This article will guide you to choose the best laptop for programming in 2017.
As a programmer or developer it becomes really confusing to pick a best laptop from thousands of laptops available in the market. It becomes even more difficult for a person who is just starting programming.
Below I have shared some key points that will definitely help you to pick a perfect laptop for working on any programming technology.
Also Read: 15 Most Common Bad Programming Practices
How to Choose Best Laptop for Programming?
RAM
It is the first most important thing that you should look. A laptop with 8GB RAM is an ideal choice but 16GB RAM would the best choice. If your budget is too low then you can go with 4GB RAM also.
Believe me it really sucks working on a low performance machine. Earlier I used to do android app development on a laptop with 4GB RAM. It was so annoying because everything works really slow.
So I would highly recommend you a 16GB RAM laptop if you are a mobile app developer.
Best Choice: 16GB RAM
Ideal Choice: 8GB RAM
Low Budget Choice: 4GB RAM
Processor
Good processor and RAM should be your highest priority while choosing a laptop for programming. As a programmer or developer we have to do multitasking. When I do programming or development I have to open few IDEs along with a browser with several tabs opened. For such purpose a good processor is required.
A laptop with i5 processor is an ideal choice. You can go with i7 processor if you have huge budget and for low budget you can go with i3 processor.
Best Choice: i7 Processor
Ideal Choice: i5 Processor
Low Budget Choice: i3 Processor
Graphic Card
Integrate graphic card is not necessary until you are not doing game development or some high graphics related work. But if you are a game developer then you must go with a laptop with external graphic card.
Best Choice (Specially For Game Developers): External Graphic Card (2GB or 4GB)
Ideal and Low Budget Choice (For Other Developers): Integrated Graphic Card
Storage
SSD and HDD are two storage types that laptops have. SSD gives faster performance but costlier than HDD. Its great if you can afford a SSD storage type laptop. But if you can’t then go with HDD and later on you can use some external SSD storage.
Battery Life
If you mostly work at places where power supply is not available then you must choose a laptop with huge battery life. Otherwise these days almost all laptops come with moderate battery backup.
Below I have shared some laptops that I believe are good for programmers. Even if you don’t like any of them you can consider above points to pick a best laptop according to your usage.
10 Best Laptops for Programmers and Developers in 2017
1. HP Pavilion 15-au117tx
Price: Rs. 82,500
RAM: 16GB DDR4
Processor: 2.7GHz Intel Core i7-7500U 7th Gen
Graphic Card: Nvidia GeForce 940MX 4GB
Storage: 2TB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
2. Inspiron i7-15RSLV Dell
Price: Rs. 68,500
RAM: 16GB
Processor: 6th Gen i7
Graphic Card: 4GB AMD
Storage: 1TB hard drive
3. Apple MacBook Air MMGF2HN/A
Price: Rs. 58,800
RAM: 8GB DDR3
Processor: 1.6GHz Intel Core i5
Graphic Card: Intel Integrated
Storage: 128GB
4. HP Pavilion 15-AU111TX
Price: Rs. 55,990
RAM: 8GB DDR4
Processor: 7th Gen CORE i5 7200U
Graphic Card: 2GB Graphics NVIDIA
Storage: 1TB
5. Dell Inspiron 5559
Price: Rs. 56,500
RAM: 8GB
Processor: Intel 6th Generation Core i5-6200U
Graphic Card: AMD Radeon R5 M335 2GB
Storage: 1TB
6. Lenovo Ideapad 500-15ISK Notebook
Price: Rs.56,490
RAM: 8GB DDR3L
Processor: 6th Gen Intel Core i5
Graphic Card: AMD 4GB
Storage: 1TB HDD
7. Lenovo G50-80
Price: Rs.34,490
RAM: 8GB DDR3L
Processor: 2GHz Intel Core i3-5005U
Graphic Card: AMD Radeon 2GB
Storage: 1TB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
8. HP 15-AY079TX
Price: Rs.37,290
RAM: 8GB DDR3
Processor: 2GHz Intel Core i3-5005U
Graphic Card: AMD Radeon 2GB
Storage: 1TB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
9. Lenovo Ideapad
Price: Rs.23,990
RAM: 4GB DDR3L
Processor: Core i3 5th Gen
Graphic Card: Integrated Graphics
Storage: 1TB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
10. HP 15-be003TU
Price: Rs.26,990
RAM: 4GB DDR3L
Processor: Core i3 5th Gen
Graphic Card: Integrated Graphics
Storage: 1TB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
Comment below if I have any tips for choosing best laptop for programming and development.
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