I want to find a laptop capable for game dev. I’m going to build a desktop for the purpose and want a laptop to match, although I know laptop specs can’t get anywhere near a desktop can but want to get as close as possible.
What’s your price range?
How is this relevant?
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I put that I’m building a desktop in the original post and I just changed some things around and didn’t delete that…and really no price range…I’m just going to have to save some money 
If your credentials are correct, finding a laptop should be a cinch for you. There isn’t a “best” laptop for game dev.
Price range? Portability? Ergonomics?
All “game dev” tells us is a minimum processing power requirement, so don’t buy a low-end machine.
It isn’t but I have seen several high-end expensive laptops. From origin-asus and everything in between
unless your working for a big aaa company or are trying to make a aaa game yourself…
i can’t imagine that any laptop you could buy today would be bad for game dev. as long as it has an actual video card and not an integrated one, which im not even sure if they still do that anymore.
Yea I was thinking along the lines of MSI, Origin, or Asus
If your laptop is a mobile workstation, than you should go with light powerful (Series 7 Samsung, the latest 13inch Razor) are pretty darn decent.
If it’s to sit on a desk and be a ‘semi-mobile’ than go with ‘gamer laptops’… you named a few of those.
If it’s for iOS, go with a MacBook.
That’s pretty much it, you don’t really need our advice for details as we assume you know how to read hardware reviews from your degrees.
A MacBook is my suggestion. My current laptop is a MacBook Pro I picked up 4 years ago, and it’s only now starting to grow long in the tooth, and only when multi-tasking (Unity + XCode + other apps) which can probably be improved a lot by adding more RAM.
For the first couple of years I used it mostly with MS Windows due to my development requirements at the time. I picked the MBP because I wanted to have iOS capability, but 80% of my work was still Windows based. Over a 12 month period that pretty much flipped the other way around and now I mostly use OS X on it. I now have no preference either way, I’ll happily use whatever is needed software wise for whatever I’m doing at the time.
They’re expensive laptops, but compared to my previous two it’s well worth it. It’s lasted far longer than either of them, is less worn despite heavier usage (solid aluminium body is a great idea), the screen is much better (and it’s not even one of the new ones), the battery life is dropping off now but easily outlasted either of the others in terms of age and still lasts longer than either of them did at their best. They do charge a premium, but in my opinion it was worth every cent to me as a heavy user who literally carried it everywhere I went 5 days a week.
The only real downside to new ones is the complete lack of upgradability. If you want it to last 4 years you’d better max out the RAM at initial purchase at Apple’s stupidly high RAM prices, because they’re built in and can’t be upgraded later. Same deal with the HDD if you’re likely to need lots of storage (not a biggie for me in a laptop, but it certainly could be for some).
I used to think that Macs were overpriced hipster machines with little regard to practical usage. Then I bought one and my mind was completely, 100% changed. I wouldn’t recommend one for a desktop unless you preferred OS X over Windows, but for a laptop I wholeheartedly recommend them.
See:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/188541-Is-this-Mac-Mini-good-enough-for-mobile-development
You could consider getting a Mac mini and lug around a Tablet or Android phone.
Most of the time when you are travelling you don’t need to flip open a laptop.
What people are doing is bring an extra battery pack along with their iPad so they can surf and play for the whole 6 to 12 hours in-flight. Optionally, flights now have electrical power so can ask the flight attendant for a power adapter.