Best Laptop for iOS Development

[Abdullah6461]

I want to install a Hackintosh to learn iOS Development but my PC is so poor.

I found some laptops with i5-4th and 5th gens with 16gb RAM - 256 SSD - HD 4000 at least.

I want to know how to choose the best specs to price so I can develop iOS apps. To be more accurate how can I choose the CPU and VGA and know they can do well with Xcode, considering the futuristic updates of Apple and the simulator used in Xcode.

 

[kraetos10]

As a full time iOS dev. This isn't really a straight forward question. For example, even the top of the line Apple MacBook Pro's (pre M1) struggle with large projects mixing obj-c and swift code. I'm working with an app that can still take 4 minutes to compile with the i7/16gb ram (i suspect this mostly due to thermal throttling though).

My main machine is a hack with an i9 and 64gb ram. This can still take a few min to compile but is far superior to the MBPs.

Ultimately to answer your question, I think thermals should be your primary concern followed by RAM. Xcode chews through CPU cores so the more the better (i've seen it use 6 cores at ~80% usage on each).

As with most things, it depends on your budget all I'm trying to say is, dont think you can get decent performance out of Xcode because you won't and the more you can throw at it, the easier your life will be.

NOTE: You may not be concerned about 3 minute compile times, but if you're compiling twenty, thirty, forty times a day, this all adds up and can get tedious.