I Need Help On New Laptop Please

Evening all,

I currently use a MacBook Pro 2015, 13" with 8gb ram. Ever since i've had it, i've fought kicking and screaming, to use it. Every part of me wants to put it down for being so in it's own little Apple bubble. Nothing is compatible, nothing is easy and it all feels like hard work using it. I'm sure I should be liking it and enjoy using it after 4 years, but still I struggle to get the fascination.

Which leads me to my question -my old eyes aren't quite what they were so I want to increase the screen size and go to a 15'+ screen. It's not an option to get a new screen as I don't really have anywhere comfortable to be able to use one as most of the time, the laptop is on my lap in the living room.

So, can anyone advise on a decent laptop (available in the UK) which would be very fast in processing my images in Lightroom and Affinity. I remember years ago, I had a Windows laptop which used to just freeze eventually when I saved images. I expect that was the lack of ram and the age of the laptop. What would be required these days - 16gm RAM? What processor? The Intel numbers keep going up?

Would I regret it moving back to a Windows laptop? Are they a lot faster and able to handle serious photo processing these days anyway?

I welcome any help, advice, recommendations as to what to get.

Budget would be anything up to about £1200-£1300 maybe

Thanks very much in advance

ps..... I know very little about pc's, only that the MacBook is pretty fast and my last Windows laptop just crawled

I suggest you check the Dell UK website for "Deals" (over to the right of the toolbar). In addition check the refurbished offerings.

See https://www.dell.com …ell-refurbished/cp/outlet

For what you want, look for an ips screen, no less than 16 GB of RAM and most importantly an SSD drive. Now, having said, don;t pay huge amounts to increment up in those two items without first checking the price on equivalent hardware that you could add. As an example, say a Dell comes with a 256 GB SSD and the next level up, 512 GB was an additional US$300. However, you can get a Samsung 970 EVO M.2 drive for about US$100.

It is very easy to change drives and add/remove RAM chips on Dell laptops. Once you decide on any given model, post the details here and someone likely can link you to the service manual.

Thank you John - very good starting point for me

This looks very interesting

https://outlet.euro.de​ll.com …6cdHdTntF4528I0​HUGgN5Y%3d

tuttifrutti wrote in post #19061505
This looks very interesting

https://outlet.euro.de​ll.com …6cdHdTntF4528I0​HUGgN5Y%3d

The Dell XPS series has received great reviews for many years. I would expect you would find this machine more than adequate. One review here... https://www.laptopmag.​com …/laptops/dell-xps-15-2019

I'll be moving soon and will be looking for a new computer for my photo editing. I've had Dell PC's for the last 15+ years and have never really had any issues with them.

So I'll likely go with a Dell XPS laptop for my next computer. I've heard they are good for photo editing which will be it's primary use. I just need to convince myself that I'll be fine with a laptop instead of a desktop PC. I'll be moving from a house to an apartment so am trying to keep thinks as minimal as possible. I suppose if I find the display too small for editing that I could always use an external monitor.

I got my wife an HP Probook recently. They seem good - solid, reliable, fast machines. I got her the 13.3" screen, but they come in 15"+. The Elitebook is the higher end version that just looks a bit nicer, works the same.

Here's what I got.

HP Probook 430 G7 Business Laptop 13.3" FHD Intel i5-10210U 8GB 256GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD NO-DVD Win10