Choosing a laptop for programming, etc

[xordon]

Hey everyone, I'm mostly a lurker so this is my first post.

 

I'm in the market for a new laptop and with black friday coming up I figured now is the time to start researching and comparing. My use cases are light web surfing, some video watching, ocasional photo/video editing but mainly a for writing some code on the side. I am a stickler for the details and as such I've mostly stuck with Macbook Pro's for the last number of years.

 

Here is what I'm looking for:

- small-ish (13-14" and lightweight)

- no touch screen with at least 1080p resolution

- USB-C charging (less cables and bricks when traveling with a USB-C phone)

- 16gb ram

- recent cpu (8th gen or newer I'm told is good)

- decent keyboard

- decent trackpad

- OS X, or supports linux fully

- excellent build quality (it's the little things that bother me)

 

Macbook Pro 13"

Price: $$$

Pros: OS X works great and tooling is great (terminal, homebrew etc), nice big trackpad, good build quality (keyboard aside)

Cons: kind of pricey given the spec's and the keyboards are bad

 

Librem 13 v4

Price: $$

Pros: cool idea, open source everything, security focused and ready to go out of the box, really like the hardware switches for camera and mic

Cons: I've heard the trackpad is kind of bad, sometimes misaligned with the case, and the build quality in general isn't the best. Also the pure open source stance means they sacrifice convenience for ideological reason eg: no proper nvidia drivers by default

 

System76 Galago Pro / Darter Pro

Price: $$

Pros: ready to go linux laptop

Cons: I've heard they have some compatibility issues with various linux distros, and the hardware build quality isn't the best, popOS also doesn't include non-free drivers by default etc

 

Dell XPS 13

Price: $$$

Pros: decent specs, nice and compact

Cons: getting one with 16gb of ram is pricy and I would have to install a linux myself but should work with Ubuntu just fine

 

Lenovo X1 Carbon

Price: $$$$

Pros: best keyboard from what I hear, good specs, everything is good

Cons: the nub in the middle of the keyboard, I would have to install a linux myself but should work with Ubuntu just fine

 

Anything else I should be considering? Anything I got wrong in my estimates? Should I just get another Macbook Pro and deal with the shitty keyboard? Should I just get a $200 burner and lower my expectations?

[Streetguru]

27 minutes ago, xordon said:

 

Are you going to be actually compiling things on it a lot or running a lot of virtual machines?

 

Thinkpad all day everyday, but just get a used older model if you don't need a graphics card.

[amdorintel]

1 hour ago, Streetguru said:

Thinkpad all day everyday, but just get a used older model if you don't need a graphics card.

I agree, thinkpads are great laptops!

used laptops are so cheap!

[DrMacintosh]

1 hour ago, xordon said:

Macbook Pro 13"

Price: $$$

Pros: OS X works great and tooling is great (terminal, homebrew etc), nice big trackpad, good build quality (keyboard aside)

Cons: kind of pricey given the spec's and the keyboards are bad

 

One key factor that wasn’t mentioned is that you can run Windows natively with Bootcamp or in a VM with a Mac. Enabling you to program in any language, not just be locked down into languages that run on macOS or Windows. 
 

Further, I believe it must be mentioned that the 2019 models of MacBook Pro seem to have had the keyboard problems mostly put to bed. 
 

I recommend a 2019 13” MBP, it simply gives you so much versatility and expansion possibilities thanks to being loaded with Thunderbolt. 

[ManyCoresGuy]

2 hours ago, xordon said:

Hey everyone, I'm mostly a lurker so this is my first post.

 

I'm in the market for a new laptop and with black friday coming up I figured now is the time to start researching and comparing. My use cases are light web surfing, some video watching, ocasional photo/video editing but mainly a for writing some code on the side. I am a stickler for the details and as such I've mostly stuck with Macbook Pro's for the last number of years.

 

Here is what I'm looking for:

- small-ish (13-14" and lightweight)

- no touch screen with at least 1080p resolution

- USB-C charging (less cables and bricks when traveling with a USB-C phone)

- 16gb ram

- recent cpu (8th gen or newer I'm told is good)

- decent keyboard

- decent trackpad

- OS X, or supports linux fully

- excellent build quality (it's the little things that bother me)

 

Macbook Pro 13"

Price: $$$

Pros: OS X works great and tooling is great (terminal, homebrew etc), nice big trackpad, good build quality (keyboard aside)

Cons: kind of pricey given the spec's and the keyboards are bad

 

Librem 13 v4

Price: $$

Pros: cool idea, open source everything, security focused and ready to go out of the box, really like the hardware switches for camera and mic

Cons: I've heard the trackpad is kind of bad, sometimes misaligned with the case, and the build quality in general isn't the best. Also the pure open source stance means they sacrifice convenience for ideological reason eg: no proper nvidia drivers by default

 

System76 Galago Pro / Darter Pro

Price: $$

Pros: ready to go linux laptop

Cons: I've heard they have some compatibility issues with various linux distros, and the hardware build quality isn't the best, popOS also doesn't include non-free drivers by default etc

 

Dell XPS 13

Price: $$$

Pros: decent specs, nice and compact

Cons: getting one with 16gb of ram is pricy and I would have to install a linux myself but should work with Ubuntu just fine

 

Lenovo X1 Carbon

Price: $$$$

Pros: best keyboard from what I hear, good specs, everything is good

Cons: the nub in the middle of the keyboard, I would have to install a linux myself but should work with Ubuntu just fine

 

Anything else I should be considering? Anything I got wrong in my estimates? Should I just get another Macbook Pro and deal with the shitty keyboard? Should I just get a $200 burner and lower my expectations?

First off welcome to the forum! As to your question, i would lean towards the Macbook Pro 15 inch to do coding. I say 15 inch because you will need the extra screen real estate to view your code in your IDE unless you want to do a lot of scrolling. I have a 2018 model with the notorious bad keyboard but its been good to me so far (Knocks on wood). From what i heard though, Apple will upgrade your keyboard to the new design for free. https://support.apple.com/keyboard-service-program-for-mac-notebooks

[xordon]

6 hours ago, Streetguru said:

Are you going to be actually compiling things on it a lot or running a lot of virtual machines?

 

Thinkpad all day everyday, but just get a used older model if you don't need a graphics card.

Probably a bit of both. My normal workflow is to start a few services in a VM or docker and then write my code that uses them.

 

Every time I look at a laptop I always end up comparing it in my head to the X1 Carbon or the MBP...

[Streetguru]

11 minutes ago, xordon said:

Probably a bit of both. My normal workflow is to start a few services in a VM or docker and then write my code that uses them.

 

Every time I look at a laptop I always end up comparing it in my head to the X1 Carbon or the MBP...

Do you need battery life? Because the R7 1700 laptop with a decent GPU, is "cheap" now

Dunno if it supports upgrading the CPU but it is a desktop socket...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/ASUS-ROG-STRIX-Gaming-Laptop-Ryzen-7-1700-16GB-RX580-1TB-GL702ZC-WB74-EB10294/264277672724?hash=item3d882d4314:g:QEAAAOSwGoJct6Z3

 

or these are the cheapest "8 core" laptops on newegg

https://www.newegg.com/p/1TS-000A-06HH3

https://www.newegg.com/p/1TS-000A-06MM0