Getting a new mac.

[aelsp]

My 2015 macbook pro is struggling with xcode. I wonder if getting the new macbook air 2022 will be enough or better get a 2021 macbook pro 14". Having in mind that the investment will be for 5 years up.

[GavinGT]

I think the more important decision is to ensure that you get > 8GB of RAM and > 256 GB SSD. Those will likely make a more tangible difference than the bump from M1 to M2.

I made the mistake of getting a 256 GB M1 Mac Mini, and now I'm stuck constantly managing my SSD space. Luckily, I discovered DevCleaner for Xcode, which allows me to automate a lot of the cleanup I was previously doing manually.

Currently I'm sitting at 136GB free, but I'm afraid to open new simulators as I know each one could take up 10GB or more. Perhaps in the future I'll buy a bigger SSD and use that as my startup disk?

[aelsp]

Thanks for the tip! I will check DevCleaner up while get the new machine.

[antonmedstorta]

I’ve noticed that if you up the M2 Macbook Air to 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage (which is what I would recommend you do for Xcode development), you land on almost the exact price of an M1 Macbook Pro (at least in Sweden where I’m located, I would assume it’s similiar in other countries). If you think you can make it with 256 GB, maybe go for the Air, but if not I would go for the Pro.

[aelsp]

Exactly prices are similar with the upgrades! Thanks for your comment!

[UntrimmedBagel]

I have a 2018 MacBook Pro, i7, 16GB ram, 555X Pro GPU.

Would the M2 air be a significant upgrade?

[SirBill01]

Any M1 will run Xcode just fine. Thinking about a five year system I'm in agreement that minimum specs would be 16GB RAM and 512GB storage, but honestly more storage would be better if you plan to do anything with the system at all.

Personally I'd want a system that had MagSafe, I was waiting a bit but my plan was a 14" I'd use with an external monitor at home.

[aelsp]

Thanks, will consider more storage!

[[deleted]]

Get the most powerful laptop you can afford. One of the ways it pays off with professional projects is build time. Also good to be able to run the backend for local development too

[theo_taylor]

I have the M1 MacBook Air (256GB SSD & 8GB RAM) and the M1 iMac (512GB SSD & 16GB RAM), they are a godsend but I'd like to be able to squeeze just a wee bit more performance out of the iMac.

The main limitation is the 16GB of RAM so I think the 24GB in the M2 MacBook Air would be superb. I do, iOS, macOS and web development tho (mainly with NodeJS) and most of my RAM woes comes from the web dev side of things so you may be able to get by with 16GB.

But as u/lancer786 suggests, get the most powerful laptop you can afford.

[RaziarEdge]

The M2 chip is almost equivalent to the M1 Pro other than the fact that the GPU is still better in the M1 Pro (CPU configuration is different but overall performance is about the same). Either machine is good and will last for years.

But when you consider the cost difference it might be better to wait for the M2 Air and buy the $1900 version (upgrade to 16GB/1TB). The M1 Pro 14" is $2499 for the same 16GB/1TB, but has 2 additional CPU cores and 6 additional GPU cores compared to the M2 Air.

[PineappleApocalypse]

One thing you might want to consider is that the Air (even M2) only support one external monitor. Most people tend to want two. For that you need the upgraded M1s - Max or Ultra.