Nits

[Box Cam Drew]

I've just purchased a Dell laptop specifically so I can use Lightroom Classic. All the specs are perfect, but I'm getting hung up on nits or perhaps more specifically after reading the following review:

"High-end mobile workstation screens offer 8-bit or sometimes 10-bit color, but the Precision 3551's touch screen is a 6-bit panel that covers an unremarkable 45% of the Adobe RGB gamut, so colors don't dazzle—they're bland and washed out instead of vivid. Contrast is decent, and white backgrounds aren't too dingy, but brightness is only fair and fine details not particularly sharp. It's a passable economy display, but it won't satisfy demanding graphics professionals." (Though my model is not touch screen).

My question really is this review over the top bad or should I look to take advantage of a 30 day returns policy??

 

[tkbslc]

45% color coverage is pretty bad for color work. I would look for 99% SRGB coverage.

 

[AcquiredTaste]

I've just purchased a Dell laptop specifically so I can use Lightroom Classic. All the specs are perfect, but I'm getting hung up on nits or perhaps more specifically after reading the following review:

"High-end mobile workstation screens offer 8-bit or sometimes 10-bit color, but the Precision 3551's touch screen is a 6-bit panel that covers an unremarkable 45% of the Adobe RGB gamut, so colors don't dazzle—they're bland and washed out instead of vivid. Contrast is decent, and white backgrounds aren't too dingy, but brightness is only fair and fine details not particularly sharp. It's a passable economy display, but it won't satisfy demanding graphics professionals." (Though my model is not touch screen).

My question really is this review over the top bad or should I look to take advantage of a 30 day returns policy??

It depends. Do you care about color accuracy? Are you using it professionally? If the answer to either question is yes, skip the laptop entirely and get a calibrated desktop. Or, alternatively, plan to buy a standalone monitor and forget any concern for your laptop screen.

 

[Rambow]

If you need to ask the question, you already know the answer.

The vast majority of laptop screens are like that, only pros need higher grade monitors for their work.

If you are just some guy who takes pictures and likes to tinker with photoshop in your free time you don't need a high quality display for that.

I mean sure, if money is no object drop $3000 on a workstation, otherwise the average $650 laptop will achieve the same result.

Last but not least, maybe you have the best screen money can buy, but you lack photoshop skills, so what's the point?

"A man's got to know his limits".

 

[Bodkins Best Photography]

I've just purchased a Dell laptop specifically so I can use Lightroom Classic.

"High-end mobile workstation screens offer 8-bit or sometimes 10-bit color, but the Precision 3551's touch screen is a 6-bit panel that covers an unremarkable 45% of the Adobe RGB gamut, so colors don't dazzle—they're bland and washed out instead of vivid. Contrast is decent, and white backgrounds aren't too dingy, but brightness is only fair and fine details not particularly sharp.

That's like buying a black and white television to watch color TV in HD.

 

[Wayne Larmon]

Here are plots of the color gamuts of two of my laptops. First, here is the gamut of a $600 Lenovo laptop


Lenovo Flex 14

Interactive rotatable 3D version of the gamut plot

Note how small the color gamut of the monitor is compared to sRGB (the white wireframe.

Now here is the gamut plot of my $1,600 Lenovo Yoga 920:


Lenovo Yoga 920

Interactive rotatable 3D version of the gamut plot

See how the color gamut is much larger. The white wireframe is the sRGB gamut, but now the gamut of the monitor is larger than sRGB.

Yes the sizes of the color gamuts make a difference. Colors on the Flex 14 look washed out and muted. This is my travel computer and I only use it to make backups of my SD cards and to do a quick check for focus and framing.

Colors on the 920 look much more vibrant.

I don't think you need to go all the way to $1,600 to get a larger gamut. The reasons why the 920 is more expensive are because of a more powerful CPU, more RAM, and because it is 4K. As others have suggested, you can get an external desktop monitor that covers sRGB for a lot less money. You probably won't be doing exacting color editing out in the field anyway.

More gamut plots. I like collecting gamut plots.

Wayne

 

[Box Cam Drew]

Thanks so much for your reply. On further investigation this laptop has a 72% colour gamit, a refresh rate of 60hz, the nits is 300 and it has a Nvidia Quotro graphic card (for enhanced media quality). The Full HD display is 1920 x 1080

So my question: is this good enough for working with colours on Lightroom Classic? Or am I below par here, so to speak, and as another reply to my post suggested (using as an analogy) will it be like working in black and white?

(Thanks to all who replied, and I'm glad I found this forum, I'm looking forward to partaking in the competitions)

 

[Smaug01]

...

So my question: is this good enough for working with colours on Lightroom Classic? Or am I below par here, so to speak, and as another reply to my post suggested (using as an analogy) will it be like working in black and white?

No, not good enough.

Take Biggs' advice and either return it to get a proper rig or add a separate monitor that you'll use for critical work.

 

[tbcass]

Thanks so much for your reply. On further investigation this laptop has a 72% colour gamit, a refresh rate of 60hz, the nits is 300 and it has a Nvidia Quotro graphic card (for enhanced media quality). The Full HD display is 1920 x 1080

So my question: is this good enough for working with colours on Lightroom Classic? Or am I below par here, so to speak, and as another reply to my post suggested (using as an analogy) will it be like working in black and white?

(Thanks to all who replied, and I'm glad I found this forum, I'm looking forward to partaking in the competitions)

Buy a high-quality monitor and plug it into your laptop. I do this myself. My laptop is a higher-end model than yours with a 17" screen but for me, a 24" monitor is the smallest I find acceptable. The dual monitor setup is very useful for when you have more than one window open.

 

[Doug J]

No, not good enough and the display size is too small for comfortable editing. The laptop will be able to do the editing, as suggested buy an external monitor with better specs with a larger display area.

I've used external monitors with several laptops over the years and it makes editing and viewing much better. While you're at it, I suggest an external keyboard and mouse.


Cheers,
Doug

 

[Bob]

There’s a ton of info on this on the web. If that laptop truly has an underperforming display, then return it. Otherwise, what you see on your laptop is not what you’ll get when printing or posting to the web. Skin tones may be quite unpredictable.

I plug my laptop into a desktop monitor, which I went through a lot of research to make sure it had a very good gamut.

 

[bastibe]

Note that most laptop monitors change brightness automatically, and sometimes even adjust color temperature. Both are unacceptable for critical color work.

That said, editing room lighting plays a big role, too in "calibrating" your vision. So there's really no way around a dedicated external display in a dedicated working space with consistent lighting.

On the other hand, most people consume pictures on cell phones in arbitrary lighting, so maybe none of this matters.

 

[Bob]

Here's an easy way to check your display...

https://www.wide-gamut.com/test

 

[Box Cam Drew]

I think a separate monitor will be the way I go. I've decided I want to keep the laptop anyhow. I really appreciate the advice and thanks everyone for taking the time and trouble to reply.

 

[RedFox88]

You post didn’t mention what your issue is with nits of this laptop. Nits is brightness.

 

[Box Cam Drew]

Hi, I was concerned that the (amount of??) nits was on the low side to effectively display Lightroom editing. Apparently this laptop has 300 nits.

However the general consensus is that I should purchase a separate monitor if I decide to keep the laptop (which I'll most likely do)