Developer Laptop? Mac

[SeaPanda]

Hey guys, 

I have finally hit the wall with windows not having some developer technology that I need. My plan is to keep my current laptop,a MSI Ghost Pro 4k, for graphics and games & then purchase a smaller laptop for just development and classwork.

I have been looking at refurbished Macbook airs($600) because they're small and have a nice battery, I only get 3.5 hours with my current rig.Also I could get a nice pair of headphones if I went this route. My only concern is performance, I use android studio with its emulator and I know that's a resource hog. My next option is a Macbook Pro, I'm looking for a 13 inch because my msi is a 15 inch and I want a smaller form factor. A coworker said to get the 15 inch because of its quad-core cpu and because virtualization and Docker containers will slow it down... Any developers on here would like to give me input and direction on which way to go?

[TheGlenlivet]

7 minutes ago, Sebastian Kurpiel said:

Hey guys, 

I have finally hit the wall with windows not having some developer technology that I need. My plan is to keep my current laptop,a MSI Ghost Pro 4k, for graphics and games & then purchase a smaller laptop for just development and classwork.

I have been looking at refurbished Macbook airs($600) because they're small and have a nice battery, I only get 3.5 hours with my current rig.Also I could get a nice pair of headphones if I went this route. My only concern is performance, I use android studio with its emulator and I know that's a resource hog. My next option is a Macbook Pro, I'm looking for a 13 inch because my msi is a 15 inch and I want a smaller form factor. A coworker said to get the 15 inch because of its quad-core cpu and because virtualization and Docker containers will slow it down... Any developers on here would like to give me input and direction on which way to go?

Not sure what specs your Ghost has, but is there a virtualization solution to this problem instead of buying a whole new machine...?

[SeaPanda]

1 minute ago, TheGlenlivet said:

Not sure what specs your Ghost has, but is there a virtualization solution to this problem instead of buying a whole new machine...?

It's a powerful machine, I'm thinking about running docker but the issue I have is portability and battery life. 

[TheGlenlivet]

Ah.  Well the Mac will fix both of those issues.  I guess you should go for it then.

[Mira Yurizaki]

13 minutes ago, Sebastian Kurpiel said:

It's a powerful machine, I'm thinking about running docker but the issue I have is portability and battery life. 

If you're on the battery often, then I don't think even a Macbook would help. Performance tends to suffer across the board when you go on the battery.