Any recommendations of laptop for photoediting?

[lightrules]

I am using Dell XPS 16 with a RGB LED monitor
Strictly a desk bound notebook cos battery is below 1 hour usage
Gets very hot

but great screen, speed , portability...
Some use their notebook within power grid, so that's not too much
problem. Others like to surf on the go, then this is NOT suitable

[giantcanopy]

Originally Posted by lightrules I am using Dell XPS 16 with a RGB LED monitor Strictly a desk bound notebook cos battery is below 1 hour usage Gets very hot but great screen, speed , portability... Some use their notebook within power grid, so that's not too much problem. Others like to surf on the go, then this is NOT suitable

I am actually looking at the XPS 16 as well. but didn know about the batt issue
urs is the i7 processor ?

ryan

[theRBK]

considering a laptop for Photoshop work as well... interesting ones (to me at least) are Lenovo W700 (or the W700ds with the second extendable screen), the HP elitebook 8730W with the dreamcolor panel as mentioned by Clown, and the Dell Studio XPS 16 with RGBLED screen as mentioned by lightrules... other than the Dell, other options still on Core 2, prob will be updated to i7 in the coming months... all 3 seem to have decent screens, leaning to the Dell as it is smaller and i7 available now... will plug into tabletop screen at home... pondering if I want to upgrade desktop or just max out on laptop...

faced the limited screen size issue trying to profile my Asus N10jc... if running XP, you could try extending the screen through the following process:

=> go to "Display Properties", "Settings" tab, click "Advanced" to go to graphics controller window...

=> select "Monitor" tab, at the "Monitor Settings" portion of the window, there is an option "Hide modes that the monitor cannot display" and a box that is probably ticked...

=> untick the box, go back to "Settings" on "Display Properties" and now you can select a bigger screen resolution than your monitor can support... 1024x768 should be good enough (that is also the minimum recommended size for Adobe Camera RAW, and for Adobe Illustrator you can't even install the program unless your screen is "hacked" to this extended size)... just have to scroll the screen by moving your cursor...

used this method, I have used a Spyder 2 and Coloreyes to profile the screen... the difference after profiling is very visible... if running other OSes, might have to try external monitor method YMMV...

[user12343]

IMHO, get a MBP, as it has been reported in some online website the color accuracy is extremely close even without using professional calibration hardware/software...

[giantcanopy]

Just went sim lim, they were selling the lenovo 15+" Y550 laptop with Core i7 chipset, 4GB RAM, 500 GB Hd, GT 240M 1GB for 2990+, the screen res no higher than 1366x768. Didn see any of the 3 MSI Core i7 laptops though

Might lean towards the XPS16. a little more and u get a combo drive with blue ray burner

ryan

[user12343]

whatever lappie u choose, best to avoid lenovo.... there has been worldwide complaints on the battery dying just after the warranty expires...leaving users with no choice but to spend few hundreds on a replacement battery

[sturnip]

Originally Posted by krishna91 Get a colormunki or Huey Pro calibrator to get the best results... LED screens are really good looking .. like the ones on macs.. but LED is pretty common nowadays.. My preferred brand of laptops is HP/Sony.. HP service is really good

good service from HP? i've called and told them that the scrolling thing on my mouse is faulty ... they insist that i bring down my whole CPU+keyboard+mouse so that they can check that my mouse is really faulty ...

well at least they didnt ask me to bring down the monitor .. so i guess thats good service ... thumbs up ..

[Kongo]

Thanks a lot for the tips!!

Bro can share:
-Will the screen looked blur after forced setting to 1024 x 768 since it's not the native resolution?
-Do you have to stick to 1024 x 768 after calibration, or can we switch back to 1024 x 600 after the calibration is completed?

Thanks again!!

Originally Posted by theRBK considering a laptop for Photoshop work as well... interesting ones (to me at least) are Sony W700 (or the W700ds with the second extendable screen), the HP elitebook 8730W with the dreamcolor panel as mentioned by Clown, and the Dell Studio XPS 16 with RGBLED screen as mentioned by lightrules... other than the Dell, other options still on Core 2, prob will be updated to i7 in the coming months... all 3 seem to have decent screens, leaning to the Dell as it is smaller and i7 available now... will plug into tabletop screen at home... pondering if I want to upgrade desktop or just max out on laptop... faced the limited screen size issue trying to profile my Asus N10jc... if running XP, you could try extending the screen through the following process: => go to "Display Properties", "Settings" tab, click "Advanced" to go to graphics controller window... => select "Monitor" tab, at the "Monitor Settings" portion of the window, there is an option "Hide modes that the monitor cannot display" and a box that is probably ticked... => untick the box, go back to "Settings" on "Display Properties" and now you can select a bigger screen resolution than your monitor can support... 1024x768 should be good enough (that is also the minimum recommended size for Adobe Camera RAW, and for Adobe Illustrator you can't even install the program unless your screen is "hacked" to this extended size)... just have to scroll the screen by moving your cursor... used this method, I have used a Spyder 2 and Coloreyes to profile the screen... the difference after profiling is very visible... if running other OSes, might have to try external monitor method YMMV...

[Kongo]

Thanks for the suggestion.

Can Huey Pro support 1024 x 600 screen resolution?

Who are the local distributor here?

Originally Posted by sturnip good service from HP? i've called and told them that the scrolling thing on my mouse is faulty ... they insist that i bring down my whole CPU+keyboard+mouse so that they can check that my mouse is really faulty ... well at least they didnt ask me to bring down the monitor .. so i guess thats good service ... thumbs up ..

Originally Posted by krishna91 Get a colormunki or Huey Pro calibrator to get the best results... LED screens are really good looking .. like the ones on macs.. but LED is pretty common nowadays.. My preferred brand of laptops is HP/Sony.. HP service is really good

[krishna91]

Originally Posted by Kongo Thanks for the suggestion. Can Huey Pro support 1024 x 600 screen resolution? Who are the local distributor here?

not so sure, i use a macbook pro 17" which is 1920 x 1080 full hd resolution

[Clown]

Originally Posted by sturnip good service from HP? i've called and told them that the scrolling thing on my mouse is faulty ... they insist that i bring down my whole CPU+keyboard+mouse so that they can check that my mouse is really faulty ... well at least they didnt ask me to bring down the monitor .. so i guess thats good service ... thumbs up ..

hmm. i called them today cuz i saw sparks coming out from my power adapter. They cross checked my serial number and said they'll send me a new one tomorrow.
the whole thingie took 2mins. O_O

[Royaux]

Originally Posted by theRBK considering a laptop for Photoshop work as well... interesting ones (to me at least) are Sony W700 (or the W700ds with the second extendable screen), the HP elitebook 8730W with the dreamcolor panel as mentioned by Clown, and the Dell Studio XPS 16 with RGBLED screen as mentioned by lightrules... other than the Dell, other options still on Core 2, prob will be updated to i7 in the coming months... all 3 seem to have decent screens, leaning to the Dell as it is smaller and i7 available now... will plug into tabletop screen at home... pondering if I want to upgrade desktop or just max out on laptop...

slight correction. the W700 is by Lenovo and not Sony.

[jackzhangxiao]

Macbook Pro 13 inch

[giantcanopy]

Just placed order for a Dell XPS 16 with Core i7. waiting waiting ..

ryan

[g75yu]

Hi. Can anyone advise why my computer is running pretty slow when I use zoombrowser to view my 7D pictures - most of the pics are in large JPEG (not even RAW) and yet I am having quite a lag when thumbnails come up or when I scroll through the pictures. And when I try using Photoshop elements (whether on its own or with ZoomBrowser open too), it can have quite a lot of lag

I am using a Quad Core 2.4ghz, recently upgraded to 4gb Ram, Windows Vista, Nvidia geforce 8400 GS card

[theRBK]

Originally Posted by Kongo Thanks a lot for the tips!! Bro can share: -Will the screen looked blur after forced setting to 1024 x 768 since it's not the native resolution? -Do you have to stick to 1024 x 768 after calibration, or can we switch back to 1024 x 600 after the calibration is completed? Thanks again!!

the screen res is not compressed... the expanded screen res is off-screen and you have to scroll up and down to see the "full" screen at the new res...

Originally Posted by Royaux slight correction. the W700 is by Lenovo and not Sony.

my bad ... somehow was mixed-up with the Sony AW, which is also an interesting machine with a nice screen but abit low res for an 18"er... corrected now

[aloskimo]

macbook pro...already been user friendly...
now with vmware fusion...no need for a pc anymore....
i sold away all my pcs...i topped up some cash to get current macbook pro...

[Lomographer]

despite being an apple user

i won't exactly recommend the MBP if you're afraid of compatibility issues

why not buy HP's desktop replacements? there are some good ones.

or as well consider the DELL alienware laptop announced sometime back

[coffee3in1]

Originally Posted by giantcanopy Just placed order for a Dell XPS 16 with Core i7. waiting waiting .. ryan

how long is the delivery lead time the Dell promised?

[giantcanopy]

Originally Posted by coffee3in1 how long is the delivery lead time the Dell promised?

I dunno man .. probably more than a week, though i heard some say it can go as long as 2 weeks. My order status page today says " It may take up to 3 business days for your estimated delivery date to be available "

ryan