Lifelong Mac user. Forced to buy a Windows laptop for school.. any suggestions?

[adonis72]

Hello all,

This is my first thread post, and I’m not even sure I can post this here but I wanted advice from Mac users over windows users.

I’m a student majoring in electrical engineering and I’ve kind of hit a wall with my MacBook Pro. There is software that I can’t run on my Mac like multisim, ultiboard, and a couple other applications. I tried running things via parallels but some of the software straight up won’t load on arm processors because it’s written in x64 code.

I’ve used windows before but I’ve only ever personally owned Mac’s and all of the family computers at my parents house were Mac’s.

Begrudgingly I have to buy a windows laptop. I don’t really know where to start and I wanted to know what kind of windows laptops Mac users can tolerate. Ideally something with decent ish battery life and track pad, and doesn’t sound like a jet engine..

But truly the main thing I want is something aesthetically pleasing. Nothing is as good looking as the MBP or even the Air in my option but things like the Zephyrus G14 or some thinkpads don’t look too terrible...

What’s good? Any advice would be appreciated.
I hope this post is allowed here, but again. I would really appreciate a Mac users advice. Thank you

 

[ifrit05]

Windows on ARM should have a built-in x86/x86_64 app translator (Prism, akin to Apple's Rosetta 2). I use an ancient x86 Windows program at work on my M1 Pro MBP in Parallels.

Look in the Properties dialog of the .exe's you are running and play around with "Windows on ARM" options under the "Compatibility" tab if you're having issues.

 

[maflynn]

What’s good? Any advice would be appreciated.

Consider Lenovo Thinkpads, they're not sexy, but well made, offer good performance, and Lenovo has a crap ton of sales.

I'm less of a fan of Dell as I used too be, bought one for my daughter for school, build quality left something to be desired.

Razer - gaming laptop, over priced, poor support avoid them

HP, decent enough, though I've not used them in years.

Personally, I'd avoid ARM based windows, for a number of reasons; not all apps run or run well. If you want to dabble in some games, that's going to be an issue, and there's performance hits on x86 apps that do run on arm.

The latest iterations of intel chips offers similar performance and battery life as an arm based pc, so you're not gaining any advantage with arm over x86, but you're incurring performance and compatibility with arm.

 

[diggy33]

Consider Lenovo Thinkpads, they're not sexy, but well made, offer good performance, and Lenovo has a crap ton of sales.

I'm less of a fan of Dell as I used too be, bought one for my daughter for school, build quality left something to be desired.

Razer - gaming laptop, over priced, poor support avoid them

HP, decent enough, though I've not used them in years.

Personally, I'd avoid ARM based windows, for a number of reasons; not all apps run or run well. If you want to dabble in some games, that's going to be an issue, and there's performance hits on x86 apps that do run on arm.

The latest iterations of intel chips offers similar performance and battery life as an arm based pc, so you're not gaining any advantage with arm over x86, but you're incurring performance and compatibility with arm.

+1 for Lenovo ThinkPad's. Plus, when you're done with school it will run Linux quite nice.

 

[rb2112]

Begrudgingly I have to buy a windows laptop. I don’t really know where to start and I wanted to know what kind of windows laptops Mac users can tolerate. Ideally something with decent ish battery life and track pad, and doesn’t sound like a jet engine..

But truly the main thing I want is something aesthetically pleasing. Nothing is as good looking as the MBP or even the Air in my option but things like the Zephyrus G14 or some thinkpads don’t look too terrible...

EE here...understand all and sympathize. Rest assured there are a TON of good options out there if you can navigate the Windows bloat. You might start by looking at XPS 15, or as others have said Thinkpad. LG Gram looks promising as well.

 

[Mrbobb]

Don't buy any ARM-based to run Windows, you will find your legacy engineering apps having the same problem as with parallel.

 

[someoldguy]

Why not check with your school to see if they have recommendations ( or requirements) . When my kid went to engineering school (civil engineering) , the school had recommended configurations , and had relationships with several vendors that students could purchase from at discount .

 

[pshufd]

I’ve used windows before but I’ve only ever personally owned Mac’s and all of the family computers at my parents house were Mac’s.

I have a 2015 MacBook Pro 15 which runs Monterey and Windows 10. I've read that I can upgrade it to Windows 11 with some effort.

Does your family have any Intel Macs from 2015 - 2020? Could you just run Windows via BootCamp on those? You could just carry around your Apple Silicon MacBook for classes and then do labs and homework assignments on the Intel Mac in your dorm or apartment. Maybe they have a 2017 - 2020 iMac 27 or an iMac Pro that they've been thinking about upgrading and you asking for one would give them that excuse to upgrade to a Mac Studio and an Apple Studio Display.

If you want a standalone Windows laptop with great battery life, then I recommend Lunar Lake. It won't have a GPU or heavy multicore performance though. These laptops may be more reliable as they run cooler than AMD Strix Point and Intel Arrow Lake systems.

 

[Cuesca]

If money is no object, then:

One of the best laptops for AI tasks = Asus Proart 16 - Ai 9 HX370 + 5090 32gb + 4k OLED 100% DCI-P3 Cert. for around $4k which is a great deal.

Workstation CAD laptops = Dell 16 Pro Max - Core™ Ultra 9 285H + Blackwell 2000 + 1200p not as accurate as above but anti-glare display. $3400.

 

[maflynn]

Asus Proart 16

When I was looking at laptops, I came across the proart line, and yes its a nice laptop, top end components to be sure, but also top end price tag. Might be overkill for a student laptop though

 

[danano]

You are not the first person to have this issue. A possibility you might consider is whether open source versions of the software you need are available. Much academic software has free open source versions, and the shiny macOS user interface rides on top of BSD UNIX, so options may be available. Before giving up and buying a computer that you do not really want, ask around.

 

[maflynn]

Much academic software has free open source versions

If the OP's major recommends (or requires) a PC, then don't try to make a mac work, just bite the bullet. My daughter is in engineering, it was a no brainer in buying a PC over a Mac The software needed for her classes is windows only. Her class work, lab work, her collaboration with the other students, and her interaction with her professor all hinge on her using the software that is required for her class - not some open source variant.

I want to set my daughter up for success, not adhere to some silly ideal that she should use a mac because macs are awesome. If the school tells students to use a specific tool, or computer, then why mess with something else and give youself more headaches. I didn't want to make her life harder.

 

[Cuesca]

When I was looking at laptops, I came across the proart line, and yes its a nice laptop, top end components to be sure, but also top end price tag. Might be overkill for a student laptop though

Now that I think about it an old Thinkpad with a Quaddro M1000 or M2000 can probably run both Multisim and Ultiboard just fine. Still, if he wants a nice looking laptop then I personally think the Surface Laptops and Proart laptops looks good. At work we have HP Elitebooks which looks okay but they're also built like tanks.

 

[aperfectcircle]

The Microsoft Surface Laptop is a really nice device and as a build quality close to if not on par with MacBooks. The Z line from HP are also really nice. I’ve seen some nice Lenovo laptops as well, but not sure of the model line(s). If you don’t need a workstation class laptop, I’d suggest looking at the Surface to start.

 

[maflynn]

The Microsoft Surface Laptop is a really nice

Yeah, I've owned some Surface laptops and the build quality is solid. The only downside I see is that the current consumer versions of the laptop are ARM based, and that may pose a problem with application compatibility.

 

[ghanwani]

If you care about lightweight and/or EyeSafe display, you could look at Dynabook Portege. They are a little pricey for what you get, and support if you end up needing it may not be as quick/easy as other mainstream brands.
14" is 2.1lb
13" is 1.9lb

I have had the previous gen 14" for a year and it's been great so far.

 

[ghanwani]

Yeah, I've owned some Surface laptops and the build quality is solid. The only downside I see is that the current consumer versions of the laptop are ARM based, and that may pose a problem with application compatibility.

I've heard they use temporal dithering, though and based on experience with them in store, I agree. So their display doesn't work for me, just like MacBook/iPad displays don't.

 

[pshufd]

Yeah, I've owned some Surface laptops and the build quality is solid. The only downside I see is that the current consumer versions of the laptop are ARM based, and that may pose a problem with application compatibility.

Microsoft is schizophrenic between x86 and ARM and developers see that and just keep developing for x86. If customers want to run their software, then they can just buy an x86 machine and they won't have to take the financial hit for developing and testing for two architectures.

I'd guess that the numbers for Qualcomm laptops aren't that good given that a bunch of influencers had to be paid to pump them up this past year.

 

[pshufd]

I had five Intel driver updates to do today. I wish that they had an integrated approach. The five driver updates required four reboots and clicking options for each driver. Annoying as opposed to just running an update that takes care of it all.

 

[darkelipse04]

For a low cost, decent enough spec entry into Windows. Check out this Asus Vivobook: https://www.walmart.com/ip/16570573730?sid=fb46930f-c821-474f-8410-d8c5b8c65083

 

[MBAir2010]

I miss the asus zenbook 14" OLED with AMDRyzen processor as I might purchase another one in the future
since windows 11 is more personal and easier to use than Tahoe.

Dell makes okay XPS but I had a hard time getting replacement battery in 2021
as the USBc port stopped working making that laptop unusable.

Lenovo is okay and perhaps the sturdiest windows laptop on the market.
avoid HP and Sony at all cost!

hope this helped!