Laptop?

Bobsyeruncle

Bobsyeruncle

Suspended / Banned
Messages
17,422
Name
Bob
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi Guys,

What would be the minimum spec laptop that I could use for some photo editing?
I generally take all my pics as JPEG, but want to start doing some raw etc, but not able to spend a fortune on a laptop. Would consider 2nd hand.
I'm not concerned about lightning speed etc.
My budget would be in the region of £400.
Am I wasting my time?
A laptop would suit me best, because we could use it in the lounge, without locking ourselves in the spare room for hours on end. :)
 
daugirdas said:
mac mini, Dell IPS screen. Laptops aren't really great for proper editing due to small size and most likely very poor panel, unless it costs closer or over £1k.
Click to expand...
I've already got a Mac mini upstairs in the spare room, but want something that we can sit and use in the lounge
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
The problem is, my wife hates the Mac, so it would need to be windows based.
Click to expand...

Hmm ok not ideal, my missus is the same, and I refuse to buy a windows machine, bad enough I work on them all day, so I installed windows on boot camp for her, runs nice..
 
simonm8 said:
Hmm ok not ideal, my missus is the same, and I refuse to buy a windows machine, bad enough I work on them all day, so I installed windows on boot camp for her, runs nice..
Click to expand...
What's boot camp?
The other issues are, I ant really afford an apple laptop, and I don't want to be spending hours in the spare room editing on the Mac mini, hence the thoughts about a windows laptop.
 
Last edited:
Microsoft Surface 3?
 
dejongj said:
Microsoft Surface 3?
Click to expand...

Slight hijack here, but I am looking for a laptop for my 16 year old and hadn't even thought about this as a possible.
Anyone got any experience or opinions, both for me and bobsyeruncle?
 
I've got the Pro version....My daughter was always very much so Apple....she is convinced and likely at her next birthday will get one as well. It is so versatile, I love mine....
 
The Microsoft surface 3 looks great but to get the spec I'd need for editing would blow my budget way out the water.
 
I'm not so sure. Why not bring a usb stick to a shop and try it out. Computer architectures have moved on considerably. The modern processor architecture, the ssd etc all helps.

Only one way to find out :)
 
The very low resolution and density screen would do my head in. It might be great if you have a visual impairment as everything will look huge. As such there is a market for devices like that.

The hard drive would be another bottle neck and make it feel sluggish.

I7 is nice but definitely not required for what you want to do with it. Besides that hard drive wouldn't be able,to feed it quick enough anyway.
 
Get something with high res, and good reviews of the screen panel, the CPU is important but unless you plan to overload it i3,i5 will be also fine. Sometimes it is even worth checking used ones on the bay, maybe a MacBook Pro or Air getting one with slightly better res(1440x900) also considerably fast due to the lack of Windows to slow it down, worth getting an SSD drive also everything just loads faster with one.

I am a fan of Lenovo so anything they make I am a sucker for and they havbe few FullHD budget models, but a bit hard to find, though saveonlaptops and laptopoutlet might have them.
 
boliston said:
I would have thought a mac mini would be ideal for a lounge
Click to expand...
I know what you mean, but our lounge isn't that big, and I don't want to have a monitor sitting around etc.
I wouldn't be able to connect it to the tv, as my wife would be watching that whilst I'm using the PC, and vice versa.
 
dejongj said:
The very low resolution and density screen would do my head in. It might be great if you have a visual impairment as everything will look huge. As such there is a market for devices like that.

The hard drive would be another bottle neck and make it feel sluggish.

I7 is nice but definitely not required for what you want to do with it. Besides that hard drive wouldn't be able,to feed it quick enough anyway.
Click to expand...
So would the entry level microsoft surface 3 be better than that Lenovo?
 
plamen_gb said:
Get something with high res, and good reviews of the screen panel, the CPU is important but unless you plan to overload it i3,i5 will be also fine. Sometimes it is even worth checking used ones on the bay, maybe a MacBook Pro or Air getting one with slightly better res(1440x900) also considerably fast due to the lack of Windows to slow it down, worth getting an SSD drive also everything just loads faster with one.

I am a fan of Lenovo so anything they make I am a sucker for and they havbe few FullHD budget models, but a bit hard to find, though saveonlaptops and laptopoutlet might have them.
Click to expand...
I'll have a look. Do you think I'd get a full hd for my £500 budget?
 
If you want 17" it's a good option, it was something I almost bought a month ago, but went for something else at the end as the budget allowed me to. Maybe a 15" with better specs will be a better option
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
So would the entry level microsoft surface 3 be better than that Lenovo?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I don't think it is easy to give a solid answer to that...It all depends...BTW I do like Lenovo especially their Thinkpad and Yoga ranges

On paper, the Lenovo has a faster processor, more memory, a bigger screen, and more storage space...However...the big screen is low resolution so everything will look rather large, some people like that some people don't. The storage is large, but very slow. The size is rather unwieldy as well. But if you like those kind of things that they are good points...

By contrast the Surface has a much slower processor (but still plenty for your use?), less memory (unless you are running several virtual machines does it truly make a difference?), much smaller screen but at higher resolution....so everything will be smaller yet sharper and better looking....Storage is much smaller, but so so so much faster could an external drive work? Or expand with a micro SD (that is what I did...)...

So is it better, for me it will be much much better....for you....only you can determine what is truly important to you...
 
If you want to stick with your budget as a hard limit I would check out pcspecialist....

Something like this http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/sigma/ with more memory and an SSD...full HD, IPS panel, touch screen and flip will make you love it on the sofa....And you can keep it within budget....I've never bought from them but heard good things...
 
dejongj said:
If you want to stick with your budget as a hard limit I would check out pcspecialist....

Something like this http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/sigma/ with more memory and an SSD...full HD, IPS panel, touch screen and flip will make you love it on the sofa....And you can keep it within budget....I've never bought from them but heard good things...
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Had a look at the surf in currys. It does look good.
 
Bobsyeruncle said:
What's boot camp?
The other issues are, I ant really afford an apple laptop, and I don't want to be spending hours in the spare room editing on the Mac mini, hence the thoughts about a windows laptop.
Click to expand...

Boot camp is built into all macs, and let's you partition the hard drive then install windows on another partion, mine is set up to boot in OS X, but if you hold down the I think CMD key on switch on you can choose what operating system to boot into.

I have mine set up for me to use OS X, and missus use win 7 on it.

also you can share to boot camp dive now so anything you have saved on windows partition you can access in OS X

For you budget you could easily get a very good spec second hand MacBook Pro, (non retina) which are also upgradable to 16gb ram and also has a option, you could upgrade the he drive to ssd, take the cd drive out and put a second drive in there for data and images etc

Just a idea

Plus I don't know if you use photoshop CC on your Mac mini?, if so you can install on MacBook also, as long as you are running it on just one it's fine.
 
Byker28i said:
There's a few dell inspiron 7000's go for £400 to £500.
Click to expand...

I like this suggestion - just to add if you go to the outlet you can get a decent discount and they are usually like new (you could always return if unhappy with the condition)

This one is a bit over budget, but has 4k screen and SSD :)

UxQuxxI.png
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top