Best Laptops For Construction Management – Reviews

Looking for the best laptops for construction management?

We’ve got you covered.

Construction management can be both light and heavy work depending on what you plan to do. So there is no one laptop for all. You should know what you’re getting into so that your laptop will serve you well for years to come.

We have done hours of research so that you don’t have to.

Without wasting any more of your time, here are the best notebooks for construction management.

Best Laptops For Construction Management

The best laptops for construction management are:

• Dell XPS 15 – Editor’s Choice
• Lenovo ThinkPad T480 – Runner Up
• Acer Aspire 5 – Budget Pick

1. Dell XPS 15 – Editor’s Choice

Our Editor’s Choice for the best laptop for construction management is the Dell XPS 15.

The Dell XPS 15 is a brilliant laptop in many ways. It is a premium laptop and it comes with a hefty price tag. As a construction management student/aspirant, you will need a premium and reliable laptop by your side.

The first and foremost thing you’ll notice here is the display. Dell has perfected its displays over the years and the one we have here is truly a result of it.

We have a 15.6″ display that comes with a 4K resolution. The resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels is true UHD resolution; nothing more or nothing less. This resolution puts a lot of pixels in the display and results in super-sharp images.

The thin bezels surrounding the display are the result of splendid engineering. Dell refers to this as the InfinityEdge display and it gives a crazy screen-to-body ratio of 80%.

The color accuracy of the display is also on point. It comes with support for 100% of the RGB color gamut which is nice. This will come in handy when you are working on your construction management projects. The display also comes with a maximum brightness of 500 nits which will be useful when you’re working under the bright sun.

In addition to all this goodness, the display also functions as a touchscreen. You will be able to interact with the OS elements with your finger which gives you a wholesome Windows experience.

The keyboard on the Dell XPS is solid and is one of the best keyboards on a Windows machine. The layout is excellent and the keys are pretty tactile. The typing experience is very satisfactory and you’ll love it. Despite having a bigger chassis, there is no dedicated number pad which is disappointing.

We have a Windows Precision trackpad here and it comes with excellent support for all the OS gestures.

The Dell XPS 15 packs all the power it can with the help of the Intel Core i7 9750H processor. This is a high-end processor from Intel that comes with 6 physical cores and 12 logical cores. With a maximum clock speed of 4.5GHz, this processor is sure to knock some out of the park.

The processor nails it when it comes to benchmark tests. This translates well into real-life performances as well. You can run any application on this laptop without any issues.

The Dell XPS is perfect for multitasking, thanks to the 16GB of DDR4 RAM in the memory department. This memory enables you to run heavy, multithreaded applications without any issues whatsoever. You will also be able to run virtual machines if that’s up your alley.

There is plenty of storage space in the 1TB SSD. Having an SSD improves the already excellent performance of the laptop in every way possible. With the processing power and this storage in hand, you should have a seamless computing experience with the Dell XPS 15.

The laptop comes with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 as its dedicated graphics card. This is a neat graphics card from Nvidia and it is perfect for running games and other graphically intensive applications. If you have to work on 3D modeling applications, you will find this GPU very beneficial.

Being a high-performance laptop, you won’t expect much of a battery life from this laptop. But the Dell XPS 15 surprises us with pretty good battery life. It can last for about 8 hours which is glorious considering the 4K screen and the powerful hardware inside.

Overall, the Dell XPS 15 is the best choice for construction management for all the reasons mentioned above. If you’re looking for a premium laptop, then this is it.

2. Lenovo ThinkPad T480 – Runner Up

This Lenovo laptop comes with all the essential specs you need to have a good experience with construction management. The price is also not that steep and that puts a big smile on our wallets.

The keyboard is one of the best features of this laptop and gives the user a solid typing experience. The key travel is almost with the level of a mechanical and that’s great for a laptop keyboard. The trackpad is also very good, thanks to its support for Windows gestures.

We have a 14″ display that comes with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. This display is a bit sharper when compared with other full HD displays as most displays are 15.6″ while this one here is a 14″ display leading to a better pixel density.

The image quality is very good and you will enjoy watching your favorite movies and tv shows on this display. Thanks to the IPS panel, you also get excellent viewing angles with this laptop. The speakers are also good, making this laptop a good one for multimedia consumption.

Like the Dell XPS 15, this one here also has an anti-glare display which means you will not be seeing your reflections when working outdoors and it makes for a more distraction-free workflow.

The Lenovo T480 is powered by an i5 processor that belongs to the 8th gen of Intel chips. This is a quad-core processor and comes with a maximum clock speed of 3.9GHz. Being one of the most powerful mid-range processors out there, this one can surely handle all your everyday tasks without any issues.

The processor is well supported by the memory department with its 16GB DDR4 RAM. This memory gives you all the freedom you need to have a seamless multitasking experience. You can run several heavy apps side by side without facing any lag which is nice.

There is a fingerprint reader here just like in the Dell XPS model. The reader gives us an additional layer of security and also allows you to log in without typing your password every time. You can also use this fingerprint authentication system to encrypt certain files on your laptop.

The battery life is excellent on the Lenovo T480. With light use, the laptop can easily hold well for about 6 to 8 hours which is neat. If you’re planning to do something more resourceful, then expect this number to come to sharply.

You will find all the necessary connectivity options here. You get all the ports you will use on a daily basis. The laptop also comes with 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity and which helps in removing some clutter from your table.

Overall, the Lenovo T480 is excellent and won’t intimidate you with a hefty price tag. The specs are too good and you will get an impressive user experience when it comes to construction management.

3. Acer Aspire 5 – Budget Pick

In terms of value, this Acer Aspire 5 model delivers a lot. We get a very good list of hardware inside and the performance of the laptop is also on point.

The display we have here is a 15.6″ display with full HD resolution. The IPS panel underneath steals the shows and gives you excellent color quality. You also get brilliant viewing angles so that you can catch the same content on the screen from any corner of your room without losing any details.

The processor that powers this Acer Aspire 5 laptop is an Intel Core i5 processor. This is a quad-core processor and has a maximum clock speed of 3.9GHz. With a smart cache of 8MB, you will be able to get a good performance when it comes to handling documents and other small apps.

You can even run high-end applications on this laptop, thanks to this processor in play. Your multitasking experience will be nothing short of excellent, thanks to the 16GB of RAM in the memory department. You get 256GB of solid-state drive storage which is both spacious and fast.

The graphics card here is an Nvidia GeForce MX 250. This is a decent graphics card and handles your everyday apps well. Even if you have to run some graphically intensive app, this GPU will take care of it. Though this GPU is not as powerful as the 10XX and 20XX series, it does make your life easier when it comes to handling graphics.

Overall, the Acer Aspire 5 is an affordable laptop that underpromises and over-delivers without fail. If you’re looking for an affordable laptop for construction management, then this one could be it.

What To Look For In The Best Laptop For Construction Management?

Here are some factors you should focus on before finalizing a laptop for construction management.

Operating System

The operating system of your laptop depends on a couple of things.

The first one is what your school wants. Some schools are very strict about the operating systems you use for the sake of compatibility. Most of them prefer Windows as most applications are available here.

The second factor is what you want. If you have a liking for a specific operating system, then you might want to go with it. If you’re a fan of the macOS, then you can get a Mac and install Windows on the side if you have compatibility issues.

The same is true with Linux as well.

Display

As a student or as a construction manager, you are going to spend a considerable amount of time looking at your laptop’s screen.

A bad display will not misrepresent the contents on the screen but will also impact your eye health. This is why getting a good display is more important than other factors.

When it comes to construction management, we don’t think you’ll be served well with small size displays. So we recommend going for 14″ displays or bigger. If possible, get a 15.6″ display as it is widescreen and will give you a good view.

The resolution of your display should not be less than 1920 x 1080 pixels. There should not be any compromise here as this resolution is needed for the best construction management experience. If you can’t see the content on the screen with good clarity, then what’s the point?

If you can afford it, you can go with a higher resolution display as well. Our Editor’s Choice, Dell XPS 15, has a UHD display and it gives your crystal clear images all the time.

If you’re going to work a lot outdoors and in bright light, then you need a display that comes with good brightness. Maximum brightness of at least 400 nits is a good starting point. The Dell XPS 15 comes with a maximum brightness of 500 nits which is very good for working outdoors.

Also, getting an anti-reflective display will be super helpful in such scenarios.

Power

The power you require depends on the work you plan to do on your laptop.

If you’re going to work on light stuff like taking notes, doing some research, and other daily stuff, then you won’t need a lot of power. In this case, an Intel Core i5 processor with 2 cores will be more than enough. If you want to save some money, even an i3 processor might be good enough.

But if you’re going to work on some heavy stuff like 3D modeling and so on, then you will need some power. We would recommend going with a quad-core or a hexa-core Intel Core i5 or an i7 processor.

The processor should have an adequate base clock speed and should be able to reach higher clock speeds when there is a need for more power. Something like the Turbo Boost is a must in this case.

If you’re planning to save some more money on the processor, then going with an equivalent AMD processor will be a good choice. AMD processors are also very good but might produce some heat to go with them. Make sure that the laptop comes with good thermal handling in such cases.

Storage

You are not going to need a lot of storage when it comes to construction management.

As a minimum, we would recommend going with 256GB of solid state drive storage. This storage will hold good at least for a few years to come unless you already have a lot of data to transfer to it.

Picking an SSD over an HDD also brings a horde of advantages. It is faster in every way possible compared with the HDD and improves the laptop’s performance as well.

Graphics

Most integrated graphics cards will be fine for most users when it comes to construction management.

Intel UHD graphics cards have seen a lot of development over the years and will handle your graphics workload without any issues.

This holds true only if you are going to be dealing with a light graphics workload.

If you plan on running modeling applications, then integrated graphics cards might not be enough.

Getting a dedicated graphics card will be a smart thing to do in this case. Most mid-range or upper mid-range Nvidia GPUs will be fine and also be cost-efficient. You will be able to run your modeling applications without putting a strain on the laptop.

Battery Life

If you’re a construction management student, then battery life is very important for you.

Get a laptop that can last an entire day without having to recharge. This way you can work on your laptop instead of searching for free charging points.

Having good battery life will also come in handy for construction managers who work outdoors most of the time.

If you’re working a desk job, then battery life is not big of a deal as you will have access to a power outlet all the time.

Conclusion

That’s all for this post. We hope we were to give you something of value and you were able to find the right laptop for you.

The best laptop for construction management is the one that suits you well. If you have any questions, do let us know and we’ll get back to you as quickly as possible