Mac Mini 2.8 late 2014 VS Macbook pro 13"

[MediaMaster]

Hi.

I used to be an Android developer for 5 years and now I think it's the time to turn into IOS development for the first time. I just need to ask the experts developers as I'm a little bit confused how to get started with my new machine (Not exist yet!). I need to know which is better for IOS development:

1) Mac mini 2.8 Ghz, 8 GB of Ram, 1 TB Fusion drive (Late 2014)

2) Macbook pro 13" 2.6 Ghz. Retina display, 8 GB of Ram. (Mid 2014)

I know some people would respond that it depends on me about the Macbook portability advantages and my budget BUT as I'm not expert enough to choose and my budget is not that high. I need a powerful machine which would be with me for at least 3-4 years.

I don't want portability options for Macbook pro to overcome the Mac mini performance options (As Geekbench marks indicated).

Your advise would be highly appreciated !!

 

[thekev]

I'm not an expert developer, but there are no practical differences in performance. You didn't put much thought into this if you assumed there could be any practical difference. Look at the gap in geekbench scores between either of those and a 15" macbook pro or a 2012 quad core mini.

My suspicion is that you've never compared benchmarks to real performance differences. SSDs might be be a little faster than a fusion drive at loading things from disk, but you get less space overall. The mini would require a display, and its base price doesn't include a keyboard or mouse.

As for time of retirement, they're probably the same. Right now 2011 models still run the current version of OSX and can run the latest XCode. Note that XCode doesn't install the command line tools by default. You'll have to go to preferences to install them.

 

[MediaMaster]

Thanks a lot for your valuable reply. I'm a lot fan of portability and to get a Macbook pro but I'm afraid that the small screen of Macbook pro would affect my performance as I used to use a Thinkpad with 15" screen. Of course i would die to get a Mac 15" quad core 2.2 Ghz but my budget is kinda limited right now.

 

[thekev]

I'm not a huge fan of 13" displays either. I was only commenting on benchmarks. The 2012 mini quad core is actually faster in cpu bound tasks than either 2014 just because it has 4 cores, but I would probably go with one of the newer models. Apple does eventually withdraw software support from these things, and you'll need it to run the latest XCode. You should also factor in the fee for a paid developer account, as you need the paid version to publish in the app store. The simulator isn't that great, so you may want a test device.

 

[yjchua95]

Thanks a lot for your valuable reply. I'm a lot fan of portability and to get a Macbook pro but I'm afraid that the small screen of Macbook pro would affect my performance as I used to use a Thinkpad with 15" screen. Of course i would die to get a Mac 15" quad core 2.2 Ghz but my budget is kinda limited right now.

Actually you can just hook up the 13" rMBP to an external display and connect a keyboard+mouse to it, then you can use it like a desktop.

That's what I do with mine.