burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

At first, yes… But then it gets easier. It’s much like driving a Ford rental car after 40+ years of driving a Toyota. “Where’s the $#!!ty wiper switch???”

bocaphotogal

I've had a series of problems with Lenovo on two computers and supposedly they are manufactured in China. The customer service has been awful. Could just be my experience but I would never buy a Lenovo product again.

ricosha Loc: Phoenix, Arizona

I have used a number of small laptops for the same use you are going to use. I've owned HP to Dell. I like the off the shelf Asus, 14" models. They can come with a fast # 7 series chips and large spinner hard drive. I have had the Asus last up to 7 years without a problem. With HP's I never get more than 4 years and don't ask me about Dell...terrible service, sent it back twice and nothing changed. Ended up tearing it apart and installing new components as a shell build out, which was cheaper than Dell's cost to repair even with a warranty. I've owned Sony, but a lot of propriety software you may never use. I would also recommend a small portable drive to back up the files.

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I completely understand, and I can’t say definitively where your Lenovo was manufactured - could have easily been China (everything else is manufactured there). But I can tell you that when Lenovo bought the laptop business from IBM, they bought everything including the assembly line, which is about 10 miles from me in RTP, NC and was my customer for many years. I haven’t been in their plant for a few years, but the last time I was there, they were manufacturing Thinkpad Laptops, and my Lenovo Thinkpad was made in the US.

Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

I second the Dell XPS 15, with a caution. This is a copy of the eMail I sent to their tech support:

"My laptop is up and running; I have a few comments that you can improve on. I've attached benchmarks of a 'after' and 'factor' issue. The current machine is great, and vastly improved.

You should not use the M.2 drive that was supplied... it is inferior. The one benchmark shows the improvement over the factory M.2. I've thrown better stuff out. The improvement on the new M.2 does not rely on it being 'raided' to improve the results.

In addition, you should provide the latest BIOS for both the motherboard and the graphics card. Both supplied BIOS had been updated numerous times.

You should also set the graphics to the default graphics card and not the Intel motherboard processor. You can see the improvements in the attached files.

Your technical guys should be aware of the above. I'm still happy with the computer, but am a little disappointed with the original product."


The screen is one of the best I've seen... much better than Apple, and I understand it comes in a 13" screen. I ordered it with the small M.2 drive with the intent of putting in a couple of 1TB drives. Dell immediately informed me that the warranty would be void... so before installing the new M.2s, I stress tested the system for a week... putting it through more work that it would likely see in its lifetime. There are several programs that stress test graphics, memory, processor, etc. You should stress test it before you take it and leave enough time to buy another in the event it fails. Stress testing may void the warranty, too, I don't know. Their M.2 drive prices are high and the quality is terrible... Once the laptop was 'fixed' it is a great machine.

Dik

Zeke4351 Loc: Kentucky

Doesn’t need to be powerful if you upload your files into Adobe Cloud until you get back home to the desktop. Some phones will work. Enjoy your trip.

BebuLamar

I guess because I am getting old and really don't want to learn new tricks. I must have a PC because I have to use software that are not available for the Mac.

Dikdik Loc: Winnipeg, Canada

To me, unless you just want a computing tool, the PC is far better... I can easily tinker with all of mine. Many of the Apple tekkies, have PCs at home for this very reason.

Robertl594 Loc: Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and Nantucket

Not sure that I can make this decision. I too have the same dilemma. I love small, light computers to travel wtih. I currently use a Surface Pro. My issues are twofold.
1. I am so used to working on a large monitor, that I find my laptop useless anymore.
2. Transfering your images to your computer takes up a lot of space. I would suggest that you take plenty of cards and keep all of your images on your cards UNTIL you get home and can put them on your home computer. I would also suggest that you COPY the cards to your computer daily so that you have a backup. Do not erase your cards until you get home. Depending on how large your HDD is, you might consider Sandisk Extreme Portable USB drives that comes in 1,2 and 4 TB sizes. They are very small and durable.
Depending on the number of USB ports your computer has, (Mine has 1) you will also need a USB hub to connect both your card reader (or camera) and your external hard drive at the same time. Hubs are very small as well. You won't need a powered one, unless you are wanting to charge your devices off of the hub.
Make sure you get a USB 3.0 for speed however.

I always shoot RAW, not JPEG, so my files do take up more space. But I like the attributes of RAW much better than JPEG, and storage space is CHEAP, so why shoot JPEG anyway?

https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/portable-drives/sandisk-extreme-usb-3-1-ssd?ef_id=EAIaIQobChMI-f3A8f7M8wIVhGxvBB0M8AESEAQYASABEgJpPPD_BwE:G:s&s_kwcid=AL!15012!3!392794529943!!!u!947523795825!!7626467994!81450730015&utm_medium=pdsh2&utm_source=gads&utm_campaign=SanDisk-US-PLA&utm_content=947523795825&utm_term=SDSSDE60-1T00-G25#SDSSDE60-1T00-G25

https://www.amazon.com/Hub%EF%BC%8CVENTION-Ultra-Slim-Splitter-Supported-Compatible/dp/B08GY3GKRC/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=usb+port&qid=1634320922&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzS0pXWUVNRDFXTllGJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwMDE0MTI1MVpGNVRMTDJXMlczViZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwMTYwMjg1MURFOUMzMkxIM0VJVCZ3aWRnZXROYW1lPXNwX2F0ZiZhY3Rpb249Y2xpY2tSZWRpcmVjdCZkb05vdExvZ0NsaWNrPXRydWU=

dick ranez

This link is for minimum system requirements for lightroom.

https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom-cc/system-requirements.html

Print it out and take it to wherever you might buy a computer and have someone make a recommendation that's within your budget.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Ya might just wanna go on over to Apple.com and see what they introduced today. It's pretty special. If you watch the video, the Mac announcements start about 14 minutes into it.

Be patient, they're swamped with orders at the moment. Their whole site is running slowly.

Rick0747

I hope you haven't left yet (Antarctica is on my bucket list). I have a HP Elite Dragonfly laptop. Very light, small footprint yet has great memory and connectivity. The screen is also touch screen if desired.

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8665U CPU @ 1.90GHz 2.11 GHz
Installed RAM 16.0 GB (15.8 GB usable)
Hard Drive - 1 TB SSD
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Pen and touch Pen and touch support with 10 touch points