Ok so im in the market for a programming laptop and I’m having some trouble finding some. I was wondering if you could guys could help.
Criteria:
Also, is the Intel core M powerful enough for programming?
Well… what kind of development? Graphics, neural nets, small scripts? Honestly there’s plenty of laptops that’ll work fine for any of those. I’m not really an expert on all the different ones out there, but I do know you have practically unlimited choices.
Just… please not a Mac…
Pros :
Cons:
after reading this and the recent posts on ‘making games for nobody’, I’m fairly certain I’m the only person here who uses a mac 
Why not?
I’ve been using a macbook air almost exclusively for development for about a year or so now. It’s great. Then again I mostly do web development and devops these days so it’s not like I need a lot of juice.
The main reasons I got it (aside from portability) was battery life and the solid, comfortable keyboard/arm rest. Something other laptops, at least at the time, didn’t really compete with.
Although the 2015 line with the cord octopus strategy sounds like shit. The 13/14 models have been great.
shudder
I just can’t code on a laptop (for any length of time).
Need my multiple screens, my mechanical keyboard & super sensitive gaming mouse to get into the ‘zone’…
thinking about getting one of those too.
… coding games/graphics is never gonna be as good as on the desktop but i guess looking for “laptop with nvidia gtx 980m” is gonna be not bad.
did somebody try a gigabyte p35~ yet ? i’m afraid the gpu powerd laptops are more into fancy gaming then hacking with ease.
Well, my main machine is a Lenovo Y510p set up with additional monitor. Downside - hard drive died after about a year, upside - now has an SSD. Doesn’t meet the portability requirements very well though! 
However, when said hard drive died I was just about to speak at a NetBeans conference. Ended up buying a refurbished 14" ThinkPad as a more portable and solid second device. Only about 18 months old, corporate so well looked after, and about a quarter of its original retail price. Doesn’t look sexy, though, but really why is looking nice a criteria? 
I would seriously suggest seeing what any local refurbishment companies have available - you might be pleasantly surprised. Sceptical I’d buy a new machine again.
If you buy Nvidia, take a look to Optimus tech, if it fits your requirements.
For us it has beein only a pain. Especially using hw accelerated app on the external monitor or Oculus.
Optimus copies the whole framebuffer to the integrated gpu before swapping it to the screen… this because the integrated gpu is the one attached to the video outputs…
I’m considering trading in my desktop and Windows laptop for a new-ish Macbook. The only reason I keep my desktop is for occasional gaming and to have a second computer that pretty much just constantly runs Netflix while I’m on my laptop programming. My only issue is I need three monitors, so I’ll have to figure out if I can still have them with the Macbook.
Looks like a good option! I’m starting to nose around for a laptop or really good tablet of some sort. My main goal is to have something to show demos of what I’m doing (mostly involving sound), and to offer some limited ability for coding (using Eclipse, but not for extended amounts of time) and for correspondence.
My problem with laptops in the past has always been the hinges. Not clear to me if they are just designed obsolescence or if I am abusing them somehow. This kind of makes the notion of a detachable keyboard somewhat attractive. Screen size doesn’t have to be huge.
I’ve been toying with the idea of picking up a second laptop in the 11-13" size for programming on the go (e.g. lunch breaks at work), but its hard to find a small laptop with a better CPU than an Atom. Something like this, but half the price would be nice
http://tweakers.net/pricewatch/465239/acer-aspire-v3-371-59kt/specificaties/
ok so I found this laptop based off of @MrPork’s suggestion (it’s the same one but with intel cpu’s) and i can’t decide between getting the cheaper i5 processor (which is in the perfect price range) or just dishing out the extra $100 and getting the i7. Do you guys think the performance upgrade of the i7 will be worth the money?
Edit: Or should I forget the intel processors and go with the A10?
Edit2: I thought I should elaborate on what I will be doing with it. I will be mainly making java applications, Android apps, and web design stuff
i don’t think so. i5 is “slower” but most likely sufficient. i still use an old i5 for audio-processing and it’s not a bottleneck.
Like I said above, look at refurbs. OK, 14" not 13", but the place I got my T430 from has this at the moment. £100 more than I spent, but better spec. Only HD4000 graphics, so not as good as later chips. On the other hand, the CPU performance is going to trounce an Atom, and IIRC is still better than most things on the market now since everything has a ****U chip built in it!
You need to search directly in an ecommerce website like Amazon or ebay.
Pressed the wrong button, gave you a free medal! Might as well add to this post in the mean time.
If you’re going coding, you need a high-res screen. Don’t worry about nice colors, ips panel displays, or something ridiculously compute-powerful. Just get something within your price range with 1080p and if you can, dedicated graphics.
;D