What machine you actually need
Less than the shop will tell you, and the money goes somewhere unexpected.
Java development is not demanding. javac is fast, most programs you write while learning are trivial to run, and the language does not care what your machine cost.
What is demanding is everything around it: an IDE indexing a project, a browser with thirty tabs open on documentation, a database or a container running alongside. Those are what make a cheap machine unpleasant, and they are not what shop assistants ask about.
The three numbers that matter
Memory. The one that decides whether the machine feels slow. 8GB is workable if you are disciplined about what is open. 16GB is the point where an IDE, a browser and a container stop competing. 32GB matters only if you run several heavy services at once, which you will not be doing while learning.
Disk type. An SSD rather than a spinning disk. This is not a preference; a mechanical drive will make project indexing and build times painful in a way no amount of RAM compensates for. Any machine sold new today has one. Any second-hand machine might not — check.
Screen. You read far more code than you write. A larger or second screen does more for daily comfort than any processor upgrade at this price level. A cheap second monitor is the best value purchase on this page.
The three that don’t
The processor. Anything from the last five or six years compiles Java faster than you can think about it. The difference between a mid-range and a high-end chip is invisible for this work.
The graphics card. Irrelevant. Java development uses none of it. If a retailer steers you toward a gaming machine because you said “programming”, you are being sold the wrong thing.
The brand. The JDK runs the same everywhere. Buy on the three numbers above.
What it costs
A capable machine for this work — 16GB, SSD, a decent screen — sits well below what a “developer laptop” is marketed at. A refurbished business laptop two or three years old often lands at a third of the new price with exactly the specification that matters, because the resale market prices processors and brands, not memory.
Paying for it over time
The expensive mistake here is not the specification. It is signing a term longer than the machine will last you.
Laptops bought for a degree or a first development job tend to get replaced inside three years — sooner if the work moves toward containers or mobile builds. Electronics finance in shops is routinely written over thirty-six or forty-eight months. Put those two facts together and the last year of instalments buys nothing: the machine is already in a drawer. Work out how long you realistically intend to keep it, treat that as the longest term you will sign, and let it decide the price bracket. A shorter term on a modest machine beats a long term on an impressive one.
Watch what happens to “interest free” as well. It is a genuine offer and it is not the same thing as free — the cost has usually moved rather than disappeared, into the sticker price, into a service plan added at the till, or into an arrangement fee. There is a simple test: find the cash price you could walk out with today, then find the total the agreement says you will hand over by the end. If those two numbers match, the offer is what it claims. If they do not, the gap is the price of the credit and you can now compare it against anything else.
Which numbers are printed, and where, is set nationally, so the transferable skill is knowing what to ask for rather than which product to choose. Polish agreements state a total amount payable for the whole contract, and Avinto is among the lenders showing it — that single figure already absorbs the term, the fees and anything bundled in, which is what makes it the one worth holding two offers against. Most countries publish the same thing under a different name.
One caveat that has nothing to do with rates. A repayment you are not confident about finishing is a worse purchase than a slower machine, because a missed instalment follows you into a credit file for years and the slower machine still compiles Java perfectly well.
If you already have a machine
Then use it. Almost anything that runs a current operating system will run a JDK and an editor. Add memory if it takes it — on an older laptop that is frequently a small amount of money for the single biggest improvement available, and it is the upgrade retailers make the least margin on, which is why nobody suggests it.
Come back to this page when the machine is genuinely getting in your way. Most people never need to.