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What are the best laptops for programmers who travel/digital nomads?

24

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Considered

263

User
Recs.

Oct 20, 2022

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

15 Options Considered

Best laptops for programmers who travel/digital nomads	Price	RAM	Storage
80 Dell XPS 13	$999	8 GB/16GB	128GB/256GB/1TB SSD
79 Apple MacBook Pro	$1299	8/16GB	-
73 Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon	$1789	8GB/16GB LPDDR3 1866Mhz	512GB/1TB SSD
-- Microsoft Surface Pro	$1599	-	-
-- Lenovo Thinkpad T480s	$1,429.00	-	-

Dell XPS 13

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Top Pro

Great build quality

The body has a slick and elegant design. It's a mix of aluminum, carbon fiber and magnesium which hardly ever flexes even when held with one hand. See More

Top Con

The battery does not last as long as advertised

The laptop never performs to the promised 11-15 hours, average usage is around 7-8 hours. See More

Paolo's Experience

Pulled the trigger on a 7th Gen i5 1080p model a few months back, and this is definitely one of my best tech investments so far. Performance is excellent for my use (multiple Chrome tabs, Word and Google Sheets), it's really thin and light, and I get around 12+ hours battery life ( I set brightness to fully low ), so I don't need to bring the power brick along! Great screen too! My friends can't help but notice how thin the bezels are. See More

Specs

Storage:128GB/256GB/1TB SSD

CPU:8th-generation Intel quad-core i5-8250U or i7-8550U processor

Screen size:13.3"

Top Pro

Uses an SSD for faster operations on disk

Using an SSD greatly increases performance for every I/O operation, especially compared to laptops that use an HDD. The laptop will boot faster, programs that need to read and write to disk will run faster and scripts will compile much faster than on an HDD. See More

Top Con

Bad thermal solution

Any long load (even medium load) will end up in overheating and since the body is made from the metal surrounding area around the keyboard gets very warm. It's so unpleasant that it hurts to leave hands and type while it's hot. Also, the fan has high pitch and it sounds like a screaming mouse. It's OK for short bursts and low load. Compiling phyton, js or playing at photoshop will result in a toaster that you won't like to touch. Also, the power supply will not keep up with power-hunger and laptop will slowly discharge while it's plugged in. See More

Jakub Kubascik's Experience

I bought XPS 13 9380 (i7 -8565U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, IPS 1080p display). The laptop is very subtle and light. I liked how bezzeless display looks like but I didn't find thin bezzles too practical more on that later. Display 1080p version is beautiful. I used no scaling image was sharp and very simple to read the text. I liked how it was calibrated and had good results in photoshop with it. I/O with only duo Thunderbolts and one USB-C was ok. Great thing is that laptop can be charged with any port so it won't interrupt any work (for example offloading project to backup and so on). Minimum power input is 27 watts so I was able to charge it with Anker PD-26800 (30W output). After a week of using I experienced that short bursts high loads like converting raw files, unpacking 7zip files (around 500-1000MB) and everyday office workload (MS Office, Chrome, and lots of coffee) was OK. I find fingerprint reader very handy and I like the whole experience of a small portable laptop. The bezzeless display is stunning after while it looks like an image is just floating and it can be very bright. During normal use with 40-50% screen brightness, I was able to get around 6 hours of battery life. Opening laptop with one hand is very hard most likely you will get screen dirty. I wasn't able to figure it out how to open it with both hands without touching screen. Bezels are really thin and at this point, I think it's too thin for laptop. But I could live with that and I believe I would be able to learn trick how to do it. What I couldn't live with and it was the reason for me to return it was not enough ram and a stronger point - thermals. It makes sense that light laptop doesn't have enough copper to cool it down. But it's very bad for any long workload. It doesn't have too high workload (video editing, js compiling, work at Photoshop or Illustrator) but it took only about 50% CPU usage for long while (over an hour) and the whole-body gets toasty. It's very unpleasant to touch and type while it's so hot. This is so bad because the keyboard is amazing. I find it very quick to adapt and I was able to get to 50 WPM and at the end of the week, I was around 60 WPM (My top is 60-70 WPM at Corsair K95). I've tried to use Dells power management tool to set laptop for high load (more sensitive fan speed curve) and it ends up discharging laptop during load. Also during my workflow (your experience may vary - probably it will), I was always around 12/16GB usage I haven't uninstall any bloatware that was present (you won't find much at all). Result This laptop is in my opinion great for people on the go who needs MS Office and internet broswer. It is for someone who appreciates USB-C standard and has the will to buy more dongels. It's very portable and it can last for about 8 hours (my best result with 30% screen brightness and very low load). Keyboard for its size is stunning, most laptops can be envy. The touchpad is good, the downside is its size but that's understandable. It's not made for high load but it can do it occasionally but do not touch it during it will burn. The display is great and 1080p is all you want (better battery life than 4k and you don't have to use windows scaling which is bad). I liked the build quality. TL;DR Good for web, ms office. Liked - 1080p screen, keyboard, 6-8h battery life Not good - touchpads size, hard to open without touching screen Bad - thermals, very easy to overheat the whole body - hurts to write on it See More

Top Pro

Latest generation hardware

The XPS 13 was recently updated with all the latest generation hardware which means that it won't become outdated any time soon. See More

Top Con

Webcam located in an odd place

Due to the narrow bezel of the infinity display, Dell moved the webcam to the bottom left corner. This results in an odd viewing angle and the webcam getting blocked while typing. See More

Top Pro

Near-perfect one-handed carry form factor

Top Con

Not a great choice for people who use their laptops to game as well

The Dell's integrated graphics are very poor for gaming and you won't be able to play graphics intensive games on it at all. A latest-generation AAA game will run at about 20 FPS with lowest settings. While a less graphics-intensive game such as Dota 2 for example will run at 30 FPS with lowest settings. See More

Top Pro

Toggleable and customizable keyboard backlighting

Users can turn on or off the backlighting of the keyboard as well as adjust the brightness. See More

Top Con

13" is too small for many kinds of development

At these sizes, it is inches which start to matter, not only pixels. See More

Top Pro

Great keyboard

The keyboard is high quality, feels great to type on and isn't too mushy or too shallow. Even though there's nothing very special about the keyboard, it's as good of a keyboard as you could want. See More

Top Con

No upgrades

There's no option to upgrade RAM since it is soldered to the board. See More

Top Pro

Lightweight and portable

It's weight is only 2.7 lbs, making it very portable. See More

Top Con

Phone support is very slow

Customers have reported waiting for up to 15 minutes to get connected to someone who will be able to help solve their issue. See More

Top Pro

One of the best Windows trackpads available

The Dell's trackpad is one of the best Windows trackpads available. It has smooth and precise tracking and even supports three-finger gestures similar to the Macbook's. See More

Top Con

Speakers are trash

It doesn't have any mids or lows. Sounds like 2012 smartphone in the bathroom. Pretty sad See More

Top Pro

Amazing keyboard

The keyboard is high quality, feels great to type on and isn't too mushy or too shallow. Even though there's nothing very special about the keyboard, it's as good of a keyboard as you could want. See More

Top Con

The touchscreen reflects light making it hard to see unless the lighting on the display is properly set

The screen for the touch-screen model is glossy instead of matte (non-touch screen). For what is a Linux notebook this does not make a lot of sense since most Linux users are the more tech savy who program. A glossy screen is more for multimedia, something Linux is not really known for excelling in. See More

Top Pro

Great Linux support

You can configure the XPS 13 to come with Linux out of the box. Even if you pick the Windows version, the XPS 13 has Linux drivers for all of itss features and many users report simple Linux installation. See More

Top Con

The wireless adapter/driver is absolute garbage

The drivers for the Qualcom Atheros wireless adapter are basically non-functional on both Windows and Linux. On Windows, the card regularly fails to start after suspend - https://www.killernetworking.com/driver-downloads/kb/tag/tag/code-10#faq_33 . On linux, the firmware regularly fails to load with "Direct firmware load for ath10k/QCA9377/hw1.0/firmware-5.bin failed with error -2" or crashes with "Unknown eventid: 118809". See More

Top Pro

Screen is almost borderless

The laptop features an InfinityEdge display, meaning the screen has a very thin border. See More

Top Con

Trackpad hardware (touch/feel/operation) is noticeably worse if coming from MacBook/MBP

Part of this is the hardware, and part seems to be the drivers. It's very unforgiving when accidentally brushing the trackpad with a different finger. Certain actions like double-clicks (tapping with two fingers) and scrolling (with two fingers) doesn't work reliably. This is true with other Windows based laptops too. Not an issue if you spend a lot of time in a terminal/shell. See More

Top Pro

Stunning display

Before buying you can choose between the 4K UHD- or full HD-resolution touch displays or a full HD non-touch one. However, Linux compatibility for super high resolution displays can be spotty at times, so you might be better off sticking with the full HD if you plan on running Linux. Display quality is very good as far as viewing angles, brightness and color reproduction go. It also has a very small bevel so the screen goes more or less edge-to-edge. It also has an output of 400 nit, putting it in the "really bright" category as far as displays go. As for color reproduction, XPS 13's display produces an impressive 107.2 percent of the sRGB color gamut. See More

Top Con

Spongy keyboard

The keyboard feels a bit spongy and also does not have a lot of travel to the keys. When bottoming out there is no feel of completion. See More

Top Pro

Non-glossy

The build is non-glossy, so no fingerprint markings all over the thing. See More

Top Con

Phone support from Dell Customer Service could be better

Phone support is very slow. Customers have reported waiting for up to 15 minutes to get connected to someone who will be able to help solve their issue. See More

Top Pro

Decent speakers

The Dell XPS 13 has above average speakers for a laptop, they get very loud but at max volume tend to distort the music a little too much. See More

Top Pro

Plenty of RAM for all programming needs

Building software typically takes more resources than running the final product, having a lot of RAM helps building big complex applications faster. See More

Top Pro

Great online customer service

Dell's customer service is one of the best in the industry. Especially the online customer service website. There you will find frequently asked questions which usually solve 90% of issues, if that's not enough, there's a live chat with a customer service representative, who are usually very helpful and very understanding about every issue that may arise. See More

Apple MacBook Pro

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Top Pro

The default macOS is very developer friendly since it's a Unix

OSX is based on XNU (Darwin) kernel, it's certified Unix and arguably a lot more developer friendly than Windows. Development for Unix is native on OS X. There's a large selection of great development tools available for OSX. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerful terminal emulator, called Terminal. Additionally, Apple provides tools, like Xcode, an IDE that contains a comprehensive collection of tools for developing OSX and iOS software, for free. See More

Top Con

Hard to repair or upgrade the hardware

The battery and other components are glued in, and the battery blocks access to other parts. The battery will wear out eventually, and the fact that it's glued in means that Apple prevents you from easily repairing or upgrading a MacBook Pro. See More

Electrux Redsworth's Experience

Using a MBP right now... it works amazing! no problems and dev tools are available in abundance as well! If you can drop the amount on it, it's definitely worth it! What I do dislike is the lack of customizability like in Linux. I love to using tiling window managers as well which are not really available ( right now ) for Mac. See More

Specs

Screen size:13.3inch / 15.4inch

GPU:Apple M1 8 core

Top Pro

Fantastic display

The MacBook Pro has a sharp, color accurate 2560 x 1600 IPS display. It's bright at 286 nits, has great viewing angles (viewable at up to 178 degrees) and capable of displaying 87.3% of sRGB color gamut. See More

Top Con

Keyboard issues

The membrane can wear out rather quickly, which causes keys to become more and more unresponsive. See More

Top Pro

One of the best trackpads around

The Macbooks are renowned for having the best trackpad out of any laptop. It has full gesture support, you can configure in the software how much pressure you want before it physically clicks and the finger tracking is perfect. See More

Top Con

Expensive

Mac laptop are very expensive compared to normal laptops. See More

Top Pro

Great performance

The MacBook pro offers great performance both for day-to-day stuff and more niche graphic-related activities. The latest model also has had an update in hardware specs where both the CPU and GPU have been upgraded to their respective latest generations. The 16GB to 32GB help with performance as well and the SSD speeds are unmatched in the laptop market which also helps with general performance. See More

Top Con

You can't replace the battery yourself

Apple suggests you only have the batteries replaced by an Apple Authorized Service Provider or Apple Retail Store. You can read more here. See More

Top Pro

Both the hardware and software are designed in-house

Both the operating system and the hardware are designed by Apple and are made to be as compatible as possible from the get-go. Any drawback that the hardware might have compared to competitors, is made up by the great compatibility between the hardware and OS. Furthermore, because Apple controls the hardware that goes inside their laptops, they can be sure that every OS release will be fully compatible even with their older hardware, ensuring software compatibility for many years after the laptop is released. See More

Top Con

Requires the use of proprietary firmware

The source code of the firmware isn't available for users to audit or modify. See More

Top Pro

Rock Stable

Can run without problem for days on end. And sleep in MacBook works perfectly. Flap down to sleep, Flap up to wake. Simple as that. No other system has been this stable. See More

Top Con

No Ethernet or FireWire ports

An adapter is required to transfer data over FireWire or connect to the Internet using an Ethernet cable. See More

Top Pro

Battery can last a full work day

The battery drains in about 9 hours of typical use. See More

Top Con

Uses a proprietary OS by default

Apple spies on its users, and helps others spy on them... So the default OS needs to be wiped and have Linux or another acceptable OS installed instead, before it can be used. See More

Top Pro

Very portable

The latest Macbook Pro has a trimmed down design compared to predecessors. It's 0.61 inches (15.5 mm) thick and and weighs 4.02 pounds. It's thinner than Macbook Air even. See More

Top Con

Glossy screen

Apple has deleted the matte-screen option from its lineup, an unfortunate decision that reduces the usability of the computers and means you get less work done. You won't realize how much time you spend moving your head around to get reflections off whatever you're trying to see until you switch to a matte screen. Those "deep blacks" and "rich colors" that you were supposed to get from a glossy screen are not present since they're buried behind a sheen of reflection under all lighting conditions. See More

Top Pro

Can run up to 3 external monitors and output 4K

With 2 Thunderbolt (DisplayPort) plugs and 1 HDMI, MBP can run up to 3 external monitors and output 4K over HDMI. See More

Top Con

You need dongles or a dock to connect USB-A devices

There are no USB-A ports, so you'll need a dongle or a dock to use things like webcams. See More

Top Pro

New OSX updates run on older models for quite a long time

MacBook's are not deprecated from latest OS updates for 5-6 years usually. See More

Top Con

You can't upgrade the internal RAM

RAM is soldered in, so you can't upgrade it. See More

Top Pro

The OS is exceptionally easy to use

Macbooks are famous for working out of the box. The default operating system (macOS) is also exceptionally easy to use even for people who have never used it before. Most people will not need to customize or change anything since all the apps just work out of the box. The people who like to customize things and tinker with their systems will also find it pretty easy to do so, considering the fact that macOS is a Unix and allows varying degrees of control to users. See More

Top Con

The keyboard is unique in how it feels and some people may need some time to get used to it

The keyboard on the Macbook is unique and some people may not like the way the keys feel to press or not having physical function keys. See More

Top Pro

Amazing build quality

The MacBook Pro has an all-aluminum body that looks great and is sturdy enough that worries of accidentally damaging are mostly alleviated. It has a robust lid, well-spaced back-lit keyboard with speakers on each side of the keyboard and an excellent button-less trackpad. See More

Top Con

Limited gaming performance

The Macbook lacks a dedicated GPU, so gaming performance will be limited. That said it comes with the best integrated graphics on the market and will be able to play modern games on low settings well. See More

Top Pro

Plenty of RAM for multitasking

The MacBook Pro has up to 16 GB of RAM. That much RAM is perfect for running IDEs, emulators, and virtual machines. See More

Top Con

Terrible Linux support

The 2016 hardware has zero Linux compatibility due to new standards used by Apple. Until drivers are released for Linux, which there has been no news of, the 2016 Macbooks cannot be used for Linux at all. See More

Top Pro

Addictive

When you try mac, you don't want to go back to another laptop. See More

Top Con

It's missing the ESC key, which is a hassle for VI users

There is no physical function or escape keys as they have been replaced by a touch screen, so if you're a big Vim user and don't want to change your habits, the Macbook might be a poor choice. See More

Top Pro

iOS developable

Top Con

SD Card sticks out

The SD card slot does not allow the SD card to fit in flush, making for an unsightly item sticking out of the beautiful casing. See More

Top Pro

Good customer support

Apple offers support over the phone worldwide, provides support in Apple retail stores and authorized resellers and has community forums where users can help users. See More

Top Con

Weird touchpad settings that can not be changed

There is no way to remove a delay of Drag Lock for two finger tap to right click (drag or highlight), even when setting the Accessibility to have no Drag Lock, there is a delay enabled that still sees Drag Lock happen for a full second after taking ones fingers off the touchpad. There is also an issue with two finger tap to paste, as there is no way to leave a space after a word when using two finger tap to paste since it auto selects the space after the last word making the paste happen with no space. Keyboard shortcuts for pasting do not have this issue and is only a problem when using the touchpad for this action as the touchpad auto selects the blank space after a word and pastes directly after the last letter. See More

Top Pro

Great keyboard

The Macbook uses the second generation of the "butterfly" keyboards first introduced in 2015. They feel different to use than most laptop keyboards as they are very shallow, but most people report really enjoying the keyboard after getting used to it. See More

Top Pro

USB C Thunderbolt 3

On MacBook Pro, the ports support Thunderbolt data transfer at up to 40Gbps and USB data-transfer at up to 10 Gbps (USB 3.1 Gen 2). See More

Top Pro

Good stability

Mac OS is very stable. It can run for multiple days without even needing a reboot, and the system is very crash proof. See More

Top Pro

One of the best SSDs that can be found on a laptop

With read speeds at 3.1Gbps and write speeds at around 4.7Gbps, the SSD used in the Macbook Pro is the best in the market by far. This doesn't just mean opening/saving files is quicker, but it also has a pretty huge impact on general application performance. See More

Top Pro

Radeon graphics, which enables basic gamedev

Radeon is not exactly ideal for gamedev, but is certainly a viable option (unlike some of the competition with onboard Intel). See More

Top Pro

Availability of Xcode

Xcode is an program with which iOS applications are made. Xcode is exclusively available for Macs. You can download it in the Mac App Store. See More

Top Pro

OSX/macOS and most software apps have great HiDPI support

Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon

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Top Con

Extended dual battery adds weight

6-cell extended battery adds 0.4 pounds to take this ultrabook's weight far above that of the ultrabook standard (<3 pounds). See More

Top Pro

Very portable

At around 2lbs this is a very light laptop. Especially when you compare it to other Thinkpads. It's light enough to carry in one hand and when it's carried in a backpack it's easy to forget that you are carrying a laptop because of how light it is. See More

Specs

RAM:8GB/16GB LPDDR3 1866Mhz

Storage:512GB/1TB SSD

Weight:2.49 lbs / 1.13 kg

GPU:Intel HD 620 Graphics

Top Con

Missing an Ethernet port

The X1 Carbon is missing an Ethernet port, so people who prefer having that option as well are forced to use Wifi only. See More

Top Pro

Great speakers

The X1 Carbon has bottom-mounted speakers which provide excellent audio output. The sound is loud enough to fill a large room and there's clear separation of sound coming from the speakers, making them great for any sorts of recreational activity involving audio be it listening to music, watching movies or playing videogames. See More

Top Pro

Great build quality

The Carbon X1 is a very light and durable laptop. It has the characteristic raven-black finishing of other Thinkpads on top of a carbon-fiber reinforced chassis. The carbon fiber increases the overall durability of the laptop, making it a great fit for people who travel a lot since it can withstand a lot of physical damages. See More

Top Pro

Great battery life

The battery supports over 10 hours of light activity like web browsing, watching videos and editing documents. This can be doubled to 20 hours by swapping in the extended, 6-cell battery, which can be hot swapped without turning off the laptop since it also has an internal 4-cell battery. See More

Top Pro

Excellent typing experience

Like most Thinkpads, the X1 Carbon has an excellent keyboard as well. The keys have about 1.8mm of travel and provide great tactile feedback. Their gently curved keys also make it very easy to target without looking at them. The keyboard also has optional backlighting which can be turned on or off with a simple key press. See More

Top Pro

Excellent display

The X1 Carbon comes in two different versions. With a 1080p or a 1440p display, with the latter being $70 more. Both displays are excellent. The image is sharp and the colors are very noticeable. Although, understandably, the 1440p display has images that are a bit sharper than its 1080p counterpart. According to colorimeter tests, both versions of the display can produce 104 and 103 percent of the sRGB color gamut, respectively. That's very impressive when compared to the average for 14" displays (83%). The 1080p screen is noticeably brighter than the 1440p screen (292nits vs 257nits) and the colors generally start fading only at about 45 degrees viewing angle. See More

Top Pro

Good performance with last model (2018)

The 2018 models come with new Intel CPU (15W with 4 cores). See More

Top Pro

Built-in support for Amazon Alexa

The 2018 model of the X1 Carbon has far-field microphones built-in to work with Amazon Alexa. This will allow you to give commands to Alexa from across the room. See More

Microsoft Surface Pro

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Top Pro

Powerful computing for the size

A high end Surface Pro 4 does not disappoint on performance (except for the battery). With the i7, 16GB RAM, and 256GB hard drive you can run Android Studio, Genymotion (running one VM), Virtual Box (running 1 VM), Chrome. Build times are reasonable, they are only slightly slower than a late-2011 MacBook Pro 15" (quad core). See More

Top Con

Slightly awkward in your lap

This is a tablet with an attachable keyboard and adjustable "kickstand." It can be awkward using it resting in your lap. It's not great but it's also not as bad as you might expect. If you try it out in your lap before purchasing, you might find it to be stable. Because the kickstand rotates about 135 degrees you can use it in many seating positions. Again, it is still not quite as stable as a regular laptop so YMMV. See More

Specs

Dimensions:15.2 x 9.2 x 1.6 inches

Technology:PixelSense Display

Active Area:10.2 x 6.8

Top Pro

Small and extremely portable

For the Intel i7 models, as of writing, there is no other computer as powerful and also this small. The dimensions are a mere 11.50 x 7.93 x .33 in, and it weights only 1.69 lbs. It is a powerful laptop in the form factor of a large tablet. See More

Top Con

Poor to slightly-below-average battery life

When you give an ultraportable plenty of processing power, RAM, and a bright pixel dense display, it comes at a cost. When using this for development, the battery life is not great. It gets about 4 hours before it needs to charge. It does, however, charge fairly quickly. See More

Top Pro

Great keyboard and trackpad

As far as chiclet keyboards, it's great and is comparable to Apple products. The keyboard is backlit. For the size of this device the trackpad is quite large. The trackpad is also one of the best available on a Windows PC. See More

Top Con

Pen requires a AAAA battery

Top Pro

Pen input

It has a nice pen input interface. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful display

The display is bright and clear with high pixel density (267 dpi). The resolution is 2736 x 1824 on a 12.3" screen. The display rivals any MacBook of comparable size. See More

Lenovo Thinkpad T480s

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Top Pro

Nice keyboard

Keys have good travel and tactility. See More

Top Con

Bad speakers

Not really bad, but not good. See More

Top Pro

Thinkpad

It's a thinkpad, you'll have an easy time making repairs or upgrades if you want. See More

Top Pro

14 inch screen

Perfect choose if you want to 14 inch screen laptop with good performance and best keyboard on market. See More

Top Pro

Many security features

Security lock, the fingerprint scanner (touch based) and the TPM 2.0 module. See More

Top Pro

Great battery life

The battery supports over 10 hours of light activity like web browsing, watching videos and editing documents. And about 12 hours with light working / watching movies. The battery also supports the RapidCharge feature, which provides 80 % of the battery capacity after just 60 minutes. See More

Samsung Notebook 9 Pro

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Top Con

Trackpad sticks

While being large and mostly accurate the trackpad does stick some. See More

Top Pro

Plays nice with Linux

With a bit of preparation, such as turning off fastboot and making sure Bios are fully update, installing Linux is not that difficult. Once installed even the touchscreen works, as long as the latest Kernel is installed. See More

Top Pro

Well spaced keyboard

Being that the device has a large body a full sized keyboard is able to fit without any compromises. While the device itself is shallow the keys have a good bit of travel to them. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful design with great build quality

With a black aluminum body not only is the device a pleasure to look at but is also has a strong build quality. See More

Top Pro

Very solid full metal case

System 76 Lemur

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Top Con

Poor build quality

Like with most System76 products, the build quality for the Lemur is rather poor, especially when you compare it with other laptops at this price point. The plastic feels a bit cheap and flimsy and is not as durable as other laptops. See More

Top Pro

Ubuntu just works out of the box

System76 machines come with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS pre-installed with all drivers and necessary software ready to go. For Ubuntu users there's no need to install their distro of choice from scratch. See More

Specs

CPU: Intel Core i7-8550U

Screen size:14.1inch

Top Con

Terrible battery life

Even when just web browsing, the battery will last five hours tops. See More

Top Pro

Great performance

The "medium" build of Lemur (8GB of RAM, i7 CPU) can do most activities just fine. Whether that activity is developing Android applications, writing documents, or editing a 4K video with Kdenlive, the Lemur will not have any problems with lag or overheating. See More

Top Con

US keyboards only

System76 only manufactures laptops with US (American English) keyboard layout. As most other language specific keyboard layouts use a larger number of keys, this is a clear disadvantage to customers from other countries. See More

Top Pro

Portable

At about 3.6lbs, it's a relatively lightweight laptop that can be easily carried around. See More

Top Con

Limited hinge angle

The hinge only opens to around 120 degrees. This is suitable for desk work. However, on a lap, it could be limiting. See More

Top Pro

Choice of version of Ubuntu

System 76 allows the user to choose between the LTS release of Ubuntu and the latest release as the installed OS of the shipped device.. While installing a new version of the OS is done easily at home, it is convenient to see that System 76 will do it for you. See More

Top Con

Screen brightness doesn't go low

Even at minimal brightness, the screen is too bright to comfortably use at night. See More

Top Pro

Base model is pretty cheap

For $599 this is the cheapest model System 76 sells, who are one of the few companies that sell laptops with Linux installed by default. See More

Top Pro

Comes with free lifetime software support

Officially System76 provides free lifetime support for Ubuntu. And they will also try to provide unofficial support for other distros to the best of their abilities. See More

MacBook

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Top Pro

OSX is a great developer platform

Stuff is already there (ruby, python, emacs, vi) or free (XTools for C, C++). See More

Top Con

One Port

The MacBook only has USB-C, it’s very versatile but if you find yourself plugging peripherals in often this might not be the laptop for you. See More

Specs

Storage:256GB / 512GB PCIe SSD

CPU:1.1GHz Intel Core M Turbo Boost 2.4GHz / 1.2GHz Intel Core M Turbo Boost 2.6GHz

Weight:2.03 lbs

Top Pro

Thin with a tiny foot-print

Thinner than the MacBook Air, but more importantly it fits well within the foot-print of the MacBook Air 11” while having as much usable screen real-estate as the MacBook Air 13” due to bezels and resolution. See More

Top Con

Core M and Fan-less design

The MacBook isn’t as powerful as some of its larger but similarly priced competitors. See More

Top Pro

9-10 hours of battery life

It has great battery life so long as you don’t use Chrome. See More

Top Con

Shallow keyboard

It has a very shallow keyboard that takes getting used to. See More

Top Pro

Keyboard

Each key is individually backlit, keys are bigger than the ones used on a standard chiclet keyboard and due to them having less depth you can end up typing faster on them. See More

ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH55

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Top Pro

Slim and sturdy build

All metal, 2.6lbs, 0.5" thin chassis that feels solid and well built through and through. Screen hinge is also very strong. See More

Top Con

The touchpad is good, but not great

The touchpad might work perfectly fine in Windows, but in Linux, it is not that great. See More

Specs

Storage:256GB SSD

CPU:Intel Core i5-8250U

Top Pro

Great battery life

It can last for up to 8 hours on a single charge, making it a good choice for people who don't have easy access to a power plug during their day and need to use the laptop for extended periods of time. See More

Top Con

Display is decent, but could be better

1080p IPS that isnt reflective nor touch screen. Enables lower brightness in bright rooms and saves battery life, but quality of screen could be much better. See More

Top Pro

Excellent linux support

Elementary OS and Linux Mint both work without issues. The only thing that doesn't seem to work is the fingerprint scanner. See More

Top Con

Occasional fan noise and coil whine

At times there can be some coil whine (as is common in ultrabooks), but it isnt terrible. The fan isnt and issue in normal browsing or document editing, but in anything remotely intensive it will spin up and is noticeable. See More

Top Pro

Inexpensive for the great build and specs

Slim, light, metal build, strong hinge, large battery, great keyboard (soft, good key-travel) 7th gen core i5, 8gb RAM, 256gb SSD, 1080p IPS display and back-lit keyboard for $700. See More

Top Con

Bezels thicker than some modern designs

When compared to new screen designs on phones or the XPS line, the bezels are quite "old school" in comparison. See More

Top Pro

Large Battery, 57WAh

Second largest battery in an ultrabook next to Dell XPS 13 60WAh (as of late 2017). 8 - 10 hours with medium brightness and TLP on ElementaryOS. Watching video drains it quite a bit faster though. See More

MacBook Air

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Top Pro

Good battery life

The 11" model lasts up to 9 hours and the 13" model up to 12 hours. Great for programming on the go as you don't have to worry about the battery dying. See More

Top Con

Low resolution screen

Depending on the model, the MBA has either a 1366 x 768 or 1440 x 900 screen and that's behind the expected 1080p screens of most modern ultrabooks. See More

Specs

RAM:8GB of 1600MHz LPDDR3 onboard memory

Storage:128GB PCIe-based SSD

CPU:1.8GHz dual-core Intel Core i5, Turbo Boost up to 2.9GHz, with 3MB shared L3 cache

Screen size:13.3 inches

Top Pro

OSX is developer-friendly

OSX is based on XNU (Darwin) kernel, it's certified Unix and arguably a lot more developer friendly than Windows. Development for Unix is native on OS X. There's a large selection of great development tools available for OSX. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerful terminal emulator, called Terminal. Additionally, Apple provides tools, like Xcode, an IDE that contains a comprehensive collection of tools for developing OSX and iOS software, for free. See More

Top Pro

Solid build quality and elegant design

Macbook Air has a high quality all-aluminum body that looks great and is sturdy enough that worries of accidentally damaging are mostly alleviated. It has a robust lid, well-spaced back-lit keyboard and an excellent button-less trackpad. See More

Top Pro

Great keyboard

The MBA has a well-spaced, back-lit keyboard with convex keys and placed in way that the resting arms on the sides of the trackpad is comfortable. See More

Top Pro

Best-in-class trackpad

MBA has an excellent button-less muti-touch trackpad that's highly accurate and comfortable to use. See More

HP Envy 13-ab016nr

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Top Pro

Extremely portable

The HP Envy 13 is one of the thinnest laptops on the market at just 12.9mm thick. This detail, coupled with the fact that it weighs just above 1.3kg make the Envy 13 one of the lightest and most portable laptops on the market. See More

Top Con

No touchscreen version

HP does not provide a touchscreen version of this laptop. See More

Specs

Storage:512GB SSD

CPU: 7th Generation Intel Core i5-7200U

Screen size:13.3inch

Top Pro

People who usually use their laptop on a desk will feel very comfortable with this

The Envy 13 has a hinge on the back which gives the laptop a slight extra boost in keyboard height. This puts the keyboard at a much more comfortable typing position and reduces RSI and finger-fatigue from extensive periods of typing. See More

Top Con

Poor battery life

The Envy 13 has a relatively poor battery life. You may get about 9 hours out of it if you use it for general web browsing and some productivity work, but anything more than that (watching videos, light gaming) and you will start noticing that the battery life is considerably lower. See More

Top Pro

Good performance for the price

The HP Envy 13 offers good performance for its price. It can handle up to 16 Chrome tabs open simultaneously without even a bit of lag. Daily mainstream activities such as web browsing, editing files and even development work can be done on this laptop without any particular issues. See More

Top Con

The touchpad may be unreliable

Sometimes while dragging the cursor to select text, the touchpad will not interpret the input correctly and may start zooming in or zooming out. See More

HP Pavilion X2

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Top Pro

Good design

The Pavilion X2 is an attractive looking laptop, or even tablet is you choose to remove it from the keyboard. There is no latch for the keyboard - it's held in place by magnets. Small stabilizers on the keyboard prevent the top from bouncing too much. See More

Top Con

Lackluster display

The 12" 1920x1080 touch screen doesn't offer competitive color range, and at max brightness is dimmer than most of its competition. It's resolution is high, giving it an advantage over many other laptops in its price rang See More

Top Pro

Good keyboard

While small (about 25% smaller than the average keyboard), the keys offer 1.47mm of travel and require 55g to actuate - both typical for higher end laptops. See More

Top Con

Little storage

The storage caps out at 128GB, and the SD slot can only add another 32GB. This is plenty if you look at it as a tablet, but that's not much storage for a primary laptop. See More

Top Pro

Great speakers

The front facing speakers help a lot to make music an immersive experience on the Pavilion X2. They offer sufficient bass, as well as clear trebles. See More

Top Pro

Lots of ports for a tablet

The X2 has a USB Type C port (used as the charging port), as well as a USB 2.0 port, Micro SD card slot and mini HDM. All of these ports are located on the tablet's right side near the bottom. See More

Top Pro

Decent performance

The Intel Core M3-6Y30 and Intel HD 515 Graphics, paired with 4GB of RAM and 128GB SSD offers very good performance for its price. The Core M is ranked below an i3 processor, however not by much. The bigger difference is that the Core M is designed to be used with passive cooling (no fans) and draw very little power, making it ideal for mobile machines that require more performance than the Atom series. See More

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