This post will guide you to choose the best laptop for programmer and some of my best laptops for programming.
As a programmer, coder or developer, it becomes really difficult to choose the best laptop among thousands of laptops available in the market. It becomes even more difficult for someone who is just starting to code.
Below I have shared some key points that will surely help you choose a perfect laptop to work on any programming technology.
How to choose the best laptop for programmer?
Battery life
If you mainly work in places where power is not available, you should choose a laptop with huge battery life. Otherwise, almost all laptops these days come with a moderate backup battery.
Processor
A good processor and good RAM should be your top priority when choosing a laptop for programmer. As a programmer or developer, we need to be multitasking. When I am programming or developing, I need to open some IDEs with a browser with multiple tabs open. To do this, you need a good processor.
A laptop with an i5 processor is an ideal choice. You can choose the i7 processor if you have a huge budget and for a low budget you can choose the i3 processor.
- Economical choice: i3 processor
- The best choice: i7 processor
- Ideal choice: i5 processor
Note: Apple laptops are now powered by the M1 chip. It is also a good choice for programmer.
RAM
This is the most important first thing you should. A laptop with 8GB of RAM is an ideal choice, but 16GB of RAM would be the best choice. If your budget is too low, you can also opt for 4GB of RAM.
So I highly recommend a 16GB RAM laptop if you are a programmer, coder or mobile app developer.
- Budget choice: 4GB of RAM
- The best choice: 16 GB of RAM
- Ideal choice: 8 GB of RAM
Graphic card
An external graphics card is not needed until you are developing games or doing other work related to high graphics. But if you are a game developer, you need to choose a laptop with an external graphics card.
- Ideal and low budget choice (for other developers): integrated graphics card
- Best choice (especially for game developers): external graphics card (2GB or 4GB)
Storage
SSD and HDD are two types of storage that laptops have. SSD offers faster but more expensive performance than HDD. It’s great if you can afford an SSD storage type laptop. But if you can’t use HDD and above, you can use external SSD storage.
Suggested reading = >> The 7 BEST Games for Programmers to Improve Programming Skills
List of best laptops for programmer or Coders
Below I have shared some laptops which I think are good for programmers in India. Even if you don’t like any of them, you can consider the above points to choose the best laptop based on your usage.
| Laptop | Processor | RAM | Hard Disk | Graphics Card | Buy Now |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo Legion 5 | 11th Gen Intel Core i7 | 16 GB | 512 GB | NVIDIA RTX 3050 4GB | Check Price |
| ASUS TUF Dash F15 | Intel Core i7-11370H 11th Gen | 16 GB | 1 TB SSD | RTX 3050 Ti 4GB | Check Price |
| ASUS ZenBook 14 | Intel Core i7-1165G7 11th Gen | 16 GB | 512GB NVMe SSD | Intel Iris Xe Graphics | Check Price |
| Acer Spin 5 Convertible | Core i7-1065G7 | 16 GB | 512GB NVMe SSD | Intel Iris Plus | Check Price |
| Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Gaming Laptop | 6-core AMD Ryzen 5-5600H(up to 4.2GHz) | 16 GB | 1TB PCIe SSD | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti | Check Price |
| ASUS ROG Strix G17 | Intel Core i7-10750H 10th Gen | 16GB DDR4 | 512GB NVMe SSD | GeForce RTX 3050 Ti | Check Price |
| Acer Nitro 5 | Intel Core i5-10th Gen | 8 GB DDR4 | 256GB NVMe SSD | NVIDIA RTX 3060 with 6 GB | Check Price |
| ASUS VivoBook | Intel Core i5-1035G1 10th Gen | 8GB | 512GB NVMe SSD + 32GB Optane Memory | Intel UHD Graphics | Check Price |
| Apple MacBook Air with M1 Chip | Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU | 8 GB | 512GB SSD | Apple 7-core GPU | Check Price |
| New Apple MacBook Pro with Apple M1 Chip | Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU | 8 GB | 512GB SSD | Apple 8-core GPU | Check Price |
FAQ About Laptop for Programming
Q 1# How much RAM do I need to program?
Answer: The generally available RAM size is 4GB, but this can make programs cumbersome to run. As recommended by experts, 8GB is the minimum RAM you can look for, for smooth performance. If you can afford it, 16GB would be the icing on the cake for programmers. With all this we can say that 8GB is fine, but 16GB is better. Choose the best developer laptop wisely, depending on your needs.
Q 2# Which laptop do Programmers Use?
Answer: There are various choices of the best programming laptop available in the market for users. You can choose the best by considering the features you need. Budget is one of the most considered in all other features.
Q 2# Is the Core i5 good for programming?
Answer: For a laptop’s good performance, the high-end multipurpose processor is one of the most mind-blowing factors. There are many options, however, a lower version of the processor can make you work harder. The things you can consider when looking for the best processor are the size, number of cores, thermal design power, and frequency.
While there are many options, core i5 and above are the best.
Suggested reading = >> 5 Best Apps for Programming on Android Platform
Conclusion
There are several varieties of laptops available in the market. There is something for everyone, from normal to professional use, from gaming to programming. The above data are the best laptop for programmer.
They are available from low to expensive budgets on the list. You can find all the features you need for a good laptop. Now is the time to choose the best for you.