Best Laptops for Programmers

Looking for the best laptop for programming? Whether you're a seasoned programmer or just starting your coding journey, these laptops offer powerful performance, crisp 
 high resolution displays, comfortable keyboards, and ample memory to meet your coding needs. We extensively tested each of these laptops to bring you a comprehensive list of which ones we recommend. Here are the main aspects we took into consideration when choosing these laptops: 

Display: We recommend choosing a laptop that has at least a 14-inch panel with a resolution higher than 1920x1200 and a brightness of over 400 nits if it's matte, 500 if it's glossy. This will allow you to see a good amount of code on screen without needing to squint.

Performance: Almost every processor in today's laptops have plenty of grunt for coding. Apple's M series of laptops are excellent choices as they are powerful, and you'll feel very little heat from your laptop or hear annoying fan noise. This benefit is also available in Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors, but they might limit your application compatibilities.  AMD and Intel are always the safest bet, and their newest processors are aiming to be more efficient to help you with battery life.

Memory and Storage: The minimum amount of memory you should get is 16GB, although we have a strong preference for 32GB since you'll be unlikely to be able to upgrade it later. Most memory is soldered in modern laptops. Software developers have a lot more programs open than normal users, so the more memory the better. For storage, 512GB is probably fine for most students, but 1TB or more storage will help future-proof your laptop.

Graphics: If you are planning to do data science development, including machine learning and AI, you may want a laptop with dedicated Nvidia graphics due to the size of data and processing power required for these tasks. Plus, if you plan to do any gaming on the side, you’ll probably want decent graphics. 

Upgradeability: If you’re in school or not sure if you’ll be switching jobs in the near future, you’ll want to consider if your laptop is upgradeable in the event that you need more storage or memory.  An external drive may not always be sufficient.

Heat and Fan Noise: If you’re doing a lot of performance tasks, you’ll want a laptop that stays cool on the keyboard deck and has mostly quiet fans as heat and fan noise can be uncomfortable and distracting. 

Keyboard: To improve efficiency, you may want to use hotkeys that can speed up your workflow. If that is the case, you’ll probably want a keyboard with a standard layout and a physical function row, as many hot keys are programmed to the function row by default. You’ll also want a comfortable keyboard since you’ll be doing a lot of typing on it.