Which laptop

Jackp93

Jackp93

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76
Name
Jack
Edit My Images
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Hi all

My current laptop is about to give up the ghost, so I’m on the look out for a new one. However I’m not overly techy, it needs to be able to handle Lightroom and topaz de noise plus I am also remotely studying so has to be good enough for streaming lectures. Ideally I would like to spend up to £450 for a new one but don’t mind going a bit more or if it is a significant improvement. One that I have found is a ACER Nitro 5 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Intel® Core™ i5, GTX 1650, 256 GB SSD which is a bit more than I wanted however it’s a gaming laptop so I’m guessing wouldn’t struggle with what I want.

hope that all makes sense.

thanks

Jack
 
If Lightroom is important then you need more RAM than 8GB and 16GB is a more realistic minimum.
Calling something a gaming laptop doesn't make it a good gaming laptop and the two you've looked only have i5 CPUs. Topaz Denoise is CPU-hungry and you'd be better off with an i7 or, even better, an AMD Ryzen 5 or 7.
Finally, you need an IPS screen for photographic work. Your second one certainly has that but the spec doesn't give the number of nits. This is basically the brightness so the more the better. The minimum number you'll see is 250, I have a gaming laptop with a 500nit screen and it's lovely.....

It's worth looking at Lenovo's web site as there's often a sale on and student discounts. It's also worth looking at Dell's outlet store for refurbished laptops.
But, frankly, I don't think your budget matches your expectations and you'll need to decide where you have to compromise.
 
Snapsh0t said:
If Lightroom is important then you need more RAM than 8GB and 16GB is a more realistic minimum.
Calling something a gaming laptop doesn't make it a good gaming laptop and the two you've looked only have i5 CPUs. Topaz Denoise is CPU-hungry and you'd be better off with an i7 or, even better, an AMD Ryzen 5 or 7.
Finally, you need an IPS screen for photographic work. Your second one certainly has that but the spec doesn't give the number of nits. This is basically the brightness so the more the better. The minimum number you'll see is 250, I have a gaming laptop with a 500nit screen and it's lovely.....

It's worth looking at Lenovo's web site as there's often a sale on and student discounts. It's also worth looking at Dell's outlet store for refurbished laptops.
But, frankly, I don't think your budget matches your expectations and you'll need to decide where you have to compromise.
Click to expand...
Just curious, why would more nits be better on a screen for photo editing? In most use cases you should drastically reduce the brightness of a screen to give a more realistic representation of the image, especially if you plan on printing.

A better spec to look for would be good colour accuracy, but I'm not sure you'll get that for £450.
 
Just have a look on the Dell and HP sites.
They frequently have some very good offers , usually higher specs an a lot better deal than from a well known retailer and you get usually get some good freebies thrown in as well.
The RTB warranty on my HP laptop was something like £30 for 3 years
 
Just make sure you get the H CPUs and not those that end with U. The specs may look similar but the U ones have lower power limits and throttle very quickly under load. You will pay more but you get a good CPU in return. This lettering convention conveniently applies to both Intel and AMD.
 
Andy Into The Wild said:
Just curious, why would more nits be better on a screen for photo editing? In most use cases you should drastically reduce the brightness of a screen to give a more realistic representation of the image, especially if you plan on printing.

A better spec to look for would be good colour accuracy, but I'm not sure you'll get that for £450.
Click to expand...
It affects where you can use the screen. Try using a 250nits screen in bright sunlight compared to 500nits.
 
Snapsh0t said:
It affects where you can use the screen. Try using a 250nits screen in bright sunlight compared to 500nits.
Click to expand...
But you're never going to do critical editing work in bright sunlight if you want consistent results. If you're picking specs important for photo editing and you have to make compromises (which this guy does on his budget) then screen brightness is never going to be something you would prioritise over processing power and colour accuracy.
 
Andy Into The Wild said:
But you're never going to do critical editing work in bright sunlight if you want consistent results. If you're picking specs important for photo editing and you have to make compromises (which this guy does on his budget) then screen brightness is never going to be something you would prioritise over processing power and colour accuracy.
Click to expand...

Exactly - I process in the dark - and have a screen brightness set to 90 nits. Prints come off looking just like they did on screen.

Wide Gamut etc far more important - but I'd recommend plugging a laptop into a dedicated calibrated monitor for consistent results.
 
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