Laptop for Programming

[Dragomir_]

Hey guys,

 

So my friend needs his first laptop for Software engenering.

 

He's buying this out of his student budget... 

 

Requirements:

Good battery life.

Good build quality (He's obsessed)

 

Use:

Programming (Visual Studeo)

Web design (HTML 5 and PHP)

Database Management (Oracle, SQL Server)

 

Thank you

 

[SupaKomputa]

Any ultrabooks will do.

For best typing experience i suggest Lenovo Thinkpad, their keyboard is flawless.

 

For best battery life i think Apple Macbooks are the best.

Macbooks are more versatile as you can make mac / ios apps with it.

It also can run windows through bootcamp.

 

For progamming purpose you really don't need a high end laptops.

Things i would consider:

- biggest screen possible (more real estate)

- good keyboard for typing

- lowest energy consumption cpu possible (i3 or maybe i5 max)

[EG!]

33 minutes ago, Dragomir_ said:

Requirements:

Good battery life.

Good build quality (He's obsessed)

 

Use:

Programming (Visual Studeo)

Web design (HTML 5 and PHP)

Database Management (Oracle, SQL Server)

 

11 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Lenovo Thinkpad

For best battery life i think Apple Macbooks are the best.

Macbooks are more versatile as you can make mac / ios apps with it.

It also can run windows through bootcamp.

Don't buy a macbook, Microsoft won't let you use Visual Studio on OSX and running windows on a mac is not such a nice experience.

Visual Studio's requirements are 4gb ram, 1.8ghz dual core+ and preferably an ssd.

So I had an 8gb 1.8ghz dual core and a hdd and it sucked running VS 2015 and later 2017

so I would advice 16gb ram for running VMs (8gb will be the minimum) and it would be best to have an ssd of 128gb or more (alot of read writes), cpu 1.8ghz dual or more (won't be the bottleneck but compiling goes faster with a better cpu)

Webdesign can be done on any laptop, sql server isn't really taxing either.

The cheapest laptops with these requirements might be gaming laptops but those don't have great battery duration.

As @SupaKomputa said a Lenovo Thinkpad could do the job.

[SupaKomputa]

2 minutes ago, EG! said:

Don't buy a macbook, Microsoft won't let you use Visual Studio on OSX and running windows on a mac is not such a nice experience.

Yes Visual Studio won't run on OSX. But in my experience running windows on mac is just as good.

It differs in a couple of keyboard layouts, if you don't like it you can just plug a windows usb keyboard.

It's more versatile when you really need to use Visual Studio, you can.

On the other hand when you need to build for apple, you can't with a windows laptop.

*hackintoshing is another story...

[EG!]

4 minutes ago, SupaKomputa said:

Yes Visual Studio won't run on OSX. But in my experience running windows on mac is just as good.

It differs in a couple of keyboard layouts, if you don't like it you can just plug a windows usb keyboard.

It's more versatile when you really need to use Visual Studio, you can.

On the other hand when you need to build for apple, you can't with a windows laptop.

*hackintoshing is another story...

I used a VM when I tried out Swift and it was ok but my classmates with macs hadn't such a great experience with dualbooting windows on their macs, maybe they did something wrong I just remember them interupting class because it only worked half the time.

But build quality and battery life is when you should look at an Apple device.

They hold their value well so the price might be high but if you sell it after your studies it'll still be worth something.

[genexis_x]

What's his budget?

[SupaKomputa]

Using OSX in VM is the same as hackintoshing, you will get the same headache when its gone wrong.

It will sit on top of your os not really a good experience for me. Different machine, different result.

On the other hand bootcamping is a better experience, the hardware talks straight to the os just like you install it on a pc.

The difference is just the keyboard layout, that's about it.

And if you wan't to take the VM route, VM-ing windows on a mac is better than the other way.

And its legal.

 

i'm not a apple fans though, last macbook i had was a 2008 white macbook, use it only when i want to go mobile.

[Tarun10]

2 hours ago, Dragomir_ said:

Hey guys,

 

So my friend needs his first laptop for Software engenering.

 

He's buying this out of his student budget... 

 

Requirements:

Good battery life.

Good build quality (He's obsessed)

 

Use:

Programming (Visual Studeo)

Web design (HTML 5 and PHP)

Database Management (Oracle, SQL Server)

 

Thank you

 

What is the budget??? If he can afford an ultrabook then the Dell XPS 13/15 for good build quality and the LG Gram for best battery life and weight but sacrifice a bit on build quality. Unless your friend wants to complicate stuff with dual boot on a Macbook, it is not worth it. Besides their older dual cores are very slow in comparison. The Thinkpad is also a great choice.

[Dragomir_]

2 hours ago, EG! said:

Don't buy a macbook, Microsoft won't let you use Visual Studio on OSX and running windows on a mac is not such a nice experience.

Visual Studio's requirements are 4gb ram, 1.8ghz dual core+ and preferably an ssd.

So I had an 8gb 1.8ghz dual core and a hdd and it sucked running VS 2015 and later 2017

so I would advice 16gb ram for running VMs (8gb will be the minimum) and it would be best to have an ssd of 128gb or more (alot of read writes), cpu 1.8ghz dual or more (won't be the bottleneck but compiling goes faster with a better cpu)

Webdesign can be done on any laptop, sql server isn't really taxing either.

The cheapest laptops with these requirements might be gaming laptops but those don't have great battery duration.

As @SupaKomputa said a Lenovo Thinkpad could do the job.

Thank you 

 

Yes, I said similar... But yeah second opinions are probably best... 

 

Personally I would opt for a quad core (Visual Studeo and sql servel... Keep in mind he will be hosting a server that connects to SQL Server and 2 other VS apps )

 

But thanks to you all.

[Tarun10]

On ‎8‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 7:50 PM, Dragomir_ said:

Thank you 

 

Yes, I said similar... But yeah second opinions are probably best... 

 

Personally I would opt for a quad core (Visual Studeo and sql servel... Keep in mind he will be hosting a server that connects to SQL Server and 2 other VS apps )

 

But thanks to you all.

So then a good Thinkpad or Dell XPS