Best Laptop on the market for graphics design?

PaulyBolger

hi guys,

Recently my laptop went kaput. I had a crappy acer that just about got the job done, but its died on me.

I have a bit of money now, so i was wondering, with money no object,

Whats the best laptop for graphic design?

It has to be a laptop as i need it to be portable. Otherwise i'd just build myself a desktop!


Thanks

ladiesman217

Hi.

Well considering that money is no object you won't go wrong with investing in a Apple laptop
specifically a Macbook pro. I have been using Apples range of computers for over twenty years and have found them the
most intuitive piece of hardware to use with regard to their operating systems and overall design of their products. There has been a constant battle of the years with users of MAC and PC'S. This all depends on your preference. I recently used a PC to do some work and something easy like putting a USB stick into the PC can take a few click just to access it. Unlike the Macs where you just click on the USB icon that appears on the desktop, little things like this should be a given.

The Macbook pro's can be a little expensive but I feel its money well spent. Your best option I feel would be the 13'' Macbook pro, its portable and like most laptops you can hook this up to an external monitor. I myself am rolling with a Macbook Pro 15'' which I have hook up to a 27" monitor. My Macbook is a 2007 model and weighs quite a bit, well thats what I found carrying it around. I will be upgrading to a new Macbook but a 13'' model.The 13" model all in will cost €1900 this is the 2.9GH model the fastest in that range, also included in the price is a SSD (solid state drive) which I HIGHY recommend and lastly you Apple care insurance. This price is from the Apple website, you can add any additional pieces of hardware to cater to your need.
As they say once you go MAC you'l never go back

Good luck with it.
ps if you are a student I strongly advice to use your student discount to buy CS6 creative suite you will save yourself around €2000.

Happyman42

ladiesman217 wrote: »

Hi.

Well considering that money is no object you won't go wrong with investing in a Apple laptop
specifically a Macbook pro. I have been using Apples range of computers for over twenty years and have found them the
most intuitive piece of hardware to use with regard to their operating systems and overall design of their products. There has been a constant battle of the years with users of MAC and PC'S. This all depends on your preference. I recently used a PC to do some work and something easy like putting a USB stick into the PC can take a few click just to access it. Unlike the Macs where you just click on the USB icon that appears on the desktop, little things like this should be a given.

The Macbook pro's can be a little expensive but I feel its money well spent. Your best option I feel would be the 13'' Macbook pro, its portable and like most laptops you can hook this up to an external monitor. I myself am rolling with a Macbook Pro 15'' which I have hook up to a 27" monitor. My Macbook is a 2007 model and weighs quite a bit, well thats what I found carrying it around. I will be upgrading to a new Macbook but a 13'' model.The 13" model all in will cost €1900 this is the 2.9GH model the fastest in that range, also included in the price is a SSD (solid state drive) which I HIGHY recommend and lastly you Apple care insurance. This price is from the Apple website, you can add any additional pieces of hardware to cater to your need.
As they say once you go MAC you'l never go back

Good luck with it.
ps if you are a student I strongly advice to use your student discount to buy CS6 creative suite you will save yourself around €2000.

Don't want to go near the mac/pc debate but some of that info is just wrong. A well speced pc is great value for money in comparison with the overpriced MAC's. Upgrading to a new model in 2 or 3 years(the natural life of an everyday mobile work machine, no matter what brand) is less daunting as well. PC's are easier to swop out components as well, just replaced the keyboard on mine, and it was easy peasy and DIY.
PC's have long ago caught up with MAC's. Unless you are a slave to the design of the machine itself, which doesn't help one bit when you have a mountain of work to get through, it's what gets the job done efficiently and economically that counts. There is nothing I have done design wise, from logo's to full brouchures where I have ever said, 'I wish I had a mac'.

PaulyBolger

great info from both.


I have to rephrase it now, due to bills i just have about 1300 to spend which rules a decent mac out. (i was looking at a 15inch with the retina display.)

I've been looking at the L702x with 8gb ram, i5 2.4ghz.

any other suggestions?

megaten

One thing in terms of graphic design when choosing a laptop is to research it's screen. It's an area where a lot of manufacturers cheap out since most users won't recognise good colour representation.

5uspect

megaten wrote: »

One thing in terms of graphic design when choosing a laptop is to research it's screen. It's an area where a lot of manufacturers cheap out since most users won't recognise good colour representation.

And on that note I would recommend Anandtech. They always go an in-depth analysis of the screen.

pixie_dust

I would suggest getting a Macbook, even the cheapest and most basic model has a much better screen than PCs. In my opinion there is no comparison.

You're going to be staring at it for a long time, so you might asweel get whichever you think would be easier for you to work with in the long run.

Maybe you could also take into account the fact that most design studios and professional design consultancies (not all) but most - use Apple machines, and some require their employees to use those machines...so it would be good if you were used to what is expected in that industry.

again, just my opinion good luck with your new computer

trippyfella

the mac screen is definitely way superior. Maybe a refurbished one in your budget if you're lucky?

I am comfortable with both mac and pc and have no strong affiliation except that the mac screen is glorious. For a smaller budget, I think a PC will do just fine. I had a pretty ****ty acer for a long time and my graphic software still worked really well on them so if you just read up on specs and see which ones give u the option to upgrade memory etc later, then go for that. It'll do just fine

Mister Man

Most laptops over, say 300, will run Photoshop without a problem. The key as everyone has stated, is that you should look into the screen.
In my experience (Unfortainily, no experience with MBP's) Dell's have "decent" screens. Nothing to shout about, would get the job done.
I would assume that the Mac screens are top notch, if the iPhone is anything to go by.
I've used an Asus before, and I have to say it was lovely in terms of quality of screen. I don't re-call the model, but I would expect Asus to have good screens.
The worse screen for me, was on a Compaq. Colours were just awful. Granted, it was 3 years ago now, but worth noting, I guess!
Maybe the "gaming" laptops have good screens? I've never even touched one before, so I can't say for sure, but I would look into it. You'd probably get one for cheaper then a MBP

MC_G

Mister Man wrote: »

I've used an Asus before, and I have to say it was lovely in terms of quality of screen. I don't re-call the model, but I would expect Asus to have good screens.

I can vouch for that.

This Asus N56VZ Has a lovely 1920x1080p screen which is great for doing graphic work on and has an i7 and a 2gb GT650m discrete graphics card for less than a 13inch MacBook Pro with shared graphics, an i5 and a slow 5400rpm hard drive.

For the money saved, get a nice ssd and an external hd caddy or optical disc caddy and you're set and have beer money left over.

You could even splurge for a Windows 7 license if you don't like the pre installed windows 8 or spend a 5er on Start 8 or wait for Windows 8.1 update.

Good luck with whatever you go with!

JudieRussell

I bought a nearly new Macbook Pro from Donedeal about a year ago for just over a grand. It's a 13" screen with 8GB ram, 750GB hard drive and Intel Core i7. I was debating the Mac/PC deal for ages and was so close to getting another PC but I have to say I'm delighted with it. It's a worker and always does what it's supposed to

BostonB

PaulyBolger wrote: »

hi guys,

Recently my laptop went kaput. I had a crappy acer that just about got the job done, but its died on me.

I have a bit of money now, so i was wondering, with money no object,

Whats the best laptop for graphic design?

It has to be a laptop as i need it to be portable. Otherwise i'd just build myself a desktop!


Thanks

You're main decision is budget and screen size. Only you can say how big a screen you want, and consider portable. Theres a big difference between a 13" screen and a 17" one.