Laptop (Windows) advice.

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BCcanuck

BCcanuck

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My health has necessitated a move from my country idyl to an urban seniors community which requires considersble downsizing. So, my beloved desktop, built by me, will have to go.

Can I get some advice on a good laptop to replace it? It will need to handle Photolab, Phooshop and Lightroom Classic.
 
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It isn't windows but it is hard to beat a MacBook Pro with the M1 or M2 processors for photo/video work. Fast, light, great battery, don't get hot and have beautiful screens. There isn't really a learning curve since the software you are using is going to look and work the same in Mac or Windows. I use windows all day at work and edit on a Mac without issue. If you really want to stick with windows you are going to have to buy a gaming laptop so you can get the faster graphics cards, faster ram but they will be heavy and expensive.
 
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If you don't plan on working on battery power for long periods of time, Lenovo's Legion Pro 7i are among the best available.

Great screens, plenty of ports, nice build quality, easily upgradable.

Just grab one with the best GPU possible(4080/4090) for all those AI functions Adobe is throwing in it's products.
 
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BCcanuck said:
My health has necessitated a move from my country idyl to an urban seniors community which requires considersble downsizing. So, my beloved desktop, built by me, will have to go.

Can I get some advice on a good laptop to replace it? It will need to handle Photolab, Phooshop and Lightroom Classic.
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A few years ago, I was facing a similar downsizing, and turned to my daughter to help me select a good laptop for photo editing. She strongly urged me to purchase a high-end MacBook Pro, which set me back about $4200. I tried mightily, but just couldn’t make the transition from Windows to an Apple desktop without endless frustration, so I ended up giving it to her (please, no comments about that being her original intent! 🥴). I ended up finding an excellent new Lenovo Thinkpad on sale at B&H, and have been extremely pleased ever since. Its equipped with state of the art processors, 32 GB RAM, 4K display, advanced graphics cards, and 1 TB SSD. Technology has only improved since I bought mine, but I believe an equivalent in today’s market would be https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1745683-REG/lenovo_82wq002rus_16_legion_pro_7.html.

Best of luck!
 
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BCcanuck said:
My health has necessitated a move from my country idyl to an urban seniors community which requires considersble downsizing. So, my beloved desktop, built by me, will have to go.

Can I get some advice on a good laptop to replace it? It will need to handle Photolab, Phooshop and Lightroom Classic.
Click to expand...
What are you preferences/priorities? Will you be using an external monitor? Do you need good battery life? How big of a screen and what resolution? Does keyboard quality matter? Are you okay with external storage if needed? What color space do you want to support? What is your budget? Answer these types of questions and you will quickly narrow down your choices. And this is a good review site if you want more information: https://www.notebookcheck.net/ .

Good luck,

--Ken
 
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I use a Lenovo 15 inch ThinkPad Extreme1. The current model equivalent may have a slightly different name. I use it for DXO PL 6 Elite edition and NIK Collection and the Adobe suite is also installed but i rarely use it. It has win 10 Pro.

The current models may be 14 inch or 16 inch. They may be called ThinkPad X1 Extreme.

My model has 32 GB RAM, a dedicated graphics card with its own RAM, which is essential if you like the latest noise processing options.; 1 TB SSD, and enough ports needed for things like external hard drives, and a second monitor.

I do not have a second monitor for my laptop as I use a desktop with a 32 inch monitor for serious editing. Lacking a desktop system, I would try and make sure I had a port for a second monitor on any laptop I would be buying. If a second monitor is not an option, they get a larger screen laptop.
 
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Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio with the graphics card vs. native Intel graphics engine. I also love the fact that it acts as a tablet as well. 2k screen for games and photo editing, long battery life and 3050 graphics card inside. Works better than my desktop!
 
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BCcanuck said:
My health has necessitated a move from my country idyl to an urban seniors community which requires considersble downsizing. So, my beloved desktop, built by me, will have to go.

Can I get some advice on a good laptop to replace it? It will need to handle Photolab, Phooshop and Lightroom Classic.
Click to expand...
I'm using a Dell XPS 15 9500 with an i7 chip and am very happy with it. It's got an AdobeRGB display, and a 1TB hard drive and 32 GB of RAM. I've had no issues and like it in all respects. The one thing that was surprising to me is they don't use USB-A or B at all - just the newer and smaller USB-C ports, but an adapter is available if needed.
 
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If you go with Dell, just be aware that their Alienware control center is a real system drain. My 3 year old Dell G3 with it's i7 and Win 10 is twice as fast as my 3 month old i9 Dell with Win11.
 
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Abinoone said:
A few years ago, I was facing a similar downsizing, and turned to my daughter to help me select a good laptop for photo editing. She strongly urged me to purchase a high-end MacBook Pro, which set me back about $4200. I tried mightily, but just couldn’t make the transition from Windows to an Apple desktop without endless frustration, so I ended up giving it to her (please, no comments about that being her original intent! 🥴). I ended up finding an excellent new Lenovo Thinkpad on sale at B&H, and have been extremely pleased ever since. Its equipped with state of the art processors, 32 GB RAM, 4K display, advanced graphics cards, and 1 TB SSD. Technology has only improved since I bought mine, but I believe an equivalent in today’s market would be https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1745683-REG/lenovo_82wq002rus_16_legion_pro_7.html.

Best of luck!
Click to expand...
I did the same and ended up gifting it to my granddaughter, as she was starting college in the Fall and used an Apple in HS. A win-win! Went and bought a “loaded” Lenova - Love it!
 
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If it is going to be your only computer can I suggest getting a 17 inch laptop. That extra 2 inches in monitor size does make a difference when using photo editing software like Lightroom Classic.
 
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The Asus ProArt laptops are amazing. I got the 2.3Ghz i7 14 core 16" ASUS ProArt StudioBook OLED 16 Laptop with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti (16GB GDDR6) video card as it was being discontinued for about $2,000 and upgraded to 64GB of RAM. There are other models with other processors available. Wonderful resolution and screen with some features for photo editing software. Keep an eye on the daily deals at B&H.
 
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DavidT said:
It isn't windows but it is hard to beat a MacBook Pro with the M1 or M2 processors for photo/video work. Fast, light, great battery, don't get hot and have beautiful screens. There isn't really a learning curve since the software you are using is going to look and work the same in Mac or Windows. I use windows all day at work and edit on a Mac without issue. If you really want to stick with windows you are going to have to buy a gaming laptop so you can get the faster graphics cards, faster ram but they will be heavy and expensive.
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I went to an M1 Max from a Surface Book 2 and very powerful home-build PC. Unless MSFT can spec a Laptop Studio to the level of the Apple M Max/Ultra silicon - I likely won't be looking back in the foreseeable future. You cannot beat the combination of performance and battery life of the Apple silicon. I still prefer Windows, but the hardware simply can't compete right now. Taking my laptop somewhere for a couple days and not worrying about a charger is fantastic.
 
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AI is becoming more important in image processing software. Denoise in LR classic is a good example and this will only proliferate through the application and wider Adobe products and their competitors. Nvidia or Apple silicon has a huge speed advantage running this functionality. Since fast Nvidia cards do not play well in laptops (too much power drawn and heat generated), I endorse the suggestion above to attempt a transition to Mac. I personally do not use Apple products nor do I care for the Mac OS, but if I were to be limited to a laptop only I would attempt to swallow that particular rat and transition.
 
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LOL I'd been with microsoft since DOS 3 and Windows 3.11 and windows 10 ended it for me. I moved from Win 7 to Mac 13. Seri is turned OFF and the committee running apple seems to be smaller, less stupid. Won't miss the, oops we lost your profile, updates.
 
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KevCan said:
I have used all different brands of Windows laptop and nothing is as sturdy as Lenovo.
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Which series of Lenovo are you referring to? I have had T series machines that you could use to pound nails with, but I have also seen some series where it clearly shows that Lenovo has moved on from the ThinkPad days of legend.

--Ken
 
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The Mac books and the higher end Dells are worth considering. Which ever way you go, uou can never have too much ram.
I’d suggest 32 gb as the minimum.
 
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Replytoken said:
Which series of Lenovo are you referring to? I have had T series machines that you could use to pound nails with, but I have also seen some series where it clearly shows that Lenovo has moved on from the ThinkPad days of legend.

--Ken
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I've had both the Yoga Pro and ThinkPad within the last few years. Both were very good for different reasons. The Yoga Pro series is tiny and light - but with that comes some limitation on the ports such as HDMI mini instead of full size HDMI. The small size also meant I could not upgrade the RAM and RAM was very limited. The Mid to upper end ThinkPads are gaming or business laptops. At this time of year there are some great deals on those models at 50-70% off original retail price. That's a lot of hard drive and RAM in a fast business model laptop that is a 2022 or 2023 model and about to be updated.
 
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