Laptop for RAW Photo Editing

[gryffinwings]

Not sure if this is the correct place, but I'm trying to find a laptop for processing RAW files from my Nikon D7100, current computer is slow going, I'll probably upgrade the ram at least as a stop gap measure until I can get a new laptop for now, but I'm doing my research now so I can get a good idea on what would be a good laptop for photo editing, so far my googling has come up with Macbook Pro, ASUS ROG line and the HP ENVY 7. I get why the Macbook Pro and I see why that might be an option. However I have no idea why the other too, I saw the specs were pretty good, but no idea if the screen is that good. I'm highly contemplating sticking with a Windows machine. Most if not all my work is done in Adobe Lightroom 5. My budget will probably be around 1k.

 

[table1349]

I have a 15" MBP Retina display, 2.8GHz i7 intel processor, 16gigs of memory, 1Tb solid state hard drive that I love. Now with that said, a Laptop SUCKS for processing. If you want to use a laptop to process photos and are serious about it then you need to get something like this as a setup.

Laptop screens, even IPS screens are not good for editing on. They need to be calibrated. A good calibrated screen is done in the same stable environment. This means having a monitor in the same place, in the same light, at the same angle all the time. That doesn't happen with a laptop. They get used in different places, in different light and have movable displays.

Don't forget to add in a good hardware calibration device to the mix and use it at least once a month. I prefer the Colormunki but there are several other options.


FYI, I process my photos on a 27" iMac 5K with a 3.9GHz processor and 32 gigs of ram. It's always in the same spot in the same light and works great.

 

[Dave442]

The above MBP is a nice package, I have 13" MBP with 8gb ram and 256gb SSD. It runs LR just fine and mainly picked it up to have something very portable to run both LR and Parallels with Windows XP for a legacy program I have to use.

Probably for the budget a Windows unit will give the best result. I also have a 17" Dell laptop and that now stays on the desk, but even with just 8gb ram it usually runs LR with few problems. The Dell unit cost 1/3 the price of the MBP.

 

[table1349]

The point I was making was that a laptop is a poor choice for photo editing. Good editing requires consistency which you don't get from a laptop by itself, be it a 1k laptop or a 10k laptop.

 

[Dave442]

So with the budget, an option is to get a Windows machine along with a nice external display.

 

[snowbear]

Use your existing laptop - just use it with a decent external monitor.