Photographic Laptop: Testing the New ZenBook S. Photographic Laptop: Testing the New ZenBook S What to Look For

To make image processing in Photoshop easy on a laptop, your laptop must meet a few requirements. Here are the points you should pay special attention to:

• Display: Resolution and design are critical to ensuring that there is no frustration when working with Photoshop. Often laptop computers equipped with displays with a resolution of only 1366x768 pixels. At the same time, it would be much better for detailing to work with screens, the resolution of which has Full-HD resolution or higher.
• RAM: the size of the RAM is also very important. Especially if you want to work with large projects, Adobe's program will consume a lot of RAM. At least 4GB of RAM should be installed in the laptop - preferably 8GB or more.
• CPU: the third important component is the processor. Since it is he who is responsible for all computing processes, and often for displaying graphics, you should not save on it. With new models from the series Intel Core i5 or i7 you will feel confident.

5th place: Lenovo IdeaPad Y50-70

4th place: Acer Aspire V Nitro VN7

3rd place: Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Touch

Recently personal computers were considered a great luxury for the common man. But over time, everything has changed significantly. Today, a large number of users use laptops for study, creating texts, communicating in social networks and making purchases in online stores. Also, at present, a large number of computer users love to produce a variety of photographs. As such, a professional photographer needs a laptop that has basic resources like Photoshop and Lightroom.

A laptop with these programs is perfect for a photographer. To installed programs could work well it is worth paying attention to the laptop processor. It must be of high quality and powerful enough. Also, the device must have an excellent screen resolution and a large enough RAM. When buying a laptop for a photographer, first of all, you should pay attention to these parameters.

List of laptop requirements for a photographer

A laptop for a photographer must have the Lightroom program. It is with the help of this program that the photographer will be able to quickly process photographs in RAW format. The display of the device is also important enough for the photographer. After all, it is on him that the ideal colors of the picture that will be created depend. The user will be able to achieve this effect thanks to the IPS or S-IPS matrix. It is recommended that the viewing angle is as wide as possible. In the event that the laptop does not have a built-in matrix, the user will need to purchase an additional screen with a diagonal of 21 inches.

It is worth noting that the device that the photographer uses must have a powerful enough built-in processor. It is worth paying attention to devices with a capacity of more than 2 gigahertz. For processing photos, a device that has an operational Windows system 8. The recommended amount of RAM for such a device is at least 1 gigabyte. The hard disk of the device can be of any size. Also, the device must have a screen with a sufficiently high resolution.

Devices that are most suitable for working with photographs

Currently, the best device suitable for a photographer is a laptop. Dell Inspiron 17. The company that makes these devices is currently bringing high quality and stylish devices to the market. This device model has plastic case... But in order to give the device style and sophistication, the manufacturer was able to create aluminum inserts on the device body. The technical characteristics of this device deserve special attention.

The device has specifications that are great for photo processing. The laptop has 8 gigabytes of RAM. The manufacturer was able to install an internal memory on his gadget, which is 1 terabyte. The screen, which is installed on the laptop, has a diagonal size of 17.3 inches. It has a fairly high resolution. The total weight of the device is no more than three kilograms.

Also, a laptop can be perfect for a photographer. Apple MacBook Pro Retina 15 Mid. The gadget has a 15-inch screen, which has an excellent resolution. The manufacturer has installed enough powerful processor, the frequency of which is 2.5 gigahertz. The RAM is large enough. This is directly 16 gigabytes. The size internal memory of course too small, it is only 512 gigabytes. Thanks to its beautiful technical specifications this device perfectly copes with the tasks assigned to it for the processing of photographs. Currently, there are a large number of laptop models on the computer market that can perfectly suit the work of a photographer.

Conclusion

Currently, the user is provided with a fairly large selection of computer equipment. In this regard, it is quite difficult for a photographer to select a laptop that can perfectly suit his work. When buying a device for a photographer, you should pay special attention to screen size and resolution. Also, an important factor is the presence of a very powerful processor in the gadget.

It is worth noting that if you buy a laptop for a photographer that has a diagonal size of 13 inches, then you doom your photographer friend to some inconvenience. The thing is that from small screens the photographer's eyes begin to hurt quite a lot. Therefore, experts recommend purchasing devices that have a screen size of at least 15 inches.

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A photographer's laptop should be powerful and have a good display. We will tell you how to chooseoptimal characteristics for different tasks, what to look for first and give a useful resource for finding laptops with the best displays.

The first thing to do when choosing a laptop is to determine the purpose of its use. Of course, over time, they can change, as well as be combined, and a laptop purchased as a stationary one will travel with you to outdoor photo sessions.

But nevertheless - decide what tasks the computer will perform first. It depends on which direction to move on.

What to look for when choosing a computer for each of these tasks?

How to choose a laptop for a photographer

Let's take a look at all the characteristics that you will need to familiarize yourself with.

Display

The first and most important characteristic of a laptop for a photographer is the display. Its quality will determine how accurately you see colors and understand the processing results.

For regular work and photo processing, a small diagonal (for example, 13 inches) will not work. On such a display Workspace very small and would be too inconvenient to work with.

However, too large a diagonal is also not needed here, especially if you plan to take your laptop on trips from time to time. The best option: 15 inches.

However, if you plan to travel frequently, it makes sense to opt for a 13-inch laptop, and for serious processing, connect an external display to the laptop. In this case, it is necessary that the laptop can handle the high resolution of modern displays and have the necessary ports.

There is no need to tell photographers about the importance of monitor quality. If you are taking a laptop for photo processing, a high-quality sensor is a must-have. The best color rendering, contrast, viewing angle, color gamut are provided by IPS matrices. It is better to choose the resolution 1920х1080 and higher.

IPS laptops are more expensive than TN laptops, but they will provide true color reproduction and maximum color gamut (90-100% sRGB and even wider). But be careful, even if the characteristics of the computer include an IPS matrix - make sure that it is really it, and not a TN matrix with wider angles, and check the percentage of color gamut.

CPU

Photo processing programs are usually quite processor-intensive, so modern models should be preferred. Ideally - Intel Core i7 (or similar) with a frequency of at least 2 GHz.

A powerful processor will quickly "eat up" the battery charge, but this is important, for example, on the road. For stationary use at home, where it is always possible to connect a computer to the network, this is not critical.

The compact 13-inch models are equipped with an Intel Core i5, which will also be sufficient for most tasks.

RAM

Graphic editors are also demanding on the amount of RAM. For example, minimum requirements for Adobe Lightroom - 4 GB, and recommended - 12 GB; minimum for Photoshop - 2, recommended - 8 GB.

That is, the minimum option for today will be at least 8 GB of RAM. It is optimal to choose a laptop with 16 GB of RAM.

Hard drive or SSD

Image source: https://masterok.livejournal.com/3914516.html

Today laptops are equipped with hard drives or SSD drives.

The hard drive offers more capacity at an affordable price, but loses out in speed. When the device falls HDD more prone to breakage.

Solid state SSD drives are several times faster hard disk, but they are much more expensive. No moving parts Plus have less data rewriting life.

To improve the overall performance of your entire laptop, we recommend choosing a laptop with an SSD drive. With a minimum capacity of 256 GB, but better than 512 GB.

In this configuration, you will receive, respectively, 100 or 350 GB of space for working with current projects, and the rest of the data will be stored on an external hard drive. By this tag you can find reviews of external drives.

Sometimes, large laptops combine an SSD and an HDD to take advantage of the high speed of the drive and the capacity of the hard drive.

Video card

For graphics, especially high resolution, you will also need a powerful video card, with RAM from 2 GB. It is best if it is discrete (standalone) rather than built-in.

Some laptops have two video cards - an integrated one for regular programs and a discrete one for working with graphics. Switching between them is automatic.

It is important to study what resolution for external monitor supports laptop. It is best if your laptop supports a 4k monitor.

Ports and interfaces

For connecting a camera, external drives, flash drives, etc. Multiple USB ports are required: ideally, at least three and at least the third generation, for faster data transfer.

The built-in card reader (make sure it supports memory cards for your camera) and an HDMI connector will also come in handy if you plan to connect a large monitor to your laptop or, for example, show pictures on a TV screen.

Some modern laptops, such as all new Apple models, are exclusively equipped with USB-C ports... This port is universal and allows you to connect various devices... Read more about USB-C here.

Battery

If you plan to use your laptop on location, check the duration autonomous work laptop.

The weight

If the laptop will be used more often at home, then weight and size are not critical. If you are going to take it with you from time to time, pay attention to the weight and size.

Conclusion

High-quality laptops that meet the needs of the photographer are quite expensive, so this choice should be taken seriously. First, decide on the tasks for which you need a computer. Secondly, with the budget.

Then, narrowing down the choice to models that meet the price / quality ratio, consider your own preferences. For example, someone prefers exclusively Apple, while someone, on the contrary, categorically does not accept "apple" products.

And finally, when one or more options are chosen, once again carefully study their characteristics, read reviews on the Internet - and only then make a purchase.

Below are some guidelines for specific laptops, but this list is provided as an example only. The market is changing very quickly, and what is relevant at the time of writing may not be relevant at all next year.

A powerful desktop laptop for the photographer

Dell XPS 15 Touch, with 4-core Core i7, 4K display, 100% Adobe RGB, Nvidia graphics card 1050, a 1TB hard drive and up to 32GB of RAM, and a wide range of ports including USB 3.0, HDMI, Thunderbolt, and a memory card slot.

All-in-One Laptop for Photographers

The recently updated Apple MacBook Pro 15 and MacBook Pro 13. They are equipped with six-core Intel processors Core i7 / i9 (for 15-inch model) and quad-core i5 / i7 (for 13-inch model), SSD-drives, IPS-displays with TrueTone technology with coverage 25% wider than sRGB. As well as discrete Radeon graphics Pro, Thunderbolt 3 ports with USB ‑ C, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

It takes a decent computer to edit high-resolution images and use modern visual effects. Notebooks for today's enthusiasts can compete with traditional desktop hardware for speed, and unlike older laptops, many have beautiful displays with stunning colors and high contrast to keep bright and shaded details visible.
For this review, I picked three laptops ranging in price from $ 80,899 to $ 116,990, as they offer a pretty good price-performance ratio. My top priorities were image output quality and at least 8GB of RAM, which is a realistic minimum for doing intensive photo editing. The user has to make a decision about the screen size, since laptops with 15 "screens are noticeably larger and heavier than their counterparts, which have a screen size of 13", but they still provide more room for Photoshop palettes.

Key points to look out for

It is very easy to get confused and drowned in technical details and computer terminology, but there are a couple key points that photographers need to think about.

The first is the quality of the screen. The screen is usually more a source of eye strain than a source of eye pleasure, as screens can have terrible contrast and viewing angles, but IPS display technology remedies this and you shouldn't buy anything of lower quality.

The main storage of information on any new laptop should be an SSD (Solid State Drive). Traditional hard drives will degrade performance like a Ferrari's flat tires, and while dedicated graphics cards are very good for gaming, they are not necessary for photo editing. Today's processors can do all the work for them, and have enough pixel processing capabilities to support photo editing.

Many photographers choose the MacBook for good reasons. But do not give up on desktop PCs with a similar price, which can give much more for every ruble spent, and besides, they have good opportunities updates.

Apple MacBook Pro 13 ″ Retina

Processor: Dual Core 2.7 GHz, Core i5 | RAM: 8 GB | Built-in memory: 256 GB SSD | Display: 13.3 ″ IPS display (2560 × 1600) |

Pros: Retina display, fast processor
Cons: immutable design

Retina display from Apple revolutionized the quality of laptop screens. And while competitors today use panels as good as Retina, MacBooks still offer the best visual experience. Brightness, contrast, saturation and detail are found in these displays on the highest level and Apple's factory color calibration is the most accurate. While its 2.7GHz processor is technically faster than the dual-core processors found in Dell and Microsoft laptops, the actual performance is nearly identical and nothing too special. This laptop might seem like an obvious choice, and it's also quite versatile.

Processor: 2.4 GHz Dual Core, Core i5 | RAM: 8 GB | Built-in memory: 128 GB SSD | Display: 13.5 ″ IPS-display (3000 × 2000) |

Pros: Unrivaled display
Cons: updates

This non-professional notebook is equipped with a modest dual-core processor, but its performance is comparable to that of a MacBook. The battery lasts for about 11 hours and 10 minutes and the screen quality is quite impressive. Only slightly better color calibration from Apple makes images on a MacBook laptop more high quality but Microsoft wins back this competition with 3000 by 2000 resolution and perfect proportionality when viewing APS-C images and working in full screen mode. The display screen is touch-sensitive, but the real advantage is that it can be detached from the rest of the laptop and turned into a tablet. You can also use a pen with 1024 pressure levels, so this device can also serve as a graphics tablet. I would call it a winner, but a 128GB SSD is a clear limitation, and it costs a lot of money to install a larger drive. While it beats the MacBook in flexibility, Apple's specs are better balanced for this price point.

Processor: Quad-core 2.6 GHz, Core i7 | RAM: 12 GB | Built-in memory: 512 GB SSD | Display: 15.6 ″ IPS-display (3840 × 2160) |

Pros: RAM, screen size
Cons: Image quality is not quite top-notch

The 15.6-inch screen on ZenBook Pro sports an impressive Ultra HD resolution, resulting in the highest pixel density of any notebook we've tested. However, the image quality is not quite comparable to the MacBook and Surface Book. Color saturation and contrast are somewhat less intense, and this high pixel density offers very little real benefit over comparable screens. Much more useful is the larger screen size, especially when working with Photoshop, but it weighs in at 2.27kg for the ZenBook. This laptop has a fast processor and a powerful battery to power it. This is a veritable master of editing, unless you carry it around too often.

A photographer's laptop should be powerful and have a good display. We will tell you how to chooseoptimal characteristics for different tasks, what to look for first and give a useful resource for finding laptops with the best displays.

The first thing to do when choosing a laptop is to determine the purpose of its use. Of course, over time, they can change, as well as be combined, and a laptop purchased as a stationary one will travel with you to outdoor photo sessions.

But nevertheless - decide what tasks the computer will perform in the first place. It depends on which direction to move on.

What to look for when choosing a computer for each of these tasks?

How to choose a laptop for a photographer

Let's take a look at all the characteristics that you will need to familiarize yourself with.

Display

The first and most important characteristic of a laptop for a photographer is the display. Its quality will determine how accurately you see colors and understand the processing results.

For regular work and photo processing, a small diagonal (for example, 13 inches) will not work. On such a display, the working area is very small and will be too inconvenient to work.

However, too large a diagonal is also not needed here, especially if you plan to take your laptop on trips from time to time. The best option: 15 inches.

However, if you plan to travel frequently, it makes sense to opt for a 13-inch laptop, and for serious processing, connect an external display to the laptop. In this case, it is necessary that the laptop can handle the high resolution of modern displays and have the necessary ports.

There is no need to tell photographers about the importance of monitor quality. If you are taking a laptop for photo processing, a high-quality sensor is a must-have. The best color rendering, contrast, viewing angle, color gamut are provided by IPS matrices. It is better to choose the resolution 1920х1080 and higher.

IPS laptops are more expensive than TN laptops, but they will provide true color reproduction and maximum color gamut (90-100% sRGB and even wider). But be careful, even if the characteristics of the computer include an IPS matrix - make sure that this is really it, and not a TN matrix with extended corners, and check the percentage of color gamut.

CPU

Photo processing programs are usually quite processor-intensive, so modern models should be preferred. Ideally - Intel Core i7 (or similar) with a frequency of at least 2 GHz.

A powerful processor will quickly "eat up" the battery charge, but this is important, for example, on the road. For stationary use at home, where it is always possible to connect a computer to the network, this is not critical.

The compact 13-inch models are equipped with an Intel Core i5, which will also be sufficient for most tasks.

RAM

Graphic editors are also demanding on the amount of RAM. For example, the minimum requirements for Adobe Lightroom are 4 GB, and the recommended ones are 12 GB; minimum for Photoshop - 2, recommended - 8 GB.

That is, the minimum option for today will be at least 8 GB of RAM. It is optimal to choose a laptop with 16 GB of RAM.

Hard drive or SSD

Image source: https://masterok.livejournal.com/3914516.html

Today laptops are equipped with hard drives or SSD drives.

The hard drive offers more capacity at an affordable price, but loses out in speed. If the device is dropped, the hard drive is more susceptible to damage.

Solid state SSDs are several times faster than hard drives, but they cost significantly more. No moving parts Plus have less data rewriting life.

To improve the overall performance of your entire laptop, we recommend choosing a laptop with an SSD drive. With a minimum capacity of 256 GB, but better than 512 GB.

In this configuration, you will receive, respectively, 100 or 350 GB of space for working with current projects, and the rest of the data will be stored on an external hard drive. For this you can find reviews of external drives.

Sometimes, large laptops combine an SSD and an HDD to take advantage of the high speed of the drive and the capacity of the hard drive.

Video card

To work with graphics, especially high resolution, you will also need a powerful video card with at least 2 GB of RAM. It is best if it is discrete (standalone) rather than built-in.

Some laptops have two video cards - an integrated one for regular programs and a discrete one for working with graphics. Switching between them is automatic.

It is important to study what resolution the laptop supports for an external monitor. It is best if your laptop supports a 4k monitor.

Ports and interfaces

For connecting a camera, external drives, flash drives, etc. Multiple USB ports are required: ideally, at least three and at least the third generation, for faster data transfer.

The built-in card reader (make sure it supports memory cards for your camera) and an HDMI connector will also come in handy if you plan to connect a large monitor to your laptop or, for example, show pictures on a TV screen.

Some modern laptops, such as all new Apple models, are exclusively equipped with USB-C ports. This port is universal and allows you to connect various devices. Read more about USB-C.

Battery

If you plan to use your laptop on location, check the laptop's battery life.

The weight

If the laptop will be used more often at home, then weight and size are not critical. If you are going to take it with you from time to time, pay attention to the weight and size.

Conclusion

High-quality laptops that meet the needs of the photographer are quite expensive, so this choice should be taken seriously. First, decide on the tasks for which you need a computer. Secondly, with the budget.

Then, narrowing down the choice to models that meet the price / quality ratio, consider your own preferences. For example, someone prefers exclusively Apple, while someone, on the contrary, categorically does not accept "apple" products.

And finally, when one or more options are chosen, once again carefully study their characteristics, read reviews on the Internet - and only then make a purchase.

Below are some guidelines for specific laptops, but this list is provided as an example only. The market is changing very quickly, and what is relevant at the time of writing may not be relevant at all next year.

A powerful desktop laptop for the photographer

Dell XPS 15 Touch, with 4-core Core i7, 4K display, 100% Adobe RGB, Nvidia 1050 graphics card, 1TB hard drive and up to 32GB RAM, as well as a wide range of ports including USB 3.0, HDMI, Thunderbolt and memory card slot.

All-in-One Laptop for Photographers

Recently updated Apple MacBook Pro 15 and MacBook Pro 13. They feature 6-core Intel Core i7 / i9 (for 15-inch model) and quad-core i5 / i7 (for 13-inch model), SSDs, IPS displays with TrueTone technology c coverage 25% wider than sRGB. And discrete graphics card Radeon Pro, Thunderbolt 3 ports with USB ‑ C, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

And finally, a useful link. This is a list of laptops with the best displays, updated about once a month, so the information is the most current.