Best laptops for engineering students 2024

Calling all engineering students! If you’re in the market for a laptop that can handle resource-intensive coursework, you’ve come to the right place. These laptops offer reliable performance as well as a portable form factor, which is important for when you’re running from class to class. We’ve also included budget-friendly machines and gaming rigs for those late night gaming sessions. Read on to learn more.

Why you should trust us: Hey, it’s in our name! PCWorld prides itself on laptop experience and expertise. We’ve been covering PCs since 1983, and now review more than 70 laptops every year. All of the picks below have been personally tested and vetted by our experts, who’ve applied not only performance benchmarks but rigorous usability standards. We’re also committed to reviewing PC laptops at every price point to help you find a machine that matches your budget.

Looking for great laptop deals? Check out our regularly updated list of the best mainstream, gaming, and 2-in-1 laptop deals.

Updated May 9, 2024: We added the Acer TravelMate P6 and the HP Dragonfly G4 as alternative options underneath our Best Ultraportable pick. The Acer TravelMate P6 is physically lighter than our current pick and has a bigger battery, but it’s more expensive and doesn’t have an OLED display. The HP Dragonfly G4, which stands as a more high-end option, offers snappy performance as well as an LTE connection. We’ve also updated our list of recent laptop reviews and added a new “at a glance” section below.

Best laptops for engineering students at a glance

Dell Inspiron Plus 14 (Best overall) $849.99 at DellAcer Aspire 3 (Best budget option) $325 at WalmartAsus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (Best for work and gaming on a budget) $955 at AmazonAcer Swift Edge 16 (Best ultraportable) $849.99 at Best BuyAsus Zenbook 14 OLED (Best OLED display) $1,199 at Amazon

The best laptops for engineering students

Dell Inspiron Plus 14 – Best overall

Pros

Strong performance Phenomenal battery life Fantastic typing experience

Cons

CPU throttles under very heavy loads No user upgrades Price When Reviewed:$999Best Prices Today:$999.99 at Dell

Why we like the Dell Inspiron Plus 14

The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is one of the most well-rounded laptops we’ve come across in recent months. This sub-$1,000 machine offers reliable performance, phenomenal battery life, and a gorgeous display. You really can’t get much better than that. With an exceptional PCMark 10 score of 7,061, it toppled comparable machines like the Acer Swift Go 14 and the more expensive  Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon. This laptop also has a battery life of 17 hours on a single charge (a spectacular result!), so you don’t have trouble yourself with finding a wall outlet to juice up.

Who should buy the Dell Inspiron Plus 14

Anyone looking for a laptop that checks off all the right boxes. Battery life and overall performance are outstanding, sure, but don’t forget about the gorgeous 14-inch 1400p display, which is “exceedingly well suited to office work and static imagery,” according to our review. It has a maximum brightness level of 418 nits and an anti-glare coating, so you can use this laptop in various lighting conditions. The design is far from sexy, but its hardware capabilities and amazing battery life make up for the uninspired aesthetics.

Read our full Dell Inspiron 14 Plus review

Acer Aspire 3 – Best budget option

Pros

Reliable performance 1080p display HD webcam Solid build

Cons

Speakers sound tinny when playing music A little heavy Price When Reviewed:$329.99Best Prices Today:$299.99 at Amazon$384.99 at Walmart

Why we like the Acer Aspire 3

The Acer Aspire 3 laptop offers dependable performance at an affordable price. It’s fast enough for day-to-day tasks like checking e-mail, browsing the web, assembling code, and so on. You’re also getting a full-sized keyboard plus a 1080p screen. It even edged out the competition with a respectable Cinebench R15 score of 1,925, beating out the comparable Acer Aspire Vero 14. Cinebench, by the way, determines how well a laptop handles processor-intensive multi-threaded workloads by running all of the cores of a CPU.

Who should buy the Acer Aspire 3

Anyone who’s on a restricted budget! It’s a great value because of the low price tag and the good performance. The HD webcam also produces clean, crisp video, so you’ll always look your best in video calls, and the battery lasts about eight hours on a single charge. That’s more than enough battery life for a full day of learning!

Read our full Acer Aspire 3 review

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition – Best for work and gaming on a budget

Pros

All-day battery life Robust chassis Gorgeous 16:10 display

Cons

720p HD camera leaves little to be desired Keys feels a little soft Price When Reviewed:$1,099.99Best Prices Today:$949.99 at Best Buy$955 at Amazon

Why we like the Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition

The Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition is something of a unicorn and I mean that in the best way possible. It exhibits strong graphics performance as well as long battery life. Long battery life? A gaming laptop? How preposterous! Well, not anymore! The Asus TUF managed an incredible 11 and a half hours on a single charge. Also, thanks to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU inside, it achieved an impressive 123 frames-per-second in the Rise of the Tomb Raider benchmark. That’s nothing to sneeze at, especially for a sub-$1,000 gaming machine.

Who should buy the Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition

The Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition is a good option for those on a tight budget. For under a grand, you’re getting reliable graphics performance, a spacious keyboard, and long battery life. It also works as a good general purpose machine, which is perfect for college students that want to work on homework during the day and then switch to gaming at night. With a Cinebench R20 score of 589, it should have “no trouble running lightweight apps and programs,” according to our review.

Alternative option: The Lenovo LOQ 15 is a good alternative option, as it comes with a slightly better GPU (RTX 4060). Despite getting a high rating, it didn’t make the cut because of poor battery life and limited connectivity options.

Read our full Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition review

Acer Swift Edge 16 – Best ultraportable

Pros

Gorgeous OLED display Lightweight Strong CPU performance

Cons

Mediocre battery life Weak audio Price When Reviewed:$1,299.99Best Prices Today:$949.99 at Best Buy$1,365.99 at Amazon

Why we like the Acer Swift Edge 16

The Acer Swift Edge 16 is lightweight, affordable, and powerful. It weighs just 2.71 pounds. The 3200x2000p OLED screen is super vibrant and, according to our review, “delivers an infinite contrast ratio and deep inky black levels that produce convincing shadows in dark scenes.” It even turned in a strong PCMark 10 score of 6,494, beating out the more expensive Acer Swift Go 16. That means the Swift Edge 16 is capable of out-performing some machines that cost hundreds of dollars more.

Who should buy the Acer Swift Edge 16

If you’re looking for a lightweight ultraportable with strong performance, the sub-$1,000 Acer Swift Edge 16 is the laptop you want. It’s light enough to take with you from class to class and the spacious 16-inch display is fantastic for school work, watching movies, and so on. Sure, the design is a bit bland and battery life is a disappointing six to seven hours (still not an awful result), but if you can handle those minor shortcomings, then the Acer Swift Edge 16 is the right pick for you.

Alternative option(s): If you’re able to stretch your budget a little further, then you should definitely consider picking up the Acer TravelMate P6. It’s a little lighter than our top pick at 2.65 pounds and has a bigger battery, but it’s more expensive and doesn’t have an OLED display. The HP Dragonfly G4 is another solid option, as it offers high performance as well as an LTE connection. That said, it’s very expensive.

Read our full Acer Swift Edge 16 review

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED – Best OLED display

Pros

Robust build quality Attractive OLED touchscreen Good CPU and integrated GPU performance Outstanding battery life

Cons

Uninspiring design Keyboard isn’t memorable Mediocre connectivity options Price When Reviewed:$849.99Best Prices Today:$849.99 at Walmart$999.99 at Asus$1199 at Amazon

Why we like the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED dazzled us with its peppy CPU performance, outstanding battery life, and slick-looking OLED touchscreen display. According to our review, “movies and games look realistic and vibrant” on the 14-inch 1980x1200p OLED touchscreen, although it can be difficult to view content in brighter environments because of the reflective surface. It also died at the 16 hour mark on a single charge, which is absolutely fantastic. That result outclasses comparable machines like the Lenovo Slim 7 14 Gen 9 and the HP Pavilion Plus Laptop 14. As for how it performs, you should have zero problems zipping through real-world tasks like web browsing, video conferencing, and so on.

Who should buy the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED

Anyone that’s looking to pick up an affordable laptop with an OLED display. It’s so much more than that, though. The build quality is solid and day-to-day performance is both fast and responsive. Connectivity options are a bit limited, but that’s not unusual for a laptop in this price range. Overall, this is an exceptional budget laptop, as you can’t really beat the price to performance ratio.

Read our full Asus Zenbook 14 OLED review

Recent laptop reviews

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 14: The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 14 is a lightweight, elegant all-rounder for business professionals. Acer Predator Helios Neo 18: Want a lot of performance for $1,500? Acer’s gigantic Helios Neo 18 is a good bet.Lenovo Yoga 7i: The Lenovo Yoga 7i (16IML9) is a competent and well-built at a palatable price. It’s not the best value for a standard laptop, but it’s flexibility may make up for its shortcoming for some users. Acer Swift Go 14: The Acer Swift Go 14 is a reliable travel workhorse through and through.

How we test engineering laptops

The PCWorld team puts every Windows laptop through a series of intense benchmarks that test GPU and CPU performance, battery life, and so on. The idea is to push the laptop to its limits and then compare it against others we’ve tested.

Below, you’ll find a breakdown of each test and the reasons why we run them. For a much deeper look at our review methodology, check out how PCWorld tests laptops.

Windows laptops

PCMark 10: The PCMark 10 benchmark is how we determine how well the laptop handles general use tasks like web browsing, word processing, spreadsheets, streaming, and so on.HandBrake: HandBrake is more intensive than PCMark 10. It measures how long a laptop’s CPU takes to encode a beefy 30GB file.Cinebench: Cinebench is a brief stress test of the CPU cores. It renders a 2D scene over a short period of time.3DMark: 3DMark checks if 3D performance remains consistent over time by running graphic-intensive clips. This is how we test a gaming laptop’s GPU.Video rundown test: To gauge battery life, we loop a 4K video using Windows 10’s Movies & TV app until the laptop dies.

FAQ

How much processing power will I need in an engineering laptop?

You’re going to need a good amount of processing power for engineering tasks, so we’d recommend an Intel Core i5 or higher. However, an Intel Core i7 is considered ideal. This type of processor is good for multitasking, gaming, and demanding workloads.

2.

Is RAM important to an engineering laptop?

Absolutely! The amount of RAM directly impacts the speed of your programs. Engineering students will likely be living in programs like Java and Python, so making sure those programs run smoothly is absolutely vital. The bare minimum we’d recommend is 8GB, but 16GB is better.

3.

What about storage?

You’re going to need quite a bit of space for a slew of engineering programs, so we’d recommend at least 512GB of SSD (solid state drive) storage. If you want more space and have the budget for it, go for 1TB of NVMe SSD storage.

4.

How much should my laptop weigh?

You don’t want to be lugging a five pound beast from class to class. A portable laptop should weigh about three pounds or less. In terms of portability and value, we suggest buying a laptop with a 13- or 14-inch display.

Author: Ashley Biancuzzo, Associate Editor

Ashley is a professional writer and editor with a strong background in tech and pop culture. She has written for high traffic websites such as Polygon, Kotaku, StarWars.com, and Nerdist. In her off time, she enjoys playing video games, reading science fiction novels, and hanging out with her rescue greyhound.

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