<p>ill be an engineering major in the fall, either chemical or mechanical. the laptops im looking at are the sony vaio s series, macbook pro, lenovo thinkpad w520, and the hp envy 14 beats. they can all be configured to similar specifications. which one would you recommend?</p>
<p>Not Sony Vaio, not HP. The W520 is awesome if you have the $ but a bit big (try the T420). The MacBook Pro is also very good if you can afford the Apple Tax.</p>
<p>^lol apple tax. Thats a great way of putting it. I was stuck between the MBP and the Vaio S. The battery life on the S series was really good and had great specs. In the end, I’d pick the MBP though since i’ve had one and I really like it.</p>
<p>By looking at those three options, money doesnt seem to be an issue.
Wait for the updated envy 14 to come out on june 10th
People on here are telling others not to get hp’s…and i would have agreed with them around 2-3 years ago, but they have since built much better machines. The build quality is solid now (unlike their older computers with cheap materials) and their performance just depends on the hardware like any other brand.
All 4 options are great, but you will more than likely be getting more for your money with the envy
if you dont care about the ugly design or the money, get the w520. It’s a beast and it still has decent battery life.</p>
<p>turbo93, why do you not like the sony?</p>
<p>Based on specs, all would do very fine for undergrad work.</p>
<p>Then it comes down to build quality, style, and price.</p>
<p>What would I pick? MBP 15 if I had the money. A good config of the Vaio S is still pretty pricey. The Envy 14 is pretty cheap now and the specs are decent.</p>
<p>Sony has some ‘desirable’ characteristics but for the most part I would not spend the premium for one. It’s largely a cost/benefit issue. With some other brands I have more direct experience (HP and Dell are great if you have Corporate support to take care of things :-)). My DD is going to a Dell school and yet she’ll be lugging a Lenovo T420… </p>
<p>As aStyle mentioned, it’s all build quality, style, and price. I’m a big fan of the Thinkpads, which are noticeably better built than my Dell Latitude at work and my wife’s HP N600… And, after two decades of building my own high performance desktops, I have yet to find a laptop I would trust for mission critical work :-)</p>
<p>HP has been releasing laptops with better quality.
Don’t buy the Envy 14 just yet, as an upgraded version with SandyBridge processors is coming out in a couple of weeks.</p>
<p>MacBooks are useless for engineering and make you look like a clueless hipster. Don’t buy it just for the hype and attention.</p>
<p>Lenovo laptops all look like cr</p>
<p>thanks for all the advice, i ended up going with the lenovo w520.</p>
<p>I would go with lenovo laptops as well since even tho the name is lenovo, but the tech still belong to IBM which well know as the best laptop designer. W520 is work station with all the power you need for engineering software , and 9 cell battery. If w520 can not run the software, i guess no other laptop can, i will buy one as well in the summer.Go college !!!</p>