Any thoughts on this laptop?

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Adamcski

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It should be fine as laptops go for that. If you don't need the portability then you'll get more performance and a much better screen buying a base unit and screen separately.

Make sure you read reviews and check performance independently too.
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
personally would rather go with LINKY
but I already have that same model.
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I'd agree that an Apple will give likely better performance in laptop form right now, but you also have to be happy with OSX and it's various foibles and ways. If I could get a decent nick MacBook air M1 for £600 right now I'd be interested, but not as a main computing solution.
 
I have work related laptops that are windows based. This laptop would solely be photography related tasks. I can't install things on work laptops as I have to go via administration/ HR to ask and can't be bothered plus not sure they would be much good at it anyway.

Ideally looking at laptop not a desktop and 16" as my current laptop (https://www.hp.com/gb-en/shop/produ...MEVcOkHglxb4NuDtQOYaAth4EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds) is about 13"

I did consider just buying a decent screen and plugging my current laptop into it? Could be another option but then I have two different screens and they could be different format / coverage ?
 
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Just a few musings
If your current laptop does what you want £1900 is a lot to pay for a bigger screen
Couple of thoughts
Beg borrow or steal a monitor and a bit of wire and see how the screens compare
Ring HP explain what you want to do and ask which (if any) of their monitors will replicate the laptop screen
 
Yes I had thought of adding a screen and just plugging in the laptop but it was more the portability of it that I was after.

The guy in the apple shop earlier showed me the Mac mini which was cheaper than the 16" pro, but it means sitting at a desk and using a monitor

I didn't buy the original laptop for photography I purchased it for a post grad course I was doing. I wanted something small I could pack easily and research papers on (hence I got the 2 in 1 flip screen so I could read like a kindle and highlight text with the pen).
 
Adamcski said:
Just wondered what the thoughts on this laptop was?


£1899 in flash sale.

Specs look very good for the price to the layman like me.
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Personally I think it's expensive, but the 32GB of RAM is useful for large photo files.

If you're in the UK/Europe, try looking at PCSpecialist. They're might be cheaper than HP, and I recommend them. (I've bought 2 desktops from them, and my father has had 1 laptop)
 
Adamcski said:
Yes I had thought of adding a screen and just plugging in the laptop but it was more the portability of it that I was after.
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My Dell XPS that I'm typing on now works really well connected to an external screen. It really sucks editing on a laptop screen, even 15" or 16", and TBH I'd not want to use smaller than 24", and even that's a bit cramped. Seems far better to get a nice big monitor for proper editing and keep an nice small lappie for travel.
 
Dael_Pix said:
Personally I think it's expensive, but the 32GB of RAM is useful for large photo files.

If you're in the UK/Europe, try looking at PCSpecialist. They're might be cheaper than HP, and I recommend them. (I've bought 2 desktops from them, and my father has had 1 laptop)
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Thx @Dael_Pix

These look pretty good on the face of it. I don't know what all the differences are technically but they certainly can be built with 32 or even 64 GB ram for less than the HP. I will give them a call later and have a chat. Many thanks.
 
ancient_mariner said:
My Dell XPS that I'm typing on now works really well connected to an external screen. It really sucks editing on a laptop screen, even 15" or 16", and TBH I'd not want to use smaller than 24", and even that's a bit cramped. Seems far better to get a nice big monitor for proper editing and keep an nice small lappie for travel.
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Or a nice big monitor, with USB-C so you can plug in your small (but powerful) laptop for editing, and still use the same laptop for travel.

If you are looking to spend almost £2k, I would be looking at an M2 MacBook Air, or a 14" MacBook Pro - Apple's switch to their ARM SoC (M family of chips) is a big jump in both power and battery life and unless you have specific software that requires it, I would not be looking at Windows.
 
I will investigate the screen option as it will probably be a lot cheaper. Just need to see how to connect my laptop (it has one old style USB port - the square one and two USB thunder things).

Any recommendations on a decent screen? Say 24" minimum?
 
Adamcski said:
I will investigate the screen option as it will probably be a lot cheaper. Just need to see how to connect my laptop (it has one old style USB port - the square one and two USB thunder things).

Any recommendations on a decent screen? Say 24" minimum?
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It depends on the size of your desk and the resolution of your screen.
 
I would be happy with 24-27" screen, don't think I would need anything larger if I went down this route. I have a 34" curved gaming monitor and wouldn't need anything that size.

Resolution of laptop screen or new screen?
 
Eighteen hundred quid will get you one hell of a desktop, probably with two monitors -- but I sense this is not an option.
 
Adamcski said:
I will investigate the screen option as it will probably be a lot cheaper. Just need to see how to connect my laptop (it has one old style USB port - the square one and two USB thunder things).

Any recommendations on a decent screen? Say 24" minimum?
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The Thunderbolt ports will also double as USB-C with full video output and power. So you can use them to either directly connect to a USB-C monitor, or buy an inexpensive USB-C Hub with HDMI and use that to plug into any monitor you like.

You say your current laptop is a flip style with pen input. Why would you not use that for photo editing? I find using a pen / stylus to be a vastly better way of photo editing than sitting at a desk and using a mouse. The laptop you've linked to is fine, but expensive for what it is and I'd imagine the battery life will be appalling with an i9 and dedicated GPU. So portability doesn't mean much when you only get 3 hours of use on a battery. If I was going to be dropping the thick end of £2k on something for photo editing then it would be a Microsoft Surface or iPad Pro, but as I say I much prefer editing with a tablet and pen.
 
Adamcski said:
I would be happy with 24-27" screen, don't think I would need anything larger if I went down this route. I have a 34" curved gaming monitor and wouldn't need anything that size.

Resolution of laptop screen or new screen?
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Resolution of the external display. As you are quite close to the screen its best to get a high resolution monitor the larger the size. On my 20 inch monitor with a 1,680x1,050 resolution I can just about get by.
 
Well I contacted PC specialist and they suggested:

Chassis & Display Ionico Series: 16" Matte QHD 240Hz sRGB 100% LED Widescreen (2560x1600)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i9 14 Core Processor 13900H (5.4GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 32GB Corsair 4800MHz SODIMM DDR5 (2 x 16GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 4060 - 8.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
2nd M.2 SSD Drive 1TB SAMSUNG 970 EVO PLUS M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 3500MB/R, 3300MB/W)
AC Adaptor 1 x 230W AC Adaptor Power Cable 1 x 1.5 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery 1 x Ionico Battery 73WH
Thermal Paste VAPOR CHAMBER ADVANCED COOLING
Sound Card 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6E AX211 + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options 1 x THUNDERBOLT 4 PORT + 3 x USB 3.2 PORTS
Keyboard Language PER-KEY RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus Norton 360 inc. Game Optimizer - Free 90 Day License
Browser Microsoft® Edge

Stand-Alone Monitor AOC 27" 27B2AM - 1920 x 1080,4MS, HDMI
Notebook Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MP FULL HD WEBCAM
Warranty 3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days Welcome Book PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland

£1922 - not sure on the monitor but I could drop the monitor and bump the ram up to 2x32gb for a total of 64gb and that would be £1891 - so they are cheaper than HP :)


I have also been into Apple who suggested a 16" MacBook Pro but with the 32 GB RAM and the middle spec GPU/CPU - was something like £3,500 :-0
 
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Still seems very expensive for a PC.

What did you ask Apple for? If you are looking for a laptop with a larger screen, there's rumours about a larger MacBook Air being released soon.
 
Craikeybaby said:
Still seems very expensive for a PC.
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That's a laptop designed for some seriously heavy lifting, and it's coming with a separate 27" screen in the price. Does apple make an equivalent?
 
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Craikeybaby said:
Still seems very expensive for a PC.

What did you ask Apple for? If you are looking for a laptop with a larger screen, there's rumours about a larger MacBook Air being released soon.
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Told them it was for photography and general photo editing purposes. I was an early adopter of cloud and Google, so everything in my house is Google orientated, so I also stated it was very unlikely that I would change the whole ecosystem for the household. 16inch screen would be preferred as I don't see the point in getting another 14" screen. He talked me over the various options, including the little mac mini thing, but if you want 32gb ram you have to spec it from factory as they only offer the standard builds in store, so it would be the almost £4k one with the M2 Max Pro (or whatever its called) off the shelf.
 
Adamcski said:
not sure on the monitor but I could drop the monitor and bump the ram up to 2x32gb for a total of 64gb and that would be £1891 - so they are cheaper than HP
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Not sure the monitor is great TBH - 1080P! - but it will be better than editing n a tiny screen. I have a Gigabyte M27Q, but they're not everyne's cup of tea.
 
To be honest, I am not too worried about the monitor as my workplace surface book something or other has a 16" screen and my HP laptop is 13.5 (this is the one I edit on) and it is a massive difference side by side. I could always add a monitor later (I have a MSI 34inch curved screen linked to the xbox series x upstairs). So would be more inclined to drop the monitor and double the ram to 2x 32gb which makes it cheaper also.
 
Each link in the chain of photography is important. When I started I was using a 20" Samsung TN screen, and quite soon realised I had no idea what my pictures looked like to others. I moved to a Dell U2412M using 'factory calibration' and it was much better, but still not great. Finally in 2021 I bought a screen that gave almost full RGB coverage and a calibration device, and have seen an improvement again in the equality and consistency of my output. That's not just on my big screen, but when I view pictures on my laptop and phone too.

The screen spec'd for the new laptop is good as laptop screens go, but it's quite hard to check an image on such a small screen, and this is why I'm recommending something larger. However if you're not going to calibrate that bigger screen then your money might well be better spent on 64GB instead.
 
You don't need a 240Hz screen and an RTX GPU for photo editing, and a 1080p 27" monitor will look absolutely horrible and is again completely unsuitable for photo editing. I'd say that entire laptop is complete overkill for normal photo editing, and as with the first one the battery life will be horrible.
 
Unless you are editing on the road and need a portable editing machine to take out of the house, I think a 16inch laptop is a false economy. I frequently have to order laptops and Macbooks for people doing video and photo editing and the vast majority of the time they are using them in a place where they can have a monitor set up, so there is zero point in ordering a 16inch model.
Buying a good 24inch (or bigger) screen for home use is totally worth it. Apart from anything the ergonomics of using a laptop screen for long periods is bad for your back/neck.
14 and 15inch laptops are the goldilocks size really, not too big so as to be too bulky to be portable, but big enough screen to get a decent amount on it.
Get a screen with USB-C for docking. It'll supply power, network, usb and feed video your screen in one neat cable.
 
ABTog said:
Unless you are editing on the road and need a portable editing machine to take out of the house, I think a 16inch laptop is a false economy. I frequently have to order laptops and Macbooks for people doing video and photo editing and the vast majority of the time they are using them in a place where they can have a monitor set up, so there is zero point in ordering a 16inch model.
Buying a good 24inch (or bigger) screen for home use is totally worth it. Apart from anything the ergonomics of using a laptop screen for long periods is bad for your back/neck.
14 and 15inch laptops are the goldilocks size really, not too big so as to be too bulky to be portable, but big enough screen to get a decent amount on it.
Get a screen with USB-C for docking. It'll supply power, network, usb and feed video your screen in one neat cable.
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Any rec's?
 
RichardC27 said:
You don't need a 240Hz screen and an RTX GPU for photo editing, and a 1080p 27" monitor will look absolutely horrible and is again completely unsuitable for photo editing. I'd say that entire laptop is complete overkill for normal photo editing, and as with the first one the battery life will be horrible.
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They key part with that screen is it's 100% sRGB output, which IS important. An RTX card isn't needed for lightroom, but will help hugely if running one of the denoising programs or 0n1 Photoraw that will use it.
 
woof woof said:
I got my last lap top from them.

I got good service from them when it had a strange fault too.
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They have good reviews and they aren't trying to sell me something as I called them and they said I do not need 64gb ram nor the 20+ core i9!
 
Adamcski said:
Told them it was for photography and general photo editing purposes. I was an early adopter of cloud and Google, so everything in my house is Google orientated, so I also stated it was very unlikely that I would change the whole ecosystem for the household. 16inch screen would be preferred as I don't see the point in getting another 14" screen. He talked me over the various options, including the little mac mini thing, but if you want 32gb ram you have to spec it from factory as they only offer the standard builds in store, so it would be the almost £4k one with the M2 Max Pro (or whatever its called) off the shelf.
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As mentioned above, 16" laptop screens aren't great for editing, nor are they particularly portable - and given how expensive they tend to be, you can get a smaller laptop and a decent monitor for the same price. FWIW I have a Philips 279P 27" monitor which works well with both Macs and PC with one cable connection for power/USB/video/network cable.

32GB is overkill for editing on a Mac, 16GB is plenty - as it is on the same chip as the processor there is less overhead.
 
Should handle anything you through at it tbh, even high end 'AAA' games if desired, but does seem pricey - no idea why some opt for Apple devices with much lower spec :?
 
Just bought an Asus zen book duo, has an extra half height screen to house frequently used editing tools, great for editing on the go but I’d still want to edit on a large screen for crucial stuff.
So far I’m really pleased.

The thing about a ‘perfect laptop’ is that it doesn’t exist. You need 2 screens and a lot of hdd storage for a photo PC, and those things will never be good enough on a laptop while maintaining portability, so you might as well accept the compromise and buy ‘good enough’.
 
Yes, I think the main thing is it will be a massive improvement what I have.

I won't plan on taking it out with me so portability isn't my main concern, but I don't want a desktop as it limits me to one room. If I want to take one out I can just grab my HP.

I have an office at home, so I could grab a laptop dock, link the HD screen to it (I know it's not the best in the world but it's still better than the none existent screen I have currently, it is full hd and 100% srgb) and use it when I want some quiet time. I tend to sit on the sofa or table and edit, so I don't want to be restricted to one room.

Everyone is different and whilst some may say this is overkill the guy in the apple shop was telling me I need £3.5k worth of 16" MacBook Pro. I use windows based systems for my two businesses and Chromebooks for quick emails downstairs and such. So I don't think I will ever switch ecosystems as I've been Google and Amazon for years.

Suppose it's a case of different things for different people?
 
Cagey75 said:
Should handle anything you through at it tbh, even high end 'AAA' games if desired, but does seem pricey - no idea why some opt for Apple devices with much lower spec :?
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Because we do, for quite a few reasons ;)
 
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