Best laptop for web developers and coders in SA

00fatima00

00fatima00

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Hi all ,

Kindly advise as I am overwhelmed with the online choices I have been finding. I am an up and coming web developer / programmer / student (building my portfolio) . Which laptop would be recommended to invest in to be able to carry me through this learning phase as well as onto building my own projects etc. Not a fan of Apple , but will welcome that suggestion if relevant .

thank you in advance

✌
Fatima
 
Daruk said:
I think there are a few recent threads on this topic in here. For coding, you don't need anything fancy but you want something that's responsive, so I would recommend:

16 Gb RAM (8 minimum)
500 Gb SSD
i5 or i7 CPU (i5 is more than adequate)
Graphics card totally dependent on the type of coding you're doing. For business apps, whatever comes standard is fine. For gaming, you would want an Nvidia 1050 or higher or alternative.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much !!! I’m going to search and get familiar with this forum
 
I really don't like macOS, but there is nothing better than the 16" MacBook Pro for web development. And it doesn't win by a little bit, it wins by an interstellar margin.

- Insane battery life with a 100Wh battery
- High-res display with wide P3 colour space. 100% sRGB isn't good enough when working with creative professionals.
- Can effortlessly boot into Windows as needed
- Only a Mac can develop for all platforms
- Terminal destroys Command Prompt and has so much functionality built-in (not apples to apples with terminal vs. shell, but it's a big win for macOS being Unix-based)
- You don't want a situation where a site isn't rendering correctly in Safari and you can't check it out. Browser tools to simulate different devices seldom get Macs and iPhones accurate.
- Decent sized screen with great colours for working on the go and for showing your work when you're with clients
- Lasts for years and retains a decent resale value compared to Windows laptops
- The built-in microphone array is good enough to use for voice calls. Exceptional by laptop standards.
- Only Apple manages the colours of their OS brilliantly for creative professionals. sRGB is properly mapped to DCI-P3 at a system level, whereas in Windows it has to be managed at an app level. This is a big reason why content creators love using Macs. Colour is critically important, and Apple gets it right.

I'm sorry this isn't what you want to hear. The cheapest 16" MBP is R44k and the one to buy is R51.5k due to the 1TB SSD storage space.

Even if this isn't manageable right now, buying the above machine should be a priority for any web developer once their cash flow supports such capital investment or monthly financing.
 
Bryn said:
I really don't like macOS, but there is nothing better than the 16" MacBook Pro for web development. And it doesn't win by a little bit, it wins by an interstellar margin.

- Insane battery life with a 100Wh battery
- High-res display with wide P3 colour space. 100% sRGB isn't good enough when working with creative professionals.
- Can effortlessly boot into Windows as needed
- Only a Mac can develop for all platforms
- Terminal destroys Command Prompt and has so much functionality built-in (not apples to apples with terminal vs. shell, but it's a big win for macOS being Unix-based)
- You don't want a situation where a site isn't rendering correctly in Safari and you can't check it out. Browser tools to simulate different devices seldom get Macs and iPhones accurate.
- Decent sized screen with great colours for working on the go and for showing your work when you're with clients
- Lasts for years and retains a decent resale value compared to Windows laptops
- The built-in microphone array is good enough to use for voice calls. Exceptional by laptop standards.
- Only Apple manages the colours of their OS brilliantly for creative professionals. sRGB is properly mapped to DCI-P3 at a system level, whereas in Windows it has to be managed at an app level. This is a big reason why content creators love using Macs. Colour is critically important, and Apple gets it right.

I'm sorry this isn't what you want to hear. The cheapest 16" MBP is R44k and the one to buy is R51.5k due to the 1TB SSD storage space.

Even if this isn't manageable right now, buying the above machine should be a priority for any web developer once their cash flow supports such capital investment or monthly financing.
Click to expand...

Oh wow! this is very interesting.... definitely something to consider once cash flow allows it... lol... I think I should hear everything, make notes for the future and once established maybe? Thank you for taking the time to send this through
 
Daruk said:
Not sure where that comes from
Click to expand...

Xcode on Windows...

giphy.gif
 
Bryn said:
I really don't like macOS, but there is nothing better than the 16" MacBook Pro for web development. And it doesn't win by a little bit, it wins by an interstellar margin.

- Insane battery life with a 100Wh battery
- High-res display with wide P3 colour space. 100% sRGB isn't good enough when working with creative professionals.
- Can effortlessly boot into Windows as needed
- Only a Mac can develop for all platforms
- Terminal destroys Command Prompt and has so much functionality built-in (not apples to apples with terminal vs. shell, but it's a big win for macOS being Unix-based)
- You don't want a situation where a site isn't rendering correctly in Safari and you can't check it out. Browser tools to simulate different devices seldom get Macs and iPhones accurate.
- Decent sized screen with great colours for working on the go and for showing your work when you're with clients
- Lasts for years and retains a decent resale value compared to Windows laptops
- The built-in microphone array is good enough to use for voice calls. Exceptional by laptop standards.
- Only Apple manages the colours of their OS brilliantly for creative professionals. sRGB is properly mapped to DCI-P3 at a system level, whereas in Windows it has to be managed at an app level. This is a big reason why content creators love using Macs. Colour is critically important, and Apple gets it right.

I'm sorry this isn't what you want to hear. The cheapest 16" MBP is R44k and the one to buy is R51.5k due to the 1TB SSD storage space.

Even if this isn't manageable right now, buying the above machine should be a priority for any web developer once their cash flow supports such capital investment or monthly financing.
Click to expand...

Like Bryn said the Mac is a great choice if you don't really know for what platforms you want to code programs,but then again you can always run the MacOS on windows with the use of a Virtual Machine.
 
Daruk said:
No different to coding apps for Windows on Mac. You make a plan.
Click to expand...

R50k for the equipment that your livelihood depends on is really not that major. It's one of the first things any web development startup should spend money on: a portable Mac, Adobe Creative Cloud and a small office that isn't where you live.

Top web developers are outsourcing partners to firms and designers. Having an issue with reading files is just unthinkable, as is being unable to quickly check a platform-related issue over the phone or in person.

VatHomFluffy said:
Like Bryn said the Mac is a great choice if you don't really know for what platforms you want to code programs,but then again you can always run the MacOS on windows with the use of a Virtual Machine.
Click to expand...
Daruk said:
Yep, just like Mac users do when they code UWP apps.
Or just fire up a MacInCloud instance.
Click to expand...

What kind of professional works in a janky environment like that? Developers boot their Macs into Windows if they want to develop for Windows. Every single creative agency and marketing firm in PE that I'm aware of almost exclusively uses Macs. The exception is when powerful specs are needed for rendering. There's little to nothing on the market with the colour accuracy of iMacs and MacBook Pros, nor anything that lasts as well for so many years.
 
Yeah, if you want to release anything for iOS / iPadOS you'll need a Mac - the workarounds are not worth it unless you can put together a "hackintosh" and that's not a trivial task. Although, I know a few guys doing cross platform stuff who have a primary windows pc and a cheap-ish (relatively) Mac mini just to compile and release. Not ideal if you want to be mobile although it's not too big to lug around.
 
I appreciate all the feedback and conversation..... I'm making notes for in the future when I have grown in skill and have saved up some capital. Having something to work towards might just make me get my A into G that much faster
 
Daruk said:
On the flip side, if you can't code on a R15k laptop you need to look at another job lol.

Creative agencies and marketing firms use macs. I get that. Almost everyone else uses Windows.
Click to expand...
We're talking about web development though. As a web developer, unless you have virtually no business or are part of a niche team (like some .NET hellscape), you are beholden to the tools and platforms preferred by the firms who send you all your business.

They're all on Slack, so we use Slack too.
They use Macs, so we use Macs.
They use P3 colour, so we ensure we use P3-compatible displays.
They use Adobe, so we have Adobe CC to open and edit their files and to access Adobe Fonts.
Etc etc.

Only very small-time devs can just do whatever with no consequence. Those creative types aren't going to outsource to anyone who they don't feel is basically part of the team and on the same wavelength.

Obviously I can't speak for the entire world of web development, but this agency approach is how the vast majority of successful self-employed devs bring home the bacon.
 
Guess I have been doing it wrong my entire career, and have just discovered that I am small time.

seriously. What a garbage post
 
Daruk said:
Your clients are niche then. Web is the least picky when it comes to the dev platform. We code on Sublime or VS code for Windows mostly.

Sure, by all means use what your clients use. Very few of my clients use Macs. I think the main difference is that you interface with agencies whereas we interface with end users directly. I also work in a world where the invoice doesn't come from the end user and the requirements are sustainability in the developing world.

By all means, stick to what your clients use.

Obviously. Your world is different than mine and that's great if it works for you, but it's by no means the big picture. You'd be the odd one out in my pool with a mac.
Click to expand...

Not exactly niche when it's run-of-the-mill creative agencies and web designers. Your field sounds far more niche for the domain of web development if it has little overlap with what the majority of businesses want in a website from popular agencies.

But I get your point. Obviously it doesn't make sense for you to buy into something that doesn't fit your particular setup.

_kabal_ said:
Guess I have been doing it wrong my entire career, and have just discovered that I am small time.

seriously. What a garbage post
Click to expand...

The sorts of firms and designers I work with are 100% normal and in-line with the general industry. And I stated clearly that I cannot speak for the entire world of web development, although I do think I speak for the vast majority of it. I've worked with (or continue to work with) firms from PE to Cleveland, on projects ranging from simple restaurants and hair salons to geofenced B2B online stores with multiple pricing tiers and currencies. These firms are all pretty similar. And the equipment you want is a MacBook Pro or iMac, as they let you effortlessly boot to macOS or Windows and have a DCI-P3 display. The MacBook Pro has the advantage of better local pricing and portability, hence why I recommend it.

Pray tell me, why I am so delusional so as to not account for your high degree of web development professionalism that isn't some sort of app-making or dinosaur-maintaining niche? Given the time I've been doing this and the variety of projects, I'd be genuinely fascinated to learn about mainstream fields I'm ignorant of.

I'm not above some well-deserved derogatory comments though, in either direction. I only claim to know about mainstream web development but I also loathe clowns who masquerade as web developers, only able to devalue the entire industry with their cheap, slow garbage made with Elementor, Divi, Beaver Builder, Avada, Visual Studio, WPBakery etc. and lack of appreciation for quality web hosting or competent web design. I would not typically regard myself as a friend to those sorts of web developers and do encounter a bit of conflict now and again.
 
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