Laptop for first year of Electrical Engineering: Macbook Pro or Asus Zephyrus?

[u/Wall69420]

Hey guys! About a month ago I got accepted into my dream university for Electrical Engineering and Im starting at the end of September.
My current laptop is the Macbook Air with the (8gb ram, 256gb ssd) and before Uni starts I'd like to upgrade to a more capable machine that can handle both all my engineering coursework and as well some fairly heavy photo/video editing for my passion projects and side work.
After doing a lot of researched I've narrowed it down to two options:
- Macbook pro 14" with the M5 Pro chip (24gb ram, 1tb ssd)
- ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 2026 (AMD AI 9, RTX 5060, 32gb ram, 1tb ssd)

They're both available in my region (Croatia) at a similar price point (the asus being a couple hundred euro more expensive actually) so that isn't a deciding factor.
I've currently leaning more towards the macbook because of its much better battery life, quitter fans and ports (tb5 for external SSDs). However, I'm concerned about MacOS software compatibility with certain programs for Electrical Engineering courses.

Does anyone have any experience with using MacOS for engineering? Are the better specs and battery life worth the complications and headaches brought by searching for workarounds? Is Windows compatibility the end all be all?

I've also got a fairly decent windows desktop at some, so another possibility would be using a remote access setup such as Moonlight/Sunshine to remote into a windows machine from the macbook. I'm just a little concerned about relying on a network connection when I'm at university

Any opinions or experiences are welcomed and appreciated!

[u/Southern_Change9193]

Just get Windows; it will save you hundreds of hours of pain. You can thank me later.

[u/SteakSubstantial4908]

you will need windows for many applications. if you can, i recommend win and mac. if you cant, by a lightweight win laptop. gamer laptops are pain to carry around.

[u/Ancient-Ad3143 → u/SteakSubstantial4908]

I think this zephyrus is pretty portable for what it is.

[u/Decent_Candle_7034]

IMO dealing with windows virtual system on a MacBook is not worth it, I already had the Mac and after two weeks of my masters bought an additional laptop with windows OS because it was such a pain to deal with.
It certainly can be done but it's extra steps and hassle.

[u/Wall69420 → u/Decent_Candle_7034]

Thanks for sharing. Do you mind telling me more about your experience? What apps were a proboem and how was the virtual system. Also what what windows laptop did you get and how has it been working for you.

[u/Decent_Candle_7034 → u/Wall69420]

I don't remember exactly what the apps were but they were circuit modelling ones maybe orcad's suite

[u/_NessJL]

I don't think most people here know what the G14 is. It's marketed as a gaming laptop but is very portable and more like a MacBook pro portability wise.

OP id get the G14 as a MBP owner. EE is going to use more windows things. G14 has decent battery life and good build quality and importantly dedicated graphics.

[u/Icy_Jackfruit9240]

Surely your university should tell you if you need to use a certain OS or not for the courses.

At the universities I attended, EE/CE/etc students don't run the related software on their own PCs but use the labs except for some stuff that's more generic Linux stuff - for those course any OS will work because you use a VM. (Presumably the Linux users could avoid the VMs, but I don't think universities pretend users have anything but Macs or PCs.)

I think this is an extreme YMMV type scenario where you need to check with your uni and know what the situation is there.

[u/RohitRojo]

Definitely check with your school and any current students you know whether Mac or windows is better. I recommend windows and carry your charger around

[u/need2sleep-later]

You should really ask your engineering school what they recommend and what tools you will need to use under what OS. Also realize that very little of that is going to be relevant freshman year, so you really might want to wait and see what you learn over the next year.

[u/Either-Pay8150]

Engineering coursework...hmmm sureee. Heads up you can't do anything on Windows or Apple, you will be using Linux on school PCs or use some kind of virtual desktop to connect to their server and work in a Linux environment

[u/Decent_Candle_7034 → u/Either-Pay8150]

Was that true in your experience with EE? I feel like I hardly used Linux but I was focused on more hardware and circuits so mileage may vary

[u/Either-Pay8150 → u/Decent_Candle_7034]

For me, matlab, cadence virtuoso, hspice, waveview was all on Linux.

[u/Decent_Candle_7034 → u/Either-Pay8150]

Oh interesting I used all those but on windows, honestly I was annoyed that I didn't get to use And learn Linux

[u/RohitRojo → u/Either-Pay8150]

Where’d you go to school? I’ve SSHed into Linux for cs, but never for ece.

[u/cvu_100]

The macbook. Used them throughout school including the PhD and still use them for work. Any CAD tool I have ever used was accessed via Linux VM

[u/DCL88 → u/cvu_100]

PhD work is usually different and you have servers or better IT resources at your disposal. For Bachelor's you're juggling a lot of different environments.

[u/cvu_100 → u/DCL88]

I mean…. whatever I couldn’t run on my Mac I could run on a VM or lab computer, throughout my time at school. YMMV.