[Closed] What laptop for photo editing / processing?

The thing that immedialey springs out, is that the current screen is 720p, which might limit you with photo/video editing, I'd want a 1080p/full HD screen really. I wonder if that might be coneected to your black screen issue if the editing software is trying to render above what the screen can display - that's just a wild guess though.

The new M1 Macbooks are available refurbished now and there's practically no difference between a new and refurb model from Apple, so you might want to see if there are any 16GB Macbooks going. I've a 8GB M1 Air and I would recommend a 16GB model for video editing, it's notable that 8GB isn't quite enough for my Lightroom album.

If you go for the Air, then a USB-C port extender is cheap from Amazon. This MBA I'm typing on now has a single USB-C to a port extender under the desk which has power, ethernet, USB-C, USB-3, SD and HDMI ports on. The one cable future is glorious.

Asus ZenBook Duo - two touchscreens ? MrsF got one around Christmas - it's really good, compact with a good screens. The extra screen is good. RRP is £1,499 but she got it for £1,100 in the sales.

What @rossburton said.

What photo management and editing software are you planning on using? This might help guide your choice.

as you suggest, 16GB RAM is going to be fine for most photo things. 8GB should be sufficient if you have a modest photo catalog and don’t dabble with 1080P or 4K video much.

The MBP 13” M1 should be ideal if you can get by with the small screen. Factor in plug in storage for your photos and on-machine for your catalog. If you’re using or planning on using lightroom the smartpreviews are a real help but still take up storage. The full size previews can balloon easily if you mis-set your preferences.

if you want to go the windows, or Linux, route then IDK except that some of the Surface Pros seem to work well for some demanding friends. Comparing like with like I’ve not always been convinced by the price difference argument vs Mac. Especially factoring in longevity and resale. My 2014 15” MBP i7 16GB RAM, 500GB SDD running Big Sur still seems tolerable for a teen who uses it for college, The Sims, Photoshop, and the usual web and streaming stuff.

I'd get the Asus out of that lot. Aside from anything else, you're most likely to still be able to get drivers and support in three years' time.

(Out of the PCs, that is. I don't know anything about Apple machines.)

... though what I'd actually do in your situation is buy a desktop with a half-decent discrete GPU and a dirty great big monitor.

Huawei Matebook 13 2020 2k screen, i7, 16bg ram geforce mx150 graphics £999

I just bought a matebook Pro x for £999 direct from Huawei with free G2 watch and wireless earbuds. The laptop is very very nice, but i think a widescreen might be better for photo editing.

What photo management and editing software are you planning on using? This might help guide your choice.

That ^^.

FWIW if you're dithering between Macbook Air and Macbook Pro: the M1 models are near identical. The Pro has a few more USB-C ports (but again, extenders are great and cheap), the TouchBar (actually prefer physical keys myself), a fan (I got my MBA compiling for 2 hours, it barely got warm) and one more GPU core (8 vs 7, iirc).

My personal MBA is an Air and if I had £200 more to spend I'd have definitely got more RAM instead of the Pro upgrade.

The new M1 Macbooks are available refurbished now and there’s practically no difference between a new and refurb model from Apple, so you might want to see if there are any 16GB Macbooks going. I’ve a 8GB M1 Air and I would recommend a 16GB model for video editing, it’s notable that 8GB isn’t quite enough for my Lightroom album.

Thanks for the heads up - there is a 16gb, 1 year old i5 chip MBP for £1,200 which could sway things... Is that significantly (>20%) better than other options? I know nothing about macs other than they have their devotees.

I’d get the Asus out of that lot. Aside from anything else, you’re most likely to still be able to get drivers and support in three years’ time.

That's a really good point I never considered, thanks.

… though what I’d actually do in your situation is buy a desktop with a half-decent discrete GPU and a dirty great big monitor.

I don't have a study at home, either work from the dining table or shed - so a desktop is out unfortunately.

What photo management and editing software are you planning on using? This might help guide your choice.

Not wedded to any software really - bought a lifetime pass to wondershare Filmora for gopro editing, mainly as that was the only software that would run on this computer. Looks like I can keep this subscription if I stay with PC's but have to buy afresh if go apple. I prefer the buy once over the subscription model as it quickly works out better value

That’s a really good point I never considered, thanks.

Honestly, it's less of an issue these days with Windows 10 as ever more hardware is supported natively via Windows Update, but historically whenever I've had to work on a laptop outside of the usual big-brand suspects it's always been a pain in the bollocks for some reason or another. (And for reasons best known to themselves, Sony, who seemed to deny that their Vaio range ever existed the last time I looked.) I can jump onto Amazon today and get a (third-party) replacement battery for my 12-year old Dell. Good luck doing that with Medion or some such.

Of the brands you list, Huawai are huge but not so much in the UK as yet, I'd likely be filing them under "unknown quantity" especially given the recent political shenanigans. Honor have been making laptops for about 15 minutes so that'd be a hard pass from me. ASUS on the other hand have been knocking laptops out since the 1990s, it's what they sent up to MIR.

https://www.asus.com/event/30th-anniversary/30-years-of-asus/