What laptop to buy???

[barry]

Currently looking at buying a laptop for home so I can do a bit of general computer stuff but primarily use it for PPíng photos in Photoshop.

What should I be looking for. I want something that moves reasonably quickly. What size memory do I need, what size HHD should I get, what sort of graphics do I need?

Are there any brands that are particularly suited to PPing and Photoshop.

At this stage I am thinking of a Windows based computer (not Apple) as I currently have Windows based software. Would there be a substantial benefit to consider changing to Apple technology.

Budget wise I am thinking in the $1000-$1500 range. Is this realistic for a bit of speed and storage space.

What does everyone think?

[gstark]

Hi Barry,

There's lots of good deals around now.

Macs are good, but now that Windows 7 is here, the playing field has changed dramatically. With Vista, I would said to get a Mac, and especially within the budget that you're looking at. With Windows 7, some of the manufacturers are doing some very nice hardware/OS integration, and the end result is going to be a very good user experience.

Get the largest HDD and memory specification that you can, and for you, probably 64 bit Windows 7 Home Premium might be the way to go.

If the box has an eSata port, so much the better; you can buy large capacity HHDs for very few $$$$, and with an inexpensive external dock, that can be used very effectively for your photo storage.

[aim54x]

Hi Barry,

There's lots of good deals around now.

Macs are good, but now that Windows 7 is here, the playing field has changed dramatically. With Vista, I would said to get a Mac, and especially within the budget that you're looking at. With Windows 7, some of the manufacturers are doing some very nice hardware/OS integration, and the end result is going to be a very good user experience.

Get the largest HDD and memory specification that you can, and for you, probably 64 bit Windows 7 Home Premium might be the way to go.

If the box has an eSata port, so much the better; you can buy large capacity HHDs for very few $$$$, and with an inexpensive external dock, that can be used very effectively for your photo storage.

Gary you sound on the money...although a laptop with eSATA??? Now that would be nice esp if they could give us a few firewire ports (maybe just one) as well (in a PC not MAC platform).

[gstark]

although a laptop with eSATA??? Now that would be nice esp

I'm pretty sure that at least Lenovo, Toshiba, Asus and HP each have several models with built in eSata. I'd have no issues with purchasing from any of those manufacturers based upon what I've been seeing from them, and especially over the last few weeks where we've seen some very interesting toys.

[Murray Foote]

I'll probably get a laptop at some time too as a secondary post-processing device. Another aspect is how profilable they may be. There is an interesting article on a few laptops here.

It seems the best laptops cover sRGB (certainly not aRGB) but most will not and the small cheap ones cover only a small fraction of sRGB. What you see is not necessarily what you get.

The best may be the Lenovo W700 though that's round 3.5K to 4K. I would also guess that no laptop would be DDI enabled so calibration would have to be manual.

[feldy]

Hi guys - just wondered if anyone had any further updates on good laptops to take with you on a shoot; read the review above, and they seemed to think the earlier MacBook Pro's were pretty good, but later models have a highly reflective glossy screen, which they didn't seem too thrilled about.
Also, MacBook Pro is around $2K [15" version] so it's certainly not light on the pocket. The plastic MacBook itself [ie the basic model] seems a lot cheaper but from what i understand it doesn't have a graphics card, which I'm presuming slows down image processing...

Just wondered if anyone had any updates on the laptop scene for usage in photography?

cheers
A

[phillipb]

I just purchased a new laptop, but my needs are not that great so it may not be what you're after. But having said that, I find it quite responsive with CS4 and lightroom which are the two main programs I use with my photography.
I bought an Asus K611c which comes with a 16" screen 1 gb graphics card, core2 duo 2.25mhz processor, 360gig hard drive 4gb ram and windows 7 home premium 64bit pre-installed. Is says that it has a HD screen although I'm not sure about this claim since the max resolution is1336 x 768. I paid $1100 for it from my local Bing Lee. So far so good.

[Aussie Dave]

.....It says that it has a HD screen although I'm not sure about this claim since the max resolution is1336 x 768.....

Labels and specifications are often taken the wrong way - probably due to the marketing hype we are constantly bombarded with.
Whilst anything above 576i is considered HD (High-Definition), most people see HD and instantly think 1080p, which is not necessarily the case.
It's a big misconception with flat panel TV's and also translates into the PC/laptop world....though I imagine a laptop with a full-HD screen (eg. 1080p) would cost significantly more than the model you purchased.

[Murray Foote]

As well as the very small ones becoming cheap enough to serve as mobile backup options, some of the larger ones are becoming more viable as a secondary device for image processing.

On of the main problems with Laptops for photos has been restricted gamut. It’s probably still the case that most laptops show a considerably smaller range of colours than sRGB and that particularly applies to the small notebooks. Such laptops are probably impossible to profile and the colours may actually be misleading.

Less than a year ago, Rob Galbraith produced a survey of laptops for photography and the Lenovo W700 was the best but it’s far from cheap. A more recent survey from another source puts the Lenovo 5th of five. It expresses gamut in terms of NTSC which is a similar colour space to aRGB (Adobe RGB). aRGB is 93% of NTSC and sRGB is 64% or NTSC. The Lenovo comes in at 72% of NTSC but the top performer is the Sony Vaio AW with an amazing 137% of NTSC. This is perhaps more like a desktop substitute with an 18.4” screen.

Wide gamut laptops are becoming more available and affordable but it can be difficult to work out whether the gamut for a laptop is good or poor because the manufacturers usually don’t say and don’t know.

I recently purchased a Sony Vaio FW (16.4” screen, Win 7 Ultimate, 6GB RAM, 2.8Mhz, 500GB drive, Full HD) which I profiled at 87% of NTSC, a little better than my wide gamut NEC 2690mk1 PC monitor. I paid about $2,500 for it, though that would have been closer to $2,000 without an extra heavy-duty battery and going back to Home premium rather than Ultimate. With the strong Australian dollar it was much cheaper from B&H in the US, even after paying GST and Customs charges. Still requires low ambient light for image processing.

[feldy]

Hi guys - finally took the plunge, and in spite of the glossy screen [& the cost] ended up with a MacBook Pro - partly because of software reasons [I've got the Mac version of CS1] and also to be honest, because it's just a beautiful unit - I'm a sucker for the aluminium unibody casing.

It's slim, light and hopefully will be great for photography while on the road!

A

[ozimax]

Macbooks (and *pros) have come down in price of late. I think you can pick up a 13" macbook for around 1200-1300 now. The same thing cost me 1600 two years ago.

You will enjoy your purchase immensely, and the service from Apple is sensational (in my experience at least).

A good friend of mine bought an Acer laptop recently - it was a terrible decision which he regrets. Two of my kids have bought Asus machines of late. I am very impressed with the build quality of these.

Ozi.

[gstark]

The smaller Macbook Pros are MBPs in name only. A triumph of marketing BS over product features, they are just the older MacBooks with a new name. That said, they are still a good machine, if you purchase wisely.

Asus remain good, Toshiba and Lenovo at the top of the pile, and HP/Compaq have seriously improved their game over the last 12 months or so.

[feldy]

Gee thanks mate - always good to have advice like that after you've purchased!!

Actually am pretty happy with the Macbook Pro - agree about the marketing hype, but as I mentioned it was as much a software decision as anythign else and as i said above, i love their unibody construction - it just feels robust in a way that none of the pc laptops did. Whether that makes any practical difference, I guess I'll find out over time!

A

[barry]

For what it is worth I ended up going with a Toshiba A500, 16" 1366x768 screen, 2.2Ghz processor, Windows 7 (setup for 64bit), 500GB HDD, 1GB Graphics and ESATA USB port.

Haven't loaded Photoshop yet, but I assume it should work ok.

Cheers

[surenj]

Barry, photochop should fly in that machine. Just make sure you have a "fast photoshop" imagefile of the HDD so you could revert in the future when it slows down.

[lightning]

mmmmh that sounds pretty quick what sort of money did you pay?

I've just bought one of the white 13" macbooks (dream was a lot higher end mac book pro) family accountant had other ideas !!! DJ's had 10% off so $1170, and I've been impressed, I think the new os (snow leopard) and ddr3 ram has a lot to do with it.
I have a 3 year old imac (tiger, 2gb 667 ram) that's still going fine, my wife's laptop has leopard on it and for some reason I found it a bit frustrating in comparison to tiger.
This snow leopard os seems to work really well for me. And almost 90% of the pre loaded app's are 64 bit to go with the os
A bit of a bonus for me was iphoto 09! it actually has a use now, apart from selling books etc. Apple seems to have taken a lot out of aperture (non destructive processing) just like nikon with a landmark camera then drip the features down to the lower cameras.
once there is some spare cash I'll put another 2gb of ram in.

[photomarcs]

Haven't loaded Photoshop yet, but I assume it should work ok.

Cheers

I've got my L300 ( Toshiba's consumer grade) but i'll jacked it up to 4gb RAM and still has a nifty 2.16 processor.
In my opinion, other than a Mac, toshiba's run beaut. =D

[gstark]

once there is some spare cash I'll put another 2gb of ram in.

The extra RAM will cost but a few $$$$, provided you do not buy it from Apple.

[feldy]

hi guys - for the record, the little [13"] MacPro is turning out to be a beautiful machine - light, fast & beautifully built [love that aluminium unibody] - perfect for photography when you're travelling. Also have to say i'm quite impressed by the screen - apart from the gloss, it offers beautiful colour... they're not cheap, and am sure there's a bit of mktg hype as G. suggested, but have to say I'm not regretting it so far!!

A

[lightning]

yeah MSY had 2gb stick for about $60 but they seem to have removed it from their web site, so I will see what the new year brings.
Interesting trackpad I just discovered you can make the bottom right hand corner into a right click zone!

[JED]

yeah MSY had 2gb stick for about $60 but they seem to have removed it from their web site,

They are still there. It looks like they have rearranged the price list and the laptop memory is now with the laptops on page 4 of the pdf.

Cheers

[lightning]

thanks for that, I'm not used to msy's web site being organised