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!

 

[M4th]

Silly to suggest. I guess I'm old school. See what brand someone has you've had your eye on. Something to strike up conversation about? I know, just silly.

 

[poorcody]

For Multisim, have you tried the online version? I've heard good things about that. I think you can use a desktop license to access it.

Depending on where you are working, another possibility is to get a cheap windows desktop and access it from your MacBook. Depending on your network access circumstances, it can feel as quick as native, and then you can stick with a MacBook and not spend as much.

Have you actually tried the Intel-only code under Parallels? I do find the x64 emulation has improved a lot over earlier versions.

 

[Hooyah]

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.

It does and for everyday tasks Windows on ARM is now more usable than ever, if not a bit slower than Apple silicon Macs emulation ever was. However… you start running some older even Microsoft stuff like SQL (not that OP will, but I did) and it will get messy with things simply not working as expected without workarounds. Workarounds are fine until they stop working or don’t fit a requirement down the line. In my case my workarounds were fine but when I had to share projects over to a colleague there were too many hoops to change things back and forth to work on my W11ARM Parallels install and her regular x86 Wintel machine that I eventually just went out and bought a cheap one… there we had an ancient Pentium Windows laptop with cracks on the chassis showing an M1 Mac how it was done…

Unfortunately, a lot of the nice Windows laptops you can get now also come with ARM snapdragon chips to try feel more like a Mac. Many of these will suffer the same issues in practice but as they’re aimed at mass consumers it’ll never be enough of an issue for vendors or MS to care. A gaming laptop for power and x86 and half decent screen / keyboard / networking / chassis and cooling is probably your best bet. Acer Nitro? Make sure it’s AMD or Intel and you’re sweet.

Parallels also getting out of control with annual £100 ish subscriptions… year to year there is zero need why they need that level of income per user. And if you use multiple Macs or your partner / kids use it… another license fee their way. It is absolutely not that kind of software in my view and they’re cheeky to try it.

 

[pshufd]

It does and for everyday tasks Windows on ARM is now more usable than ever, if not a bit slower than Apple silicon Macs emulation ever was. However… you start running some older even Microsoft stuff like SQL (not that OP will, but I did) and it will get messy with things simply not working as expected without workarounds. Workarounds are fine until they stop working or don’t fit a requirement down the line. In my case my workarounds were fine but when I had to share projects over to a colleague there were too many hoops to change things back and forth to work on my W11ARM Parallels install and her regular x86 Wintel machine that I eventually just went out and bought a cheap one… there we had an ancient Pentium Windows laptop with cracks on the chassis showing an M1 Mac how it was done…

Unfortunately, a lot of the nice Windows laptops you can get now also come with ARM snapdragon chips to try feel more like a Mac. Many of these will suffer the same issues in practice but as they’re aimed at mass consumers it’ll never be enough of an issue for vendors or MS to care. A gaming laptop for power and x86 and half decent screen / keyboard / networking / chassis and cooling is probably your best bet. Acer Nitro? Make sure it’s AMD or Intel and you’re sweet.

Parallels also getting out of control with annual £100 ish subscriptions… year to year there is zero need why they need that level of income per user. And if you use multiple Macs or your partner / kids use it… another license fee their way. It is absolutely not that kind of software in my view and they’re cheeky to try it.

My 2020 i7 desktop runs one program I have much faster than my M1 Mac Studio. My estimates are that my i7 is still faster than the M4 Studio because the performance penalties of WINE and Rosetta 2 are so steep. Apple is dropping Rosetta 2 after 2027 so the only solution will be running in a virtual machine after that.

One of the other programs I use runs really poorly on Snapdragon chips because they ship the Intel JRE with their kit. You can work around this by running the Windows/ARM JRE and then firing up their program but there are some things that won't work or won't work well. I went through this with Apple Silicon for several years until the software vendor made a native Apple Silicon kit.

TurboTax is another program that runs far better on my iMac Pro compared to my Mac Studio despite the specs being far better on the Mac Studio. Electron and Rosetta 2 results in a big performance hit.

I actually love the Lenovo Yoga I'm using now. In the winter, my fingerprints change or aren't recognized by Touch ID on my M1 Pro MacBook Pro so I have to type in the password. The Yoga has Windows Hello so I just open the laptop, it scans my face and logs me in. The Yoga also has Touch ID but I never need to use it. It's a problem on my iPad mini as it also has Touch ID but my iPhone is nice with Face ID.

I'm waiting for the M6 MacBooks to upgrade as those are rumored to be the first MacBook that might have Face ID. I'd rather Apple made the bezels bigger on the top for Face ID but OLED screens do allow for under-screen cameras so we'll see if Apple can get that tech to work.

The reason for getting an x86 Windows laptop (or even an Intel Mac) is compatibility compared to Apple Silicon or Snapdragon.