Running Unity on a netbook - for 2D games.

Hi all, I am Just starting out with unity and learning c#. When home I use a powerful desktop computer, however I am looking for a very portable laptop for coding and creating 2D games on the go.

I don't mind there being a slight bit of lag, just as long as I can create 2D games when out and about. I have read comments back from 2011 saying that netbooks are no good but now we're in 2015 and I wondered if anyone has had any experience with this?

I have my eye on this one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00R6BRR2A/ref=cm_sw_r_awd_1iQZub1NAX2KS

Any insight will be appreciated

 

Unity will run just fine on a modern laptop.

This laptop is bottom of the range, so don't expect great performance on it. It has low memory, low hard drive space and no integrated graphics card. But I see no reason it won't run Unity. Unity's minimum specs are pretty generous.

http://unity3d.com/unity/system-requirements

 

I'd recommend the Intel Celeron N2840 over the Intel Atom Z3735F. It is roughly similar in processing speed but supports a much higher memory capacity (8GB for Celeron vs 2GB for Atom).

You will also want more storage capacity. The SSD may be faster and use less power, but between Windows, Unity, and possibly Visual Studio, you'll be left with only a few gigabytes to work with. An actual HDD is much better.

Battery capacity might be only place the ASUS wins outright. It appears to have a twelve hour battery life with the various Acer Aspire models sitting around six hours.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Aspire-E3-112-11-6-inch-Notebook/dp/B00NWHUXMI/

I've had good success with Acer products despite them being a budget oriented brand. Their products hold up reasonably well though I do have a friend who recommends replacing the thermal paste on them for better cooling.

 

I'd be less worried about processing power and more worried about usability. What res is the screen (I checked: 1366 x 768) and will you reasonably fit a Unity Editor on it? Does the keyboard have a full compliment of the right keys for programming without awkward combinations? Is the trackpad big enough to be useful?

 

(Of course, if I decided the thing was physically practical then I would look at the specs.)

 

I develop on this size screen, with a track pad, and the cut down keypad. Its doable. I wouldn't recommend doing it for long stretches, track pads are killers on the wrists. Get a mouse if you are doing it a lot.

The small screen typically means you can only have one major windows open. I typically tab the game and scene view, showing both at once means the resolution is to small for any practical use. I also set the game view to maximise on play most of the time.

 

Fair enough. I think it'd be too small for me to reach full productivity, but I'm pretty spoiled in that regard, and it'd also depend a lot on what you're doing.

 

Totally true. I'm a small time hobbyist, not a full time developer. If I was to go full time I would buy a multi screen desktop setup. Occasionally small screen size frustrates me, but so far a desktop has never came to the top of my purchasing list.

Being able to seen the code and the scene view and the game view all at the same time would be awesome. At the moment I can choose any one of the three.

 

Yeah, at work I was given a 3rd screen just because it became available. I already had two displays, a 24" and a 27", and didn't think the extra would be of any use, but was surprised to find that I use it all the time. I get a full screen for code, a full screen for the Editor, and another full screen where I have the Game view and whatever reference material I'm using. Since there's rarely any reason to have the Game view and reference material up at once, the only time I tab now is when I switch tasks. The whole of whatever I'm doing at a given time is all visible at once.

At home I "only" have a pair of 1080p monitors.

Still, for some tasks I find my laptop to be just as productive. Mostly if I'm doing code only stuff the laptop is still great, and there's of course the superb portability that they offer you. Couch coding rocks!

 

Thanks for these replies. I will consider giving this one a shot. I don't mind the screen size too much as it's just a portable, on the go device. Serious work will be done on the trusty tower