What you buy from Apple is pretty much what you’re living with, but conversely, you have options to spec this up to the powerhouse of your dreams. But importantly, Apple doesn’t suffer from the same compatibility woes with legacy software as you might find on a Windows laptop powered by ARM.Īs it happens, perhaps the only real negatives to basing your programming on a 16-inch MacBook Pro are the price and lack of upgradeability. It delivers incredible CPU performance, strong GPU performance, and exceptional power efficiency, which in turn leads to fantastic battery life. The MacBook Pro was a top laptop for writing code, just as it’s one of the best creator laptops, before the M1 ever arrived, but Apple’s jump to using ARM power in its Mac hardware has made for significant gains. It’s not just about looking fancy in Starbucks while you work. And with the advent of the M1 series of processors, Apple has made it even harder to recommend a competitor. Why is that? Because it’s the perfect tool for the job. You see MacBook Pros everywhere at developer events, even those presented by Google and Microsoft. If ever there was a staple of software development in recent years it’s this.

Best for Compact Performance: Razer Blade 14Īh, Apple’s MacBook Pro.

Best Chromebook: Acer Chromebook Spin 713.These are the best laptops for programming. We’ve compiled a list of the laptops we think are the best of the bunch whether you’re an old hand or a beginner programmer and whether you’d prefer to use macOS, Windows, or even Chrome OS. As with any reason to buy a laptop there is no one size fits all option.

Windows vs mac programming