The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

I'm a diehard PC fan. I know that Apple products are supreme for editing, etc., but HP puts food on our table, so HP is what we love!

I'm thinking of taking some photo editing and digital scrapbooking classes. One of the requirements is to "bring your laptop." Since I don't have one, I'm now in the market for one.

I'm mostly looking for feedback on sizes. The one I love is the little 11 - 12", which I know is way too small. But it's just so much fun to pick up. I'd love if I could get a notepad or Ipad that would let me download Adobe. I like the 14" a lot, as I like the ease of the size. However, the 15.6" screen is very appealing as I think about putting more than one photo on the screen at a time. The only reason I'm not wanting to get a 15" or larger is the weight of it. I just don't see a happy me as I'm lugging it around. My PC is just a little over a year old, and I'm very happy with it and probably will use it for most of my editing. The laptop would just be for classes and any other remote 'puting I wish to do. I'm thinking of putting it in the kitchen area for accessing the online recipes, too.

I'd love some feedback on this!

Well if you have another with a larger screen you can use for some serious editing, a smaller one that is easier to carry around would be okay. What I would advise is you check the requirements of that Adobe software you want because if you are looking at the big ones (ie. Photoshop) they require some power and a lot of memory. Add some other software you like and pretty soon you are on overload if the laptop isn't powerful enough.

I've been doing this awhile and although I really have no idea why, something like an 8 X 10 image, with 300 resolution used to only be about 20 MB if it was really heavy in layers etc. Now it's more like 100MB and even larger once you are working in a program like Photoshop. So do make sure whatever unit you get has lots of memory and lots of power so you don't get stuck in slow mode when you don't want to be.

The only other thing I would think you might want to consider is making sure you can get a wireless mouse on the thing. It's just too difficult working with images and getting any precision using the finger pad thingie (at least it is for me when I try it on a little notebook I have...I got a mouse after day 1 and it made things easier).

Whatever you decide, do see if the keyboard is comfortable if you will be using it much. The smaller screens often have mini keyboards that can take a lot of getting used to if you have to use them much.

JeanG

Yes, a wireless mouse is a must! I use my daughters laptop alot and I hate that stupid touch pad, would be impossible to work on photos with it. Also from what I understand if you want to work with photos and photo software you need at least an i5 processor or higher. I guess AMD processors are better with photos and videos and such but I don't know much about them or what of thiers is comparable to the intell processors. Good luck!! My daughter has a Dell laptop but with only a dual core processor so I wouldn't put my photoediting software on it, my husband had a Gateway laptop with an i5 processor which he just lost in a fire, replaced it with a Toshiba (heard good things about them) with an i5 processor and I must say the Toshiba is a much much better computer for less than $100 more. I have an external harddrive on my desktop so I don't worry much about harddrive space, I put all my photos on that. My mom has a HP laptop with a quad core processor and she does have a photo editing software program Corel Paint Shop Pro X3 which she uses, she did say it took abit to open up but once opened it works fine.

One thing you may want to also consider is an external hard drive, if you activate the software on both the laptop and PC you can move from one to another with ease. This allows me to work wherever I go.

I have a 17" laptop, and it's too big to be convenient. It basically stays in my office and is used like a desktop. However, if I was getting another one, I probably couldn't go smaller than a 15", because I really like the numeric keypad built in. I hate having to use the number keys that run along the top of the smaller keyboards, but that's just me. My other requirement would be as much memory as you can get. It makes multi-tasking much faster.

I have an external hard drive too, a Sea Gate 1.5 TB,it's a litle bigger than a mobile phone.a must for someone who travels and a great idea for back up on home PCs.

So what did you do? I am getting feedback as well. Very good info on this thread.

Get at least 4GB of RAM to run Windows 7.

A mouse is a good idea for general use. But, if your doing photo editing, check out the Wacom tablets. You can purchase one for $100 or less.

Bonz

I had 15" and 17" laptops, and they were never portable enough to carry arround. I used them as desktop replacement. I know longer have a laptop as my desktop computer, because it doesn't make sense to buy overspend for a laptop that's not portable to even move from room to room (for saving space I highly recommend an all in one computer).
For a portable laptop go with 13-14" if you really need a large screen, or go with 12"-13" if you need an even smaller portable laptop and you're comfortable using a smaller screen. In terms of specifications, go with the most expensive in your budget.
I know you're not asking about a brand, but I highly recommend a Toshiba. Overall they have top quality screens (much higher quality than a typical Dell, HP, Asus, etc.). If screen quality is of no importance then go with the best in your budget. Sony laptops also have great screens, but I think you get less for the buck. I had 3 Toshiba's and I was always very happy.
Of course I have to echo what others said, At least: 4GB RAM for Windows 7, External hard drive for storage, i5 processor.