Photography laptop

=adrian=

Hi peeps,

I know sooner or later I will have to buy a laptop to be able to work on pictures on the road. There is no escaping it I think. I am away for 2 weeks this summer and seriously thinking about buying one before. What else to do on holiday than work If not for this summer, then definitely in future I will need one anyway.

It will have to be able to run Photoshop quite well, other than that the most important thing for me is the screen. Here are my thoughts about the screen:

"For me 4K is not important. It could be lower resolution than that (Between 4K and 1080p), but what I would like to see is at least 17", full Adobe RGB coverage, full IPS, matte screen, LED backlit. I don't care so much about thickness and weight of the laptop"

So colour reproduction, quality matte screen, resolution, gamut, are all very important for me.

Other than that a good processor, 8 to 16gb of RAM, not too bad GPU. Just enough to be able to run Photoshop well without any major problems.

I know Macbook Pro would probably be my best choice, but the bang to buck ratio is really hard to swallow for me. I am still considering it, but it might be out of my price range.

Talking about price range, the less the better, as the laptop will sit unused for most of the year, but I am open to suggestions.

If you see a laptop that could fit in this description, please do post here. Thanks a bunch

snerkler

I use the latest MBP and think it's fantastic, however AFAIK the largest is 15" and it's not full adobe RGB (it's wider than sRGB, is it p3?). I don't think it's available with a matt screen anymore either but not 100% sure. I think you're going to have to look at Windows based laptops if they're your requirements, but whether there's any on the market I'm not sure. I think you might struggle to find one with adobe RGB tbh.

=adrian=

I hope that is not the case, as IPS screens have really went down in price in last few years. MCP are industry standard, but I am not there yet financially to be able to spend 2k on a laptop that would sit unused for 50 weeks of the year.

stearman65

I've had my last 3 laptops custom built by PCSPECIALIST - Top Spec Custom PCs & Laptops Built to Order always been happy with the results.

snerkler

Appears I was wrong, check out the Dell XPS 15. Not sure if they do a 17 though
Best Laptops for Photo Editing - ExtremeTech

=adrian=

That is something I have not thought about TBH. Custom built laptop might actually be the only way to get what I want. I don't see a screen like I would want on their website, but I might give them a call to see what other options do they have. Thanks a lot

I couldn't see the 17" option on their website, but the price for that screen is a bit eyewatering. Close to MBP prices

http://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/cty/pdp/spd/xps-15-9570-laptop/cnx97007

snerkler

Well you can't expect top quality for rock bottom prices

=adrian=

Agreed. Hence I am starting to think, is this really worth pursuing. Maybe I should just enjoy the holiday instead of trying hard to keep working. Especially that the plan was just to do a few hours of work every evening. I really need to do some thinking on this.

My initial thinking was that I don't need a gaming spec laptop, I just need an average laptop with a very good screen, so maybe the price won't be that bad. But the problem seems to be that I am really the only one (or one of very small number) with needs like that, hence the choices are limited and the prices very high. Most people either don't care about the screen in their laptops at all, or even if they do, they just want a higher resolution or faster panel for gaming. Colour reproduction, gamut and screen technology are a niche requirements.

snerkler

Yeah I thought I was anal with fancy screens etc but you take it to a new level

=adrian=

Well, to my defence, I make money on using them