What Laptops do you guys use?

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 hours ago, bowrilla said:

For web stuff it doesn't really matter other than having the IE-equivalent of modern web dev at hand to troubleshoot: Safari.

If you're doing server side development, I'd argue that Windows by itself is meh. Though you could just build a Lubuntu VM and call it a day. Then again you should probably building a VM anyway to act as a test server so you have a controlled environment.

[bowrilla]

1 hour ago, leodaniel said:

I agree you don't need one, but having a unix based system is a benefit in my opinon (or for what I do, it's definitely a benefit). And I just love the ecosystem by now, will be hard for me to change to a windows laptop.

I term of price, it doesn't really matter to me as I use them over several years (I had a 2012 MBPr for over 5 years) usually without any problems. I am okey to pay a premium for the good service I always got.

For sure, you get awesome laptops from other brands, which may even be cheaper for the same performance. I didn't really check the prices lately, but I think for the same design, performance and build quality, we are anyway speaking of expensive hardware in more or less the same price category (+/- 300$).

 

But those are only my preferences  

That's the thing, current gen MBPs with i7s, 16GB Ram and at least 500GB SSD cost about 2500 to 3000 bucks depending on display size) while most competitors on the Ultrabook market charge 1400-1800 bucks. That's pretty significant. Sure MSRP for Lenovo's X1 is on par and so is Microsoft's Surface Laptop, at least Lenovo's notebooks have way lower street prices.

 

I do like macOS (even though I'm appalled by their deprecation of OpenGL, typical Apple move) but for serious web app development a proper Linux VM is imho key for actually trying your app in a realistic environment. I always have two or three different VMs at hand to simulate different server configs using deployment style setups. I do this on every system no matter Windows, macOS or even a native Linux system. If I need to I can just wipe it and get a fresh server. Docker is also a good option. 

 

That basically indicates the basic system specs you actually need to look for: the more cores and RAM the better for handling VMs. 

 

Again: not saying MBPs are bad or anything. They're nicely built and macOS is a great OS, the Apple premium is just getting harder and harder to justify. In the end it's a matter of personal preference as long as you're not developing for macOS or iOS devices.

[leodaniel]

40 minutes ago, bowrilla said:

Again: not saying MBPs are bad or anything. They're nicely built and macOS is a great OS, the Apple premium is just getting harder and harder to justify. In the end it's a matter of personal preference as long as you're not developing for macOS or iOS devices.

I completely agree here with you

 

41 minutes ago, bowrilla said:

That basically indicates the basic system specs you actually need to look for: the more cores and RAM the better for handling VMs. 

I agree, tho for my usage, I usually only have one or max 2 vms running and use docker too  but I still like to use the terminal quiet often, also for other tasks on my mac, like quickly editing a file, just having native PHP or whatever, ... I have to admit, since quiet some time I havent looked into developing on windows machines, as I am really happy with os x and linux

 

58 minutes ago, bowrilla said:

cost about 2500 to 3000 bucks depending on display size) while most competitors on the Ultrabook market charge 1400-1800 bucks.

Here again, I m not sure what is all included in that price. Anyway, if it's just around 500$ I would still argue, if you are seriously into development (or rely on your device), it doesn't matter... you amortize such a device in 2-3 years max. Will make a difference about ~200$ per year, which should not limit your choice by any means.

I really value great support and just being able to go to the apple store in my town and let it be repaired in a really short time is gold to me and again I don't know about the service of other laptops as I don't have any experience. So this could also be the case for other laptop manufacturers, I only want to say, this is something to consider when buying a laptop you will rely on

 

In the end, it is just personal preference

[Derpy360]

15 hours ago, bowrilla said:

While they are good (I am typing this on a late 2012 MBP, still gets the job done with 16GB RAM, SSD and an addition HDD instead of the optical drive, battery life is anything but great though), you get similar build quality and the same or better performance for a lot less money (Dell's XPS series, HP's Spectre series, Huawei's Matebook X, Lenovo's T480s or even X1 Carbon, LG's Gram if it's available at your area). For web stuff it doesn't really matter other than having the IE-equivalent of modern web dev at hand to troubleshoot: Safari. If you're not into iOS development you don't need a mac and get more for less. 

would a MacBook air work also? I was planning to buy it used than going to best buy and waste a grand on it.

[Meic]

When out and about I do all my programming over SSH (in vim) so I went for thin light and not too expensive: lenovo yoga 720 13

[Nineshadow]

Lenovo Y50, back from the days of Nvidia's 8xxM generation. Battery life is a bit meh, only ~3 hours, but the performance is still good even to this day. However, I also game on it, so there's that. I'm pretty sure I could do fine with just an ultrabook, and that's probably what I'm going to switch to in the near future.

[hadessin3]

Dell XPS 13 9370 (16GB Ram, 512GB SSD, 4K touch screen, i7-8550U)

 

Works perfectly, can get a full day of battery, silent (gets a bit hot under some load, but still acceptable), boots up very fast, just a few scaling problems with 4K with older software

I fully recommend the windows version, as if you need it, you can create a VM with any OS you need and it'll work perfectly

[bowrilla]

5 hours ago, Derpy360 said:

would a MacBook air work also? I was planning to buy it used than going to best buy and waste a grand on it.

Which model? Even the 2017 model only has 5th gen Intel CPUs with only 2 cores and you get a maximum of 8GB RAM. Imho not an ideal choice. It depends on the price I'd say. It's not terrible but there sure are better options. 

[wasab]

Acer aspire e5 with deepin Linux installed.

 

My desktop rig is custom amf fx 8320 and r9 380 with Ubuntu installed on it. 

 

[Derpy360]

8 hours ago, bowrilla said:

Which model? Even the 2017 model only has 5th gen Intel CPUs with only 2 cores and you get a maximum of 8GB RAM. Imho not an ideal choice. It depends on the price I'd say. It's not terrible but there sure are better options. 

What are the better options out there? 

[bowrilla]

2 hours ago, Derpy360 said:

What are the better options out there? 

You have a thread naming over a dozen decent to great laptops. Look for 4c8t, 16GB of ram and a battery life of your liking. I named a few of those ultrabook options. LTT did a bunch of videos testing great laptops and so on.

[Derpy360]

Thank you for everyone for helping me figuring out what laptop fit me

[aigars2]

Can't think of any Brand names but I can list certain things you must avoid. 1, non-integrated GPU. Go with integrated one's as they will conserve battery power. 2, small laptops as they have smaller battery. A bigger battery equals more battery life. 

[vorticalbox]

work laptop is a lenovo t520, i7, some nvida card and 16 GB of RAM

[mrchow19910319]

I have a 2017 macbook pro 13inch without touchbar.

and I upgraded the RAM to 16GB. 

 

ultra light, powerful enough for my coding usage. (web mostly) 

you get all the fantastic stuff about a mac. retina display, super long battery life, top support from apple. 

minus the ultra premium price. 

 

But dont forget when you get a new laptop, you can always sell your old one. I sold my 2012 non retina macbook pro for roughly 450 bucks. 

I dont recommend you buying a macbook air/pro right now. Wait for this year's refresh. 

[Random_User123]

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-15-6-laptop-amd-a6-series-4gb-memory-500gb-hard-drive-black-licorice/7888394.p?skuId=7888394
This is the laptop I'm using.

When I was younger, when I first bought this I kind of fucked my laptop and we had to ship it in.
HP didn't have any replacement 500gb hdd so they just put a tb hdd in it.

[JacobFW]

Currently using a lenovo T430 that I got off of ebay for $100 bucks.  It has great battery life, and it turns out the cpu was removable, so I bought a higher clocked one off of ebay for $80 and replaced it myself.

 

Unless you have a pressing need for a newer feature, I would HIGHLY recommend taking a look at used laptops on ebay.  Given that all but the most expensive laptops have thermal limitations, I doubt you'd notice the difference in many cases between a newer one and old one, especially if you add an ssd to it.

 

The main thing I'd recommend is to make sure you get one that has at least 8gb of ram, otherwise you'll be paying an extra $50-100 (depending on the number of available ram slots) to upgrade it.

[SpaceNugget]

I currently use the first xps 13 generation with the super thin bezels. It has 8gb of ram. I have a 16gb xps15 on its way by the end of the week. I REALLY recommend not getting anything with less than 16gb ram for programming. My current workflow has me regularly using over 8gb ram and waiting while my computer is "frozen" for a minute while it swaps to disk. Obviously there are different types of programming with different requirements, but lots of ultrabooks still ship with 8gb which is kind of a stretch even for non-programmers.

[BigCake]

Acer E5 575G. Really feasible laptop for programming.

 

i5 7200u

2GB 940MX

1TB HDD

16GB RAM

[SansVarnic]

-= Moved to Laptops and Pre-Built Systems =-

[BannedByAndroid]

On 6/24/2018 at 6:29 AM, aigars2 said:

Can't think of any Brand names but I can list certain things you must avoid. 1, non-integrated GPU. Go with integrated one's as they will conserve battery power. 2, small laptops as they have smaller battery. A bigger battery equals more battery life. 

1. Depends on use case. If he's gaming/3d modelling/whatever graphically-intensive a discrete card is a must have.

2. Larger laptop = bigger battery = bigger screen = more powerful internals (most of the time) = probably worse battery life.

[Tarun10]

On ‎6‎/‎21‎/‎2018 at 2:25 AM, Derpy360 said:

A list of things would be nice, budget or not. As long as they have long battery life.

Edit: I already have a pc so I don't need too much power such as gaming and video editing.

I use a HP Envy 15 x360. Don't recommend it unless you need the tablet mode. Other Envys are fine but the material with which it is made get scratched and stained easily. Battery life is average.

The LG Gram is a great option for light workloads and has a long battery life but it isn't as durable as the Dell XPS 15

[Tarun10]

On ‎7‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 2:00 PM, JacobFW said:

Currently using a lenovo T430 that I got off of ebay for $100 bucks.  It has great battery life, and it turns out the cpu was removable, so I bought a higher clocked one off of ebay for $80 and replaced it myself.

 

Unless you have a pressing need for a newer feature, I would HIGHLY recommend taking a look at used laptops on ebay.  Given that all but the most expensive laptops have thermal limitations, I doubt you'd notice the difference in many cases between a newer one and old one, especially if you add an ssd to it.

 

The main thing I'd recommend is to make sure you get one that has at least 8gb of ram, otherwise you'll be paying an extra $50-100 (depending on the number of available ram slots) to upgrade it.

Yeah that is a great idea especially for a second device. But one should also make sure that the screen is of decent quality.

[Tarun10]

On ‎6‎/‎28‎/‎2018 at 11:20 PM, dieegoperi said:

I use a Xiaomi Notebook Pro i7 8550U - 16GB RAM - 256 GB SSD - 15"...

It's nice, its metal unibody, its efficient CPU and 60Wh battery, that's all. The SSD is fast too, but... speakers downside, terrible screen for gaming (a LOT of tearing), terrible keyboard for gaming (a LOT of ghosting), keyboard in US layout (I'm from Spain), sometimes the fans go full load even if I'm not doing anything and it's in eco mode...

Well, not really recommended, seems like Xiaomi doesn't care as long as he sells a lot

I have most of the same problems with my HO Envy 15 x360. Keyboard is terrible. Screen is below 215 nots brightness. The fans ramp up randomly and laptop gets hot even under light loads even after under volting. Furthermore Battery life is around 5 hours with brightness at 50%

[SeraphicWings]

Macbook Pro 13 inch Non-Touchbar 2017 with 256GB and 7th Gen Core i5

While the spec is almost bottom-tier in 2018, it does the job well and MacOS is worth it

Two things I found dissatisfied with is the aluminium body, it's very vulnerable to scratches and cracks despite my hardest effort trying to handle it carefully. And the keyboard, very uncomfortable to use shortcuts and the design flaw of the butterfly switch, which, I guess a lot of people have already known.