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What are the best laptops for programming and CAD work?

11

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Jan 3, 2023

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Updated

Here’s the Deal

7 Options Considered

Best laptops for programming and CAD work	Price	GPU	RAM
89 Dell XPS 15	$1499	Intel HD Graphics 630 / NVIDIA GTX 1050 with 4GB GDDR5	8 / 16 / 32GB DDR4 at 2400MHz
77 Apple MacBook Pro	$1,698.00	Apple M1 8 core	8/16GB
-- HP Omen 17	$1,899.99	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050	16GB
-- Origin PC EON17-SLX	$2,181.08	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080	32GB
-- Razer Blade Pro	$3999	NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080	32GB

Dell XPS 15

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Top Pro

Optional password-free-sign-in via a fingerprint reader

For an additional $25 it’s possible to enjoy a password-free-sign-in by having a fingerprint reader. It will keep your laptop safe while still providing convenient access to it. See More

Top Con

Battery doesn’t hold long with the Ultra HD screen

If you’re choosing the configuration with an Ultra HD screen, expect a very short battery life of around 6 hours for general usage. With more intensive tasks it's even less than that. See More

Specs

GPU:Intel HD Graphics 630 / NVIDIA GTX 1050 with 4GB GDDR5

RAM:8 / 16 / 32GB DDR4 at 2400MHz

CPU:Intel Core i3-7100H / Intel Core i5-7300HQ / Intel Core i7-7700HQ

Storage:500GB HDD + 32GB Flash / 1TB HDD + 32GB Flash / 256/512GB/1TB PCIe SSD

Top Pro

Can run most modern games

Being an excellent all-rounder, it can be used as a gaming laptop for games that are not exceptionally demanding, like Overwatch or Dota 2. Unless you’re using the cheapest model, you can expect a reasonable 60 frames per second for almost all modern games, provided that you’re willing to lower the game’s settings. See More

Top Con

9560 model's GPU has compatibility issues on Linux

The new 9560 model has some trouble accepting its GTX 1050 Ti video card while running a Linux operating system. Fortunately, the integrated Intel graphics card is capable enough to substitute it. The manufacturers are probably aware of the issue and will, most likely, release an update for it. See More

Top Pro

Solid keyboard and trackpad

The keyboard and trackpad are reliable and solid all-around. The keyboard is responsive but is not super “clicky”, rather a bit soft. It has a white backlight on black keys that illuminates them at night. The touchpad is rather large while having no buttons. Despite this, the XPS 15 can reliably distinguish between the left and right clicks which are done on the trackpad itself. See More

Top Con

Audible coil whine

Coil whine can be heard when it’s generally quiet and the fans are not running. Audible when the laptop is connected to the power supply. The manufacturers have acknowledged it as a problem and, if possible, will push out an update which should eliminate it. Until then, it’s still a gripe. See More

Top Pro

Good battery life if you pick the 1080p display

Models with the 1080p screen last about 10 hours with general usage. Naturally, if more intensive tasks are involved, the battery will be drained faster. See More

Top Con

Awkward webcam location

The webcam is located under the screen instead of on top. It means that your face will be shown from a lower angle which can seem a bit weird. It also means that your fingers can partially obstruct the webcam while you’re typing. See More

Top Pro

Slick design

The whole design is quite stylish. The aluminium chassis provides a very clean look while the black carbon fiber palm rest with an almost borderless display cements it as a visually modern laptop. All of this is made with a premium build quality. See More

Top Con

Noisy fans

The laptop is very quiet during idle and light usage but when there is some workload, the fans get quite loud and distracting. See More

Top Pro

Operates well on a Linux system

All essential things, like network connectivity, ports and sound, work right “out-of-the-box” with a Linux operating system. There is a compatibility issue on the new 9560 model with its graphics card but the laptop is still very usable with its integrated Intel graphics card. See More

Top Con

Some ghosting in games

The display is not intended for gaming purposes so it can produce an effect called “ghosting”. Ghosting is when the pixels are not able to change their colors fast enough, so the color of the preceding frame can still be slightly seen on the next frame. This causes a blurring effect. Note that it only happens on high framerates coupled with fast objects. See More

Top Pro

Amazing display

Two display choices are available for the XPS 15, an Ultra HD touchscreen or a Full HD non-touch screen. Both screens have a very wide array of colors as they cover approximately 100% of sRGB color space. The viewing angle is around 170 degrees. However, at 45 degrees, slight color change can be noticed. With around 350 nit output for brightness, it’s a viable choice for outdoor usage. All of this makes it an amazing display. See More

Top Con

Palmrest collects sweat

The palm rest is made from carbon fiber which attracts fingerprints and sweat. After some time it gets kind of unpleasant to touch and needs to be cleaned. See More

Top Pro

Very well-rounded laptop

The cheapest configuration is a great choice for general non-intensive use - things like internet browsing, watching movies and similar tasks. Whereas the more expensive configurations are gradually more capable of intensive tasks, like video editing or gaming. It’s not as good as a specialized computer built for a specific purpose, like a video editing laptop with an enormous RAM size or a gaming laptop with a superior graphics card, but it’s a very well-rounded, reliable laptop. See More

Apple MacBook Pro

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Top Con

RAM is soldered in

A crippling, unmitigated rip-off which prevents you from upgrading the internal RAM. See More

Top Pro

The OS is exceptionally easy to use

Macbooks are famous for working out of the box. The default operating system (macOS) is also exceptionally easy to use even for people who have never used it before. Most people will not need to customize or change anything since all the apps just work out of the box. The people who like to customize things and tinker with their systems will also find it pretty easy to do so, considering the fact that macOS is a Unix and allows varying degrees of control to users. See More

Specs

GPU:Apple M1 8 core

Ports:2/4 Thunderbolt 3 Ports, Headphone jack

Top Con

The default OS spies on you

Apple spies on its users, and helps others spy on them too. OSX needs to be wiped from the laptop and be replaced with Linux or another acceptable OS before it can be used. There have also been cases of security issues being reported and not fixed for quite some time. An example is a security issue in iTunes which was left unfixed for three years while it was being used by the government to collect data. These security issues may or may not be intentional, but other data collection is. See More

Top Pro

Both the hardware and software are designed in-house

Both the operating system and the hardware are designed by Apple and are made to be as compatible as possible from the get-go. Any drawback that the hardware might have compared to competitors, is made up by the great compatibility between the hardware and OS. Furthermore, because Apple controls the hardware that goes inside their laptops, they can be sure that every OS release will be fully compatible even with their older hardware, ensuring software compatibility for many years after the laptop is released. See More

Top Con

Hard to repair or upgrade the hardware

The battery and other components are glued in, and the battery blocks access to other parts. The battery will wear out eventually, and the fact that it's glued in means that Apple prevents you from easily repairing or upgrading a MacBook Pro. See More

Top Pro

Great performance

The MacBook pro offers great performance both for day-to-day stuff and more niche graphic-related activities. The latest model also has had an update in hardware specs where both the CPU and GPU have been upgraded to their respective latest generations. The 16GB to 32GB help with performance as well and the SSD speeds are unmatched in the laptop market which also helps with general performance. See More

Top Con

Requires the use of proprietary firmware

The source code of the firmware isn't available for users to audit or modify. See More

Top Pro

Plenty of RAM for multitasking

The MacBook Pro has up to 16 GB of RAM. That much RAM is perfect for running IDEs, emulators, and virtual machines. See More

Top Con

No Ethernet or FireWire ports

An adapter is required to transfer data over FireWire or connect to the Internet using an Ethernet cable. See More

Top Pro

One of the best trackpads around

The Macbooks are renowned for having the best trackpad out of any laptop. It has full gesture support, you can configure in the software how much pressure you want before it physically clicks and the finger tracking is perfect. See More

Top Con

It's missing the ESC key, which is a hassle for VI users

There is no physical function or escape keys as they have been replaced by a touch screen, so if you're a big Vim user and don't want to change your habits, the Macbook might be a poor choice. See More

Top Pro

Good battery life

The battery drains in about 9 hours of typical use. See More

Top Con

Terrible Linux support

The 2016 hardware has zero Linux compatibility due to new standards used by Apple. Until drivers are released for Linux, which there has been no news of, the 2016 Macbooks cannot be used for Linux at all. See More

Top Pro

Good stability

Top Con

You need dongles or a dock to connect USB-A devices

There are no USB-A ports, so you'll need a dongle or a dock to use things like webcams. See More

Top Pro

One of the best SSDs that can be found on a laptop

With read speeds at 3.1Gbps and write speeds at around 4.7Gbps, the SSD used in the Macbook Pro is the best in the market by far. This doesn't just mean opening/saving files is quicker, but it also has a pretty huge impact on general application performance. See More

Top Con

Limited gaming performance

The Macbook lacks a dedicated GPU, so gaming performance will be limited. That said it comes with the best integrated graphics on the market and will be able to play modern games on low settings well. See More

Top Pro

OSX/macOS and most software apps have great HiDPI support

Top Con

The keyboard is unique in how it feels and some people may need some time to get used to it

The keyboard on the Macbook is unique and some people may not like the way the keys feel to press or not having physical function keys. See More

Top Pro

New OSX updates run on older models for quite a long time

Top Con

Glossy screen

Apple has deleted the matte-screen option from its lineup, an unfortunate decision that reduces the usability of the computers and means you get less work done. You won't realize how much time you spend moving your head around to get reflections off whatever you're trying to see until you switch to a matte screen. Those "deep blacks" and "rich colors" that you were supposed to get from a glossy screen are not present, since they're buried behind a sheen of reflection under all lighting conditions. See More

Top Pro

Can run up to 3 external monitors and output 4K

With 2 Thunderbolt (DisplayPort) plugs and 1 HDMI, MBP can run up to 3 external monitors and output 4K over HDMI. See More

Top Pro

Great keyboard

The 2017 Macbook uses the second generation of the "butterfly" keyboards first introduced in 2015. They feel different to use than most laptop keyboards as they are very shallow, but most people report really enjoying the keyboard after getting used to it. See More

Top Pro

Fantastic display

The 13" MacBook Pro has a sharp, color accurate 2560 x 1600 IPS display. It's bright at 500 nits, has great viewing angles (viewable at up to 178 degrees) and capable of displaying 87.3% of sRGB color gamut. See More

Top Pro

Very portable

The latest Macbook Pro has a trimmed down design compared to predecessors. It's 0.61 inches (15.5 mm) thick and and weighs 4.02 pounds. It's thinner than Macbook Air even. See More

Top Pro

The default macOS is very developer friendly since it's a Unix

OSX is based on XNU (Darwin) kernel, it's certified Unix and arguably a lot more developer friendly than Windows. Development for Unix is native on OS X. There's a large selection of great development tools available for OSX. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerful terminal emulator, called Terminal. Additionally, Apple provides tools, like Xcode, an IDE that contains a comprehensive collection of tools for developing OSX and iOS software, for free. See More

Top Pro

Amazing build quality

The MacBook Pro has an all-aluminum body that looks great and is sturdy enough that worries of accidentally damaging are mostly alleviated. It has a robust lid, well-spaced back-lit keyboard with speakers on each side of the keyboard and an excellent button-less trackpad. See More

Top Pro

Good customer support

Apple offers support over the phone worldwide, provides support in Apple retail stores and authorized resellers and has community forums where users can help users. See More

HP Omen 17

Top Pro

Standard, non-flashy look

This laptop is great for those who dislike the overly-gimmicky look that other gaming laptops go for. It doesn’t have big, stylized ventilation holes or dedicated gaming buttons or switches. The keyboard only has a plain red LED backlight, with no customization. The only outward indication that it’s a gaming laptop is the Omen logo at the back. See More

Top Con

Has issues with cooling

Due to its narrow ventilation holes, the cooling fans need to spin faster in order to cool the laptop down. It can become so hot that it may become uncomfortable to touch the laptop, though the performance doesn’t suffer and doesn’t cause noticeable thermal throttling. See More

Specs

GPU:Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050

Storage:512GB SSD + 2TB HDD

Weight:6.3 pounds

Top Pro

Great display

The display is capable of producing 173% of the sRGB color space and has very good viewing angles. If calibrated, the laptop can be used for color sensitive work. See More

Top Con

Comes in only one color option

The laptop comes in only one color option without the possibility to order a different one. See More

Top Pro

Relatively portable for a gaming laptop

Compared to other gaming laptops, it is very slim--only 32mm thick and weighing 3.35 kg. See More

Top Con

The speakers lack bass

The speakers are loud, but they lack bass. See More

Top Pro

Higher-end configurations can play 4K games at decent framerates

Even when purchased with minimal specs, you should be able to play comfortably in full HD resolution. Higher-end configurations with the nVidia GTX 1070 graphics card will allow you to enjoy 4K gaming in medium to high settings at playable framerates. The screen implements G-Sync technology that further smoothens action and prevents tearing. See More

Origin PC EON17-SLX

Top Pro

Comes with top-tier hardware

This laptop comes with the absolute top-tier hardware. Even the base model is more powerful than the vast majority of the laptops you can buy today and will allow you to play nearly every game in 4K. See More

Top Con

Not portable at all

The laptop isn’t built for those who need portability. A large portable bag and some muscle will be needed to carry it around. Weighing almost 5kg and being more than 4,5cm thick, it's one of the biggest laptops there is. Even the power adapter is twice as large comparing to a non-gamer laptops power adaptor and if you opt for a dual graphic card version, you will need two power adapters. See More

Specs

GPU:Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080

CPU:Intel Core i7

Storage:Up to 1TB SSD

Top Pro

Has one of the largest arrays of ports on the market

This laptop offers one of the widest variety of connections seen on a laptop. It has an HDMI and two Mini DisplayPort connections, for multi-monitor set-ups. There are five high-speed USB 3.0 ports, two new USB-C ports and an SD card slot. It even has two LAN ports with the ability to control the priority of traffic between two networks. Finally, you can connect audio equipment through four audio jack ports that supports 7.1 audio output. See More

Top Con

The build quality of the body is not as good as the price suggests

Other than the backplate of the lid, which is metal, the rest of the body is made of plastic, which is mostly fine for a budget laptop but for this price a material of higher quality would be expected. See More

Top Pro

Good speakers

The built in speakers are very loud and crisp, easily filling a small room. See More

Top Con

Poor battery life

Battery life is also an issue, although gamer laptops usually are power hungry, this only works for approximately two hours without a power supply. See More

Top Pro

Can be safely overclocked

The built-in speakers are large and very loud with a rich bass. Not only is it sufficient for most users, it’s also of better quality than the majority of built-in laptop speakers. See More

Top Pro

Excellent performance for 4K games

4K games will run on medium or high settings with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1070, the weakest graphics processor you can get in this laptop. If you want to run everything with the maximum settings, you have the option to install two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 cards that will run virtually any video game at max settings in 4K resolution. See More

Razer Blade Pro

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Top Pro

One of the best displays on the market

The Razer Blade Pro has easily one of the best touchscreen displays that can be found in any laptop. The colors look accurate and vivid, as it covers 185% of the sRGB color gamut. Brightness goes beyond the industry average and can provide a very bright picture. The screen also supports NVIDIA G-Sync that helps eliminate screen tearing and smooths out movement. See More

Top Con

No 802.11ac support

The wireless network card does not support 802.11ac, a wireless standard with significant improvements over the previous 802.11n standard. See More

Specs

GPU:NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080

CPU:Intel Core i7-6700HQ

Storage:Up to 2TB SSD

Top Pro

Customizable RGB keyboard backlight

The keyboard’s RGB backlight can display 16.8 million colors on each key and the touchpad border. The included Synapse software lets you program the lights with different patterns and color profiles and is shareable to other Razer devices. See More

Top Con

May need some time to getting used to the position of the touchpad

The touchpad is located on the right side of the keyboard, and can take some time to get used to. See More

Top Pro

Great build quality

The chassis is made from aluminium and is very solid, giving the feel of a premium laptop. See More

Top Pro

Built to be portable

At 22mm thin, this is the thinnest laptop that has the NVIDIA GeForce 1080 and one of the thinnest gaming laptops overall. See More

Top Pro

Uses an actual mechanical keyboard

Razer uses ultra-low profile mechanical switches in the Blade Pro, which replicate full-sized mechanical keyboards. While it certainly makes the familiar, though noisy, clicking noise and is stiffer than a Chiclet keyboard, the travel is still too shallow compared to a regular mechanical keyboard. See More

Top Pro

Great gaming performance

While from the outside Blade Pro looks like an ordinary 17 inch laptop, it packs serious gaming laptop performance. It is because Razer has equipped this laptop with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 and one of the fastest mobile processors you can buy today. It can run almost any modern game in 4K resolution in high or maximum settings at upwards of 30 FPS. See More

MacBook

Top Pro

Amazing display

Everything about the display is very good - from its high resolution (2304x1440) to the brightness (325 nitts), uniform brightness distribution (90%), and high contrast ratio (1000:1) with over 95% of the sRGB spectrum. Overall, a great display which will come in handy for people who work with visual arts. See More

Top Con

Connecting more than one thing requires a hub

The laptop comes with a single USB-C port that's used for charging as well as any other peripherals or external storage devices. Connecting more than one thing at a time requires using a USB hub. See More

Specs

GPU:Intel HD Graphics 5300

CPU:1.1GHz Intel Core M Turbo Boost 2.4GHz / 1.2GHz Intel Core M Turbo Boost 2.6GHz

Storage:256GB / 512GB PCIe SSD

Top Pro

Decent keyboard

Top Con

Not very powerful

With an Intel Core M processor, the Macbook isn't a serious development laptop. While it will get the job done for lighter tasks, it will struggle with heavier jobs. See More

Top Pro

Very good speakers

The speakers, found above the keyboard produce loud and clear sound with minimal to no distortion whatsoever. They can be used for both listening to music and watching movies with no problem at all. See More

Top Con

It's a bit hard to get used to the keyboard

The keys are pretty shallow, with a travel length of just 0.5mm. They still provide good feedback and the writing experience itself is not bad, but it's just a bit hard getting used to, especially if you are coming from a laptop that's not a MacBook. See More

Top Pro

Available in 4 colors

The laptop is available in space gray, gold, silver and rose gold (pink) finishes. See More

Top Pro

Excellent trackpad

The MacBook has a large 4.4 x 2.7-inch Force Touch trackpad with a Taptic Engine that delivers haptic feedback whenever the user taps on it to give them the impression that they are actually clicking on it. It also supports gestures and multi-finger swiping. The accuracy is almost perfect and there's virtually no lag or stutter when using the trackpad. See More

Top Pro

Extremely portable

The laptop weighs just 2 pounds and is 13.1 mm thin. It's one of the thinnest and lightest laptops on the market and it's extremely portable and easy to carry around. See More

Top Pro

Completely silent operation

Thanks to the Core M processor (which doesn't require a fan) and the SSD storage, there are no moving parts the in MacBook. It will operate in complete silence. See More

Top Pro

macOS is developer-friendly

macOS is based on XNU (Darwin) kernel, it's a certified Unix and arguably a lot more developer friendly than Windows. Development for Unix is native on macOS. There's a large selection of great development tools available for macOS. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerful terminal emulator, called Terminal. Additionally, Apple provides tools, like Xcode, an IDE that contains a comprehensive collection of tools for developing macOS and iOS software, for free. You can also install Homebrew, an extremely useful package manager. See More

Top Pro

Decent battery life

The battery lasts around 7h30m of continuous web browsing which is about average for this class of laptops. Where this laptop's battery truly shines though is under heavy stress where it manages to last an impressive 2h35m under a total stress test (maxed out brightness and processor usage - circumstances that you are likely never going to encounter in the real world). See More

Microsoft Surface Book 2 (15-inch)

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Top Pro

Great display for creative professionals

This laptop's display is bright and vivid, making it perfect for people who do a lot of drawing, design, or video editing work. The display offers an excellent coverage of 131% of the sRGB colour gamut (the average for this price range is 101%). The colour coverage and the bright display which measures an average of 417 nits really makes colours truly pop out and offers lifelike pictures. See More

Top Con

The pen must be bought separately

If you want to use the Surface Book for drawing then you will probably have to buy the Surface Pen which unfortunately does not come bundled with the laptop (it costs an additional $99). See More

Specs

GPU:Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060

CPU:8th Generation Intel Core i7

Screen size:15"

Memory:8GB / 16GB

Top Pro

One of the best performances found on a 15-inch laptop

Equiped with an Intel Core i7-8650U CPU, 8GB (or 16GB) of RAM and an SSD that goes up to 1TB, the Surface Book 2 certainly packs a punch. It handles multitasking perfectly; you can open dozens of Chrome tags, stream video, and draw using the built-in software without experiencing any lag even once. As far as benchmarks go, on the Geekbench 4 overall performance benchmark, the Surface Book 2 got a score of 12,505, better than the 15-inch laptop average (11,004) coming third after the Dell XPS 15 (13,911) and the MacBook Pro (15,170). See More

Top Con

No Thunderbolt port

For a laptop aimed at creative professionals, the missing Thunderbolt 3 port is surprising considering the fact that Thunderbolt 3 is used to connect a laptop to peripherals such as external GPUs or power-dual 4K displays. See More

Top Pro

The battery easily lasts a full work day on a single charge

The Surface Book 2 lasts on average 12 hours on a single charge. This should be more than enough to get anyone to the end of their workday on a single charge. See More

Top Con

Disappointing audio performance

The audio that comes out of the speakers is quite average. It's enough to fill a small room but that's it. See More

Top Pro

The hinge is quite stable as far as 2-in-1 laptops go

The new fulcrum hinge that Microsoft used for the Surface Book 2 is much more stable than the one found on the previous Surface Book or even other 2-in-1 laptops for that matter. See More

Top Pro

Great tying experience

Even though the keyboard is rather shallow (just 1.2mm of travel), the typing experience is excellent. Keys have a great amount of feedback when clicking and you rarely (if ever) bottom out when typing. See More

Top Pro

Gaming performance on-par with gaming laptops

The 15-inch version of the Surface Book 2 comes with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU. This is a powerful, VR-ready card that handles intensive gaming tasks. As for real-world performance, Hitman (1920 x 1080, ultra) runs at 71.9 frames per second, Grand Theft Auto V runs at 45 fps. It should also be mentioned that you need to be using the dock in order to do graphic-intensive tasks since that's where the GPU is located; using the laptop in tablet-mode will yield poor results in this regard. See More

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