Looking for Photoshop Laptop

[i_think_im_lost]

Hi Folks,

 

I'm looking for a new laptop for a loved one, and I'm hoping I could get a bit of help in my search.

 

Usage:

• Website Design/Development
• Photoshop
• Photo Editing
• Too many Chrome tabs for the average sane individual

Requirements

• A 15 inch display
• A good (color accurate) display would be really nice considering the type of work involved.
• Weight is a factor since this will be a machine which will be traveled with.

I'm thinking based off the workflows described a graphics card may not be necessary. I read that photoshop is mostly CPU hungry.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I'm also thinking 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM.  However I'm a lot more flexible here as I get the feeling I can buy less from the manufacturer and just swap out these components myself and then resell the ones shipped to me for a few bux back.  (How is this not a common practice?)

 

Budget: ~1,000 USD.  (Flexible, please advice what my options may be.)

[Imbadatnames]

28 minutes ago, i_think_im_lost said:

Hi Folks,

 

I'm looking for a new laptop for a loved one, and I'm hoping I could get a bit of help in my search.

 

Usage:

• Website Design/Development
• Photoshop
• Photo Editing
• Too many Chrome tabs for the average sane individual

Requirements

• A 15 inch display
• A good (color accurate) display would be really nice considering the type of work involved.
• Weight is a factor since this will be a machine which will be traveled with.

I'm thinking based off the workflows described a graphics card may not be necessary. I read that photoshop is mostly CPU hungry.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I'm also thinking 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM.  However I'm a lot more flexible here as I get the feeling I can buy less from the manufacturer and just swap out these components myself and then resell the ones shipped to me for a few bux back.  (How is this not a common practice?)

 

Budget: ~1,000 USD.  (Flexible, please advice what my options may be.)

Yeah you can’t really have swappable components with everything else you want. Was gonna say get an M1 MacBook you should be able to get the 16GB model on sale somewhere for around 1K 

[Philipp95]

Check out ASUS's ZenBook 14 OLED UM3402 with the Ryzen 5825U and 16Gb Ram. There is a 1Tb version with touchscreen and pen support and a 512Gb version without touchscreen. I know you asked for a 15" screen specifically but 14" isn't that far off. There is also an Intel 12th gen version called UX3402 with either i5 1240P or i7 1260P these have Thunderbolt 4. 

 

Reasons I would consider the AMD version (I own one for myself by the way):

 

- Color accurate 2.8K OLED screen, pre calibrated and Pantone-Validated with 102% DCI-P3, 133% sRGB and 90% Adobe-RGB color gammuts. Delta E < 2 and 90Hz Refresh rate. A truly impressive Panel for creative work.

 

- very good battery life: around 10Hrs with Brightness on 50% 60Hz Refresh rate and Balanced Performance setting. Tested with mix of combined Photoshop tasks, browsing, libreoffice and Netflix. 

 

- only 1.7cm thick and 1.38Kg in weight. Elegant design in Black with very subtle branding, Carrying Pouch included 

 

- decent IO if you don't need Thunderbolt:

1x USB Type A 10Gb/s 

2x USB Type C 10Gb/s with Displayport 1.4 and Power-delivery. (Most thunderbolt docks work with these ports too but keep in mind the lower bandwidth)

Micro SD Reader 

HDMI 2.0

Headphone-Microphone Combo jack.

 

-RAM is Fast but soldered 

-SSD is standard 2280 M.2 but only PCIe gen3 

-Wifi module is 811.2AX Wifi 6E and upgradable (I would consider changing it for an Intel module if you want to use Linux)

- excellent Keyboard with 3-stage white Backlight  and 1.4mm travel 

- Touchpad large and with integrated num-pad

 

I use the Adobe Creative cloud and especially Photoshop and Lightroom quiet a lot and for me the performance is totally adequate. (Hobby Photographer) 

 

Drawbacks: 

-Graphics performance is not as good as Intel Model or Ryzen 6000

- no Thunderbolt

- fan noise clearly audible in performance mode (plugged into Wallpower)

- glossy screen even on non touchscreen model

 

Price: I can only tell Prices for Germany but ASUS asks for 1199€ MSRP on they're website for the non touchscreen 16Gb Ram 512Gb SSD Model. There was a deal on NBB(Notebooksbilliger.de) for 999€ and I bought a WD Red SN700 1TB M.2 for the price difference to replace the Intel 760p 512Gb originally installed. 

 

I've seen videos of reviewers in the Asian marked that had an USB type A to Gigabit Ethernet adapter included. In Germany that is not the case. Don't know about other markets. 

 

overall I really like this machine and it fits my needs perfectly. 

 

if you don't need the extra 1" I would highly recommend checking it out.

 

best regards, 

 

Philipp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Roswell]

6 hours ago, Philipp95 said:

Color accurate 2.8K OLED screen

Yeah, for like 10 days until element degradation throws it wildly out of spec. Not to mention the awful uniformity issues inherent with OLED.

 

OLED on paper looks great for work requiring color accuracy. In practice, it's extremely poor. Nobody in the professional space uses it.

[i_think_im_lost]

On 10/8/2022 at 6:00 PM, Imbadatnames said:

Yeah you can’t really have swappable components with everything else you want. Was gonna say get an M1 MacBook you should be able to get the 16GB model on sale somewhere for around 1K 

I totally agree, the MacBook is a great call, but unfortunately we're a hardcore PC family, and relearning a new OS with all the tools involved is not as easy as we would like it to be.

[i_think_im_lost]

On 10/9/2022 at 8:20 AM, Philipp95 said:

Check out ASUS's ZenBook 14 OLED UM3402 with the Ryzen 5825U and 16Gb Ram. There is a 1Tb version with touchscreen and pen support and a 512Gb version without touchscreen. I know you asked for a 15" screen specifically but 14" isn't that far off. There is also an Intel 12th gen version called UX3402 with either i5 1240P or i7 1260P these have Thunderbolt 4. 

 

Reasons I would consider the AMD version (I own one for myself by the way):

 

- Color accurate 2.8K OLED screen, pre calibrated and Pantone-Validated with 102% DCI-P3, 133% sRGB and 90% Adobe-RGB color gammuts. Delta E < 2 and 90Hz Refresh rate. A truly impressive Panel for creative work.

 

- very good battery life: around 10Hrs with Brightness on 50% 60Hz Refresh rate and Balanced Performance setting. Tested with mix of combined Photoshop tasks, browsing, libreoffice and Netflix. 

 

- only 1.7cm thick and 1.38Kg in weight. Elegant design in Black with very subtle branding, Carrying Pouch included 

 

- decent IO if you don't need Thunderbolt:

1x USB Type A 10Gb/s 

2x USB Type C 10Gb/s with Displayport 1.4 and Power-delivery. (Most thunderbolt docks work with these ports too but keep in mind the lower bandwidth)

Micro SD Reader 

HDMI 2.0

Headphone-Microphone Combo jack.

 

-RAM is Fast but soldered 

-SSD is standard 2280 M.2 but only PCIe gen3 

-Wifi module is 811.2AX Wifi 6E and upgradable (I would consider changing it for an Intel module if you want to use Linux)

- excellent Keyboard with 3-stage white Backlight  and 1.4mm travel 

- Touchpad large and with integrated num-pad

 

I use the Adobe Creative cloud and especially Photoshop and Lightroom quiet a lot and for me the performance is totally adequate. (Hobby Photographer) 

 

Drawbacks: 

-Graphics performance is not as good as Intel Model or Ryzen 6000

- no Thunderbolt

- fan noise clearly audible in performance mode (plugged into Wallpower)

- glossy screen even on non touchscreen model

 

Price: I can only tell Prices for Germany but ASUS asks for 1199€ MSRP on they're website for the non touchscreen 16Gb Ram 512Gb SSD Model. There was a deal on NBB(Notebooksbilliger.de) for 999€ and I bought a WD Red SN700 1TB M.2 for the price difference to replace the Intel 760p 512Gb originally installed. 

 

I've seen videos of reviewers in the Asian marked that had an USB type A to Gigabit Ethernet adapter included. In Germany that is not the case. Don't know about other markets. 

 

overall I really like this machine and it fits my needs perfectly. 

 

if you don't need the extra 1" I would highly recommend checking it out.

 

best regards, 

 

Philipp

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took a look in the US, and the laptop seems to be about the right price.  The 1' is defiantly not a deal breaker, the size was mostly a guideline.  have you noticed any truth the the below comment about the screen?

19 hours ago, Roswell said:

Yeah, for like 10 days until element degradation throws it wildly out of spec. Not to mention the awful uniformity issues inherent with OLED.

 

OLED on paper looks great for work requiring color accuracy. In practice, it's extremely poor. Nobody in the professional space uses it.

[Philipp95]

On 10/10/2022 at 4:30 PM, i_think_im_lost said:

I took a look in the US, and the laptop seems to be about the right price.  The 1' is defiantly not a deal breaker, the size was mostly a guideline.  have you noticed any truth the the below comment about the screen?

No I haven't! I have access to a screen calibration tool at my wife's work and it's still color accurate with the original provided profile from Asus which is selected in the display settings by default. I use this machine since May 23. 2022. I never used it in HDR mode which is actually an option with this screen it provides around 400nits max brightness without HDR and a peak of around 620nits with HDR on. I don't know in which way HDR would affect color degradation of the OLED Screen because of the higher brightness. Only thing I know is that it's an quality panel from Samsung which looks fantastic for YouTube, Netflix, Photoshop and More. To be clear I'm not an OLED expert and I only share my personal experience. But my honest opinion is that if you don't need it for mission critical work or for anything that needs 100% color correctness (e.g. for client work in the Fashion industry) it's a really compelling option. Especially because of its portability. There are lighter or thinner laptops but they either lack in power, I/O selection or battery life. There are reviews of the Intel Model UX3402 which is the twin with Intel CPU and every reviewer lists the screen as the biggest pro. 

 

In the end you have to decide which you think is the right laptop but so far not many people replied... I would be interested which laptop the person who commented on my post would recommend......