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Chilizard
3y

Hello Everyone,

I am trying to learn to create apps with Android Studio and Swift5. However, my current laptop is not okay to work with its 4 GB RAM.

My question is, i am planning to buy a MacBook Air I5 8GB RAM 256 GB SSD. Do you think it is enough for me to learn coding in the first place and create apps?

Let me also state the fact that additional RAMs like 16 GB and bigger SSD size are really expensive in my country. So i’m looking for something that can work Swift and Android Studio (with Emulator) with no problem.

It would be great to hear from you about your experiences and advices.

Cheers!

question

android studio

macbook pro

macbook

macbook air

coding

beginner

swift
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Comments
  • 1
    3y
    If you wanna test everything without quirks of Gradle and Android Studio, and want codebase less coupled to each platform's native API, I'd recommend Expo (SDK layer on top of React Native). Getting started with manual testing through their app with hot reload is quite pleasing rather than rebuilding an *.apk over again, for example.

    8 GB RAM should be enough for Swift, I guess.
  • 0
    3y
    @vintprox I’ll be sure to look into it, thanks for the reply!
  • 2
    3y
    I would suggest to go with 16gb ram, and i7 processor, go for used laptop which is around 2 years ago. This would be enough for next 4 to 5 years.

    In my opinion macbook air is not best at all for development.
  • 0
    3y
    @stackiox Sadly, 16 GB RAM and I7 is way too expensive compared to what i can afford. Would i really need those even though i am literally a newbie? I’ll take a look for used ones though thanks!
  • 2
    3y
    I cannot recommend 256 GB in any case, for anything, as they are not upgradable (and using an external drive every time gets annoying), and nowadays it isn't that much anymore.
    The same with the 8 GB RAM, but those could be *just* enough.
  • 2
    3y
    @Chilizard

    Actually I am suggesting this so that it would last long without the need to change it after 1 year or so.
    And used or refurbished would be much cheaper than the new one.

    If you are planning to change it again after 1 or 2 years then you can go for 8GB.

    But for Android studio with emulators and also many browser tabs 8GB would not be enough.
  • 1
    3y
    Wow, why mac in first place?
  • 0
    3y
    @Lexter To learn to develop for IOS as well, i know it’s too expensive.
  • 3
    3y
    When I was broke, I just got myself a cheap but decent root server and VNC‘ed into that to develop.
  • 1
    3y
    @example-user oh god, VNC is utter mess. SSH FTW.
  • 2
    3y
    That’s more than fine.

    I got my start with iOS on a 4gb Mac mini.

    And some days, if I don’t have to do any art, I code from a raspberry pi just because I can.
  • 0
    3y
    Arent macbooks overinflated in price?

    A similarly equipped pc would be cheaper.
  • 1
    3y
    Thank you everyone who shared their opinions. I bought MacBook Pro 2020 I5 8GB RAM 256 GB SSD. I know i said MacBook Air but it was not going to be available for another 2 months. Anyway, wish me luck with learning how to code!
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