IPS Laptops for Photo Editing. What are the affordable option?

Hi all,

I am buying for home my first screen for photo editing, the


on that I want to connect my external laptop to drive it. The problem though is that I want a laptop screen to be "okayish" for photo editing (if not IPS with good srgb support) and then "correct" as needed when I am back at home where I can connect to my external screen.

What would be a decent compromise on a laptop screen for "basic" photo editing on the go, before finalizing on my new calibrated monitor screen?

Regards

Alex

Asus has a new line of IPS laptops in 15" & 17", in their x51 series, that show mid 90% sRGB. I've not seen or used one in person though.

There SO many variables to your question. I use a 6 year old 17" laptop HP that has a good enough display that one could do some image work with. It also depends on the ambient lighting where you are working though as to how accurate the output files will be. I also use a newer 17" Asus (non IPS) that has mid 90% range sRGB that could also do the job. So 6 years apart they are both good enough for "some" work.

What is your workflow? What are your intended outputs? What are your input files? What sort of ambient light conditions will you be using the laptop in? What software are you using? What is your skill level? Jpegs only? What size laptop? What is your budget? Are you using a display calibration device & software for both?

Your desktop monitor is only an okay choice, so it shouldn't be difficult to find a laptop that is also good enough to work with, however there will still be compromises, especially if both are uncalibrated. Personally, again depending on your intended outputs, which you don't mention, I wouldn't do high res work the way you have mentioned. There will be colors & tones that you may just never see on the laptop or in certain ambient light working conditions & so when you edit without those & try to pass on a good file to your desktop monitor, who knows what you will end up with. For a small web version it may not matter, but for a higher quality print output, you could end up working with a severely crippled view/file. Again it depends on your intended outputs whether this will be good enough or not.

You should use the SEARCH function at the top of this page as this sort of question gets asked A LOT & has been answered many times, but as you will see with no definitive answer. But there is excellent info in the forum that will help educate you to making a better choice.

Cariboo said:

Asus has a new line of IPS laptops in 15" & 17", in their x51 series, that show mid 90% sRGB. I've not seen or used one in person though.

Click to expand...

I have the ASUS Zenbook UX51vz that you speak of and it is fantastic for image editing. Specs can be seen here...

The Asus is fantastic with the IPS screen and SSD's. The only thing I would caution you about is that it has proprietary SSD's. It has two 256GB SSD's and they are not standard SATA. This means that if you want to upgrade, you'll have to be creative (and there are M.2 adapters available...here). Also, the RAM is only upgradeable to 12gigs because four gigs are soldered in, and it only lets you replace the existing stick with an 8 gig stick.

The machine itself is light, fast and the screen is great for image editing. I use my Spyder to calibrate it without a problem and moving the screen doesn't mess with the image accuracy.

Looks like a great laptop, but the price reflects it. My thought, for what is worth. For this price, you could buy a Dell XPS 8700 desktop, fairly loaded, especially during a refurb sale and have a real powerhouse. You could also add a good IPS monitor, calibrator, and a moderate notebook for download and look at pics, etc but not editing except for deletes. I think you could have all for this price. Also, the 8700 would be upgradeable and repairable if that should be required at some point. Also, desktops seem to have a longer, trouble free life than notebooks, exceptions noted. Just my .02

Greg

There are new versions of the Asus ROG GL551 (15") & ROG G751 (17") that have IPS displays. I have a G750 with a TN display & it's display has mid 90% for sRGB & calibrated, I quite like it. I can work around the viewing angles, but find the correct ambient light even more important than a slight viewing angle shift. I also use RGB numbers via eye dropper or info palettes as sRGB value guides. I imagine that quality image editing in less than suitable ambient light, whether it is via an IPS display or not, could be severely compromised.

Thanks for that. How much did you pay for your laptop? I guess is at 1k price range?

Thanks for sharing I will have a look later on

Alex

Yes the 17" G750 a year ago was $1400 with taxes & shipping from Costco who double the warranty. Since then the G750 series may have dropped in price as the G751 series is out now.

In the last year I have added 2 SSD drives that I found at deep discounts. The only thing that I don't like about the Asus is that they advertise being upgradable to 32 GB of RAM, but do not say that the "user" cannot do that without voiding the warranty. Only an Asus authorized repair facility can do the upgrade, as 2 of the RAM slots can only be reached by taking apart the computer. I have 16 GB's of RAM which so far is enough, but otherwise it was not very upfront of Asus to advertise 32 GBs available as they did.