Laptop for Photoeditting

[SpicyCurry]

I'm shopping around for a laptop for my cousin with a budget of $1000. She likes to take her laptop everywhere, so smaller is better (let's say maximum 15 inches). She'll use it for photoeditting, surfing the web, and watching movies.

For more flexibility, we're also considering getting a seperate 22" monitor if the laptop is a 13" model. That way, she won't be limited to editting photos on a small screen. If the laptop is a 15" model though, she might be able handle it without a secondary monitor.

What's the most important spec for photoeditting? Does she need a discrete video card, or will an integrated one suffice? Should I focus more on CPU (quad core over dual core), RAM (DDR3 over DDR2), or GPU?

Also, we aren't in a rush to get the laptop, so we can wait for a good deal.

 

[TheStu]

What kind of photo editting are we talking here? Lots of huge RAW files? (RAM and some CPU). Lots and lots and lots of high MP pictures? (RAM, some CPU and a big HDD or an external). Or standard pocket cam stuff, maybe a lot of them, but nothing like a pro photographer? (Anything on the market will do).

Also, what kind of editing is she doing? How serious about it is she?

 

[Winterpool]

Short answer is a MacBook Pro (you can find them for $1099 new, probably less if refurb, older-gen, used, etc). Not because they have the best screens (they do not), but because there will probably be plenty of other 'prosumer' photographers using MacBook Pros, so it will be easy to find advice and assistance for software, calibration, etc. And it's not a bad piece of kit either.

That said, she could probably get a superior notebook (at least in terms of hardware) for about the same amount: HP Envy, some Dell Studios, etc. Some of them offer superior colour gamut to the MacBook Pro.

If she's at all serious, she'll be doing her real work on a desktop display. One can buy a 21-23-inch IPS display from Dell for less than $300 now.

I think Photoshop is just beginning to take advantage of graphics processing chips, but I'm not sure to what extent. At least for now, the gpu is not critical, but the notebooks mentioned above will have discrete graphics chips.

 

[SpicyCurry]

She uses an SLR camera, so it's not pocket cam stuff. However, her photoeditting is more of a hobby than super serious work. I'm not sure whether she's working with huge RAW files, but it sounds like getting a good CPU with lots of RAM is the way to go.

Trying to steer clear of Macbooks. Not only are they expensive, but she already has lots of Windows software.

I'll talk with her about balancing the tradeoffs between portability and processing power for photoeditting. Both are important to her, but we need to determine which one takes precedence. Thanks for the help.