Ask HN: Which dev laptop to buy?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17360412
by hcoura • 8 years ago
16 14 8 years ago

I was planning on switching my work laptop sometime around next year, which could change a bit the landscape(macbook pro keyboard...), but I have an opportunity to get one right now from the US which makes things much cheaper for me, so I wanted some input.

Currently I own a 15" Dell (don't remember the version). I really like the 15" display, seems much better for my work (I usually don't use a external monitor) than 13", it has a decent keyboard (I love that it has a numpad) a decent trackpad and display. The display is touchscreen which makes it gather much more dust than usually and I have never used it. I have had trouble getting linux to work well with it's trackpad sometimes and shutting down, hibernation, suspension has also been troublesome. This is the only laptop I have used for heavy development duty.

I was considering getting a mac this time around for the OS, due to working well out of the box and been UNIX. I am not a guy that really likes configuring things too much, I rather have a good experience out of the box and be able to do small adjustments when needed. But recent keyboard issues + touchbar has gotten me a bit afraid of it.

Ideally I am looking for:

- Display: 15" Without touch

- Video Card: Nvidia (CUDA)

- Great Keyboard with numpad

- Webcam in the right position (Dell XPS camera on the bottom seems weird to me)

- OS X

- Good Battery

- Great trackpad (I rarely use mouse whilst working)

- Powerful enough for 5 years

- Good cooling system (My current Dell has the air intake on the bottom, needless to say it doesn't work greatly)

I hope you could share some of yours experience with the recent versions of top development laptops.

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