I am currently on a macbook pro and I want to switch to a windows laptop so i can access driver control and be able to contribute more. is there any windows laptops recommended to get for frc and for programming?
What is this specifically for? Is it a personal or DS laptop?
You need very little processing power. There are dozens of threads on this topic here on chief. Reconditioned thinkpad lenovo p52s with the highlest quaddro p3200 are my go-to, they handle cad, video games (I’m playing GTFO in another window as we speak) and only run around $350.
Something like this is decent…is has the P2000 which works pretty well.
I recommend these over ‘gaming’ laptops because these have metal chassis, you can find replacement parts for them, and they don’t tend to break when you look at them sideways. They also have full size non-poopy ethernet ports, which are hard to find.
+1 for the P5x series. You can find T16 and T14 ThinkPads as well for under $500, and they will serve you extraordinarily well.
In essence, you pretty much can’t go wrong with ThinkPads except certain older E-series laptops. If you’re only really doing programming then I would avoid the Yogas as well.
They’re REALLY cheaped out on some of the new Thinkpads. Think they decided to capitalize on the name.
New ThinkPads are a no-go, but the Gen 1 and 2 T16s and T14s are very high-quality. I would not go newer than those.
Old thinkpads and dell latitudes.
Frameworks are incredible but pricey.
You can find good deals on older business machines which tend to be really nice, but you may need to add a drive.
Does your team already have a driver station laptop that is used at competition?
Especially if the MacBook Pro is an M-Series, switching to a windows machine is likely to be a significant downgrade (across many criteria). You should be able to contribute plenty using a Mac. When you need to run the driver station, use the driver station laptop. Especially with the new radios, it might even be harder to connect a programming laptop to the robot if you’ve only got it in 6GHz mode in the shop
I personally would not switch away from a MacBook Pro just to get access to the driver station.
Some would even say you shouldn’t even need the robot for most development if you’re using tests and simulation, but that isn’t the easiest to learn if you don’t have previous experience with it
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There’s nothing wrong with using macos (or linux) for development. IMHO it’s either of these is superior to windows.
For practice it’s common to simultaneously connect two laptops to the same robot: one for programmers, one for drivers.
So what you really need is to keep your mac, but also get some dumb windows machine that can just run the driver station and nothing else. Really almost anything will work.