
Ask HN: What's best laptop for programmer in 2020? - bartq
I&#x27;ve been long time Apple user as a programmer, I used multiple MacBook Pros of 13 and 15 inch screen size. Now I have MacBook 12 (no longer produced) and iMac 27&quot;. Additionally I have iPad Pro, but it&#x27;s almost useless as a device for work. I also use 2019 MacBook Pro 15 with touchbar (I&#x27;m equipped with it by my employer) which is awful and amazing at the same time. I wouldn&#x27;t spend my own money on it though.<p>Best Apple machine ever for me is my iMac 27, because it has beautiful 27 inch 5k screen, it&#x27;s almost always almost completely silent and wireless keyboard never heats.<p>Additional word about MacBook 12 - it&#x27;s beautiful, has no fans, looks gorgeous, so lightweight, but works best for scrolling static content and typing in native apps (web apps are noticeably slower).<p>I&#x27;m thinking about another laptop for work, but not MacBook. What would you recommend?
======
mattlondon
Any windows/linux laptop is fine. You can program on anything. It really
doesn't matter - you can run VS Code on a Chromebook these days so as long as
you have something to SSH into a mid-range Chromebook will be fine.

ThinkPads have traditionally had good keyboards and build quality. People say
the Dell XPS range is good but I personally have been dissatisfied with them
(clunky, heavy build with bad design oversights like no easy way to open the
lid without slipping fingernails into the gap etc)

Like a lot of consumer hardware these days, the "gamer" stuff tends to offer a
good spec at a reasonable price if you can avoid anything without too much of
the lame RGB lights and dragon stickers etc.

~~~
tuatoru
Any "business grade" laptop. Ex lease.

The keyboards on Thinkpads are easily replaceable, and you can get replacement
batteries (in several capacities) and trackpads much more easily for
"business" laptops than consumer ones. The same probably applies to Latitudes
and Probooks.

For a long time Thinkpads were one of a very few laptops with display
resolutions above 1366x768, but those days are now long past.

------
giantg2
I use a 13 year old Dell for most things. I believe it's 32 bit, 3.8GB RAM,
2.4GH dual core, and 256GB SSD (upgrade) running windows 10.

~~~
KindOne
I think you mean 256GB SSD.

~~~
giantg2
Yes, good catch.

------
dougbarrett
If I wasn't using a Macbook, I'd be running an XPS (any size) with Elementary
OS. I was running that briefly between Macbooks and loved it, but
unfortunately a few weeks after purchasing it the company I work for switched
VPN's and the new one no longer supported Linux, so I went back to using a
Macbook.

I'm sure Windows is fine as well,

------
Austin_Conlon
The updated 16-inch MacBook Pro seems to be well-received among programmers:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21523780](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21523780).

------
cdnsteve
Desktop unless you travel or build iOS apps, especially with Covid and homes
offices, way faster hardware with great upgrade options. Windows 10 Pro with
docker and wsl 2 is good. I can put in a monster video card or cpu for ML or
do anything I want.

I've owned macs since late 90s and am done with them. No more dongle madness.
Touchbar was horrid. Ive had multiple $5k macbooks pros fail, literally video
and drive failures and the new gen weld hardware in so you cant do anything,
even minor upgrades.

My current MBP is now randomly freezing for no reason. Ive had folks on my
team had batteries die. Going back to PC!

------
resdev
Just stick to MacBooks, you’ll regret on anything else that runs on Windows
especially for programming. Current Linux laptop hardware is not even
comparable to quality of Apple.

------
_ozde
I am a big fan of Thinkpads and I am eyeing for X1 Nano which is rumored to be
released late this year. It will have Tiger Lake CPU which was announced a
couple days ago and it is 13 in laptop with 16:10 resolution.

[https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-
ThinkPad-X1-Titanium-X1...](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-
ThinkPad-X1-Titanium-X1-Nano-ThinkPad-X12-leak-on-Verizon-s-
website.491389.0.html).

------
dyingkneepad
Tiger Lake was announced by Intel just yesterday... Lots of new laptop models
are going to be announced in the following days, all using the brand new
processor. Tiger Lake has an improved CPU but also a _much_ better graphics
card compared to all the previous generations, and it seems it is comparable
even with the nvidia/amd cards that are in many laptops. We're soon going to
see some benchmarks, I hope.

~~~
wdroz
Maybe my next setup will be a Tiger Lake ultrabook with an external GPU (RTX
3090?) through Thunderbolt.

An Ultrabook with AMD (4800U?) would also be interesting, but eGPU setups are
more complicated without TB.

I also hope to see some benchmarks before deciding.

------
kingnothing
A used MacBook Pro. I wouldn't buy anything new from Apple until we see what
happens with ARM.

------
kalyantm
Thinkpad T14S - Good ryzen performance, nice keyboard (it's a thinkpad) and
lightweight. Best decision i made this year for a portable machine. (pair it
with Fedora + bspwm like I did and it's blazingly fast and good!)

~~~
nickthemagicman
I just look at specs for those and didn't see 1080p screen. That would be a
deal-breaker for me.

~~~
O_H_E
I can't see an option without 1080p screen:
[https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-
ser...](https://www.lenovo.com/ca/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-t-
series/ThinkPad-T14s-AMD-G1/p/22TPT144SA2)

Scroll down to tech-specs

~~~
nickthemagicman
Thanks. I kept seeing 720 maybe I was looking at the camera section? Or
something else I don't know what I was looking at!

------
tomcam
I spent over $4,000 each on the last 2 MacBook Pro models. Good screen, bad
keyboard, heavy. This year I spent $15,000 on a Mac Pro and love it. I also
bought the 2019 Dell XPS 13, which is ok.

But my favorite computer purchase this year is a refurbed 2015 MacBook Air
with an i7 and 1 TB SSD for $800. I tried to move away from MB Airs starting
in 2017 but they remain my favorite coding environment. Screen not as good as
a Retina but it works at 2560x1440 on an external monitor when I care. Slips
easily into a backpack, great fit and finish, obviously plenty fast for full
stack web dev.

~~~
nickthemagicman
What about the newer macbook airs? 2020 models? Any experience with those? I
was looking at those because they don't have the bar at the top.

~~~
tomcam
Bought a 2020 Air and it had a stuck key! Should have mentioned that.

~~~
nickthemagicman
What about performance for web development in the 2020 Mac airs?

------
schwartzworld
Depends on what kind of programmer you are. I have a 5 year old Chromebook
running Ubuntu that will work for many tasks. It can totally spin up a rails
server or react dev server.

If you do UI work I recommend NOT buying a fancy retina screen and instead
rely on a good monitor setup. It's important to test UIs as they would be used
in production, and most users don't have ultra wide curved screens.

------
ArtWomb
Samsung Chromebook 3 just died. Was primarily using as devenv, using the web
terminal of GCP Cloud Shell. No way to change bios boot media, drive soldered
to main board ;)

Am back to Linux Ubuntu 20.04 (focused fossa). And am thinking Pinebook64 is
worth a go at $99 ;)

[https://store.pine64.org/?product=11-6-pinebook](https://store.pine64.org/?product=11-6-pinebook)

------
Twixes
Any 2020 MacBook with 4 Thunderbolt ports and 16 GB of RAM or more should be
pretty great (I really like the Touchbar though).

------
muzani
I'm happy with my HP Pavilion. There are some glitches - the touchpad is
inaccurate, and battery change feels like defusing a bomb.

But otherwise it's relatively cheap, light enough to hold on one hand,
hardcore enough for work (Android Studio) and gaming, and comes with
touchscreen and backlight. As someone who has used a MBP, I prefer a
touchscreen over a touchbar any day.

------
dvxvd
Maybe someone expirienced with Asus ZenBook Pro Duo? .. Two screens looks very
promising, however im not sure how comfortable is inovative num pad with
touchpad. Also the second screen, having in mind that second screen is almost
horizontal. Also i noticed that there are no official linux support. Maybe
someone tested? Thanks.

------
vortico
Pretty much any laptop can be programmed on. None will struggle with software
development. Just go shopping?

------
karmakaze
> 2019 MacBook Pro 15 with touchbar [...] which is awful and amazing at the
> same time. I wouldn't spend my own money on it though.

What's the awful part, and is price the main objection?

~~~
bartq
Price is not objection, but could be always cheaper, right? ;). Awful parts
are: \- fans are very loud under CPU load, \- keyboard heats up very fast, \-
touchbar freezes sometimes, because it's controlled by main CPU I guess,
that's not acceptable as an input device, \- no esc key (I know it is solved
in lastes MacBook 16), \- key travel is too small (again, solved in MacBook
16).

~~~
karmakaze
I sometimes forget how much of a pain these things are as I've gotten so used
to how bad they are. The two that stick out every time it happens which is too
often for me:

\- fans are very loud under CPU load (or any GPU usage)

\- touchbar freezes sometimes--more specifically for me using an external
display disconnect/suspend/wake makes the screen black and dimmer buttons
useless

------
nanagojo
Wanted to use the iPad pro + magic keyboard with online vscode, but an
existing webkit bug is not allowing me to scroll :(

~~~
nickthemagicman
Where is this online vs code?

~~~
O_H_E
Not GP.

There is an Eclipse rebranded version: [https://theia-ide.org](https://theia-
ide.org)

------
foopod
Depending on preference, either a Thinkpad T4XX or X1 laptop.

\- T4XX for modularity, performance, price

\- X1 if size is important and you have cash to burn

------
brettkromkamp
Acer Nitro 5, Intel i7-10750H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, 6 GB, 16
(or, 32) GB DDR4, 1024 GB PCIe NVMe SSD.

------
loa_in_
Dell latitude as a safe bet all rounder (except GPU) and has nice docking
station

------
spicyusername
Get a used Latitude or Thinkpad, add some RAM, and put Linux on it.

Good to go.

------
brudgers
"The best laptop is the one you have with you"

------
moneywoes
An old Thinkpad

------
kap420
used thinkpad

------
probinso
Xps series

