Hi guys I want to buy a laptop for programming, but I couldn’t figure out what i really want .

my budget range from 600$ to 1200 .

I found these laptops in the market

(i3 - 4g ram - 256 giga ssd) for 600$

(i5 - 8g ram - 512 giga ssd) for 800$

(i7 - 16g ram - 512 giga ssd) for 1200$

and also ryzen 3 5 and 7 .

here what I want you to Know :

1- I want to use this laptop for programming only (and browser of course),

2 - I will programming for android (for now ),that’s mean i need to install android studio , IntelliJ IDEA or Eclipse (maybe other).

so I’m afraid if I buy 1200$ laptop i will regret it , because don’t need that much ram or cores or ssd capacity.

and if i buy 600$ i will regret it too ,because it will be too slow or not ideal for programming,less ram -less capacity -less core

I was depressing for long time and I’m slowly back on track so i don’t know what going on ( on tech world).

and also there are laptop 2 in 1 (laptop and tablet) with pen, is it worth to buy ?.

dose the laptop now upgrade-able in terms of ram , saying this because of what going on in part replacement issue (like apple ).

so help please what should I buy.

pardon my English not my first Language, and thanks in advance.

Edit : thank you guys very much , that’s really help and very informative. 👍 😍

  • aaulia@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    I second the Mac recommendation. I use Linux on my desktop, but use Mac for laptop, after 6 years of using MBP (I still use my mid-2015 15" MBP for mobile development and day to day work), I can vouch for their quality (but skip the 2017, 2018, butterfly keyboard + touchbar crap, our company have buttload of those broken). Their M1/M2 battery life is just out of this world.

    If OP worry about spending big and having buyers remorse, I recommend MBP.

    • Crivens@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I have an x86 MacBook.

      How well do the M-series MacBooks work if you want to run Windows or Linux in a VM?

      • aportEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I do a substantial amount of software development inside a Linux VM on an M2 Pro. Runs fine. The guest OS is AArch64 too.

        I use Lima for this.

      • Crivens@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        I should have been a bit more specific: How well do the M-Series run an x86 guest OS?

        I’ve heard not well too. But don’t personally know anyone who has experience with this.

        This thread, Windows 11 for Arm runs unbelievably fast, seems to say that Windows ARM (not x86) runs well and it emulates x86. One person says well, one person says garbage.

        Back to OP’s question - I have a two MacBooks and one HP Windows laptop. I much prefer the MacBook hardware, but am 50/50 on the virtue of the OSs. Windows having WSL2 is a big benefit. That said, I’d probably buy another MacBook as they do seem to last a long time, I’m writing this on a 2018 MacBook, and like the Apple integration.