Laptop suggestions

pxl8

pxl8

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Andy Jones
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I'm looking at getting a new laptop and would welcome some suggestions.

Spec somewhere around 3gb, dual core, 250gb HD.

The key feature for me is I want a smallish model, ideally <15" but I still want a decent screen res, at least 1280 wide.

I'm toying with a Macbook but the I'm put off by the LED screen having read some reports that they're difficult to calibrate.

So, what options do I have in PC land? Main use is Lightroom on the move and general office stuff.

Cheers!
 
Toy with the MacBook a little more.

The advantages outweigh the disadvantages in my opinion :)

Though I'm afraid I can't help if you're looking PC-wards:shrug:
 
Apart from the LED screen issue another thing that concerns me is ram on the mac. I'd probably for for the 2gb model but is that really enough? I know I could upgrade it later but I'm a Mac virgin so how does 2gb really work out?

£1200 is a lot to drop on a pretty metal box that I'll only use for email, web and occasionally LR on location....
 
pxl8 said:
Apart from the LED screen issue another thing that concerns me is ram on the mac. I'd probably for for the 2gb model but is that really enough? I know I could upgrade it later but I'm a Mac virgin so how does 2gb really work out?

£1200 is a lot to drop on a pretty metal box that I'll only use for email, web and occasionally LR on location....
Click to expand...

There is one in the for sale forum at the moment I think that looks ok for what you require.

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=93337
 
Many of Dell's Vostro offerings are pretty good. I have the (now discontinued) 1400 model, but the 1310 looks to be compact and a decent spec (13.3" screen 1280x800 enough?).
You could move up to the Latitude range, The E6400 has a 14" screen which can be upgraded to a 1440x900 display. If you're toying with a Macbook then I'd expect you've got the budget to get a fairly high-end Latitude notebook which should do you well.
 
I have a one year old MB with 2GB. It works fine with Aperture/ Lightroom. 4GB would of course be slightly faster. Been considering the upgrade myself... :thinking:

I have so many friends/family members (including a few toggers) who've switched to Mac. And not one of them has so much as glanced back at Windows. It's a one way street, and more expensive, but very much worth it. And no, I don't work for Apple :( Though they should be paying me for all this evangelisation...
 
Another newbie question... the UK keyboard layout - is the £ above the 3 and the # on the right next to enter/return?

If not it would probably annoy the hell out of me :(
 
Another option if you want to spend a bit less is the white Macbook, dead portable and a lot cheaper than the metal ones.

OSX uses less RAM than windows so 1Gb on a Mac will still feel quicker than 1Gb on a PC. Having said that I upgraded to 4Gb when I got Lightroom 2.0 as it was slow. The upgrade was £70 but probably wouldn't have been needed if I'd waited for Lightroom 2.1.
 
Well, just to update this thread, in the end I went for....

Windows. I got an Acer Aspire 5920g with Dual Core 2ghz, 4gb, 250gb, blueray, etc. for £500.

On Friday I went along for a demo of a MacBook and much as I wanted to like it, I didn't. Probably just me but in the flesh it didn't seem half as cool & sexy as it does on the Apple site - the power of photography in full effect ;)

That evening I met up with a friend who is a big Mac (groan) user and talked things through with him. He agreed that I'd be better sticking with Windows so this morning I popped along and picked up the Acer. I have to say I'm mighty pleased with it, absolute bargain for the price :thumbs:
 
If you're happy with it now and still happy in a couple of years, that's all that matters :) Sounds like quite a powerhorse for 500!
 
I think you made the right choice in staying with the PC. The Mac Books are fine but if you really only want to email etc ( Plus the odd bit of LR ) then it's difficult to justify the Mac however sexy it is.

Also if you shoot tethered on the Mac the download speed is about 3X longer , with some ( Canon) software, than on a PC. Don't ask me why it just is. Martin Evening uses a Mac but when he shoots tethered he uses Bootcamp to run windows to download.!!
 
Well I'm still very pleased with the Acer. I picked up a HDMI cable this morning and tried hooking it up to my HD TV with stunning results - running as a 2nd screen in LR is great for a slideshow and the BlueRay demo was mighty impressive - switching back to Sky SD afterwards looked awful :eek:

I've just about moved all my "office" stuff over to the laptop now so my main desktop machine is slightly less cluttered and just used for editing work :thumbs:
 
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