Laptop for photo and video editing

[Bellboy]

Hi

My other half is looking for a laptop to do some photo and video editing on. She doesn't play games so editing will be it's most demanding purpose. She also wants to future proof as much as possible. Portability isn't vital, it'll stay at home, I'd say she's ideally looking for a 15.6" screen.

I've done some research but I'm still not really sure what to prioritise, and what feasibly is in price range. She's looking at anything up to £850. She's weighing up whether to go pc or mac - so I guess a macbook air for £850 is the benchmark to compare against.

I guess my two main bits I'm unsure on are what gfx card would be sufficient for this, and what sort of screen to expect at this level. Any thoughts or laptop suggestions would be welcome.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Hades]

I would actually start with which software she wants to use and how frequently she will be working on it. Also does she have a preference for MacOS or Windows at all? Which photo editing software will be be using? Probably most importantly which video editing software will she be using and how frequently? I say this is 'most important' because the GPU could be important for video editing.

For example if she's only going to be video editing occasionally then GPU acceleration probably isn't that important (so a Macbook of some kind would be fine). But if she's going to be editing every day then GPU might be far more important than other aspects of the machine (would a Macbook Air/Pro be OK then)?

I'd suggest for frequent photo editing she probably needs a good screen. Is the Macbook Air screen colour accurate enough?

Also have you considered something like an iMac if portability isn't important?

 

[Bellboy]

Thanks for your points!

If it were a Mac she'd use the inbuilt software, such as Photos, iMovie. She'd also use Pages.

If Windows, she'd use Adobe photo and video editing software (eg. Light room) , which involves buying on top. I think Adobe Indesign is the Pages equivalent.

Frequency it would be occasional use. It's partly hobby and occasionally for work.

She is considering a Macbook Air or Pro but only the 13" is in reasonable price range which is a bit small. I've always understood screen quality on these is decent quality for photo editing but would an equivalent priced PC laptop generally have a better screen?

She definitely wants a laptop so no iMac.

I've just seen this spec as a deal of the day for £500, which looks decent on first blush - the GPU doesn't seem amazing but not sure if it's good enough, and not sure if the screen is any good. Any thoughts? Thanks!

Processor :

• 8th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-8250U Processor (6MB Cache, up to 3.4 GHz)

Operating Systems :

• Windows 10 Home 64-bit English

Choose your colour :

• LCD Back Cover - White

Memoryi :

• 8GB, DDR4, 2400MHz

Hard Drive :

• 256GB SSD

Video Card :

• AMD Radeon 530 Graphics with 4GB GDDR5

Display :

• 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare LED Backlit Display

 

[Hades]

That seems quite good for the money. What machine is it? Other important factors are the quality of the screen as already mentioned and the quality of the keyboard. The make and model of the laptop will affect that significantly. If that laptop is from a major high street chain that has a name like food then I could never recommend buying from that shop. The dual core u5 and weak GPU will be 'OK' for what you want but isn't particularly powerful.

The more I think about this the more I think I'm going to suggest a Macbook Pro 13 Retina (not Air which is too weak and has a poor screen). She seems to have made noises about Macbooks so there seems to be a slight preference there. They are built better than most (but not all) Windows laptops. If it were for you or me I'd probably suggest a Windows or Linux based laptop to maximise bang for buck. But generally a Macbook is a fairly safe bet when recommending for a friend, especially a partner. However I'd only recommend a 2015 or earlier model because of the issues with the 2016+ keyboards (many will disagree with me on that point). You may also need to budget for a battery replacement at Apple though. It may be used but if you take time to find one in reasonable condition I think she's be happier with it than a budget Windows laptop.

 

[Bellboy]

Thanks again. It's a dell laptop (inspiron 5000). Was a deal of the day but we decided not to go for it in the end.

She's pretty much now decided to go for a macbook air - swinging factor was that adobe products as far as we could see you have to pay a monthly subscription which obviously bumps the price up for a pc. The basic mac software will probably suffice for her.

She'd love a macbook pro but it's that bit too expensive. Also not keen on second hand. With a work discount she can get a new Air for about £700 so she's now pretty settled on that.

Thanks again for your advice!