Video Editing Ultrabook

[Irish_Videographer]

Hi folks, been searching the site and checking out videos but typically I'm more than a little confused.

 

Would really appreciate any advice.

 

Looking for a reasonably lightweight (easily transportable internationally along with other gear), powerful laptop for heavy 4K / video 6K editing (footage from Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4K/6K, Sony FS7, and likely Sony FX9 soon too), 2 or 3 cam shoots. Laptop would be for editing on / near location for corporate shoots - so LOTS of travel. Needs to be reasonably sturdy, but most importantly light enough to carry in a camera bag.

 

I'm mac / PC agnostic, but I edit primarily in Resolve, so I'm guessing a decent GPU is needed (haven't bought or spec'd a laptop in quite a while). My current editing desktop is here, similar performance would be ideal - https://pcpartpicker.com/user/dbspin/saved/#view=XGgGGX

 

Corporate job are paying for it, not sure exactly what their budget is likely to be but likely higher range - $ 2,500 up.

Ideally with 4K display.

[SenKa]

Gigabyte Aero 15 with OLED 4k display?

[5x5]

You're probably going to want a high end display so perhaps the Acer ConceptD7 or MSI PS65. Maybe the Asus ZenBook Pro UX580

[Streetguru]

14 minutes ago, Irish_Videographer said:

 

Dell XPS 15

But does it have to be a laptop?

[Streetguru]

11 minutes ago, SenKa said:

Gigabyte Aero 15 with OLED 4k display?

Having at least 99-100% sRGB or color accuracy in general is going to be more important, Given the screen size, 4k is rather pointless.

[Irish_Videographer]

1 minute ago, Streetguru said:

Dell XPS 15

But does it have to be a laptop?

It has to be a laptop - this is specifically for on location edits.

[Irish_Videographer]

Just now, Streetguru said:

Having at least 99-100% sRGB or color accuracy in general is going to be more important, Given the screen size, 4k is rather pointless.

Final production edits will be in 4K, I've only edited 4K at native, but I'm assuming it'd be hard to see soft focus etc if screen wasn't 4K, no?

[Streetguru]

11 minutes ago, Irish_Videographer said:

Final production edits will be in 4K, I've only edited 4K at native, but I'm assuming it'd be hard to see soft focus etc if screen wasn't 4K, no?

Didn't Linus just review one of these? Might be worth looking into if the color accuracy is decent.

Otherwise does it really have to be an ultra book? Because like, you're asking a lot out of an ultra book type device, when a portable desktop machine is going to have proper cooling and a more proper GPU like a 1660/ti or something and a 6 core 12 thread CPU.

Also will you be rendering on the laptop? Because that's another big sticking point. Like editing might be fine, but rendering on a lower power machine may still take a long while.

What software is it running?

https://www.amazon.com/Eviciv-Computer-External-Raspberry-BeagleBone/dp/B07MHK6MR4/ref=asc_df_B07MHK6MR4/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241890262974&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7987603946738174739&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031291&hvtargid=pla-828419337352&psc=1

[Irish_Videographer]

10 hours ago, Streetguru said:

Didn't Linus just review one of these? Might be worth looking into if the color accuracy is decent.

Otherwise does it really have to be an ultra book? Because like, you're asking a lot out of an ultra book type device, when a portable desktop machine is going to have proper cooling and a more proper GPU like a 1660/ti or something and a 6 core 12 thread CPU.

Also will you be rendering on the laptop? Because that's another big sticking point. Like editing might be fine, but rendering on a lower power machine may still take a long while.

What software is it running?

https://www.amazon.com/Eviciv-Computer-External-Raspberry-BeagleBone/dp/B07MHK6MR4/ref=asc_df_B07MHK6MR4/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=241890262974&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=7987603946738174739&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9031291&hvtargid=pla-828419337352&psc=1

Heya, thanks for taking the time to ask.

 

So yeah - I'll be travelling internationally heavily, with this laptop and camera equipment. So it has to be compact and light. And I'll be doing final renders on it. A portable desktop is likely to be waaaay to bulky to shlep around tradeshows etc, let alone airports (in addition to all my camera gear).

 

As mentioned above, I do quick turnaround corporate shoots / edits, and recently I've been doing a lot of work in different countries, so needs to be something I can bring with me. Fastest machine possible in a compact form.

 

Primarily I edit on DaVinci Resolve, which is GPU hungry.

 

I feel like I saw a LTT video recently which was looking at just this kind of thing - maybe a play off between a bunch of different ultrabooks, but I can't find it for the life of me.

 

[Irish_Videographer]

11 hours ago, 5x5 said:

You're probably going to want a high end display so perhaps the Acer ConceptD7 or MSI PS65. Maybe the Asus ZenBook Pro UX580

Amazing, thanks for the detailed recommendations. Will check those all out.

[5x5]

1 hour ago, Irish_Videographer said:

Amazing, thanks for the detailed recommendations. Will check those all out.

No peoblem. Sorry if I was a bit short on ideas but most ultrabooks in the price range such as the XPS 15 have massive thermal and power issues so very few laptops can actually perform decently

[Streetguru]

8 hours ago, Irish_Videographer said:

Amazing, thanks for the detailed recommendations. Will check those all out.

I assume you aren't going to render without a power source, What about an external graphics card? Because then your laptop doesn't need to cram in a powerful GPU.

Otherwise you can get some really solid looking stuff in the thin 17" range. Like the MSI P75 line, dunno about it's build quality though.

https://www.newegg.com/p/1TS-0016-00BX1

Or the Lenovo P series is built to be a mobile workstation, there's also like the X1 carbon.
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/c/thinkpadp

[Irish_Videographer]

16 hours ago, Streetguru said:

I assume you aren't going to render without a power source, What about an external graphics card? Because then your laptop doesn't need to cram in a powerful GPU.

Otherwise you can get some really solid looking stuff in the thin 17" range. Like the MSI P75 line, dunno about it's build quality though.

https://www.newegg.com/p/1TS-0016-00BX1

Or the Lenovo P series is built to be a mobile workstation, there's also like the X1 carbon.
https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/c/thinkpadp

Just to be clear - when I'm talking about mobile, I mean everything - camera gear, laptop etc needs to go in  a backpack and regularly go through airports. I will be able to plugin, but carrying around an EGPU is not on the cards.

[Irish_Videographer]

23 hours ago, 5x5 said:

No peoblem. Sorry if I was a bit short on ideas but most ultrabooks in the price range such as the XPS 15 have massive thermal and power issues so very few laptops can actually perform decently

No price range, as I mentioned above 2,500 and UP is fine.

[5x5]

3 minutes ago, Irish_Videographer said:

No price range, as I mentioned above 2,500 and UP is fine.

Well, what about an HP ZBook with a DreamColor display or a ThinkPad P53 with a 4K one?