Engineering - A User's Guide

vLabs:Engineering allows UMass Lowell College of Engineering students, faculty and staff to access the university's software at anytime from anywhere, including residence halls, libraries, and even from home. You now have access to any tool or application available in an on-campus lab on your Laptop, home PC, and even your tablet or smartphone. vLabs:Engineering has a full suite of Engineering applications, such as Solidworks 2016, Autodesk 2017, and MasterCam. This service is powered by the latest NVIDIA graphic processing hardware.

All vLabs:Engineering users have administrator rights during their session, and may install any software they want. It is important to remember though that on logging off vLabs:Engineering, the virtual machine will be deleted and the new program with it. To request new software be installed on vLabs: Engineering contact Darren Larocque.

Engineering labs equipped with vLabs: Engineering terminals are Ball 215, Perry 313, and Perry 311. vLabs: Engineering can also be accessed via terminals in Lydon Library, Southwick 3rd Floor, and O’Leary Library. vLabs: Engineering can also be accessed on any nearly any Internet connected device. For directions please see vLabs.

In most of UMass Lowell’s vLabs pools there is a ten-minute timeout for inactivity, after which the user’s session will be disconnected. At that point a user has 60 minutes to log in and resume the session before being logged off. In vLabs:Workstation, it’s different: for vlabs: Engineering, this timeout has been extended to 48 hours. With a physical computer a user might need to leave the machine unattended for an extended time to run a large job. With vLabs: Engineering you need only disconnect your session, and reconnect (from anywhere with Internet access, not the location you last accessed it from) and resume your session.

For best results, we strongly recommend against opening any file from a USB key. Running an Autodesk or even MS Word document from USB will result in a degraded experience. In the three Engineering labs equipped with vLabs:Engineering terminals, we also recommend that USB devices – especially USB hard drives – be plugged into the USB slots on the monitor. If your device comes with a power cable, it would be best to plug it in to one of the power strips. Formatting the USB device with the NTFS file system will reduce load times for files. NTFS is not the default for Windows 10, and will need to be set manually. Please see vLabs for more information.

vLabs:Engineering users will have several file storage options.

The VMware User Experience Manager service will allow users to save settings from one vLabs:Engineering session to another. These settings include changes to web browser settings, the Start Menu, and a number of other programs. Changes are saved on logoff from vLabs:Engineering.

If you go to Start > Programs > VMware UEM you will notice an icon called VMware UEM Self-Support. Clicking on this icon will open up a menu displaying all the settings that UEM has saved for you. By clicking on a program in the list, for example Mastercam 2017 and then on the Reset button will delete all saved configurations made by you.

On your next logon to vLabs:Engineering Mastercam 2017 will be restored to its default state. The Restore button will present you with the option to roll back changes to the last time the system made a backup of the your changes, for example, you could revert Google Chrome back to changes that had been made two weeks prior. This option is very helpful for fixing issues that may pop up over time.

Best laptops for engineering students in 2024

Best Laptops for Engineering Students: Quick Menu

The best laptops for engineering students are powerful enough to handle the computationally intensive coursework that such studies require, while still being light and efficient enough to carry through a day of classes without running out of juice on you mid-lecture. 

This used to be a tricky combination to find, especially at a price that fits into a student's budget. However, recent advances in mobile CPU and GPU tech have brought a bumper crop of laptops to market that are light, long-lasting, and beefy enough to tackle most engineering projects. Now that lots of us are getting ready to go back to school, there's plenty of laptop options for engineering students.

Today's best gaming laptops are often well-suited to tackling engineering coursework because they're built with discrete graphics cards, powerful CPUs, and lots of memory and storage. It's all in the name of running the latest games and making them look as flashy as possible, of course, but many modern engineering applications have similar demands. 

So read on for our curated list of the best laptops for engineering students, which should help make your buying decision a little easier. Of course, you should always contact your school's engineering department first to see what they recommend for your specific coursework and areas of study!

Alex Wawro

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.

In a hurry? Here's a brief overview of the laptops on this list, along with quick links that let you jump down the page directly to a review of whichever laptop catches your eye.

Best overall

The best engineering laptop overall

The Dell XPS 15 is our current top recommendation for students because it's svelte, portable yet powerful enough to do some heavy lifting thanks to its discrete GPU.

Read more below

Best value

The best value engineering laptop

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.

Read more below

Most portable

Best portability

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.

Read more below

Best for Samsung fans

4. Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra

The best OLED engineering laptop

The powerful Nvidia GeForce RTX 40-series GPU in Samsung's Galaxy Book 3 Ultra make it not just great for gaming, but heavy-duty computational work too. If you like the vivid colors and sharp contrasts of OLED, the 16-inch OLED screen makes this a great choice.

Read more below

Best 2-in-1

5. Surface Laptop Studio 2

Best 2-in-1 for engineering students

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio's discrete Nvidia GPU onboard makes it one of the most powerful 2-in-1s you can buy, and the unique sliding 120Hz touchscreen is great for taking notes if you splurge for the $129 Surface Slim Pen 2 stylus.

Read more below

Best 18-incher

The best big-screen engineering laptop

The Alienware m18 is the biggest, most powerful gaming laptop we've tested to date. Despite its great keyboard and solid speakers/screen it's too heavy, hot and loud to be of much use on the go, so this is really best as a semi-portable PC you mostly keep on your desk.

Read more below

The best overall laptop for engineering students

Display: 15.6-inch OLED touchscreen (3,456 x 2,160 pixels)

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti

RAM: 16 GB

Storage: 512 GB SSD

Weight: 4.2 pounds

Gorgeous 3.5K OLED display

Sleek chassis

Impressive performance

Roomy and comfy keyboard

The Dell XPS 15 OLED 2022 is our top pick for engineering students who want a slim, powerful ultraportable that's easy to carry all day. 

All models of the refreshed Dell XPS 15 pack the latest Intel Core CPUs and come bundled with Windows 11. Higher-end configurations feature an Nvidia GPU, which gives this laptop some serious muscle for CAD work and gaming. The sheer power you can pack into this svelte, elegant ultraportable make the XPS 15 one of the best laptops for engineering students, and that's before you consider the great speakers and gorgeous, immersive InfinityEdge display. 

If you can afford it, we recommend you splurge for the 3.5K OLED touchscreen upgrade -- it makes everything you do on the display look nicer. However, the OLED model we tested lasted under 8 hours on our battery test, which isn't great if you need this laptop to last through a full day at school. If you don't care about OLED and don't need the higher resolution for your work, we recommend the XPS 15 with a discrete Nvidia GPU and a FHD (1,920 x 1,200) display — it should last a bit longer on a single charge with the lower-resolution screen.

Read our full Dell XPS 15 OLED (2022) review.

Not interested in OLED? Don't miss our Dell XPS 15 (2020) review.

The best laptop for engineers on a budget

Display: 15.6-inch 144Hz FHD (1920 x 1080)

CPU: Intel Core i7-13620H

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050

RAM: 16GB

Storage: 512GB

Weight: 4.37 pounds

Affordable price

Cyberpunk-inspired design

Great keyboard

Good performance for price

Grainy 720p webcam

Middling display

Runs hot while gaming

The MSI Cyborg 15 ($999) is a cyberpunk-inspired gaming laptop that won’t destroy your wallet. Packing a 13th Gen Intel Core CPU and an Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, this laptop delivers solid gaming performance for $1,000, making it great for students who want to use that power for schoolwork. Toss in a 144Hz 15.6-inch display and you have a machine that’s a great entry into the world of PC gaming.

The laptop has a cool design, great performance and costs less than $1,000. The display could be brighter and a bit more colorful, but the 144Hz refresh rate is welcome. And while its battery life isn’t great, the Cyborg 15 also doubles as a good productivity device, so long as you keep it plugged in.

Read our full MSI Cyborg 15 review.

Great power and endurance

Display: 14-inches, 1920 x 1080

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9-4900HS

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060

RAM: 16GB

Storage: 1TB SSD

Weight: 3.5 pounds

Great performance

Excellent display and audio

Super-portable design paired with 11-hour battery life

No webcam

Keyboard has backlighting issues

The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a powerful 14-inch laptop built for gaming on the go — but engineering students can turn all that power to more productive uses. 

What sets the Zephyrus G14 above other gaming laptops in our eyes is the incredible 10+ hours of battery life it delivers when you’re not gaming, ensuring you can carry this through a day of classes without need to scramble for a charger. And at a price that typically ranges from $1,000 - $2,000, the ROG Zephyrus G14 is pretty affordable for a gaming laptop — and that's key for students trying to keep costs down.

Read our full Asus ROG Zephryus G14 review.

The best OLED-equipped engineering laptop

Display: 16-inch 3K (2,880 x 1,800) 120Hz AMOLED

CPU: Intel Core i7

RAM: 16 GB

Storage: 512 GB - 1 TB

Weight: 3.9 pounds

Size: 13.9 x 9.8 x 0.6 inches

Gorgeous 16-inch AMOLED display

Thin, lightweight design

Powerful performance

Roomy keyboard

Samsung features superfluous for some

The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is a powerful laptop that’s capable of handling everyday computing tasks, video editing and high-end gaming thanks to its discrete Nvidia GPU. All of that muscle makes it a great choice for doing demanding work and running GPU-intensive tasks in engineering school.

In addition to its impressive performance, this notebook also packs a gorgeous 16-inch OLED display that makes viewing content and playing games a pure joy. On its own, it’s a fantastic Windows 11 laptop.

The biggest rival to the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is the MacBook Pro 16-inch, and you might consider the Macbook Pro 2023 if you'd prefer a macOS laptop. But Samsung’s laptop is remarkably lighter, has a full-size USB port and offers a more colorful (albeit dimmer) OLED display. 

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra review.

The best 2-in-1 for engineering students

Display: 14.4-inch 120 Hz touchscreen (2400 x 1600 pixels)

CPU: 13th Gen Intel Core i7

GPU: Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050-4060 GPU

RAM: 16-64 GB

Storage: 512GB - 2TB SSD

Weight: 4.18 lbs (integrated graphics), 4.37 lbs (Nvidia GPU)

Display is bright and color-accurate

Doubles as a solid gaming laptop

Expanded port array is a nice upgrade

Sliding screen gives this 2-in-1 unique value

Middling battery life

No stylus included limits this laptop's versatility

Microsoft's Surface Laptop Studio 2 is a powerful 2-in-1 with a MacBook Pro-like design and an eye-catching hinged display. This is Microsoft’s flagship device for Windows 11, which promises to make Windows a more inviting place for both work and play. Like Windows 11, the Surface Laptop Studio is advertised as a one-stop shop for productivity, entertainment and creative work.

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 pricey when you kit it out, and despite its great components the Surface Laptop Studio delivers subpar performance compared to the best MacBooks and Windows laptops. But few laptops can match its intriguing sliding hinged display, which can be tented over the keys like an easel or slid all the way flat to turn the Studio into a heavy tablet.

Read our full Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 review.

The best big-screen engineering laptop

Display: 18-inch QHD+ 165Hz

CPU: Intel Core i9-13980HX

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090

RAM: 32GB

Storage: 1TB SSD

Dimensions: 16.1 x 12.6 x 1.05 inches

Weight: 8.5 - 8.9 pounds

Tested battery life: 4:33

Great performance

Satisfying CherryMX keyboard

Speakers get nice and loud

Big screen great for work/gaming

Bigger and heavier than nearly every other laptop

Awkward port placement

The Alienware m18 is the biggest, most powerful gaming laptop we've tested to date. It's too heavy, hot and loud to be of much use on the go, but when plugged in it runs the latest games as well as some of the best gaming PCs, truly earning the term desktop replacement. 

If you want a PC for school but want something more portable than a traditional tower and a monitor, the m18 is an interesting compromise. The 18-inch screen feels almost as big as a full-size monitor, and the incredible weight of this laptop isn't a big problem when you rarely move it. 

The low-profile CherryMX mechanical keys are also a delight to type on, and the speakers and screen are good enough for gaming. The port placement is a little odd (why put a single USB-C port on the right-hand side, right up near the front?) and the heat this thing kicks off is truly scorching when it gets going, but if power and screen size are all you care about (and price is no object) this is the biggest, best laptop to buy.

Read our full Alienware m18 review.

An excellent — and expensive — laptop for engineering students

Display: 15.6-inch QHD, 240Hz as reviewed

CPU: 10th-Gen Intel Core i7-10875H 2.3GHz

GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080

RAM: 32 GB

Storage: 1 TB SSD

Dimensions: 14.0 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches

Weight: 4.4 lbs

Sleek, lightweight design

Great gaming performance

Lots of ports

Lackluster touchpad and keyboard

Convoluted screen options

The Razer Blade 15 Advanced does exactly what you’d expect a Razer laptop to do: it looks great, offers plenty of ports and runs games and other graphically-demanding apps beautifully. It’s also as expensive as you’d expect a Razer laptop to be — you could easily spend $3,000 on a higher-end model.

Obviously that's a bit steep for many students, but it's about on par with comparable laptops. The Alienware m15 R4 is similarly priced, for example, and both offer great performance in a slim package. However, the Razer Blade 15 Advanced is just a bit lighter and a bit smaller than the m15 R4, and it lasts an hour or so longer during normal (i.e. non-gaming) use.

However, the Blade 15 Advanced's keyboard and touchpad are lackluster at best. They'll work well enough for classroom use, but if you expect to be doing a lot of typing on this laptop you'd be well-served by investing in one of the best keyboards.

Read our full Razer Blade 15 Advanced review.

Performance: If you're going to be spending years studying engineering, you're going to need a computer with enough power to handle anything your teachers throw at you. We recommend at least a new mid-range CPU (Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5) and at least 8 GB of RAM, though if you can afford to spend more on on a laptop with better specs it will pay off in the long run.

Graphics and gaming: Most gaming laptops come with discrete graphics cards so they can run the latest games well, but the same card can be equally vital to engineering students who will be using CAD (computer-assisted design) and 3D analysis programs. These kinds of applications really benefit from the power of a good GPU, so if you're expecting to do any graphics or 3D work it's a good idea to invest in a laptop with a discrete Nvidia or AMD graphics card.

Operating system: Laptops typically come in three flavors: Windows (most mainstream PCs), macOS (MacBooks) and Chrome OS (Chromebooks). Chrome OS isn't good for much besides web surfing, file management, and light computing, so a Chromebook isn't a great choice for serious schoolwork. However, a crafty student could install Linux on a high-powered Chromebook to turn it into a decent laptop for engineering work.

Many engineering students spend a lot of time working with specialized or self-developed software, so Windows is often preferable over macOS because it throws up fewer roadblocks when using such tools. However, even Windows can sometimes get in the way of serious engineering work, which is why many engineering students get Windows laptops and install Linux on them so they can dual-boot into either operating system.

As mentioned above, when making your buying decision be sure to consult your teachers and/or the engineering department at your school for more specific advice on what you'll need for your studies. Whichever system you decide on, it's a good idea to pair it with the best mouse for your particular work situation.

To find the best laptops we run every machine through a rigorous suite of benchmarks and real-world tests to gauge how it will perform during everyday use. 

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.

Plus, we run the graphics benchmark test in Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm to get a sense of how well a laptop can handle basic games. When testing dedicated gaming laptops, we run benchmarks for a number of games such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Far Cry: New Dawn.

Round up of today's best deals

Instant access to the hottest deals available plus daily breaking news, reviews, helpful tips and more from the Tom's Guide team.