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Kind of off-topic but can anyone weigh in on how a 2019 (2020?) Macbook Air fares for programming? Specifically frontend programming: running VSC, maybe a coupl

Kind of off-topic but can anyone weigh in on how a 2019 (2020?) Macbook Air fares for programming? Specifically frontend programming: running VSC, maybe a couple frontend build watch tasks, and a node server. Currently using a 2017 13" MBP and I assume it'd have similar performance? At this point in my career I spend most of my days running around in meetings so if I'm doing programming I'll usually do it on my desktop. My laptop ends up being a glorified note-taking machine with only light frontend programming so I'm really optimizing for portability. Interested to hear some thoughts from fellow engineers with the newest Macbook Air.

morid1n 7y ago
1. I’d wait for the new keyboards first. The Airs and 13-inch Pros still have the faulty ones. 2. I’d get a low-spec MBP13 or MBP14, whatever comes out next.
- khalilravanna 7y ago
  The keyboard is a fair point. I had mistakenly assumed they fixed them with the recent update but there they are on the list of models with free keyboard replacements. As for 2, I already have an MBP13 2017 and I want something even more portable. That was why I was interested to hear people’s experiences programming with it’s lower spec CPU.
  - _bxg1 7y ago
    I haven't used an Air for development, but I do know that its power supply is 30w instead of the MBP's 100w. That's a big difference. Beyond the CPU's official specs, I'd bet some throttling happens there. That said, I recently upgraded to a new MBP because my 2013 MBP had gotten really laggy for certain things, particularly the web (and the inspector, etc.). This was weird, because on pure-compute tasks it still did pretty okay. But basic sites like Twitter were visibly laggy, and the Chrome debugger was like mud. I did some research and ended up concluding that it came down to the integrated GPU. The processor itself was still significantly faster than a brand-new Air, based on benchmarks, but integrated GPUs have made huge strides in the past 5 years (and web pages have gotten significantly heavier) and I guess that has a more noticeable impact on basic tasks than the CPU does. Anyway. If you're only doing the occasional, light web dev then I would guess you'll be fine. It'll be noticeably slower than your 2017 MBP, but probably still passable.

morid1n 7y ago

1. I’d wait for the new keyboards first. The Airs and 13-inch Pros still have the faulty ones. 2. I’d get a low-spec MBP13 or MBP14, whatever comes out next.

khalilravanna 7y ago
The keyboard is a fair point. I had mistakenly assumed they fixed them with the recent update but there they are on the list of models with free keyboard replacements. As for 2, I already have an MBP13 2017 and I want something even more portable. That was why I was interested to hear people’s experiences programming with it’s lower spec CPU.
- _bxg1 7y ago
  I haven't used an Air for development, but I do know that its power supply is 30w instead of the MBP's 100w. That's a big difference. Beyond the CPU's official specs, I'd bet some throttling happens there. That said, I recently upgraded to a new MBP because my 2013 MBP had gotten really laggy for certain things, particularly the web (and the inspector, etc.). This was weird, because on pure-compute tasks it still did pretty okay. But basic sites like Twitter were visibly laggy, and the Chrome debugger was like mud. I did some research and ended up concluding that it came down to the integrated GPU. The processor itself was still significantly faster than a brand-new Air, based on benchmarks, but integrated GPUs have made huge strides in the past 5 years (and web pages have gotten significantly heavier) and I guess that has a more noticeable impact on basic tasks than the CPU does. Anyway. If you're only doing the occasional, light web dev then I would guess you'll be fine. It'll be noticeably slower than your 2017 MBP, but probably still passable.