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General Discussion

Mohamed Ahmed
Mohamed Ahmed
7,449 Points
Posted by Mohamed Ahmed
Mohamed Ahmed
7,449 Points

Is Macbook Air 2017 good for front end development?

Is Macbook Air 2017 good for front end development despite the MBA 2018 release , I want to buy MBA 2017 and I can't afford MBA 2018 right now , but I want to know are MBA 2017 good enough and can work fine with me for a few coming years.

2 Answers

David Perkins
David Perkins
9,607 Points
David Perkins
David Perkins
9,607 Points

What are the specs?

Generally speaking, it'll be fine for your purposes as front-end development isn't too intensive on a machine's hardware. This can change from project to project depending on the type of development you're doing but as a rule of thumb, you'll be good to go with an MBA.

I used an MBA with an external monitor for a good few years until I switched up for the new MBP 13" as I really like the small form factor of the 13" range but I also like having a second screen for those occasions where I'm sat behind my desk at home rather than in-house with a client.

Zachary Jackson
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Zachary Jackson
Treehouse Project Reviewer
Zachary Jackson
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Zachary Jackson
Treehouse Project Reviewer

I presume you are speaking of this macbook for 850$ ?: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/apple-macbook-air-13-3-display-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-128gb-flash-storage-silver/5465502.p?skuId=5465502&ref=212&loc=1&extStoreId=169&ds_rl=1260666&ds_rl=1260576&ds_rl=1266837&ref=212&loc=1&ds_rl=1266837&gclid=CjwKCAiA0ajgBRA4EiwA9gFOR-nUmuqNVVNjFduHaroz5n0CuHez8CXTmKg2srrGm-RfDoaI7obNoRoCpv8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

It will do fine for front-end development. Web Development in general does not usually take much power to program for. You are after all programming for potentially low power devices like cheap smartphones. The new Mac Mini is probably the best deal as far as Apple goes in my book at the moment, but obviously that is a desktop. Don't let specs stop you from programming though. :wink: The Macbook Air 2017 will serve you well and the Mac OS is excellent and is a joy to use. Have fun on your programming journey.