Laptop Recommendations

Before purchasing a new laptop to use during your journey at Western Michigan University, please review these WMU recommended laptop specifications. You may also use these specifications to determine if your existing equipment is sufficient.

The general recommended specifications will provide greater computing capabilities than the minimum specifications as well as a longer lifespan. Minimum specifications are designed for typical academic tasks such as email, word processing, creating presentations, taking notes, accessing and participating in Elearning, and web conferencing.

Note: Please refer to the college-specific recommendations if you will be attending one of those programs.

General

PC Laptop	Minimum	Recommended
CPU:	i5 10th generation or newer	i7 10th generation or newer
Memory:	8 GB	16 GB
Storage:	256 GB SSD	512 GB SSD
GPU (Video):	Integrated	Integrated
Camera:	720p/Integrated	720p/Integrated
Min screen resolution:	1920x1080	1920x1080
Operating system:	Windows 10 Home (Or 11)	Windows 10 Professional (Or 11) Need to Upgrade?
Warranty:	none	3 years

Apple Laptop	Minimum	Recommended
CPU:	M1	M1
Memory:	8 GB	16 GB
Storage:	256 GB SSD	512 GB SSD
GPU (Video):	M1	M1
Camera:	720p/Integrated	720p/Integrated
Min screen resolution:	2560x1600	2560x1600
Operating system:	macOS 12 Monterey	Latest OS
Warranty:	none	3 years

College Specific

College of Arts and Sciences

Follow the general minimum (or recommended) unless listed here.

Students in Geography, Environment, and Tourism; Geological and Environmental Sciences; Mathematics; Statistics; Data Science; and Physics should follow the general recommended requirements.

Students in the School of Communication film, video, and media studies program should get at least the general recommended requirements. A larger storage drive and/or more memory could be of benefit as well.

College of Aviation

Follow the general minimum (or recommended) unless listed here.

Flight Sciences Students
For students progressing into specific training and licensing such as instrument and commercial flight, an iPad, 128 GB minimum, with cellular-capable is required for GPS MEMS.

College of Education and Human Development

Follow the general minimum unless listed here.

Design students:

	PC Laptop
CPU:	i7
Memory:	16 GB
Storage:	512 GB-1TB SSD
GPU (Video):	Accelerated, Gaming Support 1920 x 1080 resolution
Camera:	720p/Integrated
Min screen resolution:	1920x1080
Operating system:	Windows 10 Professional/11 Pro

College of Engineering and Applied Sciences

See the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences website for program-specific laptop requirements.
Computer Recommendations

College of Fine Arts

Follow the general recommended for a PC or Apple laptop unless listed here.

Theatre Design students:

An Apple or PC laptop with an i5 CPU and at least 16 GB of memory.

Multimedia Arts Technology students:

An Apple or PC laptop with an i7 CPU and at least 16 GB of memory. An external display is highly recommended.

Product Design and Interior Design students:

Dell XPS 14 Laptop 32GB Memory i7 Intel Core, 512 GB HD, NVIDIA@ GeForce GTX 3050
or,
14-inch MacBook Pro Laptop (with Parallels for Mac), 32 GB Memory, M2 Pro, 512 GB HD

Given the adopted software for both design programs run on Windows OS, the Dell XPS Laptop is preferred.

If the student desires to purchase the MacBook Pro they will need to purchase Parallels — a software package enabling the MacBook to run Windows OS.

wmich.edu/designinstitute

Photography and Intermedia students:

An Apple or PC laptop with an i7 CPU and at least 32 GB of memory.

Graphic Design students:

An Apple MacBook Pro with an i5 CPU and at least 32 GB of memory. An external display is highly recommended.

Kinetic Imaging students:

An Apple or PC laptop:

Apple
MacBook Pro 16-inch, M3 Max chip with 36GB unified memory or more, with a 14‑core CPU, 30‑core GPU, and 16‑core Neural Engine.

PC (3 recommended options)

Alienware m18 R2 Gaming Laptop, Intel® Core™ i9 14900HX, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4090, 64 GB RAM, 8 TB SSD
Alienware m16 R2 Gaming Laptop, Intel® Core™ Ultra 9 185H, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4070, 64 GB RAM, 8 TB SSD
PC Razer Blade 16, Intel Core i9-14900HX, GeForce RTX 4090, 32GB 5600MHz RAM, 2TB SSD. (Recommended for Game Art)

College of Health and Human Services

Follow the general recommended unless listed here.

	PC Laptop
CPU:	i5 U-series 8th generation
Memory:	8GB minimum 16 GB recommended
Storage:	256 GB SSD
Camera:	720p/Integrated
Min screen resolution:	1280x800 minimum
Operating system:	Windows Pro or greater

Hardware	Minimum Requirements
CPU:	Quad Core 2.4Ghz, Intel VT or AMD V (Intel i7 or better) Intel 12th Gen i5 or i7 or above is recommended Mac M1 or M2
Memory:	16 GB
Disk:	256 GB SSD512 GB SSD
Graphics:	1920 by 1080 resolution is recommended At least 1280 by 1024 resolution HDMI output recommended (adapter is acceptable)
Sound:	Mic in/Headphone out (either analog or free USB ports)
Mouse:	An external mouse (USB or Bluetooth) is desirable
USB:	USB 3.0 desirable for an external disk Other USB ports may be needed for: mouse, printer, mic-in and headphones-out, depending on how these are connected.
Wireless:	802.11n required 802.11ac is recommended
Operating system:	Windows 11 or macOS 13 or above
Note on Apple Systems:	MacBook Air or MacBook Pro can be used with similar hardware recommendations. Some software for certain majors may require the use of a computer lab system (in-person or remote access)
Warranty:	An extended warranty is recommended

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Laptop Recommendations

General

College Specific

Recommended

Dell

Apple

HP

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Microsoft