What is the best laptop for computer science students?

Question

Starting my first year of CS in the fall and I am honestly kinda panicking about the laptop situation. I need something that can handle heavy coding and maybe some virtual machines without turning into a jet engine. My budget is around 1200 dollars max. Im currently torn between the M2 MacBook Air and the Dell XPS 13, but part of me wonders if a ThinkPad is better for linux stuff?

Needs to last all 4 years

Must be lightweight for hauling across campus

Decent battery life is non negotiable

Is the Mac actually worth it for dev work or should I stick to Windows/Linux? Just want to make the right call before classes start...

Ruby Turcotte · Accepted Answer

Re: Get the Apple MacBook Air M2 8GB RAM... totally agree with that. Just be super careful with the base RAM. Honestly, 8GB is gonna hurt once you start running those virtual machines or multiple docker containers. I did my whole CS degree and found out the hard way that 16GB is basically the minimum for a smooth experience. If you really want a Linux machine that wont die on you, you might want to consider:Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 16GB RAMDell XPS 13 9315 16GB RAM 512GB SSD Mac is great for unix stuff, but if you go the Windows route, make sure you look into WSL2. It changed my life back when I was struggling with hardware compatibility. Just dont cheap out on the RAM whatever you pick. You'll thank yourself later when you're 3 hours into a project and your machine isnt lagging...

ektihwohxq · Answer

Get the Apple MacBook Air M2 8GB RAM 256GB SSD. Be careful with base storage tho. You might want to consider an external drive, but it handles classes perfectly.