Budget 71-90K Looking for a new laptop for development, not gaming

A

ashayc

Novice
Hi,

I'm looking for recommendations for a new laptop. My primary concern is the weight of the laptop and the battery life. I have a gaming PC, so that isn't really a use case for me.

I'm open to both MacOS as well as Windows. But for MacOS, I've been recommended to wait for M1X. The price budget is around $1000, and since I'm getting it from the US, please suggest according to that market. The touchpad for the MacBooks is obviously a plus, but any recommendations for Windows?

Thanks in advance!
 
Have a look at for business laptops.
Dell has latitude, precision
Lenovo has thinkpad T and P series

P series might be on heavier side but T series are fine
Precision is smoothly finished full metallic body

But I heard very good reviews reg. latest Mac Air with M1 chip.

Since you are looking for development, you should look what tools u would use and how is their support on win/mac

Also, You will be getting fantastic prices if you can delay ur purchase till black friday deals.
 
frozenscotch said:
Have a look at for business laptops.
Dell has latitude, precision
Lenovo has thinkpad T and P series

P series might be on heavier side but T series are fine
Precision is smoothly finished full metallic body

But I heard very good reviews reg. latest Mac Air with M1 chip.

Since you are looking for development, you should look what tools u would use and how is their support on win/mac

Also, You will be getting fantastic prices if you can delay ur purchase till black friday deals.
Click to expand...
For the M1 I've heard the back to school sales are same as Black Friday. So if I decide to get the M1, will get it immediately.

For windows I'll likely buy during black friday. Any things to wait for in the windows laptop segment? That's coming out in the next few months?
 
For windows lappys, naa .. Same old new generation processors every year or two that intel keeps on releasing.

Do prefer lappys that i7 or xeon based, has RAM and storage upgradable. I believe this setup shud be able to meet ur requirements for good num of years.

And if u insist on light weight, sleek and better battery, the new age ultra books can do that but they have their ram's soldered and single slot for hdd/sdd, so that will limit ur options at later stage.
So you need to choose what works for u
 
frozenscotch said:
For windows lappys, naa .. Same old new generation processors every year or two that intel keeps on releasing.

Do prefer lappys that i7 or xeon based, has RAM and storage upgradable. I believe this setup shud be able to meet ur requirements for good num of years.

And if u insist on light weight, sleek and better battery, the new age ultra books can do that but they have their ram's soldered and single slot for hdd/sdd, so that will limit ur options at later stage.
So you need to choose what works for u
Click to expand...
Yeah, got what you mean. Thanks for your help!
 
Honestly if it's for software development / coding go for the MacBook. They are way better than what any windows offering in terms of display, processing power & battery life.

Battery life is literally similar to a modern day smartphone. Some review I saw and the M1 mac had 16hrs of battery life, which is just crazy.

Do wait for the M1X if time isn't an issue as it's going to support more RAM.
 
The use of M1 is heavily dependent on your workflow. I have a workflow where I cross compile C/C++ code for multiple arch using toolchains hosted in docker (linux/linux-x86_64/linux-armv7/linux-armv8/android) and natively for darwin(macOS/iPhoneOS/simulator) and as such the toolchains are still difficult to run natively on M1. I did a quick test and so far my intel hackintosh compiles all libs in 5mins(PC)/8mins(Laptop) where as M1 is taking 15mins. I know its due to the additional rosetta2 layer but then again I cant help the poor toolchain support right now.

For workflows which are more towards web development/backend I believe a M1 would perform much better but when dockers get involved be sure you have the arm versions of the images available to reduce the virtualisation.

If your work load supports it then M1 macbook pro(16GB RAM is must) > Dell Latitude/Lenovo Thinkpad. I have not used a thinkpad since T420, last latitude used was 7490 and it was a really nice machine overall. But I have a soft spot for thinkpads :). Overall as an OS I would prefer macOS or Linux over Windows for development, but thats a personal choice.

EDIT: You can checkout this channel for workflow comparisons.
 
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ReVo_007 said:
The use of M1 is heavily dependent on your workflow. I have a workflow where I cross compile C/C++ code for multiple arch using toolchains hosted in docker (linux/linux-x86_64/linux-armv7/linux-armv8/android) and natively for darwin(macOS/iPhoneOS/simulator) and as such the toolchains are still difficult to run natively on M1. I did a quick test and so far my intel hackintosh compiles all libs in 5mins(PC)/8mins(Laptop) where as M1 is taking 15mins. I know its due to the additional rosetta2 layer but then again I cant help the poor toolchain support right now.

For workflows which are more towards web development/backend I believe a M1 would perform much better but when dockers get involved be sure you have the arm versions of the images available to reduce the virtualisation.

If your work load supports it then M1 macbook pro(16GB RAM is must) > Dell Latitude/Lenovo Thinkpad. I have not used a thinkpad since T420, last latitude used was 7490 and it was a really nice machine overall. But I have a soft spot for thinkpads :). Overall as an OS I would prefer macOS or Linux over Windows for development, but thats a personal choice.

EDIT: You can checkout this channel for workflow comparisons.
Click to expand...
This is incredibly helpful, thanks for this!
At the moment I'm a CS student, so virtualization is nice to have, but I have a Hackintosh for those tasks anyway. Any other cons you have against the M1? Just trying to get as clear a picture as possible
 
ashayc said:
This is incredibly helpful, thanks for this!
At the moment I'm a CS student, so virtualization is nice to have, but I have a Hackintosh for those tasks anyway. Any other cons you have against the M1? Just trying to get as clear a picture as possible
Click to expand...
considering the fact you wont be cross compiling your code and might have some time to work on android, it should be a good purchase :)
 
Take a look at the Acer Swift X. Launched recently in the US and for about 1000USD there is 16GB RAM, Ryzen 5800U, 400nits screen, battery life almost as good as Air M1, expandable storage and RAM, and RTX 3050ti. Way better value than M1 if you are not restricted to MacOS.

Here's a review:
 
TheCoolerPlayer said:
Take a look at the Acer Swift X. Launched recently in the US and for about 1000USD there is 16GB RAM, Ryzen 5800U, 400nits screen, battery life almost as good as Air M1, expandable storage and RAM, and RTX 3050ti. Way better value than M1 if you are not restricted to MacOS.

Here's a review:
Click to expand...
but I cannot import a laptop!
 
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