Which laptop to buy for editing photos and video...?

JMcDonald · Feb 9, 2017

Hey guys! I am new to Photography and Video. I recently got into Aerial Imagery, but plan to also incorporate ground work as well.

With that being said, I have narrowed down my choices on computers to either the 2016 MacBook Pro 2.6Ghz, 512GB, Radeon Pro 460 GPU and would be running Final Cut Pro X and Photoshop, Lightroom, and possibly After Effects.

My other option would be the new Dell XPS 15/9560, 1TB, 4k Touch screen, NVIDIA 1050 GPU and would run Adobe Premiere.

Let me know your guys thoughts!!! Ultimately I want something that's going to edit 4k video and give me the speed I need when editing photos and such. Thanks!

photo1x1.com · Feb 9, 2017

When I´m on tour I use a late 2013 Macbook Pro 2,6 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 Processor | 16 GB | 512 GB
Renders 4k pretty well. I use After Effects and Adobe Premiere both CS6
Don´t know about windows machines, but I can only recommend the Macook Pro.

BrentC · Feb 9, 2017

I hate Apple so can't comment on the Mac but the XPS 15 is a stunner and will have all the power you need. And upgradeable.

table1349 · Feb 9, 2017

If you want speed you would be better to look at either an iMac and max the processor and ram or even a Mac Pro.

TCampbell · Feb 9, 2017

My other half has a Mac pro. It's an older model (the silver desk-side cabinet -- not the new round black cylinder shaped machine) but it does have dual Intel Xeon hexacore processors - for a total of 12 CPUs and each CPU is dual-thread. Since a lot of the rendering software is designed to take advantage of multi-threaded (and they do a pretty good job of it) it definitely smokes all of our other computers w.r.t. how long it takes to complete a rendering job. The laptop that I bought "at the time" would give me time estimates of ... 40 hours to complete a render job. That machine would finish the job in just a few hours.

One lesson-learned was that we needed to make sure the machine had about 1GB of RAM per thread (so if it's a 12 process with dual threads, that's 24 threads... which meant it really needed a minimum of 24GB of RAM (a machine with 16GB wouldn't be enough).

If you're thinking you'll be doing big rendering jobs... I'd do the Mac pro and max out the processor count. If you're doing shorter videos ... maybe a high-end iMac. Render jobs will heat up the machines and the fans will need to kick into high gear -- so it helps to have a machine that has good ventilation. Laptops usually don't have particularly good ventilation.

BrentC · Feb 9, 2017

If you care about portability as well then the XPS 15 is the same size as most 14" laptops. The infinity edges are fantastic. I think you really need to decide whether you are a Mac person or Windows person. I seriously considered the XPS 15 and did a lot of research. You get screen that runs fully wide at all color gamuts. Perfect for photos, videos and print. Upgradeable RAM to 64GB, upgradeable graphics card. Get the Latest generation Intel 7 and with a large SSD card. An make sure you get it with the larger battery.

You need to go to the Microsoft Store or somewhere you can see it in person. I guarantee you will fall in love with it.

But if you really are a Mac person....

photo1x1.com · Feb 9, 2017

TCampbell said:
My other half has a Mac pro. It's an older model (the silver desk-side cabinet -- not the new round black cylinder shaped machine) but it does have dual Intel Xeon hexacore processors - for a total of 12 CPUs and each CPU is dual-thread. Since a lot of the rendering software is designed to take advantage of multi-threaded (and they do a pretty good job of it) it definitely smokes all of our other computers w.r.t. how long it takes to complete a rendering job. The laptop that I bought "at the time" would give me time estimates of ... 40 hours to complete a render job. That machine would finish the job in just a few hours.

One lesson-learned was that we needed to make sure the machine had about 1GB of RAM per thread (so if it's a 12 process with dual threads, that's 24 threads... which meant it really needed a minimum of 24GB of RAM (a machine with 16GB wouldn't be enough).

If you're thinking you'll be doing big rendering jobs... I'd do the Mac pro and max out the processor count. If you're doing shorter videos ... maybe a high-end iMac. Render jobs will heat up the machines and the fans will need to kick into high gear -- so it helps to have a machine that has good ventilation. Laptops usually don't have particularly good ventilation.

Just to throw in my experience.
I too had the last of the mac pros in the silver housing up until half a year ago. In time I feed it with 32GB of ram I was totally satisfied with it except for editing or even playing 4K videos. The notebook did it without problems. So I had to update my desktop machine and replaced it with the top of the line iMac. I´m pretty satisfied with it. I would have loved to buy a mac pro again, but I don´t like the new housing. Plus, the cycle of the mac pros is just way too long. I won´t buy a 3 year old computer, especially not for the price they are asking.

table1349 · Feb 10, 2017

Only time will tell if the Mac Pro will survive. There is rumor that a newer more powerful iMac may take it's place with the ability to choose a wider variety of processors with more cores and even more memory than the currently offered 32 gigs.

I did get to play with the 2013 Mac Pro when it came out. The Apple store had a fully maxed unit one on display. What blew my mind was when I opened Photoshop, the startup screen literally flashed before my eyes and Photoshop was open. It screamed.

One reason I can see the Mac Pro going by the wayside. Mac has always had a non-consumer division that builds to specification for ultra high end business users. The Mac Pro was kind of the beast between the consumer and the special order ultra high end business user.

matrosov · Feb 10, 2017

JMcDonald said:
Hey guys! I am new to Photography and Video. I recently got into Aerial Imagery, but plan to also incorporate ground work as well.

With that being said, I have narrowed down my choices on computers to either the 2016 MacBook Pro 2.6Ghz, 512GB, Radeon Pro 460 GPU and would be running Final Cut Pro X and Photoshop, Lightroom, and possibly After Effects.

My other option would be the new Dell XPS 15/9560, 1TB, 4k Touch screen, NVIDIA 1050 GPU and would run Adobe Premiere.

Let me know your guys thoughts!!! Ultimately I want something that's going to edit 4k video and give me the speed I need when editing photos and such. Thanks!

I would actually go with mobile workstation set up from either Dell or Lenowo. Like Dell Precision or Lenowo's thinkpad P50 They offer more in the long run in terms of reliability and upgradeability. They are also more rugged in build quality. You pay for it in weight but it is worth it IMHO. I admire Apple's design and software but since I'm a tinkerer I stay away from apple computers I like the ability to have control of how my hardware is put together.

JMcDonald · Feb 18, 2017

I appreciate the help guys! I'm still debating between the 2...I'm more inclined to get the MacBook Pro because I have apple everything else. But the XPS 15 just looks killer as well. And I love the touch screen factor.

table1349 · Feb 18, 2017

Take a look at the screen on you phone and magnify the smudges, crud and other crap exponentially for the size of the laptop with a touch screen.

Of course if you really want to do it the right way you get a separate monitor for working on and a Henge Dock.

Greatly expands the versatility of a laptop. Of course at a price.

Evan55T · Feb 18, 2017

Make sure you get a laptop with a screen res of 1920 x 1080

table1349 · Feb 18, 2017

Well that would leave the Mac Book Pro out. It has a native resolution of 2880 X 1800.

TCampbell · Feb 19, 2017

JMcDonald said:
I appreciate the help guys! I'm still debating between the 2...I'm more inclined to get the MacBook Pro because I have apple everything else. But the XPS 15 just looks killer as well. And I love the touch screen factor.

Ok, that's new information. If you have "apple everything else" then ... basically no question -- you want the MacBook Pro.

If you're in the Apple universe, the notion that all the devices work with each other - not just via keeping your data synchronized (e.g. iCloud synchronization) but also features like Apple Handoff, Continuity, and Universal Copy & Paste (literally I can highlight something I my phone, click 'copy', then go to my Mac and click 'paste' -- because the clipboard is shared across multiple devices.

The new touch-bar (they eliminated the function key row and replaced it with a touch-display). Basically imagine a short by very wide touch-sensitive display screen. Apps that take advantage of it will update the touch display strip to show app specific functions (very useful in image and video editing.) Also, I think all models now use SSDs (PCIe SSDs - much faster than SATA SSDs) so I/O when dealing with video is basically a non-issue.