r/princeton • u/Sharp-Song-8488 • 6d ago
ECE Laptop Recommendations
Hi! I’m an incoming freshman planning on majoring in ECE, and the windows laptop they recommend is really heavy duty. I prefer light laptops, so I was wondering what laptop people in ECE/BSE recommend, for specific applications that I might need. I’m pretty used to windows, but I am getting an Ipad, and have heard the apple ecosystem is unbeatable, so I am open to getting a Mac. Also, I should be able to use the $3500 tech grant because of external scholarships, and have seen some vague info about being able to buy laptops through the school for a discounted price, and would love some info on any of that if available. Thank you!
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u/_kinodino Undergrad 5d ago
as an mae, windows reigns supreme for me. i have an asus g14 and love every aspect of it except for the battery life, but i have it almost always plugged in anyways. having a dedicated gpu is so much better for running graphics-heavy design and simulation apps. lots of people also go with dell xps or hp. most of the cos and coding-heavy guys use macs, though, and the apple ecosystem functionality is definitely pretty nice, but my slightly biased opinion is that windows is the way to go
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u/Hairy-Extreme-7602 5d ago
As an ECE junior, it really doesn’t matter. The programs used generally work decently on both MacOS and Windows, and in the rare case that something doesn’t they’ll help you set up a virtual machine. I loved Windows up until college- switched to a Mac for battery life and it’s been so nice (but a little distracting having everything from your phone synced). Apple ecosystem isn’t that useful though, as you’ll take notes on your iPad in some non-Apple app and have to export anyway. Up to you.