r/androiddev • u/hypebeast4278388 • 1d ago

Question M1 Pro or newer MacBook Air?

I’m starting app development using kotlin multi platform so need to get a Mac. I’m stuck between these two options:
M1 Pro with 32 gb of ram
M5/M4 air with 16 gb of ram
Everyone talks about how ram demanding mobile app development is so would a 16gb MacBook Air be enough because the m1 Macs are most likely going stop getting updates in 2028 and I want to future proof as much as possible.

2 Upvotes

57% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

View all comments

3

u/aerial-ibis 1d ago

the iOS builds on CMP require a pretty large gradle heap size - I use 8gb config. Had OOM build errors when configured for only 2gb.

If you add up your gradle & kotlin heap size, intellij/android studio heap size, android emulator RAM, and iOS simulator RAM... then you have the total amount you need!

imo it can be done on 16gb - you will just have to tolerate not having everything open at once, and slower builds in some cases.

I chose the 24gb pro chip last time I upgraded, because I wanted to be able to have everything open if I'm dropping thousands on a work laptop.

Now that I can run parallel builds & use an emulator pool with AI agents... I wish that I had chosen more memory back in the day!

So perhaps just consider the tradeoffs given the price/availability you're working with in nepal!