What computer should I get?

If you work in tech then I’m sure you are familiar with the question of “what computer should I get” and outside of “will you fix my printer” it’s probably the one I get asked most often.

What you might find odd is I am a software developer building web applications. I honestly don’t keep up with hardware at all and as long as my computer turns on, is quick, and can run my text editor then I’m happy.

But I know many don’t understand and assume it’s like asking a mechanic which car to buy. So if we take that analogy to heart, then I would tell you to buy an iPad.

iPad’s are affordable, easy to secure, easy to update, and with the recent iOS releases they can do almost everything a laptop or desktop can do. Honestly, I’d use an iPad for everything if I could figure out how to build web applications on it.

The only trouble you might encounter is with printing, you will need a printer that can be setup and managed wirelessly. Just search for “AirPrint printer” or “iPad printer” on Amazon and you can find a bunch that will work.

If you are unsure of which iPad to buy I’d recommend checking out the Macrumors buying guide and seeing which has been recently released, and what’s reaching the end of life.

After you’ve decided on the size and model I recommend you get at 128GB of storage. On the just-released iPad, the default is 32GB and I’m sure you’ll fill it up.

Finally, consider paying the $0.99 a month for more iCloud storage that way everything automatically backs up and you don’t have to worry about it.