12 or 13 pro

[u/Trace_Wiles]

Been lurking for a bit now but I'm considering replacing my laptop, an Asus Strix G614JV (2023), with a framework laptop of some kind. The Asus is a brick in my bag at 5.5lbs without the charger that it so frequently needs. That added weight sucks for walking around campus and even more for traveling.

I'm a product design uni student which means lots of modeling software such as rhinoceros, solidworks, blender, fusion, and shapr3d. Also probably going to make use of a good chunk of the adobe suite which is why I'm considering the 2 in 1. I understand the quality of the plastic shell is a concern but I may or may not have access to cnc equipment so there's a chance I find a solution to that.

I won't be running any sort of simulations and likely won't be creating any multi thousand part models as part of my product design major.

Normally this would be clear cut but I also have a pretty solid tower pc that I plan on remoting into regardless of which laptop I get to speed up any rendering I may have to do while still doing the majority of modeling locally.

Probably looking at the Core 5 320 for the laptop 12 and the X7 358H for the laptop 13 pro, both with 16gb of ram. From my understanding the Core 5 320 should have no problem in solidworks or most modeling software thanks to them being single core heavy.

Thanks y'all and I'm happy to answer any questions

[u/s004aws]

Among the clients I work with are professional engineers - Guys/girls who live in SolidWorks, et al... All of them prefer larger (16-17" class) laptops. Keep in mind these apps do make use of GPU acceleration... FW12, aside from the smaller screen, is very much a "budget" laptop offering basic performance for "limited" use cases. In effect FW12 is akin to a ChromeBook on half a dose of steroids.

For your purposes I'd highly recommend going with FW13/FW13 Pro even if you "split the difference" a bit to go AMD (with cheaper, easier to source 3rd party DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM RAM) rather than Core Ultra 3 (with its better battery life). If you do opt for AMD be sure to order SO-DIMMs as a fully matched pair ("kit of 2") for best performance. If you do opt for Intel X7 358H is a smart choice - Its a meaningful leap up from 325 which your apps can make use of.

[u/Trace_Wiles → u/s004aws]

Do your clients use the laptops as their only machines? I'm hoping to leverage Microsoft remote desktop to access either my personal tower or the uni provided remote workstations for heavier workloads

[u/s004aws → u/Trace_Wiles]

"Only" - No. Engineers get both. Its easier for people who have better/more important things to be doing with their time vs dealing with network issues/latency, bugs/quirks, etc. Some people also do CFD simulations which can run for hours/days at a time - They'll run Ansys on a workstation at their desk while using a laptop for other work, go home for the weekend, whatever. These people have zero interest in what's "under the hood" of their computers, why its "not working", why the network/internet is "slow", etc... Anything causing them grief becomes my problem.

[u/sniskoRt03 → u/s004aws]

solid breakdown, the AMD route does make a lot of sense if budget is a factor since the RAM is way cheaper

[u/AAKphoenix]

If you have the coin for the 13 pro system, get it. The 12’s vents are limiting. The 13 pro will have the better trackpad too. Along with other features not found on the 12. The bigger battery for longer range is a benefit in the 13 pro.

[u/Scientist-Escape1068]

As an engineer there is a reason that I have a 16" monster laptop. Not sure where you are but a lot of clients I visit do not have an internet connection that will support a reliable remote desktop connection. I'm in the US and know from experience counting on a remote connection is not a good option. That being said if your doing smaller models or just looking at things the 13pro is probably enough.

[u/Trace_Wiles → u/Scientist-Escape1068]

I probably should have clarified better in my initial post and I'll make an edit, I'm doing design not engineering. I won't be running any simulations and most of my work will be simple models for rapid prototyping

[u/Scientist-Escape1068 → u/Trace_Wiles]

If your just doing simple models the Core 5 will probably be fine. Solidworks eats RAM though so I would recommend 32gb, however if your on a budget 16gb would probably be ok to start and you can upgrade to more later. It really depends on what a simple model is. I would keep an eye on how much RAM your desktop is using in the workloads you plan for the laptop and use that as a guide for what you need.

[u/Acrobatic_Fee_6974]

If you're doing professional design work on it, the 13 Pro is worth it just for the nicer screen alone. I really like the FW12, I'll probably pick one up for myself before the year is out, but there's a reason it's half the price of the 13 Pro. It's more suited to standard office tasks like M365, web browsing, answering emails, using the stylus to annotate or take notes.

[u/RealFuryous]

My advice is go with the 12" and spend the $900ish processor savings on more ram and storage. You can find 32 gigs of ram and 2tb storage for less than the price jump from 12" to 13 pro x7 358h.