Photo editing laptop possibly US purchase?

Button_y

I'm on the look out for a new laptop. Laptop will be used for photo editing, watching TV and browsing the internet. No gaming.
I will be travelling to the US shortly and was thinking I might pick a laptop up while I'm over there. The dollar is not really in my favour but would I get more for my money in the ? I know the keyboard will be different, this doesn't really bother me, any other pitfalls to be aware of?

Any recommendation for spec? I tend to multi task when photo editing using different programs which makes my current laptop really hard to work with. I also have resisted moving to more up to date software until I upgrade laptop. I'm think i7 quad core, 8GB or higher. 15.6 - 17" screen. I have no interest in an apple and I'm not fond of dells. I want a quality laptop that will do me a couple of years and will speed up photo editing for me. Spend wise would be hoping for under 1K

mordeith

What processing exactly do you do with the photo editing. It's not really that taxing unless you are working with really big files

Button_y

I shoot in Raw and usually convert using canon software and then edit in lightroom or photoshop(very old version). File sizes would be 25-30MB per photo and maybe importing 200 photos at a time. At the moment I use faststone to identify photos I will edit as I am able to view quicker than I could in either lightroom or Canon software. Converted files would be ~18MB. My current laptop is a 5 year old i5 - 4GB RAM laptop. Might be me that is taxing;)

ED E

You cant fully import 200 shots in one go, you have to process them in an effective way.

RAM helps with the number of shots you can have open at once (you're talking a couple dozen at the most usually), CPU power helps with applying filters and transforms(adjusting values from RAW on input say).

I use PS fine on a dual core ULV and 6GB of ram (18MP raws). Really a decent i5 and 8GB of RAM should be fine for most photogs.

Alanstrainor

The most important thing for you OP is the quality of the screen. High res, and good colour reproduction should be things to look for. I wouldn't worry too much about processing power for normal lightroom type work.

Storage may be a concern, and depending on budget could be a factor. SSD is the way forward, but large capacity drives tend to be expensive when bought installed in a machine.

Button_y

Thanks for the suggestions. ED E I'll take a look at some i5 specs I'm sure the processing power is a lot better than my old i5.

Alanstrainor wrote: »

The most important thing for you OP is the quality of the screen. High res, and good colour reproduction should be things to look for.

Thanks, Any recommendations of decent brands with good rep for screen res and colour?. The colour reproduction is one thing that annoys me on my current laptop, I have learnt to adjust my processing with this in mind, it would be nice to have a more accurate display.

Button_y

I was looking for a laptop a couple of months back but got very confused about what I needed/wanted so quit my laptop hunting.

I started looking again this week and this seems to be best IPS matte screen I can get for my budget. Before I purchase any thoughts? I won't be using it for gaming.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01578ZKPO?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=ox_sc_act_title_1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER

I didn't particularly want a gaming laptop but the fact that I can add an ssd easily later and the display gets good reviews made me look at this one. Or any other suggestions? My main requirement is a decent display non glossy and high performance. SSD or option to upgrade relatively easily later would be good too.