery life using the 6-cell and 8-9 hours on the 9-cell (I get just around 7-8 hours on my previous-gen W520 with the 9-cell).

I would really recommend that you at least upgrade to the 1600*900 display though, since 768p really does look like crap once you taste higher resolutions (I use to own a Toshiba Satellite with a 768p display for 2 years and back then I thought it was good enough as well). The FHD 1920*1080 display is even better, not only with pixel count but also color reproduction (95% color gamut; MBPs only have 70-75% and other non-IPS laptops are lower). While the FHD is a little expensive though ($200), the 900p is only a $50 upgrade, so it won't break the bank.

[icecream12345]

Hi im also a college student and we are on a similar boat. I would highly recommend T430. 15 inch is probably too big for the desks you will be using in classes. As for the SSD, i would recommend you getting it separately to the computer as the price on lenovo is very high.

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

Depends on the classes, I imagine. I have no issue with my 15" laptop, though most of my classes are the smaller (20-40 people) ones with tables as opposed to 200+ lecture halls.

Definitely buy the SSD (and extra RAM, if you want) aftermarket. As icecream12345 said, it's much cheaper than having the OEM install it for you.

[adi.agarwalla]

Thanks for the reply. So in a way a HDD+mSSD really gives us the entire benefit of having a SSD because only the HP Spectre XT 13 with 256GB SSD comes around $1250. Others end up being >$1400. On the other hand, it is possible to get a HDD+mSSD configuration for around $1000. Unless HP comes up with some coupons for the XT 13, I doubt I will go for it.

Also, most of the HDD+mSSD have 5400 rpm HDD. I use a 7200rpm and am not really sure how a 5400rpm will be different?

Thanks

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

You could also get the HDD + mSATA cache combo in the Lenovo Ideapad U310. Comes in at ~$750 with the i5 ULV and 500GB HDD + 32GB cache.

[Steve's Job]

Not too sure what your budget is but I came across this Dell Precision thats supposed to be ideal for CAD programs (assuming that you might be using such software at some point) with the nVidia Quadro graphics gpu and the Quad-core processors

This one in particular has 16GB of RAM and 500GB HDD
Dell Precision M4600 i7-2630QM NVidia 2000M 16GB 500GB FullHD Webcam | eBay

The page has several upgrade options to make it more beefy if you feel that you need more umph.

[Bronsky]

For engineering, I would get a full powered CPU and stay away from the lower powered stuff. I would probably stick with a business class laptop like the Lenovo T430s or the T430 is you want a dedicated GPU. The Dell XPS 14 looks nice and has a dedicated GPU, but Matlab and other simulation programs like the power and can bog down with the ULV CPUs. The HD4000 graphics should handle any CAD work a student will throw at it, I don't think you need a full blown workstation like the Precision, W530 or the Elitebook. If you want portable, the X230 is okay, but the display is rather small for design and 3D work.

That is a great price on the MBP with 3 year applecare. You can always run Windows in bootcamp.

[Kuroi-Tsubasa]

thing with AppleCare is that it's only an extended factory warranty. For the price it requires (even with a student discount), a NBD business warranty on a Thinkpad, Latitude, or Precision would be a much better value (I know that TPP includes accidental, and I think Dell NBD does as well).

[Crimsoned]

thing with AppleCare is that it's only an extended factory warranty. For the price it requires (even with a student discount), a NBD business warranty on a Thinkpad, Latitude, or Precision would be a much better value (I know that TPP includes accidental, and I think Dell NBD does as well).

Dell Next Business Day does not include accidental protection.
For accidental Protection pick up the Complete Care plan (business laptops, I doubt consumer laptops will be any different):
Cost:
$169 for 3 years
$229 for 5 years

Very affordable.