Hi,

A laptop or a desktop is an absolute necessity for every engineering student. But, it is not mandatory to have a laptop in the first semester as you may not have your core coding subjects ( it changes with respect to universities and syllabus. If there is a necessity of laptop, the college authorities will inform you). However, from second year onwards having a laptop or a desktop with windows 10 or Linux will be necessary. It is good to have a laptop if you are a coder or need to learn coding basics in the first year itself. Also, if online classes are going to be conducted for long, laptop will be a good option.

So, it is better to first understand your syllabus and buying a good product suitable for your studies later on when you feel the need of using it.

Hope this was helpful