meredith a Loc: N. California

Help! I got a laptop for Christmas now I need a good editing monitor. I did some research and my head is spinning, any suggestions? Is anything 1080p good enough. I edit my own photos for fun but want them to look nice. Something like the Kindle screen would be great that is what I have been using. Thanks

Whuff Loc: Marshalltown, Iowa

I'm confused. Doesn't the laptop have a monitor?

Walt

meredith a Loc: N. California

Yes, Walt but the resolution is only 1366x768 and screen seems difficult to use, not sure how to tilt it just right.

IShootEverything Loc: TN

I know just what you need. My friend uses something like what you want. Let me look and see what he uses and I will get back to you here. What is your budget? If you don't mind my asking.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Which laptop did you get?

singleviking Loc: Lake Sebu Eco Park, Philippines

Need more info about this laptop.
Make ?
Model ?

What tablet are you using now?
Resolution of this tablet display?
Is it the laptop or the tablet that has 1366X768 resolution?

1080p is probably the best you can get out of a laptop unless it has a graphics engine and it's own dedicated video DDR3 or DDR5 RAM like the GEFORCE GTX 770, 880 or 990 Graphics Engine for laptops by NVIDEA.

Typical LCD displays will have a very narrow viewing angle for accurate colors while IPS monitors will be wider (up to 170 degrees) as well as brighter display/image.

Then there's the question of how you're going to calibrate this external display?

Most low to midrange laptops are fine for downloading, viewing and storing photos from your camera, but then a desktop with a dedicated graphics card/engine and good IPS monitor is used for PP work.

And then there's different types of IPS displays. All will have no difficulty with 8 or 10 bit color palet, but only the top end ones will display real 14 bit color. Here again, this all depends on your budget. Gene has explained these differences very well here in his threads on PP monitors and displays.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

IPS panels are available in 6 bit, 8 bit or 10 bit depths. That would be 18, 24 or 20 bit color. The least expensive are the 6 bit panels, which are for general use, and not a good choice for photo editing. These panels only display 262,000 colors, and can only simulate an 8 bit display using frame rate control (like dithering) to display a pallet of 16M colors. Eight bit displays, or 8 bit with 10 or 12 bit lookup tables are widely preferred, since they can natively display 16.7M colors and with FRC show over 1 billion colors using a 10 or 12 bit LUT.

An example of why bit depth is important was my buddy's experience. He uses a laptop only for editing. He sent me some images of sky and clouds. Nice images, but it was clear to see on my 10 bit display that there was substantial dust and grime on his sensor. I brought it to his attention. He swore I was nuts - his lower bit depth display could not show the very subtle step between a dust spot and open sky. I told him to print his image - and then he was able to see.

My bigger concern is that you might not have enough horsepower to edit photos on this laptop. More than likely you can support a conventional external 1920x1200 or x1080 display, but it will use system memory, borrowing from the total ram installed for program execution and the operating system.

meredith a Loc: N. California

Laptop info


Platform: PC
Primary Color: Blue
Processor Brand: AMD
Processor Type: AMD Quad-Core A6-6310 APU Processor
Processor Speed: 1.80 GHz, with a Max Turbo Speed of 2.40 GHz
System Ram: 8 GB
Maximum Memory Expansion: 8 GB
Hard Drive Size: 1 TB
Laptop Screen Size: 15.6 inch
Screen Type: LED Backlight, HD Truelife Display
Resolution: 1366 x 768
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon R4
Multi Media Drive: Tray Load DVD Drive
Card Reader Type: 3-in-1 card reader 1 x (SD Memory Card), 1 x (SDHC), 1 x (SDXC)
Battery Life: 6 hours 33 minutes
Battery Type: Lithium Ion
Network Connection: 10/100 Fast Ethernet & 802.11n Wireless LAN
Connector Type: 1 x DC-in, 1 x Ethernet, 1 x HDMI, 1 x Headphone/Microphone, 2 x USB 2.0, 1 x USB 3.0
Operating System: Windows 8.1 64-bit
Accessories Included: Power Cord , Battery
Model No.: i3541-4000BLU
Shipping Weight (in pounds): 8.27
Product in Inches (L x W x H): 15.0 x 1.0 x 10.5
Assembled in Country of Origin: Imported
Origin of Components: Imported
Walmart No.: 553246781

meredith a Loc: N. California

Tablet info
Kindle Fire


8 GB[4]
Display 7 inch multi-touch Gorilla Glass display, 1024×600 at 169 ppi, 16 million colors.[4] Capacitive touch sensitive.[5]

meredith a Loc: N. California

My budget? As little as possible, I just edit for fun and for family and close friends so I do not want to spend anymore then I need to.

rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

Wrong sized screen:

Dell Inspiron AMD A6-Series Laptop i3541-4000BLU comes with AMD Quad-Core processor, 15.6"/LED-Backlit High-Definition Display/1366 x 768 Screen, 8GB DDR RAM, 1TB Hard Drive, Windows 8.1 64-Bit OS and Built-in Bluetooth

singleviking Loc: Lake Sebu Eco Park, Philippines

Meredith,
Hope you read what Gene responded to your thread here since it looks like you have no dedicated VIDEO RAM and a GPU/APU AMD A6 system. I'm not completely familiar with this new combined processor but seeing that no VIDEO RAM is mentioned, I have to assume that it borrows RAM from the minimal 8 gig system RAM in your machine. If you're running WINDOWS 8 or 8.1 64 bit, you should be able to increase the system RAM though but this might require replacing the smaller memory modules and not just adding 2 more since laptops only have 2 slots for adding RAM in most cases. However according to the specs you provided, your system can be improved by adding another 8 gig of RAM so total RAM would then be 16 gig. This will also improve the speed of your system, but only slightly.

Do not expect this system to display more than HDMI resolution nor cover the full color spectrum of AdobeRGB. It will competently display full 1080p though, so I'd just try for a larger IPS screen. There's some on-sale 23" and 24" monitors available that will fill your purposes for around $100 to $300 depending on make and model. Just be sure it's a real IPS edge-lit LED display.

With a system only having 8 gig of RAM for both programs and video processing, you really don't have much headroom in the RAM area. I think the video processing will use up 2 gig or so of that system RAM during video processing (if AMD's R4 system is similar to the Intel Integrated Graphics system).

At least you'll get 1080p resolution which is better than you're presently getting on the laptop and a brighter and wider viewing angle so colors won't fade when viewing at greater than 20 degrees off angle.

It also looks like trying to use your tablet as a monitor will not yield any improvement in resolution over your laptop display.
Your better solution is to use the HDMI output and a 1080p HDTV.
Gene can chime in if he sees something in error.

Wallbanger Loc: Madison, WI

meredith a Loc: N. California

Thank you for your knowledgeable information you have helped me more then you know.

singleviking Loc: Lake Sebu Eco Park, Philippines

Get serious dude. She can't drive UHD 4K with her laptop. Spending almost $600 for this monitor when the laptop driving it costs a little over half that amount, is like putting Perrelli P7s on a stock 1990 Toyota Corolla. They will fit and look great after showing your friends you shelled out $2000 on tires but you'll get no benefit from them.