Yeah - I hate touch too! My only previous experience is with a surface RT! (and a Lumia 925! which is different!))

I'm not exactly a big fan of MS, to say the least, but after using a Surface Pro 2 here and there, I was rather impressed with the product. I quickly realized upon my first use that they had finally managed to produce a nice tablet experience, but can double as a traditional laptop, too. The touch input works the way you expect, and does so smoothly. On-screen keyboard pops out automatically most times. The hardware specs are quite decent, too (compared to this aging 2011 MacBook Air). Throw in a few obvious accessories for when you are working longer hours, and I have little doubt that it would be a capable system, all things considered.

Indeed, Apple hardware that supports dual booting with BootCamp does work impressively well (hardware is fully supported, well enough for playing video games), and Parallels VM does a good job, too, when you can get away with it. (Parallels has a few UI features that makes it all the more pleasant, compared to VirtualBox, that may or may not matter to you).

As far as display size goes ... The only mistake I made buying this Macbook Air was going with the 11" model. A friend with the same model and excellent eyesight has no problem, but me? Terrible eyesight. With that said, I'd have to suggest always going with the largest display available (both size and resolution matter). You can never have enough displays (I've got three, including the notebook, and I could easily use a fourth).

If you are just getting started with game development, even a crappy integrated Intel HD 3000 is more than likely to be more than enough for at least the first ~2 years or so (assuming 2D programming). Personally, I find CPU being my #1 desire (C++ build times, zzz). Never can have enough of that Not sure if it would matter so much with C sharp..? My little bit of experience with it says no.

It's funny you should mention the HD3000... I actually draw that as the line NOT to cross.

An HD4000 falls in the "good enough" bracket, but the HD3000 does not. It does not support GL 4 and the GL support in generally is iffy. Plus well, it's damned slow. The newer series GPUs from Intel are quite reasonable. I have a HD4600 that gets used instead of the nVIdia thanks to the general shittiness of Optimus and it still handles a decent framerate. It's also sufficient for running the likes of Blender or Unreal Engine.

My needs in laptops are slightly different than most, as my number on criteria is portability, then power, then battery, then style then finally price.

I am currently using a 2013 Razer Blade 14" and a 2013 MacBook Air.

I no longer recommend the Razer Blade however, for the same reason I dont recommend the Macbook Pro... the stupidly high resolution. The GPUs aren't powerful enough to properly power them, making things ultimately look like crap when you are forced to run in a non-native resolution. In the case of the Razer, it also killed the battery life.

My current Razer 14 gives me about 5 hours battery and is fast enough for all of my needs. The MBA has an HD4000 which works in a pinch, but isn't great for gaming by any stretch. The battery life there is more like 7 hours, although high computation tasks like compiling KICK THE CRAP out of your battery on OS/X. Way worse than on Windows for some reason.

It's funny you should mention the HD3000... I actually draw that as the line NOT to cross.

I was definitely biting my tongue when I wrote that :D It's true, on my macbook, I only have access to a OpenGL 3.2 profile (not that I'd know what to do with one). No doubt is it slow -- I've occasionally seen a Geforce 6200 on an older workstation outperform it in terms of raw FPS for blitting hardware accelerated linear gradients. I've never seen Diablo III run above ~20 FPS. I could go on... but yeah, you remember the Intel GMA chipsets? *shudder* nightmares...

I did assume 2D programming when I made the comment and I still think it holds true for that (from both my own experience in programming and playing emulated SNES and PSX titles).

The battery life there is more like 7 hours, although high computation tasks like compiling KICK THE CRAP out of your battery on OS/X. Way worse than on Windows for some reason.

Hahahah, yeah ... I'm lucky to get an hour and 20 minutes or so out of my system when constantly recompiling. Reminds me of funny times where I'd lose electricity in the house, and I'd switch the laptop to UPS once its battery drained ... switching over to UPS would buy me another ~20min or so.

Moving this to the lounge.

I cannot believe how many people still supports the "buy CPU power you clearly won't need and a crappy Intel HD because that's what real men do".

Fact: AMD GPUs are coherent in features across the whole product stack. Not NV. Not Intel. Intel is at least widespread but it's no fun. Now go ahead and tell me I should give up a kidney for CPU performance I don't need.

On a laptop. Seriously.

Is there any specifications I should look for when buying a laptop for programming ?

like is bigger screen easier to work with because you see more code?

Screens on laptops will always be too small. You've not got it. They are not really for production. You can use them yes, but everything below 21 is going to be cramped... unless you get one of those expensive hi-DPS screens.

I honestly don't know how anyone could say a 15" slab is portable. It's not to me.

Every hardware on the shelves is oversized by at least 20x for learners. They usually screw you on the graphics. For graphics programming you basically have no choice: you get an AMD Radeon of some sort.

Having a budget would be nice BTW.

I would actually at this point recommend a Surface Pro, if you can afford it. While I haven't personally used one, I have several friends that have one and have used it for everything, including programming. It's a beautiful display as well.

If it wasn't that expensive I would get one. :P

OK Im reviveing this,

Im prepared to spend between $600-$1000 AUD. I want to be able to program Simple games but they may relay on unity 3D.

Cubistry, Soccer Stars, 868-Hack, Threes, Ridiculous Fishing are good example of the level of complexity I am aiming for.

What about this laptop: https://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers-tablets/laptops/dell/dell-inspiron-3000-x510404au-15-notebook/546917/

What do you guys recommend ?

IMHO there has been no "good" Unity games in a long time.

Most of the time we end up with absolute #### like Air Control or Grass Simulator.

I Am Bread isn't even worth the price tag .

Back on subject ... you can use just about any laptop for writing code.

If you plan on rendering video, 3D, or other CPU / GPU intensive "stuff" , you may want to use a desktop - or plan on spending about $3,500 USD.

OK Im reviveing this,

Im prepared to spend between $600-$1000 AUD. I want to be able to program Simple games but they may relay on unity 3D.

Cubistry, Soccer Stars, 868-Hack, Threes, Ridiculous Fishing are good example of the level of complexity I am aiming for.

What about this laptop: https://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers-tablets/laptops/dell/dell-inspiron-3000-x510404au-15-notebook/546917/

What do you guys recommend ?

I recommend you at least a FULL-HD screen, 1366 x 768 resolution is the main reason of laptops decadence (and the popoularity of some interesting solutions like lenovo yoga 2 pro). Low tier discrete gpu are quite useless.

How about a surface 3 pro?: https://www.jbhifi.com.au/computers-tablets/tablets/microsoft/microsoft-surface-pro-3-64gb-tablet/546943/