# Which laptop is best for Lightroom?



## AprilForever (Nov 24, 2017)

Hi all! I am looking to upgrade my computer. I will be travelling for a year, and am looking for a laptop. Which laptop is ideal for Lightroom? Weight is not an issue, as far as size, a larger screen is preferable. Which one runs best, though? I am curious about a MacBook Pro; however, I have always used PC. Would Mac frustrate me? Are the newest Microsoft Surface laptops as good? Would it be better to get one those mac computerswhere the tower and monitor are one? I remember once it was said that one core was better for Photoshop, bit I jave read mow that Lightroom prefers more cores. What are you all using and enjoying?

As far as as work, I need mainly only Lightroom amd Photoshop. I don't really work with video. I like wildlife, especially bird photography most, though also as I will be put in the Wild West, I will be doing a lot of landscape pictures. Thanks for reading!


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## rfdesigner (Nov 24, 2017)

I too have been looking for a "photo editing laptop" recently.

For my specs the prices have been too high.. but falling... so I'll probably buy in 2018.

My specs are currently

ideally 17" screen.
100% (or very near) sRGB or better. (many decent IPS monitors are now achieving this, but you have to check on a machine by machine basis, often it means getting the panel number and looking that up)
i5 or better
8G of memory, with a motherboard that will accept as much as possible.. I think 32G is not unreasonable.
I also want an SSD + HDD machine as I can get the speed and space combination.. also should be easier to swap HDDs in future as the OS can be on the SSD.
I'm not playing games, so I don't care so much about dedicted graphics facilities.
I also like the idea of illuminated keyboards just so long as they're dimable (for astronomy)

I've found that many Gaming laptops come in as "meeting" specs.. though I'm not keen on their look. Frequently listed seperately to the "home" or "business" machines on many manufacturers sites.. worthing concidering.

Also I've found : https://www.notebookcheck.net/ which do excellent display tests.. unlike many other sites.


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## steepjay (Nov 24, 2017)

Long winded ramble: 

I run a MacBook Pro (2012 15" Retina), it's been solid and for a 5 year old machine, runs extremely well. I'm starting to sense it getting a little "long in the tooth" but I'm not at the breaking point. Just installed High Sierra fresh and it feels like a revived machine. Coming from Windows, MacOS takes a bit of getting used to but once you're used to it, it's a really nice OS. BSD Unix with a decent GUI. Apple does customer support better than anyone in the business so if you buy at a store, they will give you a crash course to get you started and they run "how to" seminars in store which can be helpful.

One thing to keep in mind, 8th gen i7 processors have increased core count so worth considering looking for a latest gen processor, although as rightly pointed out, Lightroom is a bit more about single core performance. As always, latest gen processors will inevitably be an improvement in power / watt which is always interesting to a traveler.

I also run Windows and am pretty OS agnostic - there are ups and downs both ways.

The "Mac is more money" argument is always a bit difficult to accurately quantify. Pure specs price point, you can do better in PC-land, but compare all of the things, not just RAM and CPU. So compare weight, size, battery life, storage performance, etc. All of those thing matter to a traveling photographer as much CPU and RAM.

If I was buying a Windows laptop today, it would be a Dell XPS, a Lenovo X or T series (that anniversary ThinkPad is really cool) or potentially a Razer - their price points for what you get are really impressive, although I have reservations about their support. The Surface product line is nice as well, my wife has a new Surface Pro and it's great, but I'm not sure if they've decided to be a tablet or a laptop yet. The Surface Book 2 is impressive but very expensive (more that a Mac). Again, unless you're at a Microsoft store, support is a question mark.

Sorry, not much of an answer. If I had 3 kilobucks and had to buy a laptop today, it would be a toss-up between a 15" Macbook Pro, a Dell XPS15, and maybe the Lenovo anniversary laptop.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Nov 24, 2017)

Virtually any modern laptop will run Lightroom or Photoshop, of course, a I7 processor, 16 GB of RAM and a good video card make things even better - BUT--

*The issue is with the screens. Many, if not most are terrible and just not suitable for photo editing.*

Research the screens, there are just a few good ones.

The Microsoft Surface laptop / tablets hit all the right buttons as do the Apple Macbook Pro's.

You may notice a common thing about the top rated units, they tend to have smaller screens, a 17 in screen that is excellent is a rare thing. The Acer Aspire V17 is about the only highly rated one available. $$$$

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Tracking-GeForce-GTX1060-VN7-793G-709A/dp/B01N6VFLLZ/ref=pd_sbs_147_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=M46RGQFRQH8YGKSBQGJA

For any laptop, I'd immediately replace the Drive with a 1 or 2 TB SSD. Buying a unit that lets you do this is a consideration. 256GB or 512 GB is not large enough to store your photos, so thats a consideration.

http://teradatariver.com/2874/best-laptop-for-photo-editing/#dell-inspiron-i7559-763blk


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## YuengLinger (Nov 24, 2017)

Thrilled with Asus GL703. Great *SCREEN!* ;D

Very fast, reasonably priced. Reliable brand.


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## Freddell (Nov 26, 2017)

Lenovo seems to offer decent 4k screens in their P51 and P71 laptops, however you might prefer hooking up something like a Dell U2413 monitor?


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## Zen (Feb 25, 2018)

Take a look at the Dell Latitude line. SSD can be ordered directly from factory, and choice of several screens is available. Latitude line is robust. Large RAM and storage is available, and up to I7 processor. Super fast. I'm well satisfied with mine. I chose a 13" and very light and portable.

I recommend you look into it. ;D ;D


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 25, 2018)

All the windows laptops with i5 or i7 have plenty of power, but you might want to add more memory and a large SSD. Its far less expensive to add them later.

That leaves the monitor, and its where many laptops fall down. You would want ips and 100% SRGB for starters. A Microsoft tablet is very good, but has been removed from the recommended list on consumer reports due to poor reliability. That would make me hesitate to take it out of the country for a year.

You should check into service availability in the country you will be at, some places might have poor service availability.


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## Talys (Feb 25, 2018)

Surface Book has an exceptional screen. As an added benefit, you can detach the screen for a very nice photo viewing tablet.

But it is very expensive, and cannot compete with gaming rigs for CPU power.


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## Don Haines (Feb 25, 2018)

Lots of memory and a large solid state drive!


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## LDS (Feb 26, 2018)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Its far less expensive to add them later.



As long as they are serviceable models which don't need to be teared apart to replace the disk or add memory. More and more models to be slim and light are literally "glued" together, and you may have to order them in the configuration you need.
Larger mobile "workstations" are usually upgradable with less issues, but check before buying, if you plan it.


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## Talys (Feb 26, 2018)

LDS said:


> Mt Spokane Photography said:
> 
> 
> > Its far less expensive to add them later.
> ...



Yah! Sadly, all of the thin and light notebooks (read: every one that I lust over...) use glue. It's crazy hard to get it back to "as good as new" after you take it apart, sadly -- presuming that you have the skills and patience to do so.

Even on my Surface Studio (not a laptop, obviously, but it's built pretty take-apart-unfriendly), I did manage to disassemble it and replace both the m.2 and the 2.5" with a SSD, but it sure wasn't easy or fun.


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## benique (Feb 26, 2018)

YuengLinger said:


> Thrilled with Asus GL703. Great *SCREEN!*


;D
A resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels for a 17" screen might have been great 5 years ago but I would definitely not buy any device with such a low resolution today.


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## Deleted member 378664 (Feb 26, 2018)

I'm using a Dell Precision 7520 Workstation with 15,6" IPS Panel (non-Touch, no 4k), 1920*1080
512 MB SSD and 2 TB HDD 32GB RAM (up to 64GB RAM possible).

This serves as Desktop replacement PC together with the TB16 Docking Station.

Sure, it was not cheap. But I couldn't read anything about your price idea.

These Dell Precision models are also available with 17,3" Displays (7720) whether with IPS (1920*1080) or IGZO (3840*2160).

Display has 100% sRGB (according to Dell, but independent tests confirm a very high value).
I'm very satisfied with that solution.

Frank


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## benique (Feb 28, 2018)

I would strongly recommend not to get a laptop but a desktop computer if you don't need to be mobile.

I would recommend an iMacs 27". The 27" Screen with 5K resolution has a P3 color space which is a lot bigger than sRGB. Mac computers usually last longer than windows computers and have fewer problems.

Make sure you have an SSD and not a normal HD in the computer. You might be able to get cheaper components if you go to a reseller and tell them to switch the harddisk for an SSD.

If you're coming from windows you might need some time to adapt but once you understand how to use a Mac you won't switch back for sure.


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## LDS (Feb 28, 2018)

benique said:


> Mac computers usually last longer than windows computers and have fewer problems.



Strange, since today they are made exactly using the same components by the same Chinese factories... it just depend on the quality of the computer you're buying. Cheap models will be made with cheaper components and manufacturing, of course.


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## benique (Mar 3, 2018)

It's not only about the hardware. The software is much more optimised for the hardware. Which leads to better performance. Windows has to run on every model. MacOS on the other hand only needs to run on Apple computers. The Windows system is also well known to slow down a lot over time.

There is a reason why older Apple computers are relatively expensive.


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## Talys (Mar 3, 2018)

benique said:


> It's not only about the hardware. The software is much more optimised for the hardware. Which leads to better performance. Windows has to run on every model. MacOS on the other hand only needs to run on Apple computers. The Windows system is also well known to slow down a lot over time.
> 
> There is a reason why older Apple computers are relatively expensive.



Oh, no. Please don't turn this into Mac vs Windows. MILC vs DSLR is bad enough. Thy are both gret platforms, with different strengths in software and hardware options.

Windows 10 does not run slower over time. Installing software that slows down a computer bit by bit over time slows it down, and that isn't unique to Windows. My 4 year old PC is still my main workhorse, even though I have several newer, more powerful machines, as I am a professional software developer and get new computer equipment as quickly as a professional photographer would camera bodies and lenses. 

Do not buy an older computer of any type unless the price differential is huge, if for no other reason than that 
ongoing Spectre/meltdown mitigations take a bigger performance hit on older processors. Although processors, gpus, chipset, ssds, and memory have all matured and performance differences are relatively small as compared to PC generations a couple of decades ago, for PS/LR, the performance difference is noticeable, as is battery life, if that matters to you.


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## LDS (Mar 4, 2018)

benique said:


> It's not only about the hardware. The software is much more optimised for the hardware. Which leads to better performance. Windows has to run on every model. MacOS on the other hand only needs to run on Apple computers. The Windows system is also well known to slow down a lot over time.
> 
> There is a reason why older Apple computers are relatively expensive.



That's why you should buy Leica and not Canon for example. Or maybe Hasselblad. They only make a few optimized cameras and lenses, and that's why they are so expensive, unlike Canon that has to cover so many different price points, and have to make cameras like the 4000D.

Of course, I'm kidding. 

I could debunk your myths one by one, but that's not the place.


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## Deleted member 378664 (Mar 4, 2018)

@LDS:

Your suggestion for an iMac is not helpful for the thread opener at all.
Read the subject again and his opening thread.

Subject: Which *laptop* is best for Lightroom?

He wants to travel for one year, so a desktop computer is definetely not what he is searching for.

Frank


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## Ryan2tawfiq (Jan 19, 2020)

rfdesigner said:


> I too have been looking for a "photo editing laptop" recently.
> 
> For my specs the prices have been too high.. but falling... so I'll probably buy in 2018.
> 
> ...


What is a good computer keyboard?


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