Starting to look at laptops again...

SkvLTD

Senior Member
And my current requirements aren't making the choices any easier. I'm looking for something slim, light, durable and capable- 12-13" in size, at least core i5, as good of GPU as I can get. Must have battery life, must run photoshop smoothly for raw conversions, and be light and mobile enough.

So far, Samsung Ultrabook Series 5 caught my eye. Also their ATIV tablets seem intriguing, but Atom cpu seems like it may not pull CS6 all too well.

Does anyone have any recommendations besides and/or feedback on the aforementioned?
 

SFC

Senior Member
I have been using a SONY VAIO for about six years, but they are expensive. You do realize you can build a DELL any way you want it to fit your needs.
 

SkvLTD

Senior Member
I'm borrowing a Vaio right now, but its a 17'er and not practical for anything outside of home. Dell, I might look into actually. And yes, budget is a huge factor in this as well.

Mostly its battery life>size>performance, but performance cannot fall anywhere near that of my old Fujitsu where it chokes on re-saving files if too many are open and has no viable GPU.
 

FastGlass

Senior Member
Are you going to tether with it at all? I use a Lenova thinkpad 15" and love it. Before I purchased this I looked at forums and holy crap. You get all kinds of recomendations.
So I did some research to find what is needed in a laptop as far as doing photography and decided on the Lenovo.
 

piperbarb

Senior Member
You are going to get as many recommendations as there are people who will respond to you post :) When I first got into digital photography about 3-1/2 years ago, after almost 4 decades of being a film user, I used a customized Dell laptop that was about 1 yr old. After about 6 months, I was not happy with the the results. Color balance was always a little off no matter how I tried to set the color, and it just seemed klutzy. I was using ViewNX and photoshop. I ended up switching to OS X. I bought a 13" MacBook Pro and have been very, very happy with the results.

There are a lot of really good programs for the Mac, including apps for tethering. If you have a budget, there is some very good, low cost and open source freeware available. I just purchased Pixelmator yesterday and have been playing with it. It's a nice, easy to use, full-featured photo editor designed exclusively for the Mac, and is only $15. I think it runs faster than Photoshop Elements.

If battery life is important, MacBooks have Windows-based computers beat by a mile, especially the new MacBook Airs just released. Be aware, though, that some of the 2013 Airs have a flicker problem when using Photoshop. You can read more about it on MacRumors, OS X 10.8.5 Developer Seed May Fix MacBook Air Photoshop Flickering - Mac Rumors
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
I'm going to second the suggestion for a Lenova. Awesome build quality. But if you're going to stick to your guns on the i5 or better you're going to need the budget to back that up.

Do you have $850 or so to spend? Take a look at the Lenovo ThinkPad T530.
 

JudeIscariot

Senior Member
I'm gonna have to disagree with an above comment:

Don't go AlienWare. Save your money. AW is overpriced for what you get. They are Dell-owned and you can get a Dell-named system with the same exact stuff for cheaper.

As for what to get, I don't know. An i5 will probably run photoshop smoothly if you have 4GB of RAM, I imagine. I have an i7 and 6GB and I've opened 150 NEF files at once in Adobe RAW and then opened most of them into PS. It took nearly 4GB of memory to have them all open at once, but it was still easy to work with. And that's 150 images all opened at once from RAW. An i5 should be good enough for your needs... I can't recommend anything though because you want something small and I don't really like anything below 15.5". I love my 17" laptop personally...
 

fotojack

Senior Member
I, too, have a ThinkPad (what I'm on right now. Built like a tank, small yet big enough to do the job. I have the older model T61, but it keeps on chuggin' along just fine. :) Running Windows 7 Pro.
 

ladytonya

Senior Member
Because you won't have anything left over to pay for gas/cab fare/bus ticket... to GET back.







Shiny!

Just like with camera equipment, you get what you pay for. My MacBook always works. Always. DH's laptop crashes consistently, pretty much at least once a week. If it's not crashing it's installing those stupid updates that take forever! Better hardware, better construction, and better software. Yeah, it's shiny. So what? It always works!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
 

JudeIscariot

Senior Member
I have a Dell. There's nothing wrong with it, and it doesn't install any updates because I told it not to, and if I didn't tell it not to, it could just do it in the middle of the night. And it was $850. To get the same specs as a Mac, it would've been around $2000.

All you have to do is know how to take care of a computer and you shouldn't ever have to worry about crashes or updates.
 

Claudia!

Senior Member
I would also go with a Mac. Preferably a macbook pro. The screens on the mac's are a lot more clearer and more visible than PC's. When it comes to photography, this was a big thing to consider when I was shopping for a new laptop. The visibility on the Mac's are amazing. Macbook's are made of guerrilla glass. Some pc's are made of hard plastic. If you are considering a PC and if the screen display is important, Samsung screens are considered one of the best. The battery life on a macbook pro is excellent. It does not weigh a lot. It runs smoothly. It is an adjustment to change from PC to Mac but once you get use to it, you will love it. The workflow and time is so much better. LR and PS run smoothly on it as well. If you want Windows, you can easily add it. Things just run smoother on a Mac. If you are a student and if you are considering a Mac or any PC, wait until mid to late August to get great discounts. Student discounts are great around this time. Mac's are expensive but well worth the price.

My pc crashed about a year ago. I bought a new mac this time last year but it only lasted 6 months. I dropped juice on it and fried it. I had to buy another laptop for school and went straight for another mac but this time from best buy. Their warranty is excellent. It even covers liquid damage unlike the apple store warranties. In between the time I did not have a my mac, I used and PC and hated it. I knew then, Once you go Mac, you never go back. (as lady tonya said) Good luck. I hope this helps.
 

Kodiak

Senior Member
Unmistakably MAC…

It's been more than 20 years that I'm using only this platform!

Since my "complete digital commitment" some 3-4 years ago, I've been cooking
exclusively with Nikons and MACs (the blend is so perfect!). I have a MAC Pro and
a 27" cinema display as working station and a MACBOOK pro 17" in studio.

When Apple made the weird decision to stop the production of the MACBOOK pro 17",
since my younger son was accepted in a photo school and my bigger one in a design
faculty, I rushed out to get them each the same MACBOOK pro 17" that I have. New or
used made no difference to me as long as they get them. I was lucky, I found two! … a
new and a demo! I took advantage of the deal and stretched my shopping spree to add
an other 27" cinema display for my sons. The prices were fantastically cheap because
the MACBOOKs were production ends and the display was a demo. Having said nothing
of my stampede to my sons, they were very happy to get them from me as

"reward for good school marks!"​

One the most important features of a working station is "screen real-estate"… All the
tools in some application workspace will, if you want a decent picture size window to
work on, suggest larger screen.
 
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JudeIscariot

Senior Member
Yes, I absolutely recommend a 17" screen to anybody looking for a laptop. It's a bit heavier, and you will have a harder time finding a good bag for it, but it's worth it. I cannot stand using 14"-15" laptops... They're just so small when you're working with images.
 
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