₦airaland Forum

Please kindly recommend me the cheapest Mac laptop to buy to solely deploy iOS application.

I was thinking of purchasing a MacBook pro 2015, what do you all think?

2015 won't work ... Cos the MacOs is stuck on MacOS Monterey 12.7.6 and to publish iOS/MacOs app in 2025:

To publish an iOS app in 2025, you'll need a Mac running macOS Sonoma 14.5 or later to use Xcode 16, which is required to build with the iOS 18 SDK. This is because, as of April 24, 2025, all new and updated iOS apps must be built with an SDK for iOS 18 or later to be accepted by App Store Connect.

And that means you'll be need a 2018 macbook pro up or to better still, future proof your investment, get a 2020 macbook pro so that will give u say, 2 or 3 years life without u needing to upgrade again or best bet, buy a 2022 M2 jeje!!!

There is another option which is to buy a high end 2015 and via patch, install a higher MacOs which is unofficially unsupported but u might give it a shot sha ... And if u choose to go this route, ensure u "always" have backup of your codes/stuff cos the Os can sometimes, have issue.

PoultryStuffx:
Please kindly recommend me the cheapest Mac laptop to buy to solely deploy iOS application.

I was thinking of purchasing a MacBook pro 2015, what do you all think?

bigl:
2015 won't work ... Cos the MacOs is stuck on MacOS Monterey 12.7.6 and to publish iOS/MacOs app in 2025:

To publish an iOS app in 2025, you'll need a Mac running macOS Sonoma 14.5 or later to use Xcode 16, which is required to build with the iOS 18 SDK. This is because, as of April 24, 2025, all new and updated iOS apps must be built with an SDK for iOS 18 or later to be accepted by App Store Connect.

And that means you'll be need a 2018 macbook pro up or to better still, future proof your investment, get a 2020 macbook pro so that will give u say, 2 or 3 years life without u needing to upgrade again or best bet, buy a 2022 M2 jeje!!!

There is another option which is to buy a high end 2015 and via patch, install a higher MacOs which is unofficially unsupported but u might give it a shot sha ... And if u choose to go this route, ensure u "always" have backup of your codes/stuff cos the Os can sometimes, have issue.

Thank you so much for taking your time to explain to me.

I'll consider my budget and purchase either the M1 or M2.

You're welcome chief!!!

Pls ensure you check it very well to avoid buying "abroad stolen mac" ... cos na dem full market

PoultryStuffx:
Thank you so much for taking your time to explain to me.

I'll consider my budget and purchase either the M1 or M2.

bigl:
You're welcome chief!!!

Pls ensure you check it very well to avoid buying "abroad stolen mac" ... cos na dem full market

Boss, is it fair to get a 2020 macbook pro 2020 m1, 8gb 256 ssd for 1 million naira? And the version is MacOS Sonoma 14.4.1, will this work for my iOS deployment?

As an iOS developer myself, I recommend you get at least an M1 pro.
Reasons are as follows.
1. Xcode latest build tools and simulators requires latest OS and chipset to work.
2. Framework and dependencies are usually updated dynamically, if you work with a team and you use an old macbook, you will not be able to run the codebase, because most likely your machine would not be able install these dependencies
3. Long build time, especially for large projects. You would spend a long time trying to compile your code if you use an old macbook

E plenty sha. Buying anything lower than an M1 would be a waste of money

Well its not bad but with the experience i have, 8gb for mac is not advisable ...

it will work but when u try to run multiple apps, that's where you might not get top notch performance so, i'll advise u get 16gb ram version and 256gb storage upwards (512gb recommended) cos 512gb (my storage space), gets filled up fast when working and as a rule, its always advisable to leave about 5 to 10% of total space for better performance ... ...

The 2020 can be upgraded to MacOs Sequioa and will be relevant for a couple of years ...

M1 16gb ram, 256/512gb Storage is the recommended specs bro!

PoultryStuffx:
Boss, is it fair to get a 2020 macbook pro 2020 m1, 8gb 256 ssd for 1 million naira? And the version is MacOS Sonoma 14.4.1, will this work for my iOS deployment?

geniusjames:
As an iOS developer myself, I recommend you get at least an M1 pro.
Reasons are as follows.
1. Xcode latest build tools and simulators requires latest OS and chipset to work.
2. Framework and dependencies are usually updated dynamically, if you work with a team and you use an old macbook, you will not be able to run the codebase, because most likely your machine would not be able install these dependencies
3. Long build time, especially for large projects. You would spend a long time trying to compile your code if you use an old macbook

E plenty sha. Buying anything lower than an M1 would be a waste of money

Thank you for your response. Please as an iOS developer, how did you get a DUNS number? I'm trying to sign up on apple and google play developers account and they're requesting for it.

bigl:
Well its not bad but with the experience i have, 8gb for mac is not advisable ...

it will work but when u try to run multiple apps, that's where you might not get top notch performance so, i'll advise u get 16gb ram version and 256gb storage upwards (512gb recommended) cos 512gb (my storage space), gets filled up fast when working and as a rule, its always advisable to leave about 5 to 10% of total space for better performance ... ...

The 2020 can be upgraded to MacOs Sequioa and will be relevant for a couple of years ...

M1 16gb ram, 256/512gb Storage is the recommended specs bro!

Thanks so much for your continuous response. I'll save a little more and get your recommendation. Thanks once again!

You're always welcome chief!!!

Together, we rise!!!

PoultryStuffx:
Thanks so much for your continuous response. I'll save a little more and get your recommendation. Thanks once again!

The cheapest is to use expo EAS

Deicide:
The cheapest is to use expo EAS

True but Expo EAS is only used for building react native code. Codemagic seems to be the right alternative cos it is more versatile. It can be used to build both flutter and react native codes depending on which frameworks the OP is using.