2016 Macbook for Computer Science major

[Macbook14in]

I'm going to college later this year, and I am seriously considering to get the 2016 Macbook with m5 processor. I really like the fact that it is lightweight. Will this laptop be powerful enough for my needs if I plan to become a webapps & mobile apps developer?

 

[spazma7ik]

It will be able to run IDEs, compile code and handle everything a SE needs to run. As a CS graduate I will say that it's very common to have many apps open at once and especially browser tabs when you're researching various things. It will be a noticeable slowdown when you get into that territory but that's manageable.

 

[christ0pher]

It's fine. I have the m7 (which apparently isn't much faster than the m5, but i'm doing on the side web dev, unity dev and wanted a little extra power) and am in fourth year software engineering and it runs identical to my 2015 base model macbook air; it's more than capable in doing thing which university level computer science requires of it.

 

[576316]

This thread is useful to me in that I'm starting a programming course this October and I've had a 15" rMBP for the past 3 years, I'm looking at the possibility of replacing it with the Retina MacBook but I was worried about taking a significant hit in power for a small and lighter form factor. Hearing you guys say it's manageable is good news so I can look at it in more detail, think I'd miss the big screen on this thing though but I don't know if I fancy lugging this thing to and from uni every day.

What do you guys think is best?

Specs of my rMBP:
MOD NOTE: image containing serial number removed.

 

[Macbook14in]

I'm torn between getting the rumoured 14" Retina Macbook or the upcoming thinner 13" Macbook Pro