Which notebook is better for Android Studio?

Question

I need a notebook to use Android Studio on.

Which one below is better (all models have 8GB RAM and 15.6" FHD screen)?

And what is most important in my case (RAM, Processor, SSD...)?

You can also recommend another model, but note that:

• I want a notebook, not a desktop
• I want to keep this notebook for at least 5 years (but I can upgrade specific things like SSD and RAM)
• I can not afford a notebook that costs above R$ 4,000 (~ US$ 1,180 - import taxes included)

Samsung Expert X51 (R$ 3,040)

• Intel Core i7 7500 U
• 1TB HD

LG Gram 15Z970-E.BH71P1 (R$ 3,500)

• Intel Core i5 7200U
• 128GB SSD

Asus Vivobook X510UR-BQ292T (R$ 3,500)

• Intel Core i7 8550U
• 1TB HD
• NVIDIA GeForce 930MX 2GB

Samsung Gaming Odyssey (R$ 3,900)

• Intel Core i7 7700HQ
• 1TB HD
• GeForce GTX 1050 4GB

Answer 1

A development laptop definitely needs to have an SSD and a decent CPU, which is why I would suggest you to discard your list and take a look at 3 families of laptops: Asus VivoBook, Lenovo ThinkPad and Dell Inspiron.

There are many models that are cheaper than those that you listed and more suitable for development, like these:

ASUS VivoBook S510UN-EH76 - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834234838

Lenovo Laptop ThinkPad E580 - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834850555

Dell Inspiron 15 5000 - https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIADYY7BN9241

Now, why these laptops? All of the three models have what you will need for development - an i7-8550u CPU that is 22% faster than the last gen CPU's (i7-7500u) and also has 4 cores and 8 threads, compared to 2 cores and 4 threads of last gen mobile CPU's, which will speed up multithreaded applications and multitasking even more, and all of these models have a 256GB SSD that would be more than enough for most of development, as you would have even enough space to run a full android ROM build system that requires about 70 to 100 GB of disk space, if you wished.

My personal choice would be the ASUS VivoBook, as it has, besides i7-8550u CPU and 256 GB SSD, also a 1 TB HDD drive (which you could of course upgrade to a larger 2 TB HDD drive or to a second SATA SSD), a dedicated GPU (not very much useful for development, but you would be able to run more demanding graphical applications that on the Intel GPU) and two RAM slots, which should allow you to upgrade it to 32 GB of RAM in the future! And I'm also using ASUS laptop myself and I can say that I'm quite satisfied with it.

Now what I wouldn't recommend:

LG Laptops - last time I heard of them was that LG made cheapo laptops with low build quality and haven't really heard any recommendations about them, as opposed to Lenovo's, ASUS and Dell's of which I have heard good reviews.

Sony VAIO - maybe this was just my bad experience, but AVOID THOSE LAPTOPS. I once had a ~2000$ laptop from Sony and all I can say is that experience was ABSOLUTELY terrible - the manufacturer just ditched support right as those laptops left the factory, all of the drivers had terrible issues like memory leaks, BSODs, hanging the system and not working properly (like Wi-Fi limiting to 5kbps untill I installed separate drivers), the manufacturer didn't respond to any customers of a 2000$ laptop, the performance was subpar and it had even less driver support in UNIX system. I even had to reflash the BIOS after an unsuccessful Linux installation as the BIOS wouldn't respond to anything. Their business model was to sell you the laptop and then pay $$$ for support, as it had a "conveniently" preinstalled support app and even a physical "support" button that would try to redirect you to contact their service center. Again, this was my experience and that laptop is now 4 years old, so things might have changed, but you should still take it into consideration)

Answer 2

The laptops you linked seems to have slightly inflated prices given what they are able to bring to the table. Allow me to counter:

MSI GL Series GL63 8RC-068 $1,099.00 (3714.95 Brazilian Reals) @ Newegg

This monstrous laptop hits right in the middle of the price ranges of laptops you linked and outclasses each and every one of them in terms of specs. It comes armed with the latest Intel Core i7 8th Gen 8750H, note that the laptops you linked used the U series, which are under-powered in order to be more energy efficient. It comes with a 128 GB SSD, but this is no ordinary SSD. This is a M.2 Sata SSD with gigabit level reads and writes. It also comes with an additional 1TB traditional Hard Drive. Most notable it features a GeForce GTX 1050 4 GB, but you can upgrade this to the TI variant for an additional $98. An additional nice feature, is that MSI laptops come with it's steel series keyboard which features anti-ghosting technology for a great typing experience (I personally own an MSI GS-60 Ghost).

Not only will this be absolute overkill for simple android development, it is capable of heavier development, allowing you to virtualize servers and android VM emulation for testing. Last but not least, it will enable you to handle resource heavy game development should you delve into it.

I think that it to be a reasonable estimate to say that this laptop will last you the greater part of a decade.

Last but not least, the link to the site I gave would allow you to purchase this laptop today with free shipping to Brazil.