Do i need a 4k screen on a laptop? dell outlook are selling an xps for almost sensible money. i reckon 4k on my sony a6300 and go pro. i also want to get into editting photos properly.

can you edit 4k video with a ‘normal’ HD screen? the only other 4k screen in the house is the tv.

Sounds like you want the detail. Fwiw I bought a gaming laptop and didn’t go for it, as it was a 20% uplift in cost, but it sounds like you might use it.

i also want to get into editting photos properly.

What does that mean?

i also want to get into editting photos properly.

Sorting them and doing simple colour/curve adjustments? Or actual retouch work?
High pixel pitch screens are great for viewing whole full frame images but not ideal for actual retouch work where you view at 100%.
To actually see what you are doing you have to work at higher magnifications and this means interpolation and you can’t judge sharpness. I retouch on location using a MacBook Pro but everything is checked on an 24in HD Eizo screen before signing off.
I would check the colour depth and gamut of the laptop screen too, they are not all created equal.

Also do editing 4K it’s not so much about the screen but the graphics card, I would go for a 4gb card at the minimum and have fast in /out like thunderbolt 3/ USB-C

thanks all

it means i just take pics in jpeg and i want to shoot in raw and use a proper grown up program like lightroom. will 4k help or not needed?

I’m on my second 4k laptop; tbh I wouldn’t want to go back to a “normal” HD screen. The support for them in windows wasn’t great when I got the first but under windows 10 it’s absolutely fine. I do very occasionally find the odd program that doesn’t play nicely out of the box; but there are options to force it to scale up appropriately.

They are great for viewing photos / recalibrating images etc; but I’ve never used it for zoomed in detail work. I would imagine the interpolation effects that MrSmith mentions wouldn’t really be a problem – you just need to x2 zoom and you’ve got an effective 1920×1080 resolution.

I scale mine up a bit; but not quite x2 – so I get more screen estate for a trade off in size – however I find it much easier on the eyes for long working sessions (I’m a coder) – text is smoother and easier to read imo

4k is nice but on a laptop screen you probably won’t notice a huge difference over a normal HD screen.

Of much more importance for photo editing is colour accuracy. Look for an IPS screen not a TN screen and invest the rest of the money you save over a 4k screen in a colour calibration tool.

I believe all the dell QHD screens are IPS …

Which XPS? Heard many good things about them.
As others have said you’re going to be zooming in to edit the pics anyway. As for video any time I’m editing it’s normally at 1/2 quality to make it easier and faster.
A nice big 2nd screen with it would be a great addition to it though, more space is always better

Which XPS? Heard many good things about them.

Typing this on a 13″ XPS – it has a lovely screen which makes the forum come alive.

😉

It is certainly *very* nice for viewing pics, I haven’t edited any on it yet. I am looking forward to trying some amateur 4k video editing in the coming weeks.

sorry i meant Dell Outlet. well i ordered it anyway, i sold my Cx bike so that took the sting out of it a bit.

which photo editing software for a rank beginner?

Beginner here but lightroom ticks the boxes for me, some good tutorials around and very powerful

Yes. Now used to high resolution phones a 1080 screen on a laptop looks positively archaic.

Where’d you find the XPS 13? Might need a new computer for work.

google dell outlet they are factory reconned, we got our old one there over 5 years ago and it has been perfect. its just desperately slow now

As for video any time I’m editing it’s normally at 1/2 quality to make it easier and faster.

a fast modern laptop with a decent graphics card will let you edit without generating proxies.
I can add a LUT, grade plus transforms n native H264/pro res footage and not drop frames on playback even at 4K.

Flaperon, I got mine – xps 13 QHD+ i7 7th gen, 500gb drive on Ebay – if you have time, you can get a bargain – it was unused and £935.

I bought a Dell XPS 15 with 4k about a year ago after holding out for – and being decidedly underwhelmed by – the new MBP. It’s been absolutely fantastic. I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by W10 too. Although mainly used for lots of editing & typing, I also upload 4k video for pro edit by someone else and basic photo viewing editing. I don’t use it for some of the heavy pro work that others on here (and their views carry more weight than mine tbh), but I absolutely love it for viewing high res photos and as an all round laptop. The only downside for me is that PC video edit software is too complicated for my hamfisted simpleton needs when compared to Apple and that’s more of a negative to me than the hardware. Office 365/OneDrive also work beautifully (for me) but that’s another story.

The XPS 13 QHD is very very nice. I have one 🙂

The screen is utterly brilliant and overall it’s a lovely package.

About 1000 times more computer than I need but I was in the fortunate position to buy exactly what I wanted.

a fast modern laptop with a decent graphics card will let you edit without generating proxies.

I don’t make proxies, just don’t run the playback at full resolution. On an aging desktop (well still 4×3.2 with a half decent graphics card.) just dont see the need for the full resolution preview/edit most of the time. Think Adobe defaults to 1/2 or 1/4 anyway

Unless I needed to view/edit 4k whilst out and about I’d just get a half decent 4k external 27″ monitor and a standard laptop screen. Stuff must be tiny on a 4k 17″ screen

Stuff must be tiny on a 4k 17″ screen

imagine how small on a 13″ one!!

Stuff must be tiny on a 4k 17″ screen

There’s a magnificent feature called “display scaling” nowadays; you get the same size text/graphics but it’s much smoother and easier on the eye because it’s rendered at a higher res.

TV shows aren’t half the size when you go from SD -> HD don’t forget …. 😉

but if the graphics card doesn’t support it that’s not going to work, is it?

but if the graphics card doesn’t support it that’s not going to work, is it?

It’s a feature of the OS not the GFX card …

Check out the screenshot

fwiw – I’ve got a 17″ 4K laptop. I scale up by 175% – so I get slightly more real estate but the reality is that it’s just nicer to look at (and can play 4k video too)