Computer for Picasa and Lightroom 4 or 5

Thinking about getting this for my wife. What do you think?

http://www.newegg.com …aspx?Item=N82E1​6834312928

She edits her photos on Picasa right now. She's not yet learned Lightroom, but I'd like to move her in that direction. Otherwise, she does word processing and steams movies.

why a laptop? They provide less bang for the book than a desktop.

You can't lie in bed with a laptop or bring it with you on trips.

It won't be blazing fast, but it will work. I looked for one with a faster processor since that i5 runs at 1.7GHz, but without spending more than $500, you can't get a whole lot more speed. Also, I hope she knows how to use Windows 8.

I would consider looking for a touchscreen laptop to use with Win 8. We just bought my son a laptop from Dell for $450 with 2 $100 off coupons that had a touchscreen. It really is useful with Win 8 and a laptop where the screen is always close at hand.

What's wrong with Win 8? I figure I could configure it with some modifications to start at the desktop and for file menus and screens to look more like Win 7. Read some articles on that.

Re: touchscreen... I think reviews say it's not so great for laptops? Most reviews say it's inconvenient.

I would agree that a touchscreen on a desktop is inconvenient, I wouldn't want to stretch my arm out to the monitor, but a laptop screen is as close as a touchpad. My son tested several laptops and decided that a touchscreen was something his would have to have. I played around with it and thought it was an improvement over just a touchpad.

I read reviews on touch screen laptops. Anyway... That's just a feature that's not critical.

I've been using Windows 8 since January without any issues - I keep it in desktop mode probably 95% of the time, and rarely every access the "metro/tiles" mode.

My laptop (Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga) with an i5 processor runs Windows 8 and Lightroom 5 without any issues. I don't use the touchscreen all that often, mostly out of habit, but it does come in handy as a nice feature when I do use it.

I use Win 8 and have some registry settings, tweaks and use a third party "fix" (StartIsBack) so that I never go to the metro interface. Personally I'd never by a laptop for a touch screen since I'd never use it. I absolutely hate fingerprints on my screen.

Metro on laptops and desktops is a gimmick to try to suck money out of users by encouraging them to buy apps from the MS store. It's the only reason MS makes it difficult for users to boot directly to desktop. It appears that they learned this from Apple, who are the masters of locking things down to ensure they get all of your money.

Even the upcoming upgrade to 8.1 where they KIND OF improve a few things, they plugged holes so that some of the third party remedies don't work anymore (another learning from Apple). Fortunately those developers already have new fixes in the works.

Agreed. But you did not state those requirements up front.

Go 15" Retina Macbook Pro. They give us an excellent screen for initial editing/culling in the field, fast SSD without any spinning disks, enought storage for a 2-3 week trip (if you get the 757GB SSD), and thunderbolt when you are back at the desk to do high speed connections to monitors, external drives...etc.

MCAsan wrote in post #16348606
Agreed. But you did not state those requirements up front.

Go 15" Retina Macbook Pro. They give us an excellent screen for initial editing/culling in the field, fast SSD without any spinning disks, enought storage for a 2-3 week trip (if you get the 757GB SSD), and thunderbolt when you are back at the desk to do high speed connections to monitors, external drives...etc.

Yes, a RMBP would be ideal. BUT they start out at $2200...Nathan initially said his budget was $500 or less, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's not going to happen. Also, does his wife know how to use Mountain Lion? I love my RMBP, but they aren't the best choice for everybody.