Looking for Laptop for Android App Development

[myothernamewasbanned]

Currently trying to find a $500-$600 laptop soley for learning/coding/emulating android applications. I bought a laptop from Best Buy:

http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+K-Series+15.6%26%2334%3B+Laptop+-+4GB+Memory+-+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Indigo/Light+Indigo/6940249.p?id=1218816101846&skuId=6940249

and even upgraded RAM from 4GB to 8GB, but when I fired up a simple hello world app the vm for the android was extremely slow and sluggish. Gaming is not necessary at all for this laptop as I have a gaming rig Suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks!


1. What is your budget?
$600
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Doesn't Matter
3. What screen resolution do you want?
Doesn't matter
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable
5. How much battery life do you need?
Doesn't Matter
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
Doesn't matter
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Most important would be smooth android os emulation. If it can handle that than other simple productivity tasks should be no big deal for it to churn out
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
Doesn't matter, can always upgrade if I need to although I don't use very much space.
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Best Buy would be preferable for convenience sake, but an online retailer is a possibility
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
A few years would be fine
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Doesn't matter. I just ordered a universal optical drive caddy so I can slap in an SSD
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Asus, Toshiba, Lenovo IBM, Samsung are all good with me. I will get HP if there is a good deal to spec ratio, but is not preferable. Have had bad experience with their dv6000(i think) line. poor battery life, poor AC adapter longevity.
13. What country do you live in?
USA
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
your help is appreciated

 

[lunyone]

Looks like you have a good enough system right now to do what you want. I would probably put a SSD into that laptop to speed things up, but from what I've read (I'm not familiar with the SDK) it usually takes a bit to load up the SDK and then it will usually run fine after that. You have a Quad core CPU and 8 gb's of RAM, so you should be generally okay to do what you want to do.

 

[myothernamewasbanned]

Looks like you have a good enough system right now to do what you want. I would probably put a SSD into that laptop to speed things up, but from what I've read (I'm not familiar with the SDK) it usually takes a bit to load up the SDK and then it will usually run fine after that. You have a Quad core CPU and 8 gb's of RAM, so you should be generally okay to do what you want to do.

I ran the android os on my desktop (i5 2500K OC'd + ssd + 16GB Ram) and it was very smooth, no problems. Although I don't have a spare SSD lying around that I can put into my laptop right now

 

[lunyone]

I don't think that your laptop is holding you back. Maybe there is some driver issues that are plaguing you.

Have your tried this:
How to Boost, Speedup Android Emulator

Most of the posts that I've read, they are usually saying that a Dual Core CPU with at least 4 gb's of RAM. Hard to find some hard facts on what the system (hardware) requirements are, but it points towards Dual Core with 4 gb's of RAM. I would think that you are more the qualified with your laptop at Quad Core and 8 gb's of RAM. I'm sure an SSD would do you wonders for what your trying to do. I wouldn't think your CPU or RAM is holding you back.

 

[myothernamewasbanned]

I don't think that your laptop is holding you back. Maybe there is some driver issues that are plaguing you.

Have your tried this:
How to Boost, Speedup Android Emulator

Most of the posts that I've read, they are usually saying that a Dual Core CPU with at least 4 gb's of RAM. Hard to find some hard facts on what the system (hardware) requirements are, but it points towards Dual Core with 4 gb's of RAM. I would think that you are more the qualified with your laptop at Quad Core and 8 gb's of RAM. I'm sure an SSD would do you wonders for what your trying to do. I wouldn't think your CPU or RAM is holding you back.

tyvm for the info i will definitely try it out and report back!

 

[lunyone]

That would be great, because I would be very interested in how this works out for you. My son is getting involved with game design and will probably get into App generation/creation too, so I would like to know if this works out for you.

You could even pull your SSD from your desktop and try that, if you have the time to do it. I know it would be a pain, because you would have to re-install everything twice, just to try it out.

 

[myothernamewasbanned]

That would be great, because I would be very interested in how this works out for you. My son is getting involved with game design and will probably get into App generation/creation too, so I would like to know if this works out for you.

You could even pull your SSD from your desktop and try that, if you have the time to do it. I know it would be a pain, because you would have to re-install everything twice, just to try it out.

Sigh gpu virtualization didn't najr it any better. I'm going to try putting windows 7 on the laptop tomorrow see if that works if not then the ssd swap.

As for your son, I don't know his age but I highly recommend learning programming early if he is going into that field. The earlier you learn the concepts and fundamentals the better and easier it will be to learn other languages I feel

 

[lunyone]

We will see if he wants anything to do with programming. I'm betting he won't like it much, because I don't know if he has the patience for it I used to program for fun, back in the day, but now I don't think I would have the patience either for it At least for a job.

 

[shaltzer]

Try look at this:

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834310630
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230782
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834311926
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215623

 

[myothernamewasbanned]

just an update i tried running on windows 7 and it was still sluggish, didnt really feel like going through all the trouble of taking out my SSD from my gaming rig and what not so I just ended up returning the laptop.

I asked a friend who is into android application development and he said that the 4.0 software is very CPU intensive, although my 2500K seems to handle it just fine. i went for a different laptop with an i5 3210m, hopefully itll do better when it arrives