Best travel laptop for Photoshop and Lightroom

[MissionMan]

Thanks, everyone, for your comprehensive and knowledgeable replies. I think I'll go with the 15" MacBook Pro and spec it up so it handles LR and PS with ease.

Must/Should/Can I calibrate the monitor with a Spyder or similar?

Even the base model will handle PS and LR with ease. The base model has a quad core and 16GB of ram so performance will be phenomenal. The top of the range model has a separate GPU which increases graphics performance substantially but it's not a must have so I would only get it if budgets allow.

The other heads up is that Mac OS takes a couple of weeks to get used to. It's as easy as Windows, if not easier, but you do things a little differently. For example, if you wanted to open 5 photoshop files, you could just drag them to the application on your task bar as opposed to right clicking and selecting open. Once you get used to it, it's very easy. If you have any questions when you get it, feel free to shoot me a message here and I'll help you out. I can also send you a list of apps to download that are free or cheap. In some cases, they are simple ways of replicating the way you may be used to working, in other cases, they are handy apps to have.

On the issue of purchases, have a look around and wait for a 10% off sale. Alternatively, if you have an ABN, you should be able to get 10% off by putting it through your business at an Apple store. If you want to buy it from an Apple store and JB Hifi or Dick Smith have a special, Apple will price match any advertised price.

On the storage front, Samsung do a great external solid state if you want a small SSD to carry around and back up photos or store extra photos. Alternatively, you can guy a cheap 1/2TB external 2.5" drive and Mac includes software called "Time Machine" which will do automatic backups for you every time you connect it.

[Hamster]

For example, if you wanted to open 5 photoshop files, you could just drag them to the application on your task bar as opposed to right clicking and selecting open.

You could, but there's no need to. You can stick with the method you're familiar with if you want to (i.e. right click and open with).


I found the switch to Mac OS without the frustrations I expected. Most things are the same, some are different and easy to work out and for the rest a quick google will find it because thousands of others have asked the same question. The only thing I'd like to change is finder as I don't like the layout and of this much, but it's not bad enough that I've bothered to find out how to bend it to my will. Also if I want to delete something then I want to be able to use the delete key, not have to right click and choose "move to trash".

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks, everyone, for your comprehensive and knowledgeable replies. I think I'll go with the 15" MacBook Pro and spec it up so it handles LR and PS with ease.

Must/Should/Can I calibrate the monitor with a Spyder or similar?

Beware that while the retina screens look pretty IMHO opinion they tend to over sharpen and reflect too much. For "serious" editing I plug it into a bigger monitor, but it does fine when I'm out and about.

- - - Updated - - -

Thanks, everyone, for your comprehensive and knowledgeable replies. I think I'll go with the 15" MacBook Pro and spec it up so it handles LR and PS with ease.

Must/Should/Can I calibrate the monitor with a Spyder or similar?

Beware that while the retina screens look pretty IMHO opinion they tend to over sharpen and reflect too much. For "serious" editing I plug it into a bigger monitor, but it does fine when I'm out and about.

[MissionMan]

You could, but there's no need to. You can stick with the method you're familiar with if you want to (i.e. right click and open with).


I found the switch to Mac OS without the frustrations I expected. Most things are the same, some are different and easy to work out and for the rest a quick google will find it because thousands of others have asked the same question. The only thing I'd like to change is finder as I don't like the layout and of this much, but it's not bad enough that I've bothered to find out how to bend it to my will. Also if I want to delete something then I want to be able to use the delete key, not have to right click and choose "move to trash".

- - - Updated - - -




Beware that while the retina screens look pretty IMHO opinion they tend to over sharpen and reflect too much. For "serious" editing I plug it into a bigger monitor, but it does fine when I'm out and about.

- - - Updated - - -




Beware that while the retina screens look pretty IMHO opinion they tend to over sharpen and reflect too much. For "serious" editing I plug it into a bigger monitor, but it does fine when I'm out and about.

I prefer the drag because you can use it to drag multiple files to email but I guess that's personal preference.

CMD delete does the same as Windows.

If you aren't happy with finder, try pathfinder. It's similar to Windows explorer in how it works.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[rexboggs5]

I also had a look at what Scott Kelby travels with - a 15" Macbook Pro along with a small Wacom tablet for Photoshop and Lightroom. This laptop also has good reviews in the above comments. *removed : refer to the site rules, in particular rule #3*

This comes standard with a 512 GB SSD, and it is $800 to upgrade to a 1 TB.

[Hamster]

I also had a look at what Scott Kelby travels with - a 15" Macbook Pro along with a small Wacom tablet for Photoshop and Lightroom. This laptop also has good reviews in the above comments. *removed : refer to the site rules, in particular rule #3*

This comes standard with a 512 GB SSD, and it is $800 to upgrade to a 1 TB.

Same here. I just went down the MBP options line ticking, including the 1Tb SSD. All my images sit on this and are backed up to 3 separate locations, one off site. A Wacom pen and touch travels with it.

[Hamster]

CMD delete does the same as Windows.

If you aren't happy with finder, try pathfinder. It's similar to Windows explorer in how it works.

Nice, thanks! I just have to use a booming voice and say "I COMMAND YOU TO DELETE THIS FILE" to remember that key press
I'll take a look at pathfinder.

[MissionMan]

I assume you know about some of the other shortcuts like CMD Space, CMD SHIFT 4 etc?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Hamster]

I assume you know about some of the other shortcuts like CMD Space, CMD SHIFT 4 etc?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes thanks. CMD shift 4 was one of the first I looked up as snipping screen shots is so useful. CMD also seems to be the replacement for ctrl and hence windows shortcuts using ctrl just translate to CMD whatever.