What would be a good laptop choice for a graduate student in engineering?

As a ThinkPad lover, I have used T460p as my portable laptop since my x60 died. And I have a chance to use P17 gen 2 for my research. 

Until recently, I believed computation power should be the priority for a graduate student in the engineering field.

However, I realized that portability is critical for a graduate student as co-working and traveling make me feel my laptop's weight and short battery life. 

Moreover, computations for research after its initial phase are probably not handled by the personal computer scale.

Thus, I am curious about what laptops meet those criteria balancing appropriate computation power and portability these days. 

I think ThinkPad P1 can be an option. Or, combining Thinkpad P16 and Yoga can be a luxurious way for general satisfaction. Both are pretty pricy choices, though.

  • It's a little unconventional, but I think our Legion/gaming laptops are great for engineering students!

    The Legion Slim 7 series is probably the best if you want a lightweight laptop, that still has a powerful GPU/CPU/cooling.
    If you want something a bit more budget-friendly, the IdeaPad Gaming series is also great, albeit a bit bulkier.

    The only concern here is battery life - gaming laptops tend to have shorter charges due to the power hungry hardware.
    If battery life and lightweight design are your top priorities, it's really hard to beat the YOGA. Plus, the tablet mode might be useful for you!

  • I think any Lenovo Yoga that is slim and powerful enough to do multi-tasking.

  • Lenovo Yoga and HP Spectre are pretty helpful for engineers. Can take good notes using pen on OneNote and still have the power to run most engineering software. If you use more intense software frequently then thinkpads are solid.

  • I look forward to this discussion 

  • Whichever you choose, I've always advised to spring for added RAM, at least 16GB (especially in laptops). And I'd go for portable external HDD over additional internal HDD space. 

  • What did you decide on?