Struggling with laptop decision

[Brian_M]

My old faithful Elitebook 8530w is no longer keeping up with my needs/uses. Seems as though my photo editing has either gotten more intensive (it has, I've moved into shooting RAW and taking a LOT more photos), or the hardware is failing (it is, I've had to replace several parts), or most likely both. So I'm on the hunt for something new... the problem I'm facing is multifaceted though.

The first big decision is buy something current/new or buy something slightly older? I get that there's not much processing power change from Haswell through Skylake and Kaby Lake, that's more power utilization. Given that I treat my laptop as more of a desktop replacement (very limited time where I must rely on the battery or haul it around), this isn't a huge deal. But I also like to buy things for the long haul, I'm thinking mostly of the upcoming USB-C movement.

Then there's finding a laptop that hits my "wants" as well as my needs....

For instance, I want a 15.6" laptop (easy)
I want that laptop to not have a dedicated number pad (getting harder)
I want that laptop to have a matte screen (wow, down to just a couple options)
I'd love for the laptop to have actual buttons for the trackpad, not a clickpad (er, there are zero options now)

If I go new, do I try to future-proof a little with a quad-core I7?

I'm seriously at a standstill here, hoping for some dialogue/opinions to get new ideas or shake free poor ideas I may be holding onto. So, that said, this is how I use a laptop:

My laptop is my main connected device. I don't do smartphones (no need, no interest), but do have a HTPC and a dusty/rarely used tablet. I use it for all the normal day to day things, firefox with 10~12 tabs, thunderbird/email, ftp/webdisk to my webhost, VPN control of my HTPC (streaming only house, no linear TV), some very light duty gaming.. taking the random flash game, plants vs zombies, ticket to ride type stuff. Weekly I'm doing photo editing of anywhere from 200 to 1000 photos and I expect this to grow. This is actually the Main reason I'm laptop shopping as I'm getting involved in real-estate photography (pictures of houses for sale that the real estate agency buys from me), it's a SLOW process on my current laptop. I might get into walk through videos for those same properties, it's really the laptop (well, and the willingness of the listing agents to pay me) that's holding me up there.

While I may use my laptop away from home for these photo shoots, I drive a vehicle that has an Aux battery with an inverter where I can easily plug-in. I'm fairly open on budget, up to $1500 though it'd be nice to not spend that much. I'm not afraid of used, I've already finished a long career in IT and am familiar with hardware replacement (have done the screen, hinges and trackpad on this Elitebook), but there needs to be a significant price difference to justify an older product. I vastly prefer to stick to business grade laptops (thinkpad, elitebook, precision, etc...), though I'm not much of a fan of the thinkbook since the Lenovo switch.


So, what say you. I've been out of the tech industry since 2009, have kinda been enjoying being old, lazy and ignorant... but that's not helping me right now. 🙂

Thanks for reading!

 

[giantpandaman2]

A Dell XPS 15 or Precision 15 with an HQ series CPU and 16-32 GB of RAM is probably where you're looking.

No number pad.
Shiny screen (honestly, as bright as these things are getting and with their pretty good antiglare coatings I don't sweat having a shiny screen anymore)
They all have clickpads. I have to say, though, they are Precision Clickpads. With gestures they are better than having actual buttons.

 

[C1]

The issue I see is that you expect too much top notch versatility from a laptop (of all things) as that type of platform is notorious for being hardware and configuration change limited as well as being a hardware quality, cost, performance trade off type vehicle from the manufacturer point of view.

Whatever you do, your gonna want a large SSD. If your gonna do photos, you'll want a good gloss screen (IPS?, but could be an issue for games), but gloss could be a PITA if you try to use it in an outdoors situation, even inside a car.

In any laptop the typical priorities are :
- Good keyboard & screen
- Good battery life

I also like sufficient USB ports (no less than four).

If your gonna do movies/audio then it should have good speakers.

If you are gonna carry it around lots, then it should have solid construction including good hinges.

I made sure with my purchase that parts are readily available, it is reliable with little know operability issues/complaints, the manufacterer software is readily available, the machine can accommodate my legacy software. For example, setting up a multi-boot capable for Linux, XP for Legacy, WIN 7 and beyond.

One possibility is go hybrid. Get yourself one of those kick ass MSI dragons and or use external peripherals such as quality display screen and speakers, mouse & keyboard when at home doing video, audio, game & photo work.

It takes me lots of time to research something that I feel sufficiently comfortable with to proceed to purchase as I too demand lots because I do many different kinds of projects (video, audio, photo and graphics along with many special projects - bulletins, banners, posters, various large text & power point documents, audio editing, etc. etc.).In this sense, it is why I use a desktop and three different kinds of portables.

In any event, good luck.