Best size laptop for engineering major

nanotechnology
Mon, 30 Sep 2013 04:41:44 +0000

Try going to Best Buy or something and just seeing how each of the screen sizes feel.
It’s also surprising how your workflow naturally adapts to what you have (though this works best going from small to large…). I started college with a 9" netbook and did perfectly fine with that for the first semester, screen-wise. I then got a 17" laptop because the single-core 1.7 GHz processor on the netbook wasn’t cutting it. I only got the 17" because it was on sale cheaper than the 15". It felt huge compared to my netbook and normally stayed in my room (which is also where I did most of my studying, but it was a single room). I also use 2 30" high-res monitors at work.
What definitely helps make use of limited workspace is having a good desktop environment that doesn’t get in the way or take up too much screen real estate. If you’re using Windows you’re kind of stuck on that front, but there are a lot of good ones for linux, and you can find one that works best for you.
If I were doing this now, I’d go for a 14" thinkpad and external monitor.

As for Macs - not worth the money, in my opinion. Excluding design shininess, you get more for your money with a thinkpad, and they’re solid machines.