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What are the best laptops for programming and CAD work?

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7 Options Considered

7 Options ConsideredPriceCPUStorage
Apple MacBook Pro
2.0/2.9 GHz dual-core Intel Core i5256GB/512GB SSD
Dell XPS 15
Intel Core i3-7100H / Intel Core i5-7300HQ / Intel Core i7-7700HQ500GB HDD + 32GB Flash / 1TB HDD + 32GB Flash / 256/512GB/1TB PCIe SSD
Origin PC EON17-SLX
Intel Core i3/i5/i7Up to 2TB SSD
HP Omen 17
–512GB SSD + 2TB HDD
Razer Blade Pro
Intel Core i7-6700HQUp to 2TB SSD
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Apple MacBook Pro

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Endi Sukaj
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 custom...
Endi Sukaj
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 t...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Good battery life

•••
The battery drains in about 9 hours of typical use.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Can run up to 3 external monitors and output 4K

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

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

•••
Endi Sukaj
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 termi...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

OSX/macOS and most software apps have great HiDPI support

•••
Endi Sukaj
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 we...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Fantastic display

•••
The 13" MacBook Pro has a sharp, color accurate 2560 x 1600 IPS display. It's bright at 500 nits, has great viewing angles (viewable at up to 178 degrees) and capable of displaying 87.3% of sRGB color gamut.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Great keyboard

•••
The 2017 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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Good stability

•••
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

RAM is soldered in

•••
A crippling, unmitigated rip-off which prevents you from upgrading the internal RAM.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Requires the use of proprietary firmware

•••
The source code of the firmware isn't available for users to audit or modify.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

The default OS spies on you

•••
Apple spies on its users, and helps others spy on them too. OSX needs to be wiped from the laptop and be replaced with Linux or another acceptable OS before it can be used. There have also been cases of security issues being reported and not fixed for quite some time. An example is a security iss...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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 s...
Endi Sukaj
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.
Endi Sukaj
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 26 more Pros & ConsSee 26 more Pros & Cons

Dell XPS 15

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Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Optional password-free-sign-in via a fingerprint reader

•••
For an additional $25 it’s possible to enjoy a password-free-sign-in by having a fingerprint reader. It will keep your laptop safe while still providing convenient access to it.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Can run most modern games

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Being an excellent all-rounder, it can be used as a gaming laptop for games that are not exceptionally demanding, like Overwatch or Dota 2. Unless you’re using the cheapest model, you can expect a reasonable 60 frames per second for almost all modern games, provided that you’re willing to lower the...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Very well-rounded laptop

•••
The cheapest configuration is a great choice for general non-intensive use - things like internet browsing, watching movies and similar tasks. Whereas the more expensive configurations are gradually more capable of intensive tasks, like video editing or gaming. It’s not as good as a specialized co...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Slick design

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The whole design is quite stylish. The aluminium chassis provides a very clean look while the black carbon fiber palm rest with an almost borderless display cements it as a visually modern laptop. All of this is made with a premium build quality.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Solid keyboard and trackpad

•••
The keyboard and trackpad are reliable and solid all-around. The keyboard is responsive but is not super “clicky”, rather a bit soft. It has a white backlight on black keys that illuminates them at night. The touchpad is rather large while having no buttons. Despite this, the XPS 15 can reliably di...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Amazing display

•••
Two display choices are available for the XPS 15, an Ultra HD touchscreen or a Full HD non-touch screen. Both screens have a very wide array of colors as they cover approximately 100% of sRGB color space. The viewing angle is around 170 degrees. However, at 45 degrees, slight color change can be...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Good battery life if you pick the 1080p display

•••
Models with the 1080p screen last about 10 hours with general usage. Naturally, if more intensive tasks are involved, the battery will be drained faster.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Operates well on a Linux system

•••
All essential things, like network connectivity, ports and sound, work right “out-of-the-box” with a Linux operating system. There is a compatibility issue on the new 9560 model with its graphics card but the laptop is still very usable with its integrated Intel graphics card.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Battery doesn’t hold long with the Ultra HD screen

•••
If you’re choosing the configuration with an Ultra HD screen, expect a very short battery life of around 6 hours for general usage. With more intensive tasks it's even less than that.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Noisy fans

•••
The laptop is very quiet during idle and light usage but when there is some workload, the fans get quite loud and distracting.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Audible coil whine

•••
Coil whine can be heard when it’s generally quiet and the fans are not running. Audible when the laptop is connected to the power supply. The manufacturers have acknowledged it as a problem and, if possible, will push out an update which should eliminate it. Until then, it’s still a gripe.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Palmrest collects sweat

•••
The palm rest is made from carbon fiber which attracts fingerprints and sweat. After some time it gets kind of unpleasant to touch and needs to be cleaned.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Awkward webcam location

•••
The webcam is located under the screen instead of on top. It means that your face will be shown from a lower angle which can seem a bit weird. It also means that your fingers can partially obstruct the webcam while you’re typing.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

9560 model's GPU has compatibility issues on Linux

•••
The new 9560 model has some trouble accepting its GTX 1050 Ti video card while running a Linux operating system. Fortunately, the integrated Intel graphics card is capable enough to substitute it. The manufacturers are probably aware of the issue and will, most likely, release an update for it.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Some ghosting in games

•••
The display is not intended for gaming purposes so it can produce an effect called “ghosting”. Ghosting is when the pixels are not able to change their colors fast enough, so the color of the preceding frame can still be slightly seen on the next frame. This causes a blurring effect. Note that it o...
See 13 more Pros & ConsSee 13 more Pros & Cons

Origin PC EON17-SLX

Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Comes with top-tier hardware

•••
This laptop comes with the absolute top-tier hardware. Even the base model is more powerful than the vast majority of the laptops you can buy today and will allow you to play nearly every game in 4K.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Has one of the largest arrays of ports on the market

•••
This laptop offers one of the widest variety of connections seen on a laptop. It has an HDMI and two Mini DisplayPort connections, for multi-monitor set-ups. There are five high-speed USB 3.0 ports, two new USB-C ports and an SD card slot. It even has two LAN ports with the ability to control the p...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Can be safely overclocked

•••
The built-in speakers are large and very loud with a rich bass. Not only is it sufficient for most users, it’s also of better quality than the majority of built-in laptop speakers.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Excellent performance for 4K games

•••
4K games will run on medium or high settings with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1070, the weakest graphics processor you can get in this laptop. If you want to run everything with the maximum settings, you have the option to install two NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 cards that will run virtually any video game...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Good speakers

•••
The built in speakers are very loud and crisp, easily filling a small room.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Not portable at all

•••
The laptop isn’t built for those who need portability. A large portable bag and some muscle will be needed to carry it around. Weighing almost 5kg and being more than 4,5cm thick, it's one of the biggest laptops there is. Even the power adapter is twice as large comparing to a non-gamer laptops...
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

The build quality of the body is not as good as the price suggests

•••
Other than the backplate of the lid, which is metal, the rest of the body is made of plastic, which is mostly fine for a budget laptop but for this price a material of higher quality would be expected.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Poor battery life

•••
Battery life is also an issue, although gamer laptops usually are power hungry, this only works for approximately two hours without a power supply.
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HP Omen 17

Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Standard, non-flashy look

•••
This laptop is great for those who dislike the overly-gimmicky look that other gaming laptops go for. It doesn’t have big, stylized ventilation holes or dedicated gaming buttons or switches. The keyboard only has a plain red LED backlight, with no customization. The only outward indication that it...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Great display

•••
The display is capable of producing 173% of the sRGB color space and has very good viewing angles. If calibrated, the laptop can be used for color sensitive work.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Relatively portable for a gaming laptop

•••
Compared to other gaming laptops, it is very slim--only 32mm thick and weighing 3.35 kg.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Higher-end configurations can play 4K games at decent framerates

•••
Even when purchased with minimal specs, you should be able to play comfortably in full HD resolution. Higher-end configurations with the nVidia GTX 1070 graphics card will allow you to enjoy 4K gaming in medium to high settings at playable framerates. The screen implements G-Sync technology that fu...
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Has issues with cooling

•••
Due to its narrow ventilation holes, the cooling fans need to spin faster in order to cool the laptop down. It can become so hot that it may become uncomfortable to touch the laptop, though the performance doesn’t suffer and doesn’t cause noticeable thermal throttling.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Comes in only one color option

•••
The laptop comes in only one color option without the possibility to order a different one.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

The speakers lack bass

•••
The speakers are loud, but they lack bass.
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Razer Blade Pro

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Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Great gaming performance

•••
While from the outside Blade Pro looks like an ordinary 17 inch laptop, it packs serious gaming laptop performance. It is because Razer has equipped this laptop with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 and one of the fastest mobile processors you can buy today. It can run almost any modern game in 4K resolu...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Uses an actual mechanical keyboard

•••
Razer uses ultra-low profile mechanical switches in the Blade Pro, which replicate full-sized mechanical keyboards. While it certainly makes the familiar, though noisy, clicking noise and is stiffer than a Chiclet keyboard, the travel is still too shallow compared to a regular mechanical keyboard.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Built to be portable

•••
At 22mm thin, this is the thinnest laptop that has the NVIDIA GeForce 1080 and one of the thinnest gaming laptops overall.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Great build quality

•••
The chassis is made from aluminium and is very solid, giving the feel of a premium laptop.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

One of the best displays on the market

•••
The Razer Blade Pro has easily one of the best touchscreen displays that can be found in any laptop. The colors look accurate and vivid, as it covers 185% of the sRGB color gamut. Brightness goes beyond the industry average and can provide a very bright picture. The screen also supports NVIDIA G-Sy...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Customizable RGB keyboard backlight

•••
The keyboard’s RGB backlight can display 16.8 million colors on each key and the touchpad border. The included Synapse software lets you program the lights with different patterns and color profiles and is shareable to other Razer devices.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

No 802.11ac support

•••
The wireless network card does not support 802.11ac, a wireless standard with significant improvements over the previous 802.11n standard.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

May need some time to getting used to the position of the touchpad

•••
The touchpad is located on the right side of the keyboard, and can take some time to get used to.
See 6 more Pros & ConsSee 6 more Pros & Cons

Microsoft Surface Book 2 (15-inch)

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Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Great display for creative professionals

•••
This laptop's display is bright and vivid, making it perfect for people who do a lot of drawing, design, or video editing work. The display offers an excellent coverage of 131% of the sRGB colour gamut (the average for this price range is 101%). The colour coverage and the bright display which...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

One of the best performances found on a 15-inch laptop

•••
Equiped with an Intel Core i7-8650U CPU, 8GB (or 16GB) of RAM and an SSD that goes up to 1TB, the Surface Book 2 certainly packs a punch. It handles multitasking perfectly; you can open dozens of Chrome tags, stream video, and draw using the built-in software without experiencing any lag even once.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Gaming performance on-par with gaming laptops

•••
The 15-inch version of the Surface Book 2 comes with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 GPU. This is a powerful, VR-ready card that handles intensive gaming tasks. As for real-world performance, Hitman (1920 x 1080, ultra) runs at 71.9 frames per second, Grand Theft Auto V runs at 45 fps. It should also...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Great tying experience

•••
Even though the keyboard is rather shallow (just 1.2mm of travel), the typing experience is excellent. Keys have a great amount of feedback when clicking and you rarely (if ever) bottom out when typing.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

The hinge is quite stable as far as 2-in-1 laptops go

•••
The new fulcrum hinge that Microsoft used for the Surface Book 2 is much more stable than the one found on the previous Surface Book or even other 2-in-1 laptops for that matter.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

The battery easily lasts a full work day on a single charge

•••
The Surface Book 2 lasts on average 12 hours on a single charge. This should be more than enough to get anyone to the end of their workday on a single charge.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Disappointing audio performance

•••
The audio that comes out of the speakers is quite average. It's enough to fill a small room but that's it.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

The pen must be bought separately

•••
If you want to use the Surface Book for drawing then you will probably have to buy the Surface Pen which unfortunately does not come bundled with the laptop (it costs an additional $99).
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

No Thunderbolt port

•••
For a laptop aimed at creative professionals, the missing Thunderbolt 3 port is surprising considering the fact that Thunderbolt 3 is used to connect a laptop to peripherals such as external GPUs or power-dual 4K displays.
See 7 more Pros & ConsSee 7 more Pros & Cons

MacBook

Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Available in 4 colors

•••
The laptop is available in space gray, gold, silver and rose gold (pink) finishes.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Completely silent operation

•••
Thanks to the Core M processor (which doesn't require a fan) and the SSD storage, there are no moving parts the in MacBook. It will operate in complete silence.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Decent battery life

•••
The battery lasts around 7h30m of continuous web browsing which is about average for this class of laptops. Where this laptop's battery truly shines though is under heavy stress where it manages to last an impressive 2h35m under a total stress test (maxed out brightness and processor usage - ci...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Decent keyboard

•••
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Very good speakers

•••
The speakers, found above the keyboard produce loud and clear sound with minimal to no distortion whatsoever. They can be used for both listening to music and watching movies with no problem at all.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Extremely portable

•••
The laptop weighs just 2 pounds and is 13.1 mm thin. It's one of the thinnest and lightest laptops on the market and it's extremely portable and easy to carry around.
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Excellent trackpad

•••
The MacBook has a large 4.4 x 2.7-inch Force Touch trackpad with a Taptic Engine that delivers haptic feedback whenever the user taps on it to give them the impression that they are actually clicking on it. It also supports gestures and multi-finger swiping. The accuracy is almost perfect and the...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

macOS is developer-friendly

•••
macOS is based on XNU (Darwin) kernel, it's a certified Unix and arguably a lot more developer friendly than Windows. Development for Unix is native on macOS. There's a large selection of great development tools available for macOS. The operating system itself comes bundled with a powerf...
Endi Sukaj
Top Pro

Amazing display

•••
Everything about the display is very good - from its high resolution (2304x1440) to the brightness (325 nitts), uniform brightness distribution (90%), and high contrast ratio (1000:1) with over 95% of the sRGB spectrum. Overall, a great display which will come in handy for people who work with visu...
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

It's a bit hard to get used to the keyboard

•••
The keys are pretty shallow, with a travel length of just 0.5mm. They still provide good feedback and the writing experience itself is not bad, but it's just a bit hard getting used to, especially if you are coming from a laptop that's not a MacBook.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Not very powerful

•••
With an Intel Core M processor, the Macbook isn't a serious development laptop. While it will get the job done for lighter tasks, it will struggle with heavier jobs.
Endi Sukaj
Top Con

Connecting more than one thing requires a hub

•••
The laptop comes with a single USB-C port that's used for charging as well as any other peripherals or external storage devices. Connecting more than one thing at a time requires using a USB hub.
See 10 more Pros & ConsSee 10 more Pros & Cons
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