New Laptop

Akoz · Dec 28, 2008

i am going to be buying a laptop and i cant decide what to go get. do i get the apple or do i get a windows. what is better for photos?. does the apple have good editing softwear? and so on..

Thanks

ianm · Dec 28, 2008

in terms of editing software there is decent stuff available for both osx and windows of course then there's Adobe Photoshop - this comes down to personal preference but I like to do editing and design work on a mac,

Joves · Dec 28, 2008

Well Im a WIndows user and, find there are plenty of programs out there for it. Both paid and free.

benhasajeep · Dec 28, 2008

I ordered myself a new Dell. I have had good luck with them. I have had 2 Compaqs, 1 HP, an IBM (work provided), and a Dell. The Dell outlasted all but the IBM in terms of lasting the longest before a failure. Compaqs were the worst. First one was probably a lemon. Second one didn't make it a year (was a replacement for the first that was finally replaced). The HP is my wifes, and although the computer is still fine. We are on the third power converter. Not quite a year and a half old yet. The IBM is just starting to show its wear. Keyboard is wearing out (space bar), and left lower mouse button wearing out. I have had it about 4 years I think. The Dell which is 6 years old is still going. Have not been using it much. But it just keeps working. So I ordered another one.

The only issues I have is I could not get it with XP. They give choices for certain desktops. Anyway ordered it with 4gb so even if vista is ram hungry it still should be ok. Hoping it will last as the first one did.

I started out on an apple 2E clone 20 some years ago. Switched to IBM probably 4 years later. Been with MS computers since. Had photoshop since 6 came out. So pretty used to that. Although I did also get Lightroom 2 when I upgraded to CS4 this past November.

laurah · Dec 28, 2008

I have a MacBook Pro which I use primarily for photo editing and creating digital scrapbook layouts using Photoshop. I had to make this same decision back in March when my previous laptop was not working very well (was using a Dell running XP). I really did not want to go with Vista and it is difficult to find a new laptop with XP these days. So far, I am really loving my Mac. I use iPhoto to organize / view my photos, ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) to edit my RAW files and Photoshop CS3 for additional editing and digi layouts.

I don't find that I have any resource issues with the Mac, i.e. I can have everything open at the same time with multiple photos being edited with no noticeable drag on the processing speed, which I find to be a definite plus.

The only drawback with the MacBook is the price, but if you can afford it, I would definitely recommend it.

jlykins · Dec 28, 2008

I'm running a 17 inch Toshiba with 3gigs of ram, and a dual core AMD processor. I also calibrated it with a spyder express. The key with vista is to turn off the side bar, aero, and disable transparency... These are big ram hogs.

Garbz · Dec 28, 2008

Aside from a nice Powerbook I have never seen a laptop worth editing photos on simply because of the inconsistencies of their screens. I am using a modern Fujitsu laptop right now and the bottom of the screen is less contrasty than the top.

Not sure how modern Macbook Pros handle this but I would take caution before considering a laptop for editing purposes simply because of this factor.

AlexColeman · Dec 28, 2008

I have a macbook pro, and it is phenomenal.

czsmola · Dec 29, 2008

definitely a macbook/ pro... PC's with vista are terrible... had one took it back and got my mac and I never looked back....they are easy to use and less problems with it.. at least in my opinion

TUX424 · Dec 29, 2008

i have a macbook that i only use for photoediting for 2 reason:
#1 it has all of my photo editing programs
#2 i cant stand to use it for anything else. i rather use my 4 year old desktop then my 1 year old macbook, that just me. Its mainly the fact that i hate using laptops, i will never buy anouther mac laptop, i would say find a good pc with windows xp and use the money that you saved to but photoshop or just save the money all togeather and use the GIMP (its free)

Corbin Lane · Dec 29, 2008

Personally, I use my desktop for photo editing because of the consistency that I get from everything. I have my monitor calibrated and everything is set. It also helps that I've got 4gb of ram and a nice processor plus the space that would last most a life time.

I would recommend a Mac Laptop just because PC laptops just simply don't work. I just don't like doing any heavy editing on a Laptop unless I know that it can handle the strain that I will put on it.