With the new Macbook Pro unveiled a lot of developers are considering upgrading their development machines. As specs somewhat disappoint, discussion is hot at the moment about what exactly, are the available options. After all there isn’t a clear winner yet, mainly due to the struggle that leaving Mac OS for Linux or Windows would represent.

So what are some of the available options as an alternative to the new MBP?

One of the options pointed out on this thread is the XMG C406. Sold by the German company mysn.de it looks like a very advanced gaming laptop coming out at a decent fair price.

xmg-c406-02
The XMG C406 gaming laptop

The XMG C406 can come with 34 Gb of RAM and 2x SSD’s which is pretty impressive. My main concern with such a machine would be temperature issues but the possibility of working on such a machine is indeed very compelling.

Another solid option is the Dell XPS 13’’:

maxresdefault
The Dell XPS 13’’ laptop

A funny fact about this one is that Linus Torvalds announced recently he was on the lookout for buying a new laptop replacement and guess what.. he ended up acquiring the Dell XPS. Linus himself recommends getting the XPS Developer edition that includes the intel 8260 wireless module rather than the default Broadcom wireless.

Of course the problem with going with a MBP alternative is always the OS/software. Going back to Linux may not be so easy after several years of Mac OS and as a developer I sure don’t want to have to waste time trying to set up wireless or troubleshoot problems with the sleep function (is that still going on after all these years?). Windows is also getting a lot stronger and stable and on such powerful machines it will surely perform at its top.

As discussion continues to evolve during the next few weeks one thing is for sure: a lot of developers are currently looking at their options to renew their machines and Apple just didn’t delivered on the expectations of many.

Tags: hardware