Skip to Content

Xcode On Macbook Air

Xcode On Macbook Air

Xcode On Macbook Air

Xcode is a powerful integrated development environment that provides everything needed to create apps for Apple products. With Xcode, you can easily create, edit, and debug your code, and test your apps on a simulator or directly on a device. it has features like refactoring, code coverage, and code completion that help write better code.

I am an iOS Developer by day, and have used Xcode for nine straight releases. I have built Flutter apps, ran iOS and Android emulators, ran React Web projects, ran Xcode projects, Next.js projects, vanilla Web projects, used nGrok, done accessibility reviews using Wave and AXE, done all the things that I normally would on my Pro 16 machine.

I have also been running Xcode on my MacBook Pro at work, which has an 8-core i9 CPU and 32GB of storage. Technically, you could run XCode 1.0 on a 128MB G3 iMac running Mac OS X 10.3. I know from my experiences on the A Hackintosh that a Mac can get over 8GB RAM very fast running an XCode Simulator. I rarely got my Mac to as high as 16GB of usable RAM, but 8GB is quite easily exceeded if you are a multi-tabbed developer.

At the very least, 8GB of RAM is fine, but 16GB allows for a lot more apps running simultaneously. The total amount of RAM needed will depend on what applications you want, and what development tools you have, and you will need to factor in the RAM requirements if you are looking to run more containers or VMs on the Mac. I think that by now, it is been established that an 8GB model will not work well for most software developers. Picking the 8GB model will do just fine at this point, but upgrading the memory is not really an option on any MacBooks running Xcode 12.

SystemMacbook Pro
GPUA Discrete GPU and Integrated GPU
CPUPowerful 8-Core CPU
MemoryM1, 8GB, 256GB Memory
System Specs of MacBook Pro.

If you are planning on getting a Macbook Air running on an i5 CPU, with upgraded RAM and/or storage, then you are probably capable of handling the ever-growing demands on computer resources of the new Xcode and other apps over the life of the Mac.

The MacBook Air comes with the M1 chip, and is strong enough now to do some coding, but if you want something even stronger, a Macbook Pro is very nice to have, especially if you are using the laptop often. Overall, a MacBook Air is pretty good for programming, but a MacBook Pro is recommended for anyone using Python, Ruby, Java, web development, machine learning, and a lot of other programming-related tasks. Yes, a Macbook Airs equipped with an M1 would be sufficient for the programming, machine learning, and development tasks data scientists might employ. A MacBook Air can handle Ruby programming properly, working with web development, as well as using javascript, the Macbook Pro would still do a better job.

Maybe for those making games, but I would even go so far as to say game developers probably need to choose a MacBook Pro over an M2 Air. I cannot really think of any compelling reasons for making it instead of a brand-new M1 Mac Mini, or an M1 Macbook Air. Based on the transformation, it is possible developers might forgo an expensive iMac Pro and just get a $999 (base model, admittedly) MacBook Air, and be completely satisfied.

Specified is that Macbook Pro has a better GPU and generally improved performance from the technical specs perspective compared to MacBook Air. When it comes to real world performance, direct comparisons of my 2017 MBP to a 2020 MacBook Pro(M1, 8GB, 256GB) does not really reveal a huge increase.

The latest macOS release, macOS Plus, with Xcode and iOS Simulator, takes only 36GB. You will find Xcode builds are very slow, as long as you have got a hard drive in the Mac. Xcode just does not work on a PC with i486 and you cannot keep the source of an app on a 1.44MB floppy disk anymore. To this end, do not use any source besides the Mac App Store to download Xcode.

Once you are confident you are running a proper version of the Mac OS, you can start by downloading Apples Xcode 11 via the Mac App Store. Check your OS is Mojave 10.14.4 or higher, or Catalina 10.15 If you are running below this, head to the Mac App Store, where you can update the OS to the latest Catalina release of MacOS for free. When looking for a Mac or MacBook to buy, be sure that it is running the latest version of macOS.

If you’re interested in My Macbook Keeps Freezing, take a look at my other article

Apples Xcode 11 is a free application developed by Apple, so simply hit the Get or Download button and begin the setup process. Xcode 11 can be installed on Macs running macOS 10.14.4 (Mojave) or later. You definitely want to use macOS with Xcode, which is the main tool used to develop on macOS and iOS. We will be using Apples latest Xcode 11 version for programming iOS 13 apps, and running our apps on iOS Simulators built with Xcode.

https://youtu.be/siw1QNCcUt4
Watch this video to see the MacBook air m1 vs Mbps 16 Xcode build test

Apple provides Xcode for free for all MacOS users, although in order to deploy apps through various versions of the App Store, you need to subscribe to Apples developer program, which costs $99 a year. A long-standing app-building tool, Xcode is a widely known integrated development environment (IDE), which allows developers to write code and compile apps that can be used across various devices and operating systems.

Even apps developed on laptops other than Macs need to be compiled on Macs before they can be uploaded to the App Store. There is a target called Run on Mac for iOS apps in XCode that will execute an app locally on your machine, rather than on the simulator. You can then cross-reference this to the Xcode minimum OS requirements (see here, scroll down to Minimum MacOS To Run) and see what version of iOS you would be able to run.

If you’re interested in Chaser For Crown Apple, take a look at my other article

Basic Checkout Xcode is a big application, and when you install Xcode from the Mac App Store, it tends to load a bit slow. Our second reason for not trying to run Xcode on anything but a Mac is that you are probably going to have problems, and you never know whether that is your code or a shady install that you are using. Coding an application is not going to drain the Macs energy quite like playing a graphics-intensive game would (unless you are designing a graphics-intensive game, that is), but you will find you are pulling your hair out less when waiting for Xcode to compile your code unless you have a fairly well-specced machine. Note that Xcode requires macOS 12 Monterey, so you also need…a Mac capable of running macOS 12 Monterey or higher.

Does Xcode use alot of RAM?

Based on the system’s total RAM, everything uses varying amounts of RAM. Activity Monitor on my 16GB machine running Xcode displays 8GB of “Memory Used,” but 12GB on the 32GB machine. (The Xcode process uses just 586MB; the remaining 822 processes consume the remaining space.)

Can Xcode run on MacBook Air M1?

The answer is yes! Xcode can run on the new MacBook Air M1 without any issues. All you need to do is update to the latest version of Xcode (12.2 or higher). You can do this by opening the App Store and searching for Xcode.

Can a MacBook run Xcode?

The answer is yes. A MacBook can definitely run Xcode, as long as it meets the minimum system requirements. In order to run Xcode, you need a Mac with an Intel processor, running OS X Mavericks or later. You also need around 4GB of free storage space on your hard drive.