I don’t program on Android that I use Eclipse often or even regularly, but I know that on my old laptop, 1 GB of Eclipse boots forever and is very slow, while it boots almost almost instantly with my new 8GB, almost flawlessly smooth . But the only difference in the two laptops is not only the RAM or processor, but the old laptop rotates the drive at 5400 rpm, and my new one uses solid chips.
In particular, when developing Android, you will simultaneously run the emulator and, possibly, several instances of the emulator. These emulators are quite hungry, and Eclipse is also not easy in any dimensions. You will never want to exchange, the exchange takes place only there, so the system does not start the process of killing if it ever runs out of memory, but you do not want it to ever be full of anything day after day. If your system begins to replace, this is a sign that this requires a lot of RAM.
In my personal experience, larger and faster operating systems tend to be more responsive than faster processors (although you still need to get at least a central CPU); Compilation is usually related to I / O (although this may be different depending on the code base), so it is best if the OS can store all the files that you are currently working in in the disk cache in RAM, and you want to quickly get hard to load the time drive (or even better, SSD, because a fast hard drive is much noisier, much more vibration and batteries, which is sometimes acceptable for a desktop tower below your desk, but not for a laptop).
Another important consideration is the energy-saving features in the processor and battery life if you intend to use it on the road; the weight, screen and size of the keyboard, the “feel” of the touchpad (whether it is too slippery or too coarse, etc., when you get used to it, the touchpad is much faster and more convenient than the mouse, because it is much closer to the keyboard) . Don't just compare the numbers.