best travel laptop for digital editing?

Personally I carry extra film or extra cards on the road and do my developing/scanning/downloading/editing when I am home. But, my Lenovo Thinkpad X131e is very handy on the road and runs Lightroom easily. I just upgraded to LR5 and it doesn't seem to have a problem. It weighs in at 3.5 pounds, uses the AMD 1200 chip, has 8GB RAM on board and uses a 500GB hard drive, though you can get a 128GB SSD if you want. It has been designed for college student use so it is reputed to be a pretty tough little laptop. Mine has held up pretty well so far. My primary image storage and backup is on 1TB Seagate Free Agent GoFlex Hard drives. I have 3 of these little beauties now and they hold up well and are very compact.
 
I bought a Lenovo W520 Thinkpad last year with WIN 7. It has an i7, NVIDIA graphics and 8 GB of ram. I haven't felt the need to add more ram yet. It has the capacity for a total of 32 GB. I may add another 8 G to fill the two open sockets. The color gamut of the display is great. I also use a USB 3.0 2T drive to store images. I typically get around 8 or 9 hours of heavy usage on battery power. At 5.75 pounds it is not a lightweight computer. Considering the durability of the tank like build and processing power the weight was a secondary consideration. If you are going to be carrying a laptop with you everywhere then a lighter one may serve you better. I have no complaints with the Lenovo in more than a year of usage. I consider it as a desktop replacement. I will be taking it to Alaska next week.

Mike
 
Macbook Air 2012 11" i5 8GB 128GB SSD here.

More than fast enough for Lightroom and Photoshop.
The screen viewing angle and tonal range are adequate for checking and sorting .
For me size and weight #1 priorities when traveling.

What ever you end up with, max out the RAM, get the SSD and you will be in good form.
 
After MS-DOS from 1986 and all flavours of Windows from 1990 until 2011 I somewhat reluctantly switched to MacBook Air. Have used it for 2 years now.
There is a world of difference. Not likely to go back to Windows.
Currently use the model MBAir 2012, 13.3", i7, 8G RAM, 550GB SSDisk.
Speed, OS stability, ease of use, battery time and weight.
Photoshop and Lightroom.
 
The weight in some of the smaller MacBook Airs is incredible. In the 2-pound range or less. I'm too old to change my ways with Windows machines and make extensive use of the little "eraser head" pointing device on ThinkPads (never liked trackpads and miss the old track balls that went of out favor in the last '90s). The preferences of Windows vs Mac will boil down to Nikon RF vs Leica. But either way, I'd say invest in a laptop that's comparable quality/ruggedness to your photogear. Mac if you like them or else something in the professional business travel class of Windows machines, like a Lenovo Thinkpad.
 
JSU said:
I bought my recently semi-retired mid-2008 15" MacBook Pro in October, 2008 as a close-out special when the late 2008 MacBook Pros were announced. I also have a Mac Mini on a desk top which is now primarily used for accessing my archive array and if I want to see an image file on a larger monitor, ie, my 20" Apple HD Cinema monitor.

I still have a 12" MacBook G4 which is relegated to running a scanner and my photo printer. The scanner will only run on a Power PC machine, ie, a G4. Prior to that I had a MacBook Lombard, now very long gone. I retired from a newspaper PJ position at the end of 2008, all I ever had as work issued computers were Macs (in the office) and MacBooks, MacBook Pros, for mobility.

I have been a Mac & MacBook user since 1993. My wife uses PC laptops (work related) and all I can do is not laugh or smirk too loud when her machines hang-up or crash. I bought her a new HP laptop this summer after a particularly bad rash of crashes. This current HP Windows computer is far more stable than its predecessor (a 2010 HP laptop). This is the extent of my experience with PC's.

I'm not a computer geek. I am a photographer. My Macs have been very reliable for me. I had one mother board failure about 10 years ago. The HD was intact and all data was recovered. Otherwise they have just been reliable tools that get the job done for me.
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Thank you, it puts your remark in perspective!
 
First, I want to comment that if the OP or anyone wants to do photo editing on their vacation, they have every right to do so. I have been travelling for 3 weeks to a month at a time and definitely want to have a laptop to do photo editing and other things. Right now I have a Lenovo T400. It is getting a bit old but still works quite well with LR and PS. Especially since I have updated the main hard drive to SSD. The 14" screen is big enough without making the laptop too large to carry. It has a second drive bay so I can carry a full terabyte of disk space. The laptop originally came with Vista but I upgraded to Windows 7. When I do upgrade, it will be another Lenovo...

As for the Apple/Windows argument, Apple is very good if you are a photographer mainly and want a reliable working system but if you are geeky and the hacker type, you will want to stay with Windows or even Linux. I fall into the latter category.
Pete
 
You shouldn't necessarily equate nonprofessional-level Windows consumer machines to professional level Macs.
My Compaq Contura 430 from 1995 still runs just fine on Windows 95. It runs Adobe photodelux to edit pictures and WordStar DOS or a very early Word for Windows for stories. Never had a problem with it, even when a lawbook fell onto it from a top shelf at the Senate Press Gallery. No wifi, no USBs but you can move files in and out via a card reader. My first desktop, mid-80s, was an IBM XT that never had a problem. My company issued me a Thinkpad T23 in 2001. I was primarily a writer but also edited photos on it with Photoshop. It ran flawlessly for five years and was so heavily used I wore the letters off the keys writing newspaper stories, and decided I would only buy ThinkPads after that. My daughter uses my 6-year-old ThinkPad T60 for highschool, including doing the Photoshop work for the yearbook. I had an R-61 that I backed my SUV over, removed the intact harddrive from the otherwise ruined machine (it did try to flickr to life but wouldn't boot) and was able to rescuel all the data via a USB harddrive caddie. My wife's been using a T500 for four years now, I've been using a T510 for three years and recently picked up an X220 to have a lighter weight travel machine. I've used mine for extensive international work travel through the developing world, to include managing an office staff via the Internet, writing, photo editing and posting, and video editing.
 
Vince, Have you used the X220 with Lightroom or Photoshop? I have an X61s that I use for work but I do not do photo editing on it. Have been thinking of upgrading that to the X220 if I could also do photo editing on it.
Pete
 
I'm using photoshop but not lightroom. Specifically got an i7 processor for video rendering using Corel VideoStudio, since those render pretty slow on my T510 and I mainly do corporate communications these days. The X220s with i5 processors got excellent reviews also. The currently available models new from Lenovo are the X230s, main differnce being a different keyboard style that accomodates backlighting.
 
The first trick in finding a Windows (or Linux) laptop to match a MacBook Pro indeed is in finding a good screen. The second trick is finding a model that's light enough to schlep around.

HP and Dell and others do make a few models with IPS screens, but most of the models I've seen are heavier than the corresponding MBP.

Just starting to appear are PC laptops with the new IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) low-power-and-high-res screens from Sharp. Apple also is rumored to be planning use these screens in future MBPs.

Shopping for MBP alternatives at work recently, I've found the upcoming Dell M3800 Precision Workstation to be the most promising on paper. It's a 15" design, thin and relatively light like the MBP, and it's to have IGZO screen options of a standard 1080HD res or a much higher res Retina-like model. Supposedly with or without touchscreen. And Windows 8.1, presumably, given that it will debut sometime this fall. Dell's teaser video makes it clear that this model is targeted squarely at the creative community.
 
Vaio Pro, if you can stomach the price. A cheaper option may be the 13' Lenovo Yoga, although it is not 1080p (if memory serves).

I have a Vaio Z for on-road editing. Without the Media Dock I can still process 24mp files without a hiccup, and the battery lasts more than 3 hours under full load. It's hotter than a toaster and well over two grand when I bought it, though.
 
i used my ipad mini while in vancouver & nyc last time...worked great...i used snapseed and photoshop apps, posted some shots on the net and re-did some post processing when i got home.
pure convenience...
 
I've recently picked up a Microsoft surface pro which I've enjoyed using for travel.
It runs lightroom and photoshop, has a great full hd screen and can also output to 2560x1440 via mini display port at home.

Worth looking at I think.
 
Sony Pro 13, great screen, enough horsepower and with additional battery back it weights as much as macbook air, with out it it's lighter.

And this is coming from long time mac user, who writes this from iMac and has had Macbook Pro for quite some time.
 
Scheelings said:
Hi everyone, I've decided it would be good to have a laptop specifically for this purpose. I've considered in Ipad and decided against it because it won't run lightroom. When I'm at home I'd consider later expanding it by plugging in an EIZO monitor etc

So can anyone recommend a line of laptops that have decent battery life, but enough processing power and RAM to edit large raw files, yet small enough to hardly notice in a backpack?

I'd prefer not to go for Apple, but will do so if they are that much better.
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Get one of the new Windows 8 hybrids. Blazing fast! Super light. And you can leave the keyboard in your hotel room if not needed.
 
Macbook Air - the best laptop on the planet by a very wide margin, which will also run windows if you must.
 
I carry a 13 Macbook Pro on jobs but when I travel, I just take plenty of extra SD cards and several batteries. I'd rather edit in my studio where I can see things properly on my 27 inch NEC.

Mac vs PC... that is a tired old debate. I'm typing this on an old G5. My Mac Pro is running beside me just waiting to resize a few captures, My iMac which is connected to my studio camera upstairs in the camera room waiting for the sculptures to arrive that I need to shoot this afternoon and My Dell is waiting to write the invoices.

Being a Mac user since the 80s, I have noticed some QC problems when they moved the manufacturing to China. Time was a Mac was bullet-proof for at least 5 years. Not so much anymore. Still, they are better than the rest. No doubt, I'll add one of the new made in the US Pros when they become available.

My .02: buy a 13 inch Macbook Pro with a Retina display and enjoy life for the next few years. Put it in your Billingham with your Leicas and hit the road. Take some photos... write an eBook... resistance is futile.
 
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