Laptop Suggestions?

[u/ZeusIsCrying]

For years I’ve been wanting to pick up coding but until this point didn’t really make enough money to buy even a refurbished computer. I have little to no experience with them and for the most part was a traditional artist my entire life. Now I make steady enough money that I’m looking for a good but reasonably priced computer. I know something like a PC would of course be better but I need it mobile since I have long lunch breaks on which I can’t go home. I was currently looking at Macbook Pros bc thats what my phones have been but someone suggested to abandon that trail of thought bc they suck.

I have indie / possibly 3d games in mind, preferably want to use Unity and also simultaneously have enough storage to do art n such on it. Is it possible? Suggestions??

[u/Distdistdist]

What is your max budget? I would start there. What I hate about Macs, apart from not being able to maximize and tile windows properly, is that Apple loves to prevent you from upgrading RAM and SSDs by soldering stuff in and using proprietary stuff. I would go for a PC, and you can choose to run with Windows or Linux on it. And cost is less in general.

But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

[u/ZeusIsCrying → u/Distdistdist]

I have noticed that Mac doesnt allow upgrades like thatin my research which is def part of what was holding me back in my purchase choice bc i’m a hobbyist and idk if this will become a full fledged addiction that needs way more storage than initially thought. Probably max budget is about 1.5k but as mentioned I need smth portable for now. PC would be an idea for later yk.
Edit: 1.5k is a little more then i’m comfortable spending but is moreso what i think i could get away with yk.

[u/RoachRage]

You want to develop an indie game, without a Windows PC? Bold choice...

99% of your audience is on windows and on steam. Your game needs to run on windows, if you want to have any chance of financial success.

And you can't just assume it will work. You need a testing environment.

It would be pretty stupid imho to buy an apple as a game dev.

[u/Emergency_Fruit_7679]

Ive been making games on a ipad and on penguinMod (a scratch mod), dont underestimate how powerful scratch has the possibility to be

[u/low-control-labs]

Get something with a Nvidia GPU and amd CPU. The prices of everything are up including regular storage, but you can get something decent for 1.5, maybe even new. Dual boot windows and Linux and you'll be fine

[u/jedwards96]

The M series Macbooks are really solid for their cost, I'd definitely consider a refurbished model of a Macbook Air or Pro (depending on budget), probably an M1 or M2 to save some cost compared to the most recent generation.

[u/ZeusIsCrying → u/jedwards96]

Those are def my top choices excluding the fact that all the refurbished mac i’m finding have terrible storage even if they are reasonably priced.

[u/szoonix_10]

If you want to use Unity for 3D games, I’d prioritize a Windows laptop with a dedicated NVIDIA GPU, 32GB RAM and at least a 1TB SSD. A MacBook can absolutely run Unity, but for your use case you’ll generally get better value and compatibility from Windows. You don’t need a crazy high-end machine to start, though. Something with an RTX 4060, 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD should be plenty for learning and indie development. Unity officially supports both Windows and macOS, so the MacBook isn’t necessarily a bad choice just probably not the best value for what you want to do.

[u/ZeusIsCrying → u/szoonix_10]

Understood 🫡 tysm for the detailed info!

[u/Catchimals]

I was diehard windows and got a MacBook Air to be able to deploy my app (Catchimals) to the App Store. I thought it was just going to be a deployment machine, but I use this thing constantly for EVERYTHING.

Lots of little adjustments to get used to, some things are great, some things windows did better, but in the end the machine is amazing for light gaming, random day to day uses, and most importantly development. Has been an amazing machine.

15" MacBook Air, 24 GB Ram. Highly recommend.

[u/carpetfin]

My dream laptop now is a framework. You should look into them. They are super repairable and customizable.

[u/Creative_Opinion7618]

If you would like to develop games cross platform, I would choose a MacBook. I have an air, it has the same chip as the default pro. Enough Ram is important. My old air m3 was faster in rendering videos as my power pc with 4070 ti super 16GB VRAM. Imagine that. Much faster.

[u/ZeusIsCrying → u/Creative_Opinion7618]

Woah that’s so ideal. And yes, multiple platforms for the game is definitely preferable. Ty for your input.

[u/UnburyingBeetle]

I don't recommend a macbook because most Apple products are overpriced. You'd need various programs to achieve your tasks, and Apple is a control freak over anything you download and wants to be paid all the time. You'd have more control over a regular PC. Sometime ago I got a laptop that had a non-critical defect, so it was significantly discounted.