iOS New Laptop

[mildocjr]

I have a 27" iMac and I'm looking to get a new laptop as a companion for iOS app and game development, perhaps some OS X apps and indie games. What would be the best MacBook 11/12/13/15" to handle the workload. I'm not wanting to go for the dedicated GPU model (that's what the iMac will be for) and I'm waiting for the next line-up before I buy. I'm just looking for people experiences in what has been the best development experience for them with the different tiers of laptops.

I want to get a laptop because I travel a lot and would like to continue working while I have downtime.

 

[AxoNeuron]

Whatever you get, it's pretty critical to get something with 16GB of RAM. My current Xcode project uses up 9GB RAM whenever it is open. If you get something with 8GB you will be regretting it for years to come.

 

[mildocjr]

I had planned on getting the top upgrades especially since I can't upgrade later. I'm just looking for the first model with at least a 13" screen that provides me the kind of processor power recommended for iOS development. Storage is not a concern.

 

[xStep]

Yea, you can't have too much memory. I wouldn't buy any Mac with less than 16GB of RAM.

The other recommended option to get is the maximum number of cores available, and i7 over i5. Xcode is capable of using all of the cores and will allow your compiles to complete faster. I have saturated a quad core i7 on a past project.

It looks like all of the current Apple laptops come with SSD tech, so it is likely that will continue. If you were to buy a refurb, than you'd have to check wether it has a SSD or hard drive.

 

[tyche]

I can't see recommending anything but the MacBook Pro. 13" or 15" depending how big a monster you want to carry around.

 

[mildocjr]

Yea, you can't have too much memory. I wouldn't buy any Mac with less than 16GB of RAM.

The other recommended option to get is the maximum number of cores available, and i7 over i5. Xcode is capable of using all of the cores and will allow your compiles to complete faster. I have saturated a quad core i7 on a past project.

It looks like all of the current Apple laptops come with SSD tech, so it is likely that will continue. If you were to buy a refurb, than you'd have to check wether it has a SSD or hard drive.

What caused the i7 to drown? lol
[doublepost=1459364834][/doublepost]I think this answers my question and gives me a better idea of what I'm aiming for, thank you for the responses.

 

[AxoNeuron]

What caused the i7 to drown? lol
[doublepost=1459364834][/doublepost]I think this answers my question and gives me a better idea of what I'm aiming for, thank you for the responses.

Xcode is really buggy and slow, to be honest. With some of my projects, clicking on the storyboard file will cause Xcode to freeze up for 30+ seconds. At first I thought it was a problem with my installation of Xcode...but after trying this on multiple machines, each with clean installs of OS X, and multiple projects...I kinda realized it's just Xcode that is inefficient. It seems to have gotten much worse in the latest version (7.3). So yes, you definitely want the fastest machine you can get, because Xcode is pretty inefficient.

 

[xStep]

What caused the i7 to drown? lol

I was compiling a large iOS Objective-C project. I appreciate Xcode taking advantage of the extra processors, but this particular project was a pig.

I don't really know what caused it, but wouldn't be surprised if the third party database addition had some influence on it. For instance, look at the following method declaration and the warning. Now picture seeing 1100+ such warnings from their crappy generated code for iOS. All they had to do to fix it was place a space between 'item' and the colon.

- (void)setObjectAt:(id)item:(NSInteger)index;

item used as the name of the previous parameter rather than as part of the selector
[doublepost=1459378213][/doublepost]

Xcode is really buggy and slow, to be honest.

Yesterday I opened a project clicked on a file in the left pane and Xcode went on an endless trip. I left it alone (got distracted to something else) and hours later remembered it was running. It was still on it's long adventure with the spinning wheel of eternity. Had to force quit.

 

[mildocjr]

Yeah, I've noticed with Xcode 7.3 switching to Assistant Editor from the Interface Builder causes a nice 20-30 second hang on a 4th gen quad-core i7 with 32 GB RAM and a fusion drive. Hopefully they will get this into a polished product like they used to make when Steve was around.

 

[michaelsviews]

I have a 27" iMac and I'm looking to get a new laptop as a companion for iOS app and game development, perhaps some OS X apps and indie games. What would be the best MacBook 11/12/13/15" to handle the workload. I'm not wanting to go for the dedicated GPU model (that's what the iMac will be for) and I'm waiting for the next line-up before I buy. I'm just looking for people experiences in what has been the best development experience for them with the different tiers of laptops.

I want to get a laptop because I travel a lot and would like to continue working while I have downtime.

Refurbished

http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbook_pro/15

 

[AxoNeuron]

Forget what I wrote about Xcode being buggy. That was an old post.

It's way worse now. Xcode 8.0 is an absolute disaster. I used to think Xcode 6 & 7 were buggy, but they were the definition of "reliable" compared to this garbage we are stuck with now.

 

[dantastic]

Xcode 'peaked' at around v5. mbp with i7 and 16g ram here but some storyboards will just grind the whole computer to a halt. Even crashes Xcode every now and then. I'm largely avoiding storyboards because my computer isn't up to it.

I think Apple making professional software is a thing of the past though. Everything to do at the moment is dumbed down consumer focused. I wanted cocoa bindings, not storyboard hell.

 

[grandM]

Yea, you can't have too much memory. I wouldn't buy any Mac with less than 16GB of RAM.

The other recommended option to get is the maximum number of cores available, and i7 over i5. Xcode is capable of using all of the cores and will allow your compiles to complete faster. I have saturated a quad core i7 on a past project.

It looks like all of the current Apple laptops come with SSD tech, so it is likely that will continue. If you were to buy a refurb, than you'd have to check wether it has a SSD or hard drive.

What kind of time difference would occur on an i5 versus an i7? Let's say both devices have 16 GB of ram.

 

[xStep]

What kind of time difference would occur on an i5 versus an i7? Let's say both devices have 16 GB of ram.

The following has some good answers for this question.

13" vs 15" MacBook Pro: A Developer's Perspective in 2016

 

[AxoNeuron]

What kind of time difference would occur on an i5 versus an i7? Let's say both devices have 16 GB of ram.

It can be significant in my experience. My quad core i7 will compile the same large Xcode iOS project nearly twice as fast as my quad core i5.