Laptop For University Software Engineering

[Alex_G123]

Hi, I’m looking to buy a laptop ready for university to do software engineering. I would also use the laptop for consuming content every so often and general web browsing. I’m looking to spend less than £1250 (from the UK).
 

I have looked at the M1 MacBook Air with student discount and upgrading to 16GB Ram and the Dell XPS 13 Plus from the refurbished store.

 

I came in here to ask for a bit support and suggestions of what laptops people would recommend for my use case and budget. 
 

thanks 

[jaslion]

You cannot upgrade the ram in either of these devices after you buy them

 

What software will you be running?

 

Did the school give a specssheet?

 

Fyi avoid the xps series their cooling can not handle their hardware one bit and it overheats a ton so you lose a LOT of performance

[_Omega_]

Its just about the programs you want to rum and their needs...

 

Do they run fine under MacOS?

Can they use GPU acceleration? ( maybe interesting for AI tasks)

 

Basic software engineering programs run fine on almost anything so.... 

[Alex_G123]

Well I’m not sure yet what I’ll be running. I have been using IntelliJ at college running basic programs on desktop. I will have a look at what I will be doing and let you guys know 

 

[Alex_G123]

22 minutes ago, jaslion said:

You cannot upgrade the ram in either of these devices after you buy them

 

What software will you be running?

 

Did the school give a specssheet?

 

Fyi avoid the xps series their cooling can not handle their hardware one bit and it overheats a ton so you lose a LOT of performance

I had heard that the xps has really low quality control too so I was weary of them to begin with.

[jaslion]

53 minutes ago, Alex_G123 said:

Well I’m not sure yet what I’ll be running. I have been using IntelliJ at college running basic programs on desktop. I will have a look at what I will be doing and let you guys know 

 

Make sure to @ us like @Alex_G123or quote us

 

 

[Darkseth]

Dell XPS 13 Plus: Can have quite a bit more Multicore Performance if you do heavy multithreaded workload. Like 9k points vs. 7,5k points in Cinebench R23.

But XPS 13 Plus does have literaly half the batterylife of the Macbook Air M1.

 

13 Plus will last like 8-9 hours if you have the 1920x1200 Panel, less with higher resolutions. Also less with higher Workload, as Intel Chips tend to start draining alot of Energy when actually doing something.

M1 Air will have such a consistently low Energy consumption, you can safely leave your Charger at home and not bother at all.

 

I personally would say: Macbook Air > Dell XPS, unless you need x86 Windows for something.

 

IntelliJ runs native on ARM Macs, so no issues there.

 

Maybe if you need .NET Developing for Windows specifically, you might want Windows. But if it's nothing like that, most things run great on Apple Silicon.

 

And yea, your personal preference MacOS vs. Windows.

[Alex_G123]

9 hours ago, Darkseth said:

Dell XPS 13 Plus: Can have quite a bit more Multicore Performance if you do heavy multithreaded workload. Like 9k points vs. 7,5k points in Cinebench R23.

But XPS 13 Plus does have literaly half the batterylife of the Macbook Air M1.

 

13 Plus will last like 8-9 hours if you have the 1920x1200 Panel, less with higher resolutions. Also less with higher Workload, as Intel Chips tend to start draining alot of Energy when actually doing something.

M1 Air will have such a consistently low Energy consumption, you can safely leave your Charger at home and not bother at all.

 

I personally would say: Macbook Air > Dell XPS, unless you need x86 Windows for something.

 

IntelliJ runs native on ARM Macs, so no issues there.

 

Maybe if you need .NET Developing for Windows specifically, you might want Windows. But if it's nothing like that, most things run great on Apple Silicon.

 

And yea, your personal preference MacOS vs. Windows.

I’ve never used MacOS but I have heard it takes like a week to get used to it all. Do you know any alternatives to the dell and MacBook. Perhaps the asus s13 with the Ryzen chip. I’m looking for more suggestions just a thise are the few I found already myself 

[Darkseth]

Razer Blade probably or Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro or Lenovo Yoga 7 as a convertible (Ryzen 6000, 2,8k Display).

As Business Notebook mayvbe HP Elitebook 845 G9 or Thinkpad T14(s) G3.
Or Thinkpad Z13, which is kinda special, but expensive. It has quite the good performance, yet can manage almost Macbook Air-Like Batterylife with the 6-Core Ryzen 5.

[Alex_G123]

13 hours ago, Darkseth said:

Razer Blade probably or Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro or Lenovo Yoga 7 as a convertible (Ryzen 6000, 2,8k Display).

As Business Notebook mayvbe HP Elitebook 845 G9 or Thinkpad T14(s) G3.
Or Thinkpad Z13, which is kinda special, but expensive. It has quite the good performance, yet can manage almost Macbook Air-Like Batterylife with the 6-Core Ryzen 5.

The Razer blade is so expensive. Way out of budget.