<p>What kind of laptop is ideal for an engineering major? Brand, price, features, etc</p>
<p>The 13 inch macbook (or pro) is a great choice if you want to carry it around. It’s fast, light, sleek, and the battery is rated at 7-10 hours depending on which model you buy.</p>
<p>All that really matters is your personal preference; you could get by with a $200 netbook if you wanted to.</p>
<p>Depends on what exactly you plan to do with it, but as an avowed Macophile it pains me to say that you should probably go with a PC (or a Linux if you’re up for the challenge). A lot of programs required or helpful for some engineering specialties and classes only run on PC. Sure, you could get a Mac and partition your hard drive, but that’s a pretty expensive option that people usually only select if they’re crazy about Macs and can’t bear to not use one. For civil engineers, at least, I know most of the CAD programs the department uses are PC-based, and if you get into GIS you’re definitely going to want a PC because the premier program, ArcGIS from ESRI, doesn’t run on Macs. I know a lot of the design and modeling software for other specialties is similarly geared toward PC.</p>
<p>Of course, computer labs exist with all of this stuff on it, but it would be so much more convenient to be able to run copies of the software on your own computer. I know when I was a freshman, the engineering school specifically advised incoming engineers to get PCs.</p>
<p>I have a PC (actually, two), but I know people who get by fine with Macs. You can dual boot relatively easily, or get by using the computer labs. While it can be useful to run the programs on your own computer, there are some (such as SolidWorks) that don’t offer a meaningful student discount so you’d have to go to a computer lab anyways.
Also, for CS, it’s useful to have Linux, which you could dual boot on a mac or a PC.</p>
<p>I suggested buying a Macbook because right now they are just so much better than any PC laptop, with the exception of maybe the super-pricey Sony ones. </p>
<p>Show me a 1-inch thick full-powered (not ULV or Atom) PC with a good GPU that’ll give you 10 hours of battery life. Dual booting into Windows is very very easy.</p>
<p>Battery life isn’t that useful if your machine doesn’t run the programs you need it to. If you’re getting a MacBook (which is already pricier than most PCs) and then you’re buying a copy of Windows on top of that, you’re becoming price-compatible with the super-high end PC laptops.</p>
<p>If you’re not going to need any programs that only run on PC, then yeah, go with Mac.</p>