Laptop make/spec advice

Pegasus_Thrust

Pegasus_Thrust

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Evening all, I reckon my 3 year old dell xps is on its way out- largely through body wear as per usual, I am therefore in the market for a new laptop (no room for a desktop currently).

I am in several minds:

1) being quite IT savvy do I stick with a pc based laptop or do I go down the macbook route?

2) are MBPs honestly that much better for post processing or is it a bit of a 'tog culture thing (never had issue with my well spec'd dell performance wise)

3) If I was to do down the mac route what model spec should I look to go for?..... is a top spec MBP overkill for a bit of PS/LR? (Big files from a D800E).... or would a MB air do the trick?...... or maybe even the new plain and simple Macbook?


Any advice info you could impart would be most appreciated.
 
Doesn't have to be a macbookpro, plenty of top end windows laptops. My alienware will outperform all current mac book pros. But its more expensive, heavier and not too everyones tastes...

do i need all the at grunt? honestly probably not :)
 
This is my predicament. Can't fault the windows based laptops I've used thus far apart from the build quality but now being at a junction where I might possibly think about moving over I just want to know what there is to know. I'm more than aware that macs in certain industries seem to be the expected standard but just wanted to know why really, is it because they're better or is it because it's a regime?
 
Lets face it the only difference is OS, the hardware is the same and so is the applications we use to some degree.

I suspect its an eco system thing, if people have the iphones, ipads etc, then its very easy to transfer and share files etc - connectivity between apple products is excellent and sadly not something windows users experience.

I have to say I hate glossy screens, and all Macs have them as far as i'm aware - much prefer matt, but they do tend to come with higher resolution which lends themselves to the more creative applications
 
if you are quite IT savvy is moving the guts of your Dell into a new case an option - or canabalising its memory, hard disc etc into a barebones system ?

On point IMO Macs are good, but over priced for what they are - when you look at what a MBP costs then at what that money can get you in PC then theres not contest (particularly now Macs are running on Intel structure anyway)
 
I'm in the same sort of position currently, the size and weight of the mbp is what I like, struggling to find a windows laptop with same thickness/weight
 
AdamTudor said:
I'm in the same sort of position currently, the size and weight of the mbp is what I like, struggling to find a windows laptop with same thickness/weight
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I'll give Apple their due, they know how to package.

My laptop looks like a brick in comparison
 
This is def one of my options, already upgraded the XPS to SSD so would just slot that into a new unit potentially.... but just thought now might be the time to switch. Certainly agree re: the cost though....are the benefits worth this, add to that I finds a pain in the backside re: their incompatibility with anything that doesn't have the apple logo on it.
 
SSD makes a massive difference, just makes sure you get a big one
 
AdamTudor said:
I'm in the same sort of position currently, the size and weight of the mbp is what I like, struggling to find a windows laptop with same thickness/weight
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That's it, my XPS is a monster and with it the build quality isn't great- it's a pain because my XPS spec wise is fine but it's the housing that has let it down (same as the inspiron before it).... a MBP just feels more compact and durable and somehow easier.
 
Daz B said:
SSD makes a massive difference, just makes sure you get a big one
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Currently got 512gb in the XPS, works well.

It's the power input that has broken, I know how to fix it- big'ish job but I was just trawling ebay thinking should I just f*ck it off and start again with something that won't do this to me!
 
I've just replaced my laptop. I was using a five year old HP G62 laptop, AMD 64 bit dual core and 15 inch screen, the keys are worn smooth and the track pad is on its last legs. It got awfully hot but I did use it to edit my photos using PSE11. Whilst I would have liked a Mac, they are simply out of my price range. I bought a Toshiba Laptop L70-B115, which has i3 dual core processors, 8 gb RAM and a 17 inch screen at £450. It was a bit of a shock how much things have moved on. The screen is quite good, performance much better obviously, the battery life is an amazing 6 to 7 hours and it runs really cool. What I didn't like was Windows 8, a poor attempt at a one size fits all for phones, tablets and computers, it does not integrate well with a non touch screen touchpad laptop. It doesn't help that the touchpad on the Toshiba is its worst feature, I find it too hit and miss, especially left and right click or scrolling gestures. A lot of laptops on the market now have this poor arrangement of left/right buttons integrated with the touchpad itself. My attempts at right click for PSE or opening a new Internet Tab have too high a failure rate. In the future, I would always want left and right switches which are separate from the touchpad. Alternately, it might be worth looking at an all in one high spec desktop, I bought a Lenovo all in one B50-35 a few days ago to replace a now ancient Pentium 4 Tower system. The Lenovo had just been taken brand new out of the box and placed into the clearance section of a local Currys at half price, £350. It has AMD A10 processors, a 23.8 inch touch screen and 8 gb RAM. Out of the box it had two configuration errors, a wake up on LAN activity set to on and the Windows update incorrectly configured and maybe this is why they are being marked down. The Lenovo makes far more sense for photo editing with a full HD screen and it zips along very quickly indeed, it was a no brainer at the price.
My preferred specification requirements when I was looking for replacents was for an Intel i core processor, minimum of 8 gb RAM, a 1 TB hard drive and a large screen. Some of the laptops I saw had low performance Celerons, old Pentium variants or low performance AMD equivalents. There are also quite a lot of low specification all in ones out in the wild as well. It is looking likely that future photo editing software will require a miniumum of a 64 bit processor and 8 gb RAM just to install. I'm not a gamer, so a high end graphics card wasn't a must for me. I would add that photography is a hobby for me and I am not editing hundreds of photos a a time from such as a wedding.
 
If your laptop gets hot, try blowing air (or Hoover) through the processor cooling slots. It's amazing how much dust they collect which reduces the efficiency of the heat sink.
 
Thanks Harvey M, certainly food for thought and certainly agree re: windows 8- that's one thing that had scared me and put me in the mindset of if I am going to have re-learn an OS it may aswell be a Mac OS.
 
Back to the specific Mac question, do any togs out there have any insight as to whether a MacBook Air would cope as well or at least admirably with the rigours of PS/LR processing?...... or would I be better served going down the MacBook Pro route?

Reason being is that the air is obviously a lot more compact and second hand there seems to be some bargains out there.
 
Windows 8.1 with Classic Shell (3rd party shell) works brilliantly - you get the nice stuff of windows 8 and lose the bits most people hate and regain a proper start menu and task bar (virtually identical to windows 7). But thats going off on a tangent :)
 
Interesting, macrumors has the 2015 top i7 macbook air Geekbench 3 score at 6251.

Dell Inc. XPS 15 9530 which seems to be the base xps 15" laptop has a score of 10844

so you will be taking a performance hit. That is if you take much stock in benchmarks
 
Yes seen the new XPS and it seems (at least by the looks) to be a better build...... however the 15" is 1500 beans and that is MacBook pro territory- I paid 1400 for my 17" less than 3 years ago.
 
Daz B said:
Windows 8.1 with Classic Shell (3rd party shell) works brilliantly - you get the nice stuff of windows 8 and lose the bits most people hate and regain a proper start menu and task bar (virtually identical to windows 7). But thats going off on a tangent :)
Click to expand...

Don't even have to do that. Windows 8.1, stick your most used stuff on the desktop as icons and default to that as teh usual. The Applications page is really just the Programs folder flattened out (and can easily be tidied as they are just links) and anything else just use search.

I was sceptical at first, loved windows 7, but 8.1 is faster, easier, works really well. Don't have any issues with my old Dell laptop on it. (latitude 5430)
 
Bought my XPS 15 a year ago and it has been in constant use. Still looks like new apart from a bit of wear on the trackpad.
Build quality is vastly improved compared to the older XPS models. Build quality is good enough to be considered part of their Precision range, the only difference in the Precision version is you get a different graphics card...
I get 6-8 hours battery life while processing photos.
It's a gloss screen which can sometimes be a pain, but the Dell's screen brightness can be turned up a lot brighter than any other laptop I've used, so is less of a problem than usual.

I went the fully loaded route - best screen, biggest SSD, fastest processor and 4 years support.
Cost a lot, but I think my laptop will still be a pleasure to use for many years to come.
 
Cheers Duncan, I am certainly leaning towards this route- If I can get the performance, the build quality without having to go to apple then its ideal really. Is yours touch screen?
 
Yes it is, and it is a mixed blessing.
Occasionally it is handy, but presenting images can be a pain. If anyone's finger touches the screen, then the viewer moves on to the next image; this seems to happen way too often.

The slim size caused me issues as this is my first laptop where I've needed to go and buy an external DVD drive (need to burn DVDs to give people), external Ethernet adapter (office has unreliable WiFi) and external 9-pin display adapter (presentations with older projectors).
Fortunately, these gadgets are cheap and easy to get hold of and don't take up much room in the bag.

However, the slim size and long battery life are brilliant in most situations.
It is very liberating to grab the laptop, shove it into it's neoprene case and head off out. Car keys (check), wallet (check), laptop (check) - job done.
Sound is good enough for watching a film relaxing in the bath with a glass of wine.
I can honestly say this laptop has changed the way I do things.

I still prefer editing images on my wide gamut monitor, but am happy to process images sat in the corner of a bar with a pint; just have to be wary that the ambient lighting isn't controlled and rely on the histogram for checking brightness.
The speed Lightroom loads images blows my purpose built desktop system (5 years old) into the weeds; I hardly use my desktop system now!
 
Just to add - this was my first Windows 8 PC.
Took me a week to get used to it, but I have grown to love it.
I write web applications and the usual battles getting Apache and the rest of the stack working properly was one of the easiest I've done; Windows 8 did not get in the way.
Going back to Windows 7 now feels rather clunky.
 
I have a couple of laptops, a Dell XPS 12 (with flippable touch screen) and a beast of an Alienware 17x R4 but I always look at Apple Macbooks with envy.

My Alienware costs as much as a high end Macbook but with a lot more power. Whenever I come to buy a new laptop, I always look at Macbooks but then find it really difficult to justify the price compared to the spec you get.

The touchscreen on the XPS is a bit of a pain as when you show things to people, they have a tendency of pointing to stuff on the screen without realising it is a touch screen.

The Alienware is moe of a desktop replacement as it is big and heavy but compensates with a large screen and lots of power. The XPS is mall, light and portable with long battery life.

If you have Apple everything, then justifying the performance/cost ratio of a Macbook can be done.

As regards apps in relation to photo/video editing, you can pretty much do the same on either Windows or Apple.
 
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Thanks again Duncan, it sounds great. What processor is in it?.... is it an i7?..... just seen one on ebay (dell refurb) i5 for 600 notes.

Spy, completely agree- I am thinking Mac but I cant justify it logically or financially..... especially if the xps series is now where it is.
 
Have a look at the Dell Outlet store - I got my mid-range XPS 9530 for about a grand inc VAT, where the nearest comparable MBP through the refurb store was about £1500 and about £1800 new. I had a Macbook before, and have few regrets returning to Windows after OSX (Macbook trackpad is better, unibody case should be a little tougher than the carbon fibre base of the XPS, but not by much.

The Macbook Air has a low power processor, which is how they manage that incredible battery life.
 
A macbook AIR isn't very powerful at all. I wouldn't consider one for PP.
 
Daz B said:
don't forget the lights :)
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How could i forget the lights!

Lots and lots of lights, all sparkly colours that make it feel like xmas every day
 
ancient_mariner said:
Have a look at the Dell Outlet store - I got my mid-range XPS 9530 for about a grand inc VAT, where the nearest comparable MBP through the refurb store was about £1500 and about £1800 new. I had a Macbook before, and have few regrets returning to Windows after OSX (Macbook trackpad is better, unibody case should be a little tougher than the carbon fibre base of the XPS, but not by much.

The Macbook Air has a low power processor, which is how they manage that incredible battery life.
Click to expand...

+1 here for the Dell Outlet - if you catch them right when they load up the stock you can get a very pokey machine for not a lot of cash. That said I've moved to mac and it will take a lot for me to move back and yes they are expensive!
 
connectivity between apple products is excellent and sadly not something windows users experience
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Primarily because ITunes is such a dogs breakfast of a software application. If Apple could not port it to PC properly they should not have released it half finished.
 
Some aspects of connectivity between apple devices is stone age, like moving files between. What were they thinking?
 
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