[TaureanBull]

Originally Posted by furioussphinx

I mostly will be getting a notebook from US now. Thank heavens!

Initially my mind was set on picking the Dell Studio 15 with i7-720QM, 6GB RAM, etc, but now I have better options. What do you guys say about the asus series? The G whatever.

I recently bought Lenovo G550 Laptop. Its been around four months old. Its been used extensively. The NVIDIA card is superb. The sound quality will disappoint you.

I fully agree with chevelle that the touch pad puts you off. Its sluggish. About heating never felt anything alarming. I am not aware of the *** in India.

As far as my particular piece is concerned I am satisfied. I really loved the bundled software which came along.

[HellwratH]

Ok, I am in the market for a new laptop and my needs are as follows:

Budget: 40k
Application: Photo editing (Photoshop CS4/CS5)
Screen Size: 11-13" is fine as long as it's a light laptop
Optical drive: Not a necessity.

So what do you guys suggest? I am looking at Alienware m11x and it has everything that I want but I don't know if it will allow me to run Photoshop CS4 smoothly. Any other laptops that you guys have in mind?

[d3mon]

As long as you get the m11x with a core i3/i5/i7, you should be good to go. Just avoid the cheapest model with the CULV processor (SU 7300) as the performance difference between the two is going to be pretty substantial in photoshop!

[furioussphinx]

Originally Posted by HellwratH

Ok, I am in the market for a new laptop and my needs are as follows:

Budget: 40k
Application: Photo editing (Photoshop CS4/CS5)
Screen Size: 11-13" is fine as long as it's a light laptop
Optical drive: Not a necessity.

So what do you guys suggest? I am looking at Alienware m11x and it has everything that I want but I don't know if it will allow me to run Photoshop CS4 smoothly. Any other laptops that you guys have in mind?

Well I doubt the m11x coming in that budget unless you plan to get it from abroad. If you want to go ultra portable, the price must be upped if you are looking for some flawless performance for image editing. I started out on a similar quest and now ive decided to pick a core-i7 with 6-8gigs of RAM and a decent graphic card. Definitely a good screen. Eyeing the dell xps and lenovo y560. Lets see what i zero onto.

[devarshi84]

I will advise against an Alienware. The new ones weight like a brick and performance levels have come down drastically. It seems as if over the years dell has killed Alienware that one WAS.

Look at an Asus machine or a Toshiba instead if there are any competing models available. I didnt used to advise Toshiba previously but the new models are pretty decent (at best).

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by d3mon

As long as you get the m11x with a core i3/i5/i7, you should be good to go. Just avoid the cheapest model with the CULV processor (SU 7300) as the performance difference between the two is going to be pretty substantial in photoshop!

Hmm, thanks for that. Will keep these details in mind.

Originally Posted by furioussphinx

Well I doubt the m11x coming in that budget unless you plan to get it from abroad. If you want to go ultra portable, the price must be upped if you are looking for some flawless performance for image editing. I started out on a similar quest and now ive decided to pick a core-i7 with 6-8gigs of RAM and a decent graphic card. Definitely a good screen. Eyeing the dell xps and lenovo y560. Lets see what i zero onto.

Well, I don't know if I'd require 6-8 gigs of RAM, 4 gigs for me should be more than enough.

Originally Posted by devarshi84

I will advise against an Alienware. The new ones weight like a brick and performance levels have come down drastically. It seems as if over the years dell has killed Alienware that one WAS.

Look at an Asus machine or a Toshiba instead if there are any competing models available. I didnt used to advise Toshiba previously but the new models are pretty decent (at best).

Thanks, I didn't know much about alienware till yesterday and I fell in love with it as I saw it.

I have narrowed down to some more models after reading up stuff on tech enclave,

(i) Alienware m11x
(ii) Acer 5740g (it's heavy and has a 15" screen)
(iii) Sony EB series
(iv) Dell v13
(v) Go all out and get a macbook (may be a pro) 13". Supposed to be the best for image editing purposes.

[trance_nut]

If your requirement is for serious image editing, then a laptop does'nt make much sense, mainly because of the panel type used. Most laptops (including the latest MBP) use TN panels, where the horizontal viewing angles are decent, but the vertical angles are pretty bad. So every time you open the lid of the laptop, you would have to adjust your vision axis to get accurate colors.
My suggestion would be to invest in a decently spec'ed laptop, and a good screen (if short on budget, get a 17 inch CRT and calibrate it) else get an IPS LCD panel.

That said, of all the laptops listed below, the MBP is certainly the best bet for mobile image editing purposes

Originally Posted by HellwratH

I have narrowed down to some more models after reading up stuff on tech enclave,

(i) Alienware m11x
(ii) Acer 5740g (it's heavy and has a 15" screen)
(iii) Sony EB series
(iv) Dell v13
(v) Go all out and get a macbook (may be a pro) 13". Supposed to be the best for image editing purposes.

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by trance_nut

If your requirement is for serious image editing, then a laptop does'nt make much sense, mainly because of the panel type used. Most laptops (including the latest MBP) use TN panels, where the horizontal viewing angles are decent, but the vertical angles are pretty bad. So every time you open the lid of the laptop, you would have to adjust your vision axis to get accurate colors.
My suggestion would be to invest in a decently spec'ed laptop, and a good screen (if short on budget, get a 17 inch CRT and calibrate it) else get an IPS LCD panel.

That said, of all the laptops listed below, the MBP is certainly the best bet for mobile image editing purposes

I agree, but the problem is portability. I would have bought an iMac if not for portability. I don't know when I'll have to move to the US, so buying a desktop really does not make much sense to me. Instead, I could invest in a mac mini, a decent LCD monitor and when I move, sell the lcd off and go. And this setup might come well within my budget.

EDIT: The source for my m11x pricing is here,
http://compareindia.in.com/specifica...are-m11x/88182

Don't know if it's right as I called up the Dell customer care and he quoted about 66k. WTH, I might as well buy an MBP instead of an m11x.

[EssYouWe]

@Hellwrath

I am also looking for more reviews about the Acer 5470G. Do you have any links?

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by EssYouWe

@Hellwrath

I am also looking for more reviews about the Acer 5470G. Do you have any links?

Umm, tried a lot of links at the weekend (and I am happy I did). I realized that Acer 5740 has only 60% of the color gamut and that's no good for me. You can check Techenclave to get a lot of info about 5740G.

Finally, I have decided to go with the Apple Macbook (previous version). I am getting it brand new for about 50.9k. The specs are 2.26ghz c2d, 2gb DDR3 (will be upgrading to 4gb), Nvidia 9400M, backlit LED and multi touch trackpad. The reason I decided to go for this was well MBP is way out of my budget. Macbook is good for image editing and colors do matter to me. I'll upgrade it with 4gb ram, so the performance should be good (heck, I was happy with a lappie with 1gb ram and running windows! but had to give it away) as I do not edit photographs with 50 layers (max is about 10 for me) and don't use liquify and other such filters. And moreover, I have always wanted a mac, so I have a reason to buy one now .

[umvarma]

Originally Posted by EssYouWe

@Hellwrath

I am also looking for more reviews about the Acer 5470G. Do you have any links?

Are you referring to Acer 5740G? I have no review links, but can share my experience with you. I purchased a Acer 5740G (with Mobility Radeon 5650 graphics) three months back, and pretty happy with its performance. The graphics performance is very good for my engineering visualization applications so photo editing performance should not be an issue. I purchased it for 44K.

The retailers were selling two versions of 5750G one with Mobility Radeon 5650 (1GB VRAM) and other with Radeon 5470 (1GB VRAM). The 5470 graphics card is useless. If you are going for Acer 5740G, specifically check for the 5650 graphics.

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by umvarma

Are you referring to Acer 5740G? I have no review links, but can share my experience with you. I purchased a Acer 5740G (with Mobility Radeon 5650 graphics) three months back, and pretty happy with its performance. The graphics performance is very good for my engineering visualization applications so photo editing performance should not be an issue. I purchased it for 44K.

The retailers were selling two versions of 5750G one with Mobility Radeon 5650 (1GB VRAM) and other with Radeon 5470 (1GB VRAM). The 5470 graphics card is useless. If you are going for Acer 5740G, specifically check for the 5650 graphics.

The photo editing performance will be good, but the problem is with color reproduction/management. It supports only 60% color gamut and that's a major negative (And more so, if you will be printing those images. ) if you're looking at this laptop for image editing.

[umvarma]

Originally Posted by HellwratH

The photo editing performance will be good, but the problem is with color reproduction/management. It supports only 60% color gamut and that's a major negative (And more so, if you will be printing those images. ) if you're looking at this laptop for image editing.

Hi HellwratH!

I posted it before your message, it appeared late because I am a newbie. I never did photo-editing and knows nothing about what is important for photo-editing. I wouldn't have posted it if I had seen your message before writing.

I generally use the notebookcheck.net for laptop or graphics card reviews. This is what their review says.

Still, the display would suffice business users. However, professionals will be left yearning for more as this display is not designed for picture editing. The small colour range is another contra of the display.

The full review can be accessed from the following link.

Notebookcheck: Review Acer TravelMate 5740G-524G50MN Notebook

[tsk1979]

I have an inspiron E1505.
Bought it over 3 years back.
It serves my needs mostly fine. I can process RAW images, surf the net etc.,
But with the aquisition of Panasonic FZ-35, I realize that HD video playback sometimes stutters, and editing(even minor) is a big task.

So whats the bottlenect for HD video playback and editing.
If I buy a new laptop what should I consider.

Firstly I am confused about processors
There is i3 i5 and i7. I understand the i7 is for hardcore performance freaks.
So for me its i3 or i5.
Whats the difference.

Secondly what matters for video's graphics card or processor. should I save money get an i3 based laptop and look for a 1GB ATi Graphics card(instead of inbuilt intel graphics).

Most of the new lappies have 4GB of ram and windows 7. I think that should be enough.
Only confusion is Faster processor(i5 vs i3) or a graphics card?

Last but not the least, is it true that with an Acer laptop I will get the same config for 40K what I get in Dell for 60K.

[HellwratH]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Last but not the least, is it true that with an Acer laptop I will get the same config for 40K what I get in Dell for 60K.

Don't know about the rest of the stuff, but the above statement is true as per my research. I have heard a lot of people complaining about Acer's build quality, but the funny part was that most of them never owned one. You might also be interested in Dell Inspiron 14R/15R or Sony EB14 etc. They'll fit in your budget with about +-5k.