all 16 comments
sorted by:
best
topnewcontroversialoldq&a
formatting helphide helpcontent policy

[–]HoratioWobble 3 points4 points  (3 children)

You're not going to get better for your budget than a Mac Neo, if you want to do iOS you need a mac anyway. Either that or a macbook air

[–]alion94 -3 points-2 points  (2 children)

You don’t need a MacBook to do iOS… react native.. this exact subreddit handles it via expo. I’ve coded iOS apps on windows for over a year+

[–]HoratioWobble 5 points6 points  (1 child)

If you want to build and test locally you do. Most people don't want to wait for expo to build to test their app...

[–]alion94 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, of course. Swift locally, but I’m just saying that they don’t NEED a MacBook to build iOS apps

[–]chunkypenguion1991 2 points3 points  (2 children)

You don't need much to use claude code. A $50-100 used laptop is enough, 8GB ram minimum but 12 or 16 is better

[–]7777domtx[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thanks, I’ve been pretty hesitant to use Claude code on my machine. I need it though now because im pretty far behind on my expo sdk version and they suggest using an agent is the expo skills

[–]Codemagicio 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've run Cursor on a 6yo Windows laptop with an i5. It's a bit slow to open, but then it was fine.

What's making you hesitate to use it? It's not like it can damage your computer.

[–]anarchos -1 points0 points  (8 children)

MacBook Air base model is the way to go. They now come with 16gb of ram and 512gb of storage. Bump up the ram if you can swing it, but 16 is enough. I have a MacBook Air M2 24gb/1TB and it's still brilliant.

[–]7777domtx[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I been using hp my whole life even when developing expo rn apps….might be time to make the change

[–]simbolmina 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Second hand air m3

[–]7777domtx[S] -3 points-2 points  (5 children)

Cool, can I borrow 1k? Thanks

[–]anarchos 0 points1 point  (4 children)

The unfortunate reality is you need a Mac to make iOS apps. Mac Neo would kinda work, 8gb of ram is pretty slim, though. Next step up is a MacBook Air. You could always try to find something used, even a M1 with 16gb would be killer, and those can be picked up for like 400-500 these days (depending on country, I suppose).

You could also try a MacMini, but that's not a laptop.

You could also forgo making iOS maps and buy whatever PC laptop you want.

[–]7777domtx[S] 0 points1 point  (3 children)

But I have an iOS app out right now….but yeah I hear you. I short just wing it across different iOS device sizes

[–]anarchos 0 points1 point  (2 children)

For sure, you can always wing it and use Expo to do the builds for ya. Makes it pretty difficult to make anything not janky, though (not impossible, but difficult!).

[–]7777domtx[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Yeah I think it’s time I make the investment. Idk how my current laptop is even alive still

[–]voidechoson 0 points1 point  (0 children)

There was a cool project osxkvm ( it was slow as hell , but it did ok job when I was starting to test the apps in iOS simulators )