This web page's number 1 recommendation for engineering students is the Dell XPS 15. I would consider XPS before Inspiron. Inspiron, in my opinion, is more for home use and general student use. For engineering you need more of a power laptop which is where the XPS comes in. This comparison may help as well.

And may I offer you good luck in your studies!

Don't ignore the Latitude 15" systems -- which are more robustly built than either the Inspiron or XPS models, and available with a higher level of support.

I would not count on an Inspiron to last through four years of daily use for classes -- an XPS has a higher probability of surviving, but the Latitude is even more likely to survive.

 

XPS:

Pros:

- Compact, thin and elegant

- Durable

- Powerful

Cons:

- Expensive

- Impossible to upgrade

- Repair is very hard

- Not very flexible with performance

Inspiron:

Pros:

- Very flexible in price, size, and performance

- You can upgrade/repair these laptops easily (storage and RAM only though)

Cons:

- Made out of cheaper materials

- Not so durable

- Not all laptops look nice

Hi I’m going to be a student at Virginia Tech studying engineering in the fall and was wondering which laptop would be a better option between the XPS and the Inspiron.

The specs I’m looking for are:

-Intel core i7 10th gen

-16 GB of RAM

-At least 500 GB on SSD

The XPS is talked about everywhere as being a good laptop for engineering students, but the Inspiron can get the same specs for significantly cheaper. However, I see nothing about it being recommended for engineering 

Any and all help is much appreciated

 

I got this.