Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#1

Post by smallegan » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 4:02 PM UTC

Anyone have any opinions on this? I've generally gone with macs in the past but it has been a good year or 2 since I have paid any attention to hardware and I'm not sure I buy the hype of the i3-i5-i7 performance increases. I want a solid performer and I don't want a glossy body that I feel like I have to wipe down every time I use it. If there is a site that you use that provides good rankings/ratings and isn't full of junk like cnet I'd love to hear about it!

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#2

Post by driverdan » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 4:07 PM UTC

Unless you absolutely need the higher resolution of a Pro, hands down MacBook Air. It's fast, small, light, and reasonably priced.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#3

Post by typicalrunt » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 4:15 PM UTC

Since I do mostly development nowadays, and little photo/movie-editing or other CPU intensive tasks, I'm looking for laptops with large battery times.

The Macbook Air (battery: 7 hours?) is a decent contender.

However, whenever I look at Lenovo or Dell laptops, they don't state how long the battery lasts, but instead state how big their battery is in kWh. I'm not sure but, while that may be more precise, it doesn't give me an overall clue to how many hours I should get out of the laptop on reasonably normal use.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#4

Post by thomas11 » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 4:19 PM UTC

driverdan wrote: post #2

Unless you absolutely need the higher resolution of a Pro, hands down MacBook Air. It's fast, small, light, and reasonably priced.

I'm a bit torn over the RAM limit of 4GB. It's ok now, but if I buy a machine in that price range I'd like it to be good a couple of years.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#5

Post by lucisferre » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 4:26 PM UTC

I've really enjoyed my MBP 15". I've heard the next gen MBP will be thinner and lighter as well, so likely I'll hold out on upgrading until those come out. http://thetechjournal.com/electronics/laptop/apple-macbook-p...

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#6

Post by vgrichina » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 4:30 PM UTC

thomas11 wrote: post #4

driverdan wrote: post #2

Unless you absolutely need the higher resolution of a Pro, hands down MacBook Air. It's fast, small, light, and reasonably priced.

I'm a bit torn over the RAM limit of 4GB. It's ok now, but if I buy a machine in that price range I'd like it to be good a couple of years.

I've got myself MacBook Air (last year's model) with 4GB RAM and now I realize that I could even be fine with 2GB model.

It works just damn smooth because of SSD, much better than my iMac with 4GB and faster CPU but regular HDD.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#7

Post by Rust » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 4:32 PM UTC

Like @lucisferre, I've been enjoying my 15" MBP for dev work. I miss my old 17" Dell for the higher resolution and vertical space, but it's a small price to pay.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#8

Post by pedalpete » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 4:38 PM UTC

Is the 'wipe down' comment related to the finish on macs? I've got a lenovo with a soft-touch finish (orange in my case), and it is great. The finish is durable, and I'm amazed how many mac owners look at my laptop and comment on how nice it is.

It has a much warmer feel than the air or it's copycats. I never thought I would buy lenovo, but I'm sold. They do need to improve battery life. I thought I'd never run down a 3 hour battery, but I'm surprised how often I do.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#9

Post by smadam9 » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 4:38 PM UTC

Lots of MBP/Air users here... :-)

However, at my office we've just ordered some Lenovo x121e's. All have an i3 processor, 8GB RAM, and SSD's. The speed is great, but the screen isn't so large for those of you that need large screen real estate (11.6"). We ordered them for portable "workstations" or something powerful and speedy enough for basic development tasks.

Battery life is great at about 6-8hrs, however the price can get quite high depending on your configuration.

Re: Ask HN:Best Development Laptop?

#10

Post by dlikhten » Fri, Dec 09, 2011, 4:43 PM UTC

typicalrunt wrote: post #3

Since I do mostly development nowadays, and little photo/movie-editing or other CPU intensive tasks, I'm looking for laptops with large battery times. The Macbook Air (battery: 7 hours?) is a decent contender. However, whenever I look at Lenovo or Dell laptops, they don't state how long the battery lasts, but instead state how big their battery is in kWh. I'm not sure but, while that may be more precise, it doesn't g…

I use macbook air. No quibbles with it. Maybe if it upped the Mhz to 2.5Ghz it would be ideal.

  - Quiet.
  - SSD = Fast
  - Works all day on one charge.
  - No glare (only purple light is reflected...)