Finding the most productive computer for engineering school can be tricky, especially if your school’s engineering branch has very vocal or confusing needs about which computer you need.
I know because here at Tom’s Guide my team tests dozens of laptops from the top companies every year to find the best laptops for college students, and we look for especially powerful machines that would be ideal for engineering students. We also try to keep abreast of engineering program requirements, and we listen to readers and parents who write in with questions about which model(s) will best meet their course requirements.
Because of that I know that many of today’s best gaming laptops typically work well as engineering student laptops because they’re built with discrete graphics cards, powerful CPUs, and lots of memory and storage. All that tech helps a beefy gaming laptop like the Alienware m18 run demanding games well, but it can also help these laptops crunch unoptimized code and power through CAD work with aplomb.
That said, we still recommend the Dell XPS 16 as the best laptop for most engineering students because it’s widely available, customizable with powerful components and delivers great performance and battery life. If you need something cheaper, the MSI Bravo 15 is an affordable gaming laptop that will give you decent power for not much money.
Those are just two of the recommendations you’ll find on this curated list of the best laptops for engineering students—we also have advice for folks seeking more portable, more repairable and more affordable laptops to carry to class.
Nvidia revealed its next generation of PC graphics cards at CES 2025, and now that the Nvidia RTX 50 series GPUs are here, I think we’ll see them in some computers that will be added to that list in 2025. While Nvidia’s computers for RTX 50 series games have already been seen on Best Buy listings, I suspect we may not see them hit retail outlets until early February. So if you’re lately considering buying a new computer with a 40-series card, wait if you can – newer, faster computers will be hitting the market soon!
Lately, the Dell XPS 16 is our most sensible piece of advice for engineering students because it’s slim and portable, but tough enough to get big jobs done thanks to its discrete GPU. Although it takes a while to get used to the narrow keyboard and invisible touchpad, this is a wonderful and versatile laptop.
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The cyberpunk aesthetic makes it clear this is a gaming laptop, but don’t let that dissuade you from considering this budget machine, which gives you a cutting-edge Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, a 13th Gen Intel CPU and a solid 144Hz 15.6-inch display.
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The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a great gaming laptop with a discrete GPU and battery life to rival the XPS 15 or Galaxy Book 3 Ultra. The fact that it lasts over 10 hours on battery yet weighs under 4 pounds makes it the most portable on this list.
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The rugged Nvidia GeForce RTX 40-series GPU in Samsung’s Galaxy Book 4 Ultra makes it ideal for gaming alone, but also for heavy computing work. If you like the bright colors and sharp contrasts of OLED, the 16-inch OLED display makes it a great choice. .
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The discrete Nvidia GPU built into the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio makes it one of the toughest 2-in-1s you can buy, and the unique 120Hz sliding touchscreen is wonderful for taking notes if you splurge on the $129 Surface Slim Pen 2.
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The Alienware m18 is the largest and most rugged gaming computer we’ve tested to date. Despite its wonderful keyboard and forged speakers/screen, it’s too heavy, too hot, and too loud to be of much use on the go, making it the most productive semi-portable PC that usually stays on your desk.
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Laptop 16 Framework gives you an unprecedented experience on your computer, allowing you to change ports, keyboard, display, and even the discrete GPU. It’s hot and loud and can sometimes feel a little unstable, but in exchange, you get the most repairable and upgradable computer on the planet.
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Alex Wawro is a lifelong journalist who’s spent over a decade covering tech, games and entertainment. He oversees the computing department at Tom’s Guide, which includes managing laptop coverage and reviewing many himself every year.
Our opinion:
The Dell XPS 16 is the best we offer engineering students because it’s versatile, powerful, and easy to take to school. Plus, it lasted over 11 hours in our battery test, so you can count on it to last a full day of classes.
This Windows 11 laptop comes with a nice, bright 16-inch LCD screen, but if you can afford it I recommend springing for the 4K OLED touchscreen upgrade because it makes everything you do on the laptop look nicer. Plus, having the touchscreen gives you a nice alternative way to interact with the laptop when your hands are tired from jamming out assignments.
If you plan to do a lot of demanding coursework I also recommend upgrading the integrated Intel Arc GPU to a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX laptop GPU. Our review unit came with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, but you can choose from a few options when configuring your own Dell XPS 16.
Read our full Dell XPS 16 review.
Our opinion:
The MSI Cyborg 15 ($999) is a cyberpunk-inspired gaming computer that probably won’t break your wallet. With a 13th Gen Intel Core processor and an Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, this computer offers solid gaming functionality for $1,000, making it ideal for students. who need to use that strength for their schoolwork. Add a 15. 6-inch, 144Hz display and you have a device that is a wonderful entry into the world of PC gaming.
The computer has an attractive design, perfect performance, and a price tag of less than $1,000. The display may be brighter and a little more colourful, but the 144Hz refresh rate is welcome. And while its battery life is excellent, the Cyborg 15 is also a smart productivity device, as long as you keep it plugged in.
Read our complete MSI Cyborg 15.
Our expert review:
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a favorite here at Tom’s Guide and consistently ranks among the gaming laptops you can buy, and those advantages also make it ideal for engineering students.
What makes the ROG Zephyrus G14 so appealing is how it packs wonderful functionality and decent battery life into a small, easy-to-carry chassis. The AMD Ryzen nine 8nine4fiveHS processor in our review unit is tough enough to play a lot of games at over 60fps and perform the task of transcoding a 4K video up to 1080p in less than five minutes, so it’ll be enough for many tasks.
The big weak point to keep in mind when taking this to school is the battery life – the last Zephyrus G14 we tested lasted just under 7 hours in our internal battery test, meaning it may not allow you spend a full day. of classes. Training
But as long as you don’t want to use it for more than a few hours at a time, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a rugged and slim computer for engineering students.
Read our full Asus ROG Zephryus G14 review.
Our opinion:
The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra is the engine of Samsung’s Galaxy Book lineup, making it the most productive Samsung computer for engineering students, as it comes with a physically powerful processor and a rugged Nvidia GeForce RTX discrete computer GPU.
Together, those parts give this ultraportable 16-inch OLED computer enough punch to get you through your classes, and its slim, lightweight design makes it easy to store in a backpack. Plus, the spacious keyboard makes pulling out papers a great and comfortable task.
This computer shines if you already own other Samsung Galaxy devices as it comes with Samsung Galaxy software pre-installed that will allow you to seamlessly share files and data between Galaxy devices. However, if you haven’t yet invested in the Samsung ecosystem, you can forget about the Galaxy’s extra features: they probably won’t interfere with the speed and functions of this computer.
Read our full review of the Samsung Galaxy Book Ultra.
Our opinion:
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio 2 is a rugged 2-in-1 with a MacBook Pro-like design and an articulating display. This is Microsoft’s flagship device for Windows 11, which promises to make Windows a more welcoming place to work and play. As Windows launches on January 11, the Surface Laptop Studio is touted as a one-stop shop for productivity, entertainment, and artistic paintings.
And for the most part, it is all that: its 13th Gen Intel CPU and 16+ GB of RAM gives you enough power to tackle most work, and if you splurge for a model with the discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 or 4060 GPU the Surface Laptop Studio also doubles as a decent machine for gaming or video editing on the go. We’ve also heard it’s an ideal choice for college engineering programs which require laptops that both have a discrete GPU and can be used with an active stylus. While you have to pay extra for the Microsoft Surface Slim Pen 2 stylus, its haptics make writing or drawing on the Studio’s 14.4-inch 120Hz touchscreen feel great.
However, it’s a bit expensive when you equip it, and despite having the right components, the Surface Laptop Studio offers less functionality than the best MacBooks and Windows laptops. But few laptops can accommodate its intriguing sliding-hinged display, which can stretch over the keys like an easel or slide absolutely flat into the Studio on a heavy tablet.
Read our full Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 page.
Our expert review:
The Alienware m18 is one of the largest and most rugged gaming laptops tested to date, and is ideal for engineering students who want a large-screen PC that can move with you.
By this I mean that Alienware m18 is our guide to computer for engineering students who want to work on a big screen. The m18’s 18-inch screen is almost too big to carry around and gives you plenty of screen real estate to use when gaming, conducting research, or editing CAD tasks.
The low-profile CherryMX mechanical keys are also exciting to type on, and although the computer is so heavy (over nine pounds) that you probably won’t want to transport it anywhere other than a car very often, the fact is that you can carry it to space or to a friend’s house for summer vacation if you wish.
However, I highly recommend a lighter, more durable computer on this list (like the Zephyrus G14) if you’re looking for a computer to take to class, because in addition to its heavy weight, the Alienware m18 R2 only lasts a few hours. , which surpasses it (let alone when gaming) in terms of battery life.
Read our full Alienware m18 R2 review.
Our expert review:
I love Framework Laptop 16 because it’s designed to be open, repaired, and updated by the owner, so you can count on it to be more customized and serviceable than any other computer on the market.
I think this style is wonderful for engineering students, especially since it’s the largest, most rugged (and most expensive) edition of the Laptop 13 Framework, which is the most productive computer for those who care about the right to repair and upgrade. because he pioneered the remarkable ease of Framework. -Open design.
The Framework Laptop 16 builds upon what Framework pioneered, offering a 6-slot Expansion Card system that allows you to slot whatever ports you want into your laptop on the fly. While you do have to buy the Cards yourself from Framework, once you have them you can hot-swap them in and out at will so you can, say, remove the RJ-45 Ethernet jack Card when you’re heading to class and swap it out for a 250GB memory Card that has your school projects stored on it.
This modular design technique extends to the detachable GPU module, an optional upgrade that allows you to attach a discrete, rugged GPU to the back of the computer if you want extra strength. This can come in handy for engineering projects that aren’t easy, and also gives you a little extra oomph for high-octane gaming when the task is done.
However, you deserve to know that this computer’s remarkable design has some drawbacks. While you can change and move the keyboard, trackpad, and other modules, the downside is that the computer is a little less difficult to finish and break than most. This is partly because it’s so easy to modify and repair, which is worth giving you some peace of mind if you end up damaging it, but it’s worth feeling comfortable owning a computer that may require repair or maintenance to function properly. . I also noticed significant warmth and fan noise coming from daily paintings and computer games, so be prepared for that and keep it on low power mode when using it in gyms. quiet study!
Read our full Review of Framework Laptop.
Battery life is the number one fear for students because there is no need for a computer to turn off in the middle of a class. With that in mind, I’ve gathered all of our battery check effects on those computers and organized them into an easy-to-navigate list below.
As you can see, the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra is currently the clear winner in terms of long battery life. However, a good number of laptops on this list will last around 8 hours on a full charge, which will be enough to get you through a day of classes.
To give you a better idea of which laptops perform best, I’ve also included a table of all the effects of those laptops in our CPU benchmarks.
For those tests, we ran Geekbench’s single-core and multi-core CPU tests and reported the scores for each. By comparing those scores and seeing which one is higher, you can get an idea of what works best.
As you can see from the results below, the Alienware m18 is the clear performance leader on this list. However, even a cheap gaming laptop like the MSI Cyborg 15 can put up decent numbers in terms of raw performance.
Performance: If you’re going to spend years reading engineering, you’ll want a PC that’s tough enough to withstand everything your professors throw at it. We present you at least one new mid-range processor (Intel Core or AMD Ryzen). 5) and at least 16 GB of RAM, but if you can spend more on a computer with higher specifications, it will pay off in the long run.
Graphics and Gaming: Most gaming computers come with separate graphics cards that allow them to run newer games well; However, the same card may be equally important for engineering students who will employ CAD (computer-aided design) and 3D research. programs. These types of programs take advantage of the power of a smart GPU, so if you’re making plans to do graphics or 3D work, it’s a smart concept to invest in a computer with an Nvidia or AMD discrete graphics card. .
Operating System: Laptops come in 3 versions: Windows (most client PCs), macOS (MacBooks), and Chrome OS (Chromebooks). Chrome OS is rarely very smart for anything other than web browsing, log management, and soft computing, so a Chromebook is rarely a great choice for serious schoolwork. However, a clever student can simply install Linux on a very rugged Chromebook to turn it into a decent computer for engineering work.
Many engineering academics spend a lot of time working with specialized or self-developed software. Therefore, Windows is preferable to macOS as it creates fewer obstacles when using such tools. However, even Windows can rarely get in the way of serious engineering work, which is why many engineering scholars purchase Windows laptops and install Linux on them so that they can dual-boot either system. exploitation.
As mentioned above, when making your purchasing decision, be sure to consult your professors and/or the engineering branch of your school for more specific recommendations on what you will want for your studies. Whichever formula you choose, it’s a good idea to pair it with the most productive mouse for your specific work situation.
To find the most productive laptops, we put each device through a rigorous set of real-world and benchmarking tests to compare its performance.
We measure the average brightness and color quality of each laptop’s display using our in-house light meter and colorimeter. For general performance, we run our machines through tests that include Geekbench 5 (CPU performance), as well as various 3DMark tests to measure graphics capabilities. We also run a file transfer test to measure how fast a machine’s hard drive is, and a custom battery test that has the machine browse the internet over Wi-Fi until it runs out of juice.
Additionally, we ran the graphics benchmark test on Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm to get an idea of how well a computer can handle basic games. When we reviewed compromised gaming computers, we looked for several games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
To learn more about our process, ask our consultant about how we perform testing.
Alex Wawro is a lifelong gaming enthusiast, with over a decade of experience in media such as Game Developer, Black Hat, and PC World magazine. A lifelong PC builder, lately he’s been the editor of Tom’s Guide, which covers everything from laptops and desktops to keyboards and mice.
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