Buying A Mac For The First Time For App Dev

S

shauntir

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2013
Messages
457
Reaction score
0
Location
Durban
Hi Guys

Decided it is time to get a mac. I want to use it for app development for both andriod and iOS.

Wouldn't have decided to get one since they are really expensive but you are locked in if you want to dev for iOS.

Thinking about getting a mac mini or air.

Recommendations?
 
Mac mini might work, but if you're going the Air route - try bump up the RAM as much as you can. I'm on a 13" Macbook Pro with only 4GB and it struggles with Android development (Android Studio). If you can get it to a minimum of 8GB (try 16GB), it should be fine.
 
Looking at getting the 13 inch air. How much more for bumping up the RAM to 8Gb?

If pressed, I can do my andriod dev on my i7 16Gb Ram Asus G75V laptop :erm:
 
If you want to save money, get the previous model MBP 13" with minimum 8GB memory. I still develop on my MBP 2010 and it is okay.
 
shauntir said:
Hi Guys

Decided it is time to get a mac. I want to use it for app development for both andriod and iOS.

Wouldn't have decided to get one since they are really expensive but you are locked in if you want to dev for iOS.

Thinking about getting a mac mini or air.

Recommendations?
Click to expand...

I would suggest that you get the fastest machine with the most RAM. It's painful trying to do dev work on an underpowered machine. The VM emulators to test the apps also eat quite a bit of memory.
On a side note, I've got a 15" non-retina Mac book pro fully loaded I want to sell if you are interested... 16GB RAM , 256 GB SSD. 2.3GHz Quad Core. PM me if interested.
 
Decisions decisions :(

Seems like a min of 8Gb is needed for decent dev? MBP seems like the way to go but still out of my price range. The mac mini is going for R9 799 which has decent specs. There is a special where you get R1000 in store to use so I could get the keyboard from there.

Got a monitor so that could work. Want to take it overseas when I am emigrating. Hence the reason to look into MBA or MBP.

Will the mini suffice for dev?
 
User52 said:
Hackintosh? :D i use one and its great.
Click to expand...

+1

MacBook, or Hackintosh if going desktop.

New Mac Minis aren't as good as the old ones. If you can get an older Mac Mini Server with i7 and upgradable RAM/HDD, go for it. Only seems to be available overseas though.
 
The air is not upgradable, was in the market aswell for a new dev machine and was looking at the airs. The thing that got to me was the 4gig ram limit, so then got a windows laptop with ssd as I thought spec wise its a no brainer only to sell the laptop and buy the 15" retina mbp with 16gig on ram.

In the end it cost me alot more to get what I needed and shouldve just went with it from the start.

Make the jump you wont be disappointed. :)
 
PostmanPot said:
New Mac Minis aren't as good as the old ones. If you can get an older Mac Mini Server with i7 and upgradable RAM/HDD, go for it. Only seems to be available overseas though.
Click to expand...

+100000000

Skaars soos hoendertande
 
Maybe try second hand? See one guy up is selling his. I got my 13" second hand, haven't looked back (although I still haven't upgraded the RAM...)
 
Gonna try second hand as well.

I was going to get an Intel NUC to build a Hackintosh but I think that getting the real deal will be less hassle in the long run...

I think for now I'm more concerned with getting something that will perform well and last me at least 3 years.
 
i also just started some dev work on a MBP, trust me, you need a decent processor and at least 8Gb of RAM. If you start running emulators and such, the machine really takes a lot of strain.
 
xcode runs fine on 4g for iOS. Android Studio is a hog and will need 8g. I had a 2013 macbook pro with 4g for a good while doing xcode. I only upgraded to 8g when I installed Parrallels and Android Studio.

And a mac mini is perfectly fine. If you are getting one of the new mac mini's, the ram isnt upgradable because its soldered in, so your ram choice is pretty final.

Btw, you dont need Android Studio to do Android dev. Eclipse works fine. Although you find the new tutorials are more focused on Android Studio.

Word of warning, the Android Studio emulator is the worse ever. Especially after using the XCode's iOS emulators. It will feel like you need 128g ram for the Android Dev emulator
 
Last edited:
zippy said:
xcode runs fine on 4g for iOS. Android Studio is a hog and will need 8g. I had a 2013 macbook pro with 4g for a good while doing xcode. I only upgraded to 8g when I installed Parrallels and Android Studio.

And a mac mini is perfectly fine. If you are getting one of the new mac mini's, the ram isnt upgradable because its soldered in, so your ram choice is pretty final.

Btw, you dont need Android Studio to do Android dev. Eclipse works fine. Although you find the new tutorials are more focused on Android Studio.

Word of warning, the Android Studio emulator is the worse ever. Especially after using the XCode's iOS emulators. It will feel like you need 128g ram for the Android Dev emulator
Click to expand...

Yep, have a feeling that the andriod emulator is gonna be a hog. Not too worried about the ide since I want to use IONIC for dev so will probably use sublime.
 
zippy said:
xcode runs fine on 4g for iOS. Android Studio is a hog and will need 8g. I had a 2013 macbook pro with 4g for a good while doing xcode. I only upgraded to 8g when I installed Parrallels and Android Studio.

And a mac mini is perfectly fine. If you are getting one of the new mac mini's, the ram isnt upgradable because its soldered in, so your ram choice is pretty final.

Btw, you dont need Android Studio to do Android dev. Eclipse works fine. Although you find the new tutorials are more focused on Android Studio.

Word of warning, the Android Studio emulator is the worse ever. Especially after using the XCode's iOS emulators. It will feel like you need 128g ram for the Android Dev emulator
Click to expand...

I don't use the Android Studio emulator (or the Eclipse one) - check out Genymotion, a MUCH better alternative.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X