New laptop spec. Is this any good?

mickledore

mickledore

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Hi there. I know absolutely nothing about computers, apart from how to use them! I'm looking to upgrade my laptop, and have been sent this spec from PC Specialist. Total price £795, which should allow me to get a stand alone monitor to go with it.

I use this mainly for photo processing, internet surfing and some small business accounting with Word/Excel. Obviously I'm looking for fast, very fast and with lots of storage space.

Is there anything wrong with this, and if so what should I be looking to change? If you know of any alternatives I'd be pleased if you could point me at them. (Well I did say that I am clueless with these things!)

Chassis & Display UltraNote: 15.6" Matte HD LED Backlit Widescreen (1366x768)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3632QM (2.20GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 16GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card Intel® HD Graphics 4000 Video Memory Technology up to 1.7GB
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 1TB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
SSD CACHE DRIVE 120GB Kingston SSDNow mS200 mSATA (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive UltraNote Series: 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery UltraNote Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH) (Up to 7 Hours)
Power Cable 1 x UK Power Lead & 65W AC Adaptor
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence
DVD Recovery Media Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) DVD with paper sleeve
Office Software FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 365
Anti-Virus BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard Language ULTRANOTE SERIES UK KEYBOARD
Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Insurance 1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 10 to 12 working days
 
The screen is terrible. 1366x768 on 15", you will need an external monitor to do any decent PP. Lightroom/PS is horrible in that res.
 
It is designed for home entertainment and a bit of office work, hence fast processor, huge RAM, SSD, but poor graphics chip and low-resolution screen in 16:9 format (1366X768). If you're looking for something to do photo-processing then this would not be a good choice.

The line about thermal paste is also more than a little amusing.

Not sure what your budget is, but something like this would be very much better: http://www.ebuyer.com/523414-samsung-780z5e-laptop-np780z5e-t01uk
 
the onboard i7 graphics isnt bad. not much worth worrying about uses GPU acceleration anyway.

but from Intel:

Processor Graphics ‡ Intel® HD Graphics 4000
Graphics Base Frequency 650 MHz
Graphics Max Dynamic Frequency 1.15 GHz
Graphics Output eDP/DP/HDMI/SDVO/CRT
Intel® Quick Sync Video
Yes
Intel® InTru™ 3D Technology Yes
Intel® Insider™ Yes
Intel® Wireless Display
Yes
Intel® Flexible Display Interface (Intel® FDI) Yes
Intel® Clear Video HD Technology Yes
Intel® Clear Video Technology for MID No
# of Displays Supported ‡ 3
 
The integrated graphics is fine if you are not gaming, the screen resolution isn't if you want to do anything other than cursory post processing. Not sure if you'll find a full HD laptop without an AMD/Nvidia chip in these days.... (but please post back if you do!!)
 
mid_gen said:
The screen is terrible. 1366x768 on 15", you will need an external monitor to do any decent PP. Lightroom/PS is horrible in that res.
Click to expand...

Almost all laptop screens are awful. Only retina MBP are any good. Just plug in decent monitor and you are fine. Make sure you have at least HDMI or dual link dvi. Many still supply almost useless VGA
 
Starting to get decent res screens in other brands now....new Lenovo Yoga
 
mid_gen said:
Starting to get decent res screens in other brands now....new Lenovo Yoga
Click to expand...

There have been quite a lot of laptops with decent screens over the years, regardless of the current trend for low res 16:9 budget panels.
 
ancient_mariner said:
There have been quite a lot of laptops with decent screens over the years, regardless of the current trend for low res 16:9 budget panels.
Click to expand...
When I bought my Dell XPS (mid 2011) I could find 3 laptops sub £1000 that had a decent screen. There were a few more (quite a bit) over £1000, but that isn't the point. Given I bought a full HD Panasonic IPS 24" TV for £250 last year, there should be a fair few more decently priced full HD laptops around.... There just aren't - I guess that's just down to commercial pressure from consumers wanting the cheapest laptop regardless of specs.
 
arad85 said:
When I bought my Dell XPS (mid 2011) I could find 3 laptops sub £1000 that had a decent screen. There were a few more (quite a bit) over £1000, but that isn't the point. Given I bought a full HD Panasonic IPS 24" TV for £250 last year, there should be a fair few more decently priced full HD laptops around.... There just aren't - I guess that's just down to commercial pressure from consumers wanting the cheapest laptop regardless of specs.
Click to expand...

Decent, for me as a business user, isn't necessarily full HD, but of a set of proportions and resolution that makes doing real work pleasant. I also had in mind going farther back than 2 years ago too, for example to the Lenovo I had in 2008 running 1680 X 1050 on a 15" screen. Certainly they aren't sold in such numbers, but 30sec on ebuyer.com turned up a suitable candidate for the OP, and a little more time spent would likely turn up quite a few more. They are certainly available once you get above food grade pricing.
 
ancient_mariner said:
Decent, for me as a business user, isn't necessarily full HD, but of a set of proportions and resolution that makes doing real work pleasant.
Click to expand...
Yes, but we're on a photography forum and the OP is after something to process images on, not business use....

The main problem these days is that you have two common panel dimensions: 1366x768 (i.e. "standard" laptop) and 1920x1080. There's also the less common 1600x900 but fundamentally, they are all driven by commonality with TV systems at 16:9 ratios. Choice is pretty limited outside of that, so you either go for a low res screen or full HD.
 
Lenovo T Series Thinkpad, comes in 1600x900 flavours too, real workhorse, or perhaps a Dell Precision laptop? You could of course sacrifice laptop resolution for a docking station with 2 x 24" screens attached. Most manufacturer offer some sort of laptop series with a 1920x1200 or above screen, price of course escalates with the spec.

There are deals from Dell on the Dell Precision Mobile Workstation 3800 at present, knocking around 500 pounds off of the normal price. Comes by default with a 1920x1080 screen or you can get the outrageous 3200x1800 screen!! All come with NVidia Quaddro graphics and i7 Processors. Definitely worth a look in my opinion
 
This might be useful to look for similar spec models with larger high res screens: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/11/28/review_roundup_lightweight_laptops/

To reply to Andy: the requirements of business & image processing aren't very different, since we need a decent amount of info on screen and space to accommodate toolbars. A 16:9 ratio is very poor for doing any kind of useful work on something as small as a 15" laptop screen, and 16:10 is significantly better. The fact that laptops have been saddled with lousy dimensions in order to reduce cost a little is poor, but there ARE choices outside of that, and if enough people make use of them then the market for better dimensioned screens is likely to be better served.
 
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