Laptop for photographers using Photoshop

[marisabr]

HI,
My name is Marisa and I would like to know which is the best laptop for working with photoshop (photos). Is it true that the Apple Laptop is the best in this case? Or a Dell Inspiron1520 will do it?
Thanks
Marisa

[JimyTheAssassin]

I think "best" depends on your point of view, and situation. Do you already own photoshop for PC, or OS X? I can't think of an exact reason why either would be superior aside from what Operating system you're most comfortable with. I know many photographers/designers who use mac (as do I), but I believe the main concerns should be

Adequate Ram - 2 gigs or more prefered
decent processor speed
Large screen which can be Color Calibrated correctly.
Also, if you're involved in professional editing, you'll probably want a high quality external lcd/crt, should you purchase a notebook.

[xJ9x]

Hi, welcome to NBR forums!

I heard people with Macs have good photo editing experiences with their software (I could be wrong though)

Photoshop is a resource hog so any laptop with a good amount of memory/moderately fast CPU should suffice.

[JimyTheAssassin]

IMHO, the shortcuts in OS X, with photoshop are easier for me to remember. I find myself constantly using them, instead of using my mouse. I enjoy OS X far more than I did WinXP. Perhaps the greatest thing that adds to my productivity is Expose' on OS X, which allows me to tile every image instantly across my monitor, and quickly navigate to it, all within one keyboard shortcut, and one mouse click.

[SaferSephiroth]

HI,
My name is Marisa and I would like to know which is the best laptop for working with photoshop (photos). Is it true that the Apple Laptop is the best in this case? Or a Dell Inspiron1520 will do it?
Thanks
Marisa

Both Apple's laptops and the Dell would be quite capable of running Photoshop when properly equipped.

[Talmud]

i really prefer a mac for these things. i think it runs much smoother.

[beefman]

For Photoshop, I have to agree with the Mac. If you have the budget; get a newer Macbook Pro (Santa Rosa, not just Core 2 Duo), stuff it full of RAM, get the 7200RPM hard drive, offset the cost by going for the 2.2Ghz version vs. the 2.4 as the speed differential isn't that great and Photoshop doesn't stress the video subsystem in ways that would necessitate the better video in the faster model. Or, if you need more budget headroom, get the refurbished 2.2 and buy the RAM aftermarket. That's only $1700.

I've used Photoshop on MacOS X (MacBook Pro 2.16, the original) and various machines on WinXP. Photoshop is simply more stable and works better with OS X. You also have access to the full 4GB RAM as opposed to XP's 3GB limitation.

[marisabr]

Thanks for all answers... I decided that I will purchase a Dell 1520, which I am more familiar. I am not a professional, but I´m starting to think about. Which configuration would you recommend for the Dell?
I appreciate!
Marisa

[JimyTheAssassin]

I think you might get a better value with the Dell Vostro
Either way, as above, 2 gigs ram is nice, but 1 gig minimum. Get a high resolution screen 1400 x 900 or 1680 x 1050. the 160gb Hard drive is nice. Consider windows XP. I have heard a boat load of horror stories about Vista, and some with out issue. Still XP is definitely solid. The graphics card does not need to be special, but if you want you can upgrade that too.

On another note if you're still new with editing, Mac does come with a very nice program, iPhoto. I would go with the mac from my own sensiblity, but unless you could afford a Macbook Pro, I would find the Macbook screen too small for any serious or hobby editing tasks. So, the Dells larger screen does make more sense if you can't make the Mac investment