In this article, I will tell you laptops you can buy for Coding and Programming
Laptops For Web Dev
The things you need for web dev in a laptop are:
Display: A big ratio display is needed for multitasking let's say at one side you have your code editor open and on the other side chrome for results of the code you are writing but you have a 13-inch laptop, it would be really difficult for you to see your work and the results as well. On the other hand a 15-inch laptop will make you much more efficient and if you are a professional you may need a higher resolution and a higher screen size like 16-inch or 17-inch. Some Users buy a small ratio laptop for portability and then connect them to a bigger display, monitor, or even a TV.
RAM: You Need at least 8Gb of RAM Lower than that and it will kill your computer with loads of work. You Need Higher RAM For Multitasking 16GB Of RAM Should Be Enough. You Can Go Higher If You Are Gaming or Editing on the laptop as well.
Here are the loading times of 8GB Of Ram and 16GB Of RAM
Storage: You Should get an SSD For faster OS Boot and it will also make your work faster, Or you can also go for an SSHD. SSHD means a laptop that will have an SSD and an HDD for example 128GB SSD and 1TB HDD.
Now The Main Question Which Laptop
Well if you won't buy the best I will suggest you go for a MAC like if it is only for coding you can go for a Macbook Air($999) if you want to do video editing as well as coding you should go with a Macbook Pro ($2,399.00)
If You want to go with a Windows Laptop you should go with the HP Pavilion ($659.99) or Lenovo Thinkpad ($499.99) Series If You are planning to do video editing as well go with the Dell XPS 15 ($1,299.99)
Laptops for Mobile Dev
Well, I recommend a Mac for IOS Development and both mac & windows laptops for Android Development like Dell XPS, HP Pavilion, Lenovo Thinkpad, and Lenovo Ideapad. Well, You should have a nice budget because this would be a great and long-lasting investment.
Bonus
My recommendation laptop model list
- Apple Macbook Air M1 (2020)
- Lg Gram 17
- HP Spectre x360 (2021)
- Dell XPS 15
- Apple MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
Budget laptop list
Resources
https://www.mikenikles.com/blog/why-i-use-a-cloud-based-development-environment-and-how-you-can-too by @mikenikles
Thank You For Reading if you have any suggestions please DM me on Twitter or enter in the discussion.
Oldest comments (55)
Your only reason is because you can do both iOS and Android development? Developing Software is much more and thats just a single fact. You can also just setup a vm with macos and there you go. On mac there are many programs expensive, or do not exist. Ever laptop can be used as a development device. I would suggests that you not only suggest one single laptop but 3-4. Than people can choose what they like according to their preferences. (Dell XPS, Lenovo ThinkPad, Macbook, HP idk <- this are really great devices for development.)
I will Surely Update the article. Thank You
Hi Garvit,
Great article.
I would like to point only to one thing that should be updated.
SSHD is not 2 separate disks in a single laptop, it is actually one disk that uses tiny SSD as cache (usually 8GB SSD) so it works a bit faster than traditional HDDs (because it caches mostly used data to SSD.)
Of course, SSD is always a better option if it is in your price budget.
You are right i will make that change thank you @Marinko Tomic
My current laptop is an Acer Spin 5.
You laptop is good for only made one task at a time aim for a multitasking laptop next time
I have a Dell XPS 9570 with Ubuntu 20.04 and it is very performant ! This 15’ laptop is pretty good and I connect it with a TB Dock to have 2 more screens (1 portrait and 1 landscape).
1 Go SSD Samsung EVO 970
16 Go RAM
Perfect For all common tasks (like running Gulp, servers (Apache as well as ASP,...)
Dell XPS Is Awesome some of them are even better than macbooks
Dell XPS 15" and the New 17" are way more dope than Mac!
Sure it is! 😀😀
please man I don't know if you have anyone not in use out if your laptop I will like to please give me, I'm seriously in need Irvine to start my Development career.. please..
if you want to make enquiry about me here is my emailfunshoitadare@gmail.com thanks please help me out.
For some weid reason, I'm a huge fan of 13" Mac.
It is good for portability and you know you can connect them the monitors for more convenience
Your laptop is a beast Man!!!
I have an old ThinkPad L440 with an i7 and 8gb of ram. I run Fedora 32 on it's fine. I spent $200 on the laptop. This isn't what I use for work...for work I use a Dell XPS 17.
Well Thats Awesome You Have 2 Laptops To Work With You Can Surely Use Both Of Them
Well, the Dell is the property of my employer. I just use it for work purposes. The ThinkPad is mine, and I've just been using it to learn and build things.
Thinkpad is a beast. It is nice for multitasking and coding
For sure. I guess what I was getting at is that if someone is learning to code, they don't necessarily have to get a new or top tier machine. I spent $200 on an older thinkpad and it works just fine for my needs.
Ya You can go with a $200 machine but no one will buy another laptop when they have learnt the basics and are now an advanced developer, you can also say that it is kind of a "one time investment". I am saying this because i used my father's 8 year old laptop for coding and upgraded to a macbook after 10 months of development on that machine.
I bought a Lenovo IdeaPad C340 core i3, but I regret not buying the i5 one instead for the fit budget because I have a BSOD whenever I use the i3 one too much.
Don Not Regret It But what you have is good and aim for a better laptop next time
I bought gamer laptop. Why ? Because I want laptop with highest ram and cpus.
So I only found that.
I have asus tuf gamming laptop.
8 cores (ryzen 7) , 32gb ram, 4gb video, 500gb ssd.
The display is 17” , so the laptop is big and heavy , this is the only almost negative thing .
And offcourse I use it with Linux
Ya There is the disadvantage that you have to maintain that bulky laptop and carry it around. But Your Machine is awesome
yeah, but I dont carry it too much. And when you habituate to this awesome display (size and resolution), you dont want to change anymore :)
Ya it would be a nice thing not to carry it
My daily driver is an 11-inch refurbished ThinkPad with 4GB of RAM, and I've never had a problem.
It just doesn't take that much horsepower to run a text editor.
Ya But It sometimes lags in multitasking so I recommended to at least have 8GB RAM and you should have a bigger screen
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