Good Laptop for Editing photos during Travel?

By default, most laptop screens leave a lot to be desired when it comes to accuracy - they even have issues with consistency within a brand/model of laptops. Before getting another laptop, if you haven't already tried this, you should get a colour calibration puck to see what you can do with your existing laptop.

Dell XPS 12 9250

it covers 100% AdobeRGB colour space with 400 nits...I have the business variant with 4K display and it's the nicest laptop screen I have seen.

I'm bringing the tablet portion with the optional stylus backpacking next week (only weighs 740g)...might do some light editing on the bus/plane. I'll let you know my impressions afterwards.

they're not well-reviewed because of issues at launch, most of it has been ironed out. It's got mediocre battery life though due to its 30Whr 2-cell battery. 4K version probably around 5 hours and FHD is roughly 8 hours.

they FHD version can be had for $500 US on Amazon and eBay

I use a Dell Precision that was custom fitted with the UltraSharp display.

Might get some hate, but you can grab a used 13" retina mac for that much.

Great (accurate) screens, light weight, great battery, and specs depend on how good of a deal you can get.

I've had 0 issues with editing large albums on mine with Lightroom

Most laptops under $1000 have screens which cover less than 80% of the sRGB color space - some as low as 55% and many around 67%. Plus they are not well calibrated and use a TN panel, which in laptops seem to be more prone to colour shifts at off angles than their larger desktop monitor cousins.

Between $1000 and 1500 you can find several laptops with IPS or similar panels (much less colour shift at at off angles) offering 90% or better coverage of the sRGB color space. Some are even well calibrated but it would be beneficial to use a colorimeter to calibrate them.

The best website I've found for confirming color space coverage and accuracy of calibration is the following. It is a European site so some of the model names/numbers do not match up at times to our North American models.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/

http://www.notebookcheck.net/The-Best-N ... 541.0.html
- look for a low DeltaE to indicate a good calibration

Off the top of my head, some models of the Dell XPS13 and the Microsoft Surface have had good coverage of sRGB, and IPS type panel, and a decent factory calibration. Both of these would be good to travel with due their light weight and good battery life. I'm not wholly familiar with current models and I've heard of some issues with the Surface so do your homework

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Not trying to hijack, would this be suitable?
https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/ms ... zpFvgCi2A)()

Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Series 5565-i5565-2517GRY Signature Edition Laptop
15.6-inch Full HD touchscreen
AMD A12-9700P
8GB memory/1TB HDD
AMD Radeon R7 graphics

tonyford wrote: ↑ Not trying to hijack, would this be suitable?
https://www.microsoftstore.com/store/ms ... zpFvgCi2A)()

Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Series 5565-i5565-2517GRY Signature Edition Laptop
15.6-inch Full HD touchscreen
AMD A12-9700P
8GB memory/1TB HDD
AMD Radeon R7 graphics

It's configuration offers a bit less than the same model direct from Dell so it has a lower price. Several recent reviews on similar 5000 models imply there are performance issues related to the slow 1TB hard drive and several reviews suggest it can be improved by swapping out the HD for a SSD. I can't find any recent reviews or technical discussions on the TrueLife lcd panel in this model. The 1366x768 panel also offered in this model range has only 58% coverage of sRGB but this has no direct correlation to the higher resolution 1920x1080 TrueLife panel. Likewise an Inspriron 15 5000 Gaming model offering a 1920x1080 LCD panel has only 67% sRGB coverage but this would not be the same panel as it offers a matte anti-glare finish where the TrueLife panel is a glossy touch enabled panel.

Because of it's size and weight (including power supply) I would not buy it for photowork on the go and at home would probably only use it with an external monitor (providing a larger 24" full sRGB coverage panel) attached.

But... IF.... big if.... the panel in your model is the same as the one offered in 2014 (can change greatly in 3 years) in the model in this review, then for the occasional trip I may consider it but at home would still use it with an external monitor. Note that its' 103% coverage of sRGB is excellent but the DeltaE of 11.9 is not very good and you will want to calibrate it with a colorimeter. Note how the review states "Spidey's red-and-blue suit looked absolutely electric" - the red's and blues are probably jacked skewing the DeltaE.

http://www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptop ... on-15-7537

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that brick weighs 5lbs
anything over 3lbs is not fun for traveling

Thanks for the suggestions. I've decided to increase the pricepoint to $1500-2000 and use it for my husband's gaming too. He wants at least a 13" screen and I will be bringing an external drive on trips to increase capacity for photos. Does this help with better suggestions? Oh, and no Mac, we are PC people and I will be using this laptop for work with Microsoft office as well.

Just an update: I ended up getting the Dell XPS 15 using the tips in this thread: dell-very-decent-discount-dell-xps-9560-2073011/

Here is the laptop I chose: http://www.dell.com/ca/p/xps-15-9560-la ... 560-laptop

After stacked discounts and before tax it came to $1794.39. I will get $107 in a Dell promo card and $180 in ebates cash back on top of that.

what kinda gaming does he do? The GTX 1050 isn't up to the task of intensive games.

Oh wow..... 15.6" 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) InfinityEdge touch display

If what I read in this review is correct

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-1 ... 668.0.html

then you will have 4K WIDE GAMUT display covering 98%+ of the AdobeRGB color space.

Scroll down to the "Display" section....
"The optional 4K screen – if it is also comparable to the previous generation – is roughly on par, but manages an unrivaled high AdobeRGB coverage of 98%. "

The laptop may give you an option to display in sRGB mode but if it does not, read up on color management and wide gamut displays. You have to ensure you are using color managed software with a wide gamut display to ensure colors stay accurate. If not, you will notice excessively vibrant colors such as the reds or greens and skin tones that are a wee bit too reddish pink.

Not a show stopper as , if not already proficient with wide gamut issues, you can learn to work with this and ultimately once you're confident of your software you will be seeing ALL the color in those Macaw parrot shots and others of that ilk.

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