This year brought us a string of interesting laptop machines, especially in the area of programming. Being passionate gizmo-heads we are, we decided to delve deep into today’s market and find the best laptops for programming in 2016. Our quest yielded 10 champions, you can check them out below.

10 Best Laptop for Programming Reviews

1. Apple MacBook Pro MJLQ2LL/A 15-inch Laptop

This MacBook Pro, priced at around $1.850, has twice the faster performance than its predecessor, which tops up this laptops overall quality improvement. It has the following characteristics:

2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz
16GB 1600MHz memory
256GB PCIe-based flash storage
Intel Iris Pro Graphics

As most of the customers reported, the pros of this laptop are: The newer version now has new ports, including HDMI port and an additional Thunderbolt video port, and drives are now Solid State Drive, which means fast booting. The biggest con was definitely the fact that RAM memory was not easily upgradable, unlike it was in the previous version.

2. Microsoft Surface Book

Microsoft Surface Book, priced at about $1.800 is easily the first choice for more business and design oriented programming needs, with its powerful resolution and detachable display, which blend in with programs like one note. It has the following characteristics:

Intel Core i7
8GB Ram
256GB SSD
Nvidia Custom Graphics

Most users are generally satisfied with this laptop, listing the following pros: light weight, fast performance and great display that works wonders with OneNote pen that comes with it. The cons are: Reattaching the display can sometimes cause a few glitches, and there are no updates to cover this issue so far.

3. MSI GE72 Apache Pro-003 17.3″

This power machine, priced at approximately $1.150, covers any aspect you’d need, even gaming, and it’s a great fit for any processes requiring some real power. The characteristics are as follows:

Intel Core i7-6700HQ Quad Core Processor (2.6-3.5GHz)
16GB (8GB x2) DDR4 2133MHz
Hard Drive: 1TB (7200RPM)
Graphics Card: NVIDIA Geforce GTX960M 2G GDDR5
Display: 17.3″ Full HD eDP Non Reflective 1920×1080
Special Features: Steel Series Full-color Backlight with Anti-Ghost key + Silver Lining

As many testimonials confirm, the pros of this laptop are: Fast performance, excellent display, abundance of ports and manual fan control. Battery life is rather short, which comes off as the biggest flaw, although it’s not quite unexpected.

4. Gigabyte P35Xv5-SL4K2 15.6-Inch 4K UHD

This power horse, priced at around $2.000, covers almost any aspect you could think off, although it’s primarily oriented on ultra-fast performance. Its characteristics are:

Intel Core i7-6700HQ 3.5 GHz
16 GB DDR3
1024 GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive, 256 GB Solid-State Drive
15-Inch Screen, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M

The main pros of this laptop are: thin casing and light design as well as fast performance. The major flaw has to be the cooling system, which could be attributed as spotty at times.

5. Lenovo Yoga 900 13 13.3-Inch MultiTouch Convertible Laptop

This stylish, but powerful, laptop seems like a great fit for coding needs, while being able to be on the move. Prices at about $1.150 it has the following characteristics:

Intel Core i7-6500U 2.50 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.10 GHz
256GB Solid State Drive
3in QHD (3200 x 1800) IPS Multitouch Display
8GB RAM

As most of the customers reported, its strong points are: light weight, but powerful performance, great display that can be rotated 360 degrees, in addition to the tablet version of this machine. Some weak points include: clumsy design (power button located at the side of the laptop – right where you’d reach for it to move it) and the fact that some drivers need tampering with, before the laptop is fully usable.

6. ASUS K501UX 15.6-inch Laptop

This laptop, prices at approximately $800, may look like a little league runner, compared to the price tags of other machines on this list, but even though it won’t take a big blow to your budget, it’s more than capable of delivering a great performance. Its characteristics are:

Intel Core i7-6500U 2.5GHz (Turbo up to 3.1GHz)
6 inches Matte FHD display, with 1920 by 1080 resolution.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M gaming graphic card
8GB RAM
256GB SSD Storage

One of the main advantages of this machine has to be the price, as well as powerful performance and great battery life. Unfortunately, these great traits were not combined with a good display and speakers give off an impression of rather lacking quality.

7. DELL XPS XPS9350-4007SLV 13.3-Inch Touchscreen

Even though this machine, priced at about $1.350, focuses primarily on its display properties, it most certainly didn’t left out other components out of the equation as well. Its characteristics are as follows:

Intel Core i5-6200U 2.3 GHz
8 GB LPDDR3
Intel HD Graphics 5500
256 GB SSD Storage; Optical Drive Not included
3 Inch QHD+ (3200 x 1800 pixels) Touchscreen

As most of the users would agree, its major pros are: absolutely astounding display, paired with a modern, sleek design and quite powerful performance. The major flaw has to be lack of ports as it can limits communication with other devices.

8. ASUS Zenbook Pro UX501VW-DS71T 15.6″ 4K Touch Laptop

This modern war machine, priced at around $1.400, makes sure to cover all bases when it comes to both programming performance and design, with its touch display and slim design. The characteristics are as follows:

6-Inch Touch IPS 4K Ultra-HD display, 3840 by 2160 resolution
512 GB NVMe Solid State Drive
16 GB DDR4 RAM
Intel Skylake Core i7-6700HQ 2.6 GHz Quad-core CPU (turbo to 3.5GHz)
Nvidia GTX960M GPU

Users report that this laptops strong suits are: great display, an abundance of latest generation ports and high performance. They also stated that its weight can prove to be an issue if you move around a lot, as well as a rather large number of preloaded apps.

9. Lenovo Y700 15.6-Inch Laptop

While this laptop, priced at around $1.050, markets as a gaming machine, its impressive stats guarantee that it would make great addition to any tech savvy collection. It has following characteristics:

Intel Core i7-6700HQ 2.6 GHz Processor
16 GB DDR3L SDRAM
1 TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
6-Inch Screen
NVIDIA GeForce 960M Graphics

The users’ opinion sways towards a very positive one, highlighting excellent performance and design, alongside some real quality sound. Its more than modest RAM memory taints what would otherwise be a pretty good looking picture.

10. Acer Aspire E5-573G 15.6-Inch Laptop

Acer Aspire E5-573G-52G3, priced at approximately $550, rounds up our pick of top 10 best laptops for programming, with its budget price, but a top-notch performance. The characteristics of this laptop are:

Intel Core i5-5200U 2.2 GHz
8 GB DDR3L SDRAM
1 TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
6-Inch Full HD Screen
NVIDIA GeForce 940M with 2GB VRAM

While it received mixed reviews, this laptop sure provides a big bang for its buck, with more than adequate performance and no heating issues at all. The cons are present, though, and some users of this machine reported the following as its flaws: modest design, there’s no DVD drive and it comes with a fair amount of unnecessary apps.

Conclusion

When is said and combined, we can say that each of these bad boys is worthy of the title of best laptop for programming in 2016 across various price ranges. We’ve highlighted some pros and cons here, but it’s now up to you to jot down your exact preferences and available spending budget and decide which machine is the right one for you. But most importantly, each of the products here is simply an item you cannot go wrong with. Highly recommended!