Gear Talk > Software & Accessories
Laptops for photo editing and other use
7enderbender:
Am I the only one who is frustrated by the limited choices available for high quality laptops? I currently use a dual core 2GB IBM/Lenovo T60 - the old kind with the 14" high resolution 4:3 ratio screen. I love that thing and it's my most used computer in the house. And I do 90% of my photo editing with it and usually don't even touch my desktop PC with its big screen and all.
The T60 is extremely sharp, the colors are surprisingly accurate and with its perfect keyboard, trackpoint and form factor just works for me. And this is for both business use (Word, Excel, email) and photo editing (CS5, LR3). Performance is mostly good enough unless there are too many photos open or if its a power hungry process such as HDR processing. So in other words: it works.
Problem is that eventually I'll have to replace it. So I started looking around. And that really wasn't a pretty sight. Lenovos still come with the good old IBM keyboard and the trackpoint and some of the other great features - but it appears their screens have a lot of issues now.
Dell seems to have an XPS model with a good screen but I always found their build quality for laptops to be substandard. Not to speak of the toy keyboard.
Well, and that gets us to Apple. I really really don't like that company and its politics. And the MacBook pros are not only ugly (who cares) but also bulky and unruly compared to my 14" IBM - and don't even match the screen resolution. Keyboard is awful also. And then you can't change anything yourself not even a battery or so. So that's very likely (again) a big no-no.
And now what? Sonys look pretty weak also. Some point to Sager. Not sure about that. I'd need to actually see one of those somewhere.
Any thoughts? It's not even the budget so much. I'm ok with shelling out $2000 or so if it is suited for lots of typing, portable and has a stellar screen for photo editing. 14 or 15" would be ok. Oh, and a large and fast hard drive. For the life of me, I can't seem to find anything like that.
prestonpalmer:
just deck out a MacBook Pro. 8GB ram works very well for photo editing.
msdarkroom:
+1 for the MBP.
Get one of these: http://amzn.to/HWFzMK
And max out the ram here: http://bit.ly/rs4TM
7enderbender:
I know that lots of folks like the MBPs. I just can't get to understand why. They are big, the screen resolution is low, the keyboard is horrid and you can't even change your own battery or really anything.
And for all that they are very expensive and not fully compatible with a lot of stuff. Not to speak of the fact that Adobe would charge me again to get a new CS5 version. That's not Apples fault but still. No way will I buy anything Apple anytime soon.
arussarts:
Dude... Take a deep breath and consider coming over to the dark side. :D
Consider this. You can get a 15" MBP with a hi-res non-glare screen. Then max out the RAM with OWC Ram to 16BG. Then put in an OWC Data Doubler as a dedicated scratch disc and your MBP should smoke.
I can't speak to the PC, but like your Lenovo, my Macs "just work". I currently use a 2009 White Macbook with a Seagate Hybrid SSD hard drive and 6GB of Ram. I process HDR and Capture One/P+ files all the time. Is it AWESOME... no, but it's from 2009. And it's made of plastic, and it was $1000 so I don't care about smashing it to bits. I'll be upgrading this year when the new MB's come out and the "old" ones drop a little in price.
I also hate the idea of not having battery swap-ability but you can get "remote batteries" if you're not near a plug for 8 hrs. (http://quickertek.com/products/macbook_air_charger.php) And if your battery loses its ability to hole a charge, it really isn't that hard to change yourself.
As for Apple politics, please enlighten me. I have no idea what you're talking about. Hippies or Facists? Vegetarians or Meat Eaters? Or are you just against their policy of charging a S##tload of money for an awesome machine? Cause it bugs me too.
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