Laptop for uni, design & work

[celixarts]

Hi guys,

First of all I want to mention that I'm from Australia, so probably have a smaller  range of laptops are compared to your US and Canadian residents.

Anyway, I'm looking for a laptop that's compact enough for me to take to uni (looking at 13" laptops here) and something that I can use to do lighter programming as well as photoshop & illustrator (preferably running both of these at same time). 

I was told to look into the xps 15 as the 13" model doesnt have 16gb of ram, and it is 8gb soldered on. A friend also suggested a surface pro 4, but i'm unsure what sort of configuration of specs i'd be looking at for my needs.

I was also suggested a macbook pro retina as the screen is really good for design and the 2016 model won't be coming out anytime soon. 

If you guys could give me a couple options, something that is able to do what i need it to that would be awesome  Also if anyone could mention whether 16gb of ram is really needed for what i do.

I run a i7 4790k and 16gb at home and that seems to work out fine for me.

 

I'm looking at spending around 2400 aud MAX but i'm a bit flexible and a cheaper solution would be great

Thanks!

[sissj]

3 minutes ago, celixarts said:

Hi guys,

First of all I want to mention that I'm from Australia, so probably have a smaller  range of laptops are compared to your US and Canadian residents.

Anyway, I'm looking for a laptop that's compact enough for me to take to uni (looking at 13" laptops here) and something that I can use to do lighter programming as well as photoshop & illustrator. 

I was told to look into the xps 15 as the 13" model doesnt have 16gb of ram, and it is 8gb soldered on. A friend also suggested a surface pro 4, but i'm unsure what sort of configuration of specs i'd be looking at for my needs.

I was also suggested a macbook pro retina as the screen is really good for design and the 2016 model won't be coming out anytime soon. 

If you guys could give me a couple options, something that is able to do what i need it to that would be awesome  Also if anyone could mention whether 16gb of ram is really needed for what i do.

I run a i7 4790k and 16gb at home and that seems to work out fine for me.

 

Thanks!

8 gigs of RAM will work fine for your needs.

[celixarts]

3 hours ago, sissj said:

8 gigs of RAM will work fine for your needs.

 

Okay thanks! What laptop do you think would suit my needs i mentioned in original post?

[sissj]

8 hours ago, celixarts said:

 

Okay thanks! What laptop do you think would suit my needs i mentioned in original post?

The Dell XPS 13 is a good laptop but if you want a dedicated GPU and a more upgradable laptop you should look at the XPS 15.