It depends on what kind of programming do you do, to be honest. I am using an X230 since ~ 10 months, specs maxed (16 GiB RAM, 256 GiB SSD, i5, Intel Graphics C

It depends on what kind of programming do you do, to be honest. I am using an X230 since ~ 10 months, specs maxed (16 GiB RAM, 256 GiB SSD, i5, Intel Graphics Card). Well, I can: - run many VMs - browsing using this monster of RAM named Chromium - have as many terminals as I wish - work on frontend projects (React.js, jQuery, Browserify, Webpack) - work on backend projects (NGINX, uWSGI, Node.js, Gunicorn) As for the battery, it depends on how do you use it and what do you install on it. I run on i3, and with my average workload, it can survive ~ 3 - 4 hours. A friend can survive ~ 8 hours, but he has different way to work (no Chromium process, etc…). The key is what do you want to do? Machine learning? Native programming? Mobile programming? For example, it makes sense to get a Mac to do React Native / iOS development. But, the other way: it makes sense to get a ThinkPad / UNIX-friendly machine to do Linux kernel development IMHO. Anyway! Good luck with your hunt! :)