I need a new laptop for work, around the £400 mark. It will be used for graphic design so looking for something that will do the job. I have already built 2 desktops to run the wide format printer and general duties in the office but need a laptop to work from home and to visit clients. I know spending more would be a better solution but this is my budget.

Anyone got any suggestions? I have been researching over the past couple of days and am going to ask on the ebuyer forum but i know there are some IT people on here.

Thanks

The issue with laptops and design based work is that traditionally laptop screens have been outright crap.

If you’re doing any sort of serious work where colour reproduction is key (like, graphic design) the quality of your monitor is paramount to any other specs.

This is what helped Apple rise to the position of “the” product for designers/photographers etc.

Even thought they are over priced, compared to the competition the screens the laptops and iMacs come with as standard are far better than anything else on offer. They are also calibrated fairly-ok out of the box. (Again, vs the competition – i’m not comparing to professional grade monitors)

So really, if you want to go budget – thats fine, but be prepared to spend the same again on a half decent screen. Which of course ruins the portability of the laptop (unless you want to lug around a monitor everywhere).

Which then leads us full circle back to the MacBook Pro, and why you should just save up and get the proper tool.

IMHO, ofc.

I understand that and the mac would be my preference, but i am on a budget unfortunately.

Dell Precision off Ebay?

Precision

Perhaps add an SSD and more memory?

I think Toshiba have come a long way with the screens they use in their laptops, but I can’t really comment having never used any.

have you checked gumtree for 2nd hand goodies? My unibody MBP is coming up 5 years old and still runs fine – i can’t imagine a 5 year old laptop is worth any more than £400.

Dell outlet, up spec for less cash. Solid and dependable machines (typed from a Dell that is about 4 years old and still getting it’s arse thrashed with some heavy lifting)

http://www.ebuyer.com/644417-lenovo-ideapad-z50-70-laptop-59427651

I’ve had this one for a couple of weeks now and it seems OK. Wanted full HD screen which is why I chose this one. I could throw more RAM and an SSD or hybrid drive at it if I need it faster some time down the line, but right now it’s the fastest PC in the house so I’m not complaining.

Just to re-enforce the screen thing. I just got given a new Dell Latitude E5440 by work, it’s not a particularly cheap laptop. The screen is absolutely shocking. Colours are very washed out and contrast is awful (no way to adjust it either). I usually have it set up side by side with an OK quality Samsung monitor and I can see the same image side by side and the laptop always amazes with it’s shonkiness.

If you’re spending £400 and want it for graphics make sure you at least see the screen in the flesh to judge if it’s adequate for you.

Is it possible to do the work from home on a tablet ? Unfortunately £400 won’t even buy you a second hand MacBook in decent nick. If its for work can work not pay ? I would imagine it’s not going to impress clients if you turn up with a pool quality laptop.

I think you may end up around the £600 mark to get something acceptable.
Go to PC world and have a look at screens – many are shocking.

With an SSD and lots of RAM, you may not need a dedicated graphics card. I manage without even using After Effects.

Tricky one.

I am going to PCWorld at the end of the week to see what they have got just to get a good look and mess about with them.

jambalaya, hadn’t thought of a tablet.

Off to look at tablets too 🙂

Thanks for all the input so far, much appreciated. I think i will possibly have to re-visit budget.

Obviously do a search based on where you are, but there are many results around the £300 -£400 mark on Gumtree that would be great:

http://www.gumtree.com/p/macs/mac-book-pro.-13-/1087051683

http://www.gumtree.com/p/macs/macbook-pro/1087486987 — 15″

http://www.gumtree.com/p/laptops/apple-macbook-pro-5.4-p8700/1087285163

Don’t be put off by the 13″ screens – they’re actually a really nice size that makes the laptop alot more portable than the 15″. I have a 15″ and tbh it’s a bit unwieldy for actually carrying around and being mobile with.

(Tho the brand new MBPs are much lighter)

I have managed to increase the budget to around £500 (still not new mac money unfortunately), hopefully going to look in PCWorld tomorrow.

One of the problems I’d have in the same situation is that the only version of software I have a licence for would be the latest Adobe Creative Cloud.
My desktop is a 16GB Ram Quad i5 and even that felt slightly slower moving to the 2014 versions of photoshop and illustrator.

Would a 4 year old MBP be ok with that?

Our lass is a Graphic Designer. Out of work for her own stuff, she uses her old 2007 MacBook Pro which copes just fine. Quick look on goolgle/ebay and they can be had for less than your budget.

Clicky

Compared to my 2012 MBP there’s almost no usability difference and the screen on hers is higher res and doesn’t have the glossy screen. Compared to my same age £800+ Dell laptop it’s not even a competition, her mac runs rings round it.

If you buy a cheap PC… you’ll buy twice.

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/macbook-pro-retina-13-late-2013-256gb-ssd-8gb-ram-i5

Would a 4 year old MBP be ok with that?

I have CS6 on mine, works no different to CS5 and CS4 before that. (4 year old MBP)

At work we have CC, there isn’t much difference between CS6 and CC so I can;t see it struggling on that if I ever went to CC.