Laptop for future Mechanical Engineering student

[BoonK]

Hello guys, I am joining Mechanical engineering class this coming September and is looking for a new portable machine. I am currently looking at the surface pro 4 w/ i5 256 gb 8gb ram without descrete graphic card, is this enough to last me through the entire course?

Or is there any alternative suggestion to this? I am actually looking something really portable like a tablet.

 

[BoonK]

uhm, the list of softwares will be like... inventor, matlab, solidworks and etc, need to find out more when i start my class

I read through some of the article and realised most of the stuffs r done in computer lab, so was wondering if I should invest in a not-so-portable laptop but fully functional, or just get a ultra-portable machine like surface to get my through most reports.

Thanks for the help