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17" or 15" Laptop (1 Viewer)

intellectual

Well-known member
England
For the past few months I've been trying to choose a laptop [at present have a desktop with 18" screen] to use mainly for video-editing [I think] and photo editing [have read the other threads regarding the subject and gained some info].

Both online and in the stores I've looked at 400+ laptops of diferents colors and specs etc, and it's like a minefield. It's just taken me six months to choose a new camera as well, that's here so now need the lappy.

I've narrowed the search down to six, won't mention them all on here but here are specs of two: Packard Bell TS 15.6" with 1TB HDD, 6GB RAM, i3-2.3Ghz, it has Photoshop Elements 9 and costs about £500. Asus X53ZV 15.6" with 750GB HDD, 8GB RAM, i7 and costs about £400. The 17.3" ones include a Dell and a HP with simiar spec.

My budget is maximum £500.

Any help would be extremely welcome!!!!!!!

Kind regards

Max
 
For photo editing the bigger the screen the better, if you weren't restricting yourself to a laptop I would go for at least a 24". But if you are picking a laptop for portability then obviously the bigger the screen the bigger the machine. If you want the machine to last then go for the i7 with 8Gb of RAM.

The different manfactuers are much of a muchness as they largely assemble laptops from out of the same parts bins.
 
I'd avoid a laptop. Apart from anything else the varying angle of the screen completely changes the picture each time you use it.
 
I agree that if you are serious about editing either photos or videos you don't want to have a laptop screen as to work on.

However, if you want a portable machine for other reasons then nothing stops you from hooking the laptop up to an external monitor. You already have a screen, so I'd use my money to make the laptop as powerful as I can memory-wise, and keep using the same screen.

Andrea
 
I agree that if you are serious about editing either photos or videos you don't want to have a laptop screen as to work on.

However, if you want a portable machine for other reasons then nothing stops you from hooking the laptop up to an external monitor. You already have a screen, so I'd use my money to make the laptop as powerful as I can memory-wise, and keep using the same screen.

Andrea

I'd agree that's a way of getting the best of both worlds; if you need the portability of a laptop.
 
One comment: you said video editing, and for that my (limited) understanding is that you cannot get a processor that is too strong, so go for the i7 level. If doing a lot of video, you will need lots of storage, external HD will be an important part of your setup, so the built in HD may not be the most important point.

Niels
 
Max,

I would second Niels comment, video editing (in HD) is power and memory hungry, in addition the editing screens are quite 'busy', so a decent screen is useful but less important than power.

The laptop that I use is an Acer 5940G (I7 processor) - its getting on a bit and is on its second hard drive - the Acer recovery process does work! - and the screen is fairly low res, but it was expensive when new and will have to last some time.

The Asus you mention sounds roughly equivalent to my Acer and of all the makes you mention it is the only one I have recent experience of - but only in the form of a dual core netbook. However it has been reliable (so far) and it seems nicely made.

The Acer is purely for mobile/field processing away from base, the real work is done on a big desktop with a large screen.

If you are not into HD then you can generally get away with a decent dual core processor for simple video processing and your still work.

J
 
Thanks everyone for your comprehensive replies.

I'll print out all the advice and sit in the comfort of my armchair and work out what to do next.

From reading your replies it would seem that my best bet would be to do the editing on my desktop and purchase a larger monitor than the 18" one I have at present [ I hate throwing things away when there is nothing wrong with them].

Most of you are of the opinion to get an i7. And I've been toying with the idea of getting an external HD for ages, so now I've no excuse :) .

One of the reasons for wanting a laptop was so I wouldn't have to sit here for hours! I was thinking along the lines it would be more comfortable in the armchair, but knowing me I'd more than likely fall asleep while using it lol.

Whatever I decide I'll let you know.

Kind regards

Max
 
Get a new wide screen (if you want a recommendation let me know) and and if your desktop videocard allows it also use your 18". All the systems in my office and home are now dual screen and it makes a massive difference, esp in photo and video editing, where all the palettes and tools are on one screen and the image/video on the main. I have done some photo editing on a laptop (with Photoshop), but its a bit fiddly!
 
I have a 13" macbook pro which is brilliant for taking away with me and viewing/backing up my pics. But ive got a 24" LG screen at home that i just link it up to when i'm back. The perfect combo! huge screen for editing, portability and so powerful i dont even need a desktop
 
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