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Ask HN: Smallest laptop that is decent for coding?

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Re: Ask HN: Smallest laptop that is decent for coding?

#44

Post by rock_artist »

JS/PHP can pretty much run on everything from 2018+. When adding Docker or NPM and some non-interpreted compilation involved that's where machine's power shines.

Pretty much any 8th gen / 10th gen ulta-low-voltage quad core would be more than sufficient.

As suggest, If you'd like the lockdown. the 2020 MacBook Air is finally an Apple machine balancing it all for developers.

The Lenovo Carbon X1 is also a power machine.

Main advantage choosing non-Mac machine is ability to replace key components. Most PCs even the slimmest, allow replacing at least the NVMe so you could get even 2TB for ~200$.

Smallest size you could go imho is 12". but keyboard is the 2nd key factor for a dev I guess.

Re: Ask HN: Smallest laptop that is decent for coding?

#47

Post by pachico »

I have tried many, believe me. First thing, if it has glossy screen I would quickly discard it - your vision health is worth much more than a pretty picture in Facebook. Having said this, I would go for dell XPS family. They are not cheap but they are very robust. In addition, screen border is almost nonexistent so all it's size is for your screen. Very good Linux support (there is a a version that ships with Ubuntu). Keyboard is fantastic and the combination of carbon fiber with aluminium works great, in my opinion. Give it a try.

Re: Ask HN: Smallest laptop that is decent for coding?

#48

Post by threeseed »

drej wrote: post #26

MacOS: check out the latest MacBook Air 13", the one just released - it has a new keyboard, better base disk configuration and it's cheaper than before. Windows: Dell XPS 13 has been the go-to laptop for years, they keep refreshing it, so make sure to get at least the 2019 model (which has a camera on the top of the screen, not the bottom), or ideally the 2020 model, which features a new keyboard and even smaller bez…

Also the new MacBook Air is significantly faster:

https://images.macrumors.com/t/xz5BJc9S6IZ0_9m5TUwd0AwNZmg=/...

Re: Ask HN: Smallest laptop that is decent for coding?

#49

Post by Flockster »

drej wrote: post #26

MacOS: check out the latest MacBook Air 13", the one just released - it has a new keyboard, better base disk configuration and it's cheaper than before. Windows: Dell XPS 13 has been the go-to laptop for years, they keep refreshing it, so make sure to get at least the 2019 model (which has a camera on the top of the screen, not the bottom), or ideally the 2020 model, which features a new keyboard and even smaller bez…

The MacBook is 16:10 to, which I found very nice.

Re: Ask HN: Smallest laptop that is decent for coding?

#50

Post by agloeregrets »

drej wrote: post #26

MacOS: check out the latest MacBook Air 13", the one just released - it has a new keyboard, better base disk configuration and it's cheaper than before. Windows: Dell XPS 13 has been the go-to laptop for years, they keep refreshing it, so make sure to get at least the 2019 model (which has a camera on the top of the screen, not the bottom), or ideally the 2020 model, which features a new keyboard and even smaller bez…

This is a great list but if they want something smaller than a 13 inch, I would add the surface go too. Seems like what they are asking for.
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