Upcoming semester requires I get a laptop. School recommended is a Lenovo p1 or Dell 5570 for top of the line. They have acceptable alternatives as Lenovo thinkpad t14 or Dell 7440. Workload is general engineering work. Budget is not unlimited say $1500. Looking for advice.
This page says “[Dell 5570] is no longer available, but Dell offers similar products,” so that’s out of the running.
The 7440…well, it’s got an i5. If I were you, I’d prefer an i7 or i9. But of course you pay for that.
ThinkPads are generally good, quality machines, you really can’t go wrong. Personally, I’ve recently gained a Legion Pro 5i but at the configuration I got (i7 13th, nvidia 4070, 32G, 2x1T) it may be a bit out of your price range (US$1800). You can find slightly lower configurations (4060, 16G) that might get to $1500.
Bear in mind that “bigger” is a virtue when it comes to both storage and memory. Software will bloat, both storage to hold the installation and memory to run it. Anyone selling you a machine these days with just 256G for main storage is … an untrustworthy person. On memory, for any engineering work, avoid 8G machines, it’s not enough. 16G will do for now – probably – but by the time you finish your degree, it won’t.
Also, larger displays will make you happier. The only downside of a 17" vs a 15" is how easily you can pack it away, otherwise the larger display will be much easier on your eyes.