8 Best Laptops for Electrical Engineering Students -2022

If you are an electrical engineering student, you will have felt the need to get the best laptops for electrical engineering students to help you run all the heavy-weight programs. Engineering students usually want a laptop which will do lots of work without slowing them down too much.

We understand that most of you will want something that doesn’t hurt your pocket too much without compromising on the features. I have a list of best laptops for electrical engineering students that fit in different price ranges and have features which will be helpful for engineering students.

 

How to choose the Best Laptops for Engineering Students

As a civil, mechanical or electronics engineer, there are many programs that you can need to run on your laptop. These include ETABS, SAP 2000, STAAD Pro, Revit Structure, Autocad, and Microsoft Office (Excel and Word). You wish a laptop that will run these programs smoothly. Here are the attributes to look for.

1. Processor

The processor is extremely important in the running of a computer and laptops for engineering students must have fast processors. The faster the processor the faster the operations of the laptop will be.

For a civil engineer who uses AutoCAD to design 2-dimensional layouts and ETABS or SAP 2000 to render them, the processor needs to be over cores i5 or 2.5 GHz. Never choose a processor that’s less powerful because it will slow down everything you do. always choose the best.

2. RAM

The Random Access Memory commonly referred to as RAM is what permits you to multi-task. This does not mean using different apps at a go but additionally using the same app that carries out different processes. For CAD software you may require a sizeable amount of RAM. For the best, your RAM should be a minimum of 4GB. If you’re using Revit Structure, you will be better off with 6GB RAM or additional. The RAM also will influence the speed of the laptop so you better get the best engineering laptops that have enough RAM.

3. Graphics Card

The ideal graphics card can depend on what you are doing with the laptop. As an example, if you use AutoCAD for 2d drawings then a video card that has 512MB VRAM should be enough. On the other hand, those that need to export the 2nd AutoCAD models into Revit and use them to form 3D models then into 3DS Max and create an environment around the model, you may need a more powerful video card. For the latter, choose a graphics card that has a minimum of 2GB VRAM.

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8 Best Laptops for Electrical Engineering Students

 

1. Acer Predator Helios 300 (2018 Model)- The Best electrical engineering laptop

 

If you have not heard about Acer Predator Helios 300 before, let me tell you that this can be one of the top-selling laptops on Amazon that has got over 1800 reviews with a rating of 4.1. That the was stats of the 2017 model of this laptop and Acer has released the new model in June 2018 that again has got many positive reviews from their customers.

Without bragging too much regarding this laptop, let’s dive into the main topic to discuss.

The 2018 version of Acer Predator Helios 300 comes with the same 15.6-inch display with the good build quality. The display has improved from its previous version. The sRGB ratings of the display area 98 and have Adobe RGB ratings of a touch over 60th that is not bad at all.

You will be getting 256GB SSD along with 16GB DDR4 RAM that is more than enough to perform multiple apps at once. The processor on this machine is that the same one that you are getting on the above Dell Inspiron. Again, you do not have to worry about the processor because it one of the best in the market right now.

You can truly take your gaming experience to the next level on this laptop because it comes with GeForce GTX 1060 that comes with 6GB GDDR5 VRAM. You can read additional about this powerful GPU here.

If you did not like the port choice of the above laptops, then you are surely visiting like this one. There many ports offered by Acer on this machine. On the left-hand aspect, there is an ethernet port, a USB Type-C (Not Thunderbolt 3), HDMI, 1 USB 3.0 and a full-sized SD card slot.

The battery life on this laptop computer too is pretty average. You can expect 3-4 hours that is not at all an excellent thing for students who want to bring it to college.

At last, I simply wish to say that this is the best laptop for electrical engineering students in this entire list in terms of value for cash.

 

2. Apple MacBook Pro-

I know, MacBooks Pro is costly and not everyone will afford it but If you have a budget between $1000-$1500, then this might be the perfect selection for you. If you have the budget less than $1000, then you’re welcome to skip because I have got four other great options for you.

This MacBook Pro comes with a 13.3-inch retina display and it’s a non-touch ID model. The Touch ID model would cost you around $350 then this model and that I don’t think an electrical engineering student would want a laptop with the touch ID feature. If you still need the Touch ID model, then you can get it here.

The display is one of the highlight parts of this MacBook Pro. It’s bright, vivid and sharp which is perfectly suitable for outdoor usage. The build quality is also nice as you’ll already know Apple provides laptops with superb build quality.

Apple has offered 256GB SSD storage that is nice enough for students. Though there’s a model with 128GB storage I don’t think it might be sufficient for you. The 8GB RAM will let you perform multiple applications directly and it won’t let you down for sure.

In terms of processor, you’ll be getting Intel’s 7th gen Core i5 processor that is not the latest and greatest processor on the market but it will the job fine for you. For gaming experience, there’s an integrated GPU i.e Intel Iris and Graphics 640 that could be useful while playing lightweight games. You can’t expect super-fast gaming expertise with this integrated graphics card.

The laptop weighs only 3 lbs (1.36 KG) that is lightweight and simply portable in my opinion. You’ll bring this laptop to college/ school without worrying concerning its weight. The laptop has 2 USB Type-C Thunderbolt that is quite useful whereas transferring the data but the sad factor about ports on this machine is there are no traditional USB 2.0 ports that could upset many people.

When it involves battery life, you can expect 5-6 hours whereas doing tasks like browsing, using MS office, watching videos, etc. Whereas doing heavy tasks, you’ll expect the battery to last between 1-2 hours.

Overall, this is a really good laptop for electrical engineering students for its portability and stable.

 

3. Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop – Best Budget Laptops for Electrical Engineering

An electrical engineering student knows how essential a powerful laptop is to complete various projects. Are you an electrical engineering student and searching for the best budget laptop for electrical engineering students? Don’t be tensed, the Acer Aspire 5 is the one most suitable for your engineering projects.

If we talk about its display, it is quite amazing because it’s quite wider for completing engineering assignments. The 15.6 inches full HD IPS display with Acer color intelligence brings life to the visuals on your screen.

The narrower bezels provide the screen to show huge images. The overall display is phenomenal to look at.

AMD Ryzen 3 3200U Mobile Processor makes this laptop compatible with electrical engineering software. This software is very demanding but Acer Aspire 5 can fulfill all their requirements.

The Radeon Vega 3 Graphics provides graphics required for electrical engineering. This field works mostly with 2D effects for making charts, diagrams, schematics, and circuit diagrams. Thus GPU of Acer Aspire 5 makes execution of all graphics possible.

If you have to connect your laptop with any other device, every sort of port is available for convenient attachment.

The battery life of a laptop matters a lot when you have to complete complex projects. Be relax, Its battery will last up to 7.5 hours to keep you going.

It looks fabulous on your table with its aluminum top cover and slim body.

 

4. Dell XPS 13 9370- A lightweight laptop for electrical engineering

The Dell XPS 13 does not need an introduction because it is one of the most successful and well-liked laptops around the world from the past few years. This is the late 2018 model i.e XPS 13 9370 that I’m going to talk right now.

This XPS 13 comes with a 13.3-inch non-touch IPS display that has nice color accuracy and brightness. The SRGB rating of the display is one-thousandth whereas the Adobe RGB scores 77.

The laptop comes with 256GB M.2 SSD that is perhaps the only upgradeable thing you will find on this machine. The SSD performs quicker and has the read and write speed of 3096 MBps and 346 MBps respectively.

Dell has offered 8GB DDR3 RAM on this laptop together with Intel’s Core i5 processor i.e Intel Core i5-8250U. With the help of two fans provided on this machine, the heating management is pretty cool and probably you won’t face any heating problems.

Just like the MacBook Pro, you won’t find any USB 2.0 ports on this laptop too. On the right-hand side, you will get 1 USB Type-C port with Thunderbolt three support and a micro sd card reader. On the left-hand side, you will get 2 USB Type-C ports. The port choice of this machine might not be suitable for everybody.

The laptop weighs simply 2.7 lbs (1.2 KG) and it is not at all heavy by any means. Traveling with this laptop won’t be hard for you and you won’t even like a laptop bag to carry it.

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The battery life on this XPS 13 is quite superb. dell claims that it will last up to 19 hours but that is too good to be true. With light-weight to moderate usage, you can expect around 10 hours of battery life that is extraordinary in my opinion.

 

5. Dell Inspiron G5587

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The Dell Inspiron G5587 is one of the newest addition to the Inspiron series from Dell that is again one of the top-selling laptop series within the market. This is a mid-range gaming laptop that has a lot of amazing things to offer for its pricing.

The Inspiron G5587 comes with 15.6-inch IPS full HD display that is just okay in my opinion. A better display would have been nice but it is okay for everyday usage and media consumption. Playing games for a long time may be difficult on this display. You must keep this in mind the build quality of this machine is extremely stiff that is a great thing.

You will be getting 1TB 5400 rpm HDD and 128GB M.2 SSD. The hard disk drive (HDD) cannot deliver you the fast performance, thus it is higher to store data on HDD and install some vital applications on SSD for faster performance. For multitasking, there is 16GB DDR4 RAM and it is often upgraded up to 32GB.

The processor you will find on this laptop is Intel’s 8th gen Core i7 processor i.e Intel Core i7-8750H. The CPU handles the majority type of tasks easily and does not cause any issues. For gaming performance, you’ll be getting GTX 1050Ti with 4GB VRAM. You can play most of the modern games at good frame rates.

The Inspiron G5587 weighs 6.3 lbs (2.8 kg) which is quite heavy I might say. If you are planning to bring this laptop to school, you would definitely carry it in a laptop bag. If you are obtaining the laptop to use only at home, then you won’t worry about its weight.

The battery life of this laptop computer is mediocre. You’ll expect 4-5 hours from a single charge by doing basic to moderate tasks.

 

6. Acer Aspire E 15 

If you have already seen a couple of my articles here on the LaptopHunt, you won’t be surprised for the inclusion of the Acer Aspire E 15 because I have featured this laptop many times because I feel, it gives great value for money and no should not miss out this amazing laptop.

For those of you who can’t afford a thousand dollar laptop, but still want to have a machine that can deliver a solid streaming experience, Acer Aspire E15 may be the right choice for you. This laptop costs at least 2x less than most other models presented, but that doesn’t make it a poor choice. You’ll be getting powerful hardware that won’t disappoint you with its performance.

The Acer Aspire comes with a 15.6-inch IPS display which is a 60Hz panel and it is decent enough for live streaming. The display provides decent color accuracy and viewing angles are pretty fine. The build of the laptop is not great but it isn’t terrible either. Most of the body is made out of plastic and it is decent enough for its price. The design of this laptop is pretty ordinary, you should keep this mind.

The CPU inside the machine is Intel Core i5-8250U, though it is not that great compared to the i7s but is a decent choice for multi-tasking. It has 4 cores and 8 threads and has the required strength to perform decently during streaming sessions, but don’t expect miracles. The processor is combined with 8GB DDR3which can be upgraded up to 32GB. As I said, multitasking is not at all a problem for this guy.

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The GPU is not a miraculous one but is decent, i.e GeForce MX150. It can let you play some low to moderate demanding games with decent FPS. Of course, you have to tweak some settings to achieve that. Take a look at the below chart to get an idea about the gaming performance of this laptop.

And of course, a Headphone jack.

I have to appreciate Acer for providing a backlit keyboard on this $600 dollar machine. It’ll be very difficult to find a laptop with a backlit keyboard at this pricing. This Acer Aspire weighs 5.3 lbs (2.4 kg) which is again on the heavy side and not easily portable.

Finally, battery life.

The approximate estimate from Acer is that it can last up to 15 hours but I don’t think it will be possible to achieve that mark. According to Martin, you can get around 8 hours by lowering the brightness and you may get slightly more than that based on your performance type.

If you are looking to get the Best Budget Laptop For Electrical Engineering, then this might the perfect choice for you without any doubt.

 

7. HP ZBook 15u G2

See? you can get a pretty good laptop for electrical engineering without spending a large amount of cash. Whereas you do have to sacrifice cores for the HP ZBook 15u G2 since it only includes a dual-core processor.

It will still incorporate an AMD FirePro GPU, that is designed for mobile workstations. This laptop includes a good amount of modeling power and even has 8 GB of onboard RAM.

Its primary weakness, in my opinion, is that it is slightly heavy at almost seven pounds, but if you would like a good electrical engineering laptop that can run most applications, this can be a good choice for a small amount of cash.

Additionally, the battery only lasts about six and a half hours, that is okay, but several students might want a longer-lived battery.

 

 8. MSI GV62

The last laptop on this list is from MSI that has a good track record for providing good gaming laptops.

The MSI GV62 is an affordable gaming laptop that prices around $800 and it offers lots of superb stuff at this price.

The MSI GV62 comes with a 15.6-inch FHD show that offers good brightness and suitable for both personal and skilled purposes. The build quality is also nice on this machine.

You will get 1TB HDD and 16GB Intel Optane Memory on this laptop. You may already know about hard disk drive (HDD), but many of us might not know about Intel Optane Memory. If you are one in all of them, let me quickly tell you that it is a combination of both HDD and SSD.

The 8GB DDR4 RAM offered on this machine helps whereas multitasking and it is upgraded up to 32GB. The CPU you’ll realize inside the machine is Intel’s 8th gen Core i5 processor i.e Intel Core i5-8300H. The processor will a fine job and does not leave room for many complaints.

MSI has offered a GTX 1050Ti graphics card for an improved gaming experience on this laptop. You’ll play games or graphics demanding applications with the help of this powerful GPU.

The laptop weighs 4.8 lbs (2.2 kg) which is quite heavy I would say. If you want to play games whereas traveling, then you may have to carry this laptop in a bag.

You can get up to 4 hours of battery life on this machine that is just about the same for almost every gaming laptop on the market.