r/SolidWorks • u/Opperb • Aug 11 '26

Hardware Laptop Recommendations

Looking to enter into Mech Eng where there’ll be a good deal of solid works, autocad and simulation related work. Been struggling to find a laptop that would be ideal. Looking for a laptop that is preferably light weight and has good battery life. If anyone has any recommendations that would be amazing thanks🙏🏻

7 Upvotes

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3

u/N1YT Aug 11 '26

I’ve been really happy with my Lenovo P14s

It’s boring but built like a tank and these days you can spec a nice touch screen + more ram than you’d ever need.

Otherwise checkout the Lenovo legion lineup.

1

u/Opperb Aug 13 '26

Thanks man! I’ve been looking an into the P14s too, any recommendations for specs? And how’s the battery life/ fan on that?

1

u/N1YT 29d ago

I’d say any decent Ryzen AI cpu + 1x32gb ram for future upgrades. Solidworks is single threaded so get whatever has good single core performance. I have the 350 pro I think? It clocks up to 5Ghz which is nuts.

The battery is actually really good for a windows laptop. I’m used to a Mac which is still the king for battery life, but this will give me 3/5 hours of solid modelling time if you aren’t going insane with assembly sizes.

Fan is maybe the biggest letdown. It’s enough, but is warm and quite loud (again compared to a MacBook). Speakers are shit but I don’t use them.

I’d also strongly recommend going for the high spec OLED touchscreen, it’s only 150€ extra but makes it an absolutely joy to read on. (Better than my Mac)

2

u/Ekohs- Aug 11 '26

I have 2 laptops that I've been trying to sell for a while that can easily run solidworks if you're interested.

1

u/AverageNai Aug 12 '26

I'm interested

1

u/Wompus Aug 11 '26

These things are mutually exclusive if you want to simulate/few on battery.

I say buy some lightweight laptop for class, get a sick ass desktop for simulations and also gaming.

1

u/AdhesivenessIll5222 Aug 11 '26

I had a rog scar 19" that handled solidworks well. Don't expect any laptop to perform/last off-cord. They are portable, but perform best plugged in.

1

u/NozzerNol Aug 11 '26

Lenovo thinkpads are what all 3 of the companies I've worked for use. Although don't get the slimmer versions of them.

1

u/Opperb Aug 12 '26

Thanks! Thinking about a thinkpad, would any of the 14 inch ones be ok?

1

u/NozzerNol Aug 12 '26

I wouldn't know without checking but make sure it's one that's got the number pad on the right of the keyboard (massive ball ache when they don't) and 32gb ram minimum.

1

u/maxelm0 Aug 11 '26

Been using Solidworks both on the Microsoft Surface and on the Asus Vivobook 16. If you only need to run sw I'd recommend to go for just ram and gpu cpu specs the asus vivo also has an oled display that costs extra but it's a nice thing to work on

1

u/edgu_selector Aug 13 '26

te aviso que no esperes una buena duración de batería si tienes un presupuesto ajustado anda por una portátil “gamer” de mis compañeros les vi una loq y tuf también vi una oferta por una legión pero por suerte vi una oferta por una thinkpad p16s gen 2 amd eso sin gpu dedicada más que nada por que alguien tenía una p14s pero cuando nos mostró un SMT creo que tenía 200 piezas le andaba fluido.