Please help decide. Is the new Microsoft surface good for programmers?

[sdev2017]

Hi, hope you guys can help me out.

I am a computer science student and need a new laptop for university and my freelacing work. Need a general use laptop but mainly would be for programming and some photoshop work as I am hobbist digital artist. I don’t game. I'm between the Surface Laptop (i7 and 8 Gb Ram) and the Macbook Pro 13 non touch (i7and 8 Gb Ram), which one would you recommend?

P.S: really got my eye on the surface laptop

Thank you

 

[BongoHunter]

We have a surface 4 in the house, very capable machine, has a premium feel and performs well.

Hardware support for Linux was crap last time I checked - but performance in a VM seems reasonable.

If your going to be doing a lot of programming you should grab a decent size second screen for your desk, I wouldn't want to do a lot of programming work on such a small device.

 

[PurplePhoenix]

A cheaper option would be an Acer Swift. I would also look at a dell XPS

 

[Pocah]

As someone who spent some time programming, I can tell you the one thing you really want more than anything is screen real-estate! From web pages to games to microprocessors, the various apps consume desktop space like you just wouldn't believe. Performance actually isn't that important ( unless you have a specific application that says otherwise ) but desktop space makes everything so much easier.

 

[sdev2017]

Hi guys,

Thank you so much for your replies. Much appreciated. Have decided to go for the 13inch macbook pro purely because I can boot windows on that as well should I need to with LG 4K external display for my desk