Laptop for photo sorting and light editing while travelling.

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › Laptop for photo sorting and light editing while travelling.

ThomasW

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#154892 11-Nov-2014 22:54

Hoping to purchase a new laptop, or maybe tablet / hybrid... The main purpose of the laptop is to process my photos while travelling. So I have three main criteria, first it must be fairly compact and lightweight, but with a good quality screen, so I can make out the finer details... My old laptop a HP Sleekbook had a terrible screen, otherwise it was a nice enough machine.

It does not need to a be a performance powerhouse, that is what my desktop is for. Ideally I would like to spend under a $1000 but that might not be realistic. Any suggestions?

I do like the look of the Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro, but it certainly stretches my budget.

Batman

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#1173218 11-Nov-2014 23:02

nothing light compact in that range.

deals happen in the 2-3 wks before christmas

kobiak

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#1173222 11-Nov-2014 23:08

Macbook air refurbished from apple is what you want.

helping others at evgenyk.nz

nathan

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#1173266 12-Nov-2014 05:57

MacBook Air had terrible screen res

Core i3 Surface Pro 3 will be pretty close to $1000

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#1173268 12-Nov-2014 06:05

Yeah try editing photos with a trackpad that costs a bomb and smaller than my key ring

ThomasW

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#1174834 12-Nov-2014 22:15

Thanks for the advice, without going used there seems to be no perfect option within budget. Quite a bit available for around $1500, but its hard spending so much on a laptop which would only see occasional use. My Desktop (minus monitors) probably cost less then that and I use it nearly every day... sigh..

Might try and pick up a second hand model, but would keep a eye out for sales over the holiday period.

nathan

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#1174840 12-Nov-2014 22:23

joker97: Yeah try editing photos with a trackpad that costs a bomb and smaller than my key ring

Surface Pro 3 comes with a free digitizer pen

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#1174895 13-Nov-2014 06:56

i don't know what the OP uses to edit his photos, but if it's Photoshop then operability ranks like this

mouse >>>>>> giant trackpad >>> small trackpad >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> nothing else

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Batman

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#1174896 13-Nov-2014 06:58

I'm going to guess ... you're going to suggest a surface pro 3 with a MS mouse ... fair enough

Geektastic

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#1181176 22-Nov-2014 10:51

I just replaced my three year old Macbook Air 11" which was my travel computer (I am a photographer). The screen was awful in comparison to more modern options but the size and weight was awesome.

I considered a 13" Air but by the time I had specced it up it was almost as much as a decent Macbook Pro Retina which is what I have gone for. I got 256Gb storage (I use Thunderbolt drives on the road so do not really need heaps of internal but felt that resale would be better with more than the base), 16Gb RAM and the i7 chip option as Lightroom is processor-hungry and one of my cameras has 36mp so the files are big.

It will be a tad heavier than the Air equivalent (about 200g) and the battery life is a bit lower (9 hours v 12 hours) but I think the extra grunt and the Retina screen make it worth the extra $700 or so.

I'll sell the Air on TM or something and hopefully get $400-$500 back from that towards it too, which always helps.

Tablets are no use to me as they do not run proper software or provide things like Thunderbolt ports.