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Small But Powerful Laptop for Trip
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Oct 10, 2021 17:07:48   #
Terry in Indiana Loc: rural Indiana
 
My husband and I are taking a 3-week trip to Antarctica and I'd like to buy a small, lightweight, but powerful laptop that I can use to download my images as well as install Lightroom on so I can edit them as we go. Space and weight of luggage are at a premium, so I need small, lightweight, yet plenty of memory/hard drive. Oh...and I prefer a PC not a Mac. I've never had a "travel laptop" so this is all new to me. What recommendations can you give me? Thanks in advance!

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Oct 10, 2021 17:09:27   #
NMGal Loc: NE NM
 
Perhaps a tablet?

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Oct 10, 2021 17:31:28   #
Frank T Loc: New York, NY
 
You should look at The Surface Pro. It comes with 8 gigs of ram but you can get the platinum 0edition with 16 gigs. That should be fine for lightroom and photoshop.
Check the storage because the standard is 128 gigs so you may want to bring an external drive along.

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Oct 10, 2021 17:36:02   #
TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC
 
I have a Lenovo Thinkpad for this purpose - maybe 2-3 lbs, but very light and small. Mine is an I-5 with 1 TB SSD and 16GB RAM, but if I were buying today, I might consider an I-7. Much more powerful than a tablet with much more storage and plenty of power to run LR/PS. I’ve had a number of Thinkpads manufactured by both IBM and Lenovo (can’t tell the difference - Lenovo bought IBM’s laptop business and the manufacturing facility) and never had an issue. I’ve also had my share of Dells, and both are fine - just look at the weight, graphics, CPU, DRAM (and potential expansion) and SSD size. I would not purchase a laptop with a conventional HD.

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Oct 10, 2021 18:31:25   #
BebuLamar
 
I really don't know how to calibrate the screen of my laptop and because of that I only try to edit very little while traveling.

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Oct 10, 2021 19:17:15   #
Orphoto Loc: Oregon
 
BebuLamar wrote:
I really don't know how to calibrate the screen of my laptop and because of that I only try to edit very little while traveling.


You can calibrate it using the same tools as for a desktop.

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Oct 11, 2021 05:54:11   #
Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)
 
Terry in Indiana wrote:
My husband and I are taking a 3-week trip to Antarctica and I'd like to buy a small, lightweight, but powerful laptop that I can use to download my images as well as install Lightroom on so I can edit them as we go. Space and weight of luggage are at a premium, so I need small, lightweight, yet plenty of memory/hard drive. Oh...and I prefer a PC not a Mac. I've never had a "travel laptop" so this is all new to me. What recommendations can you give me? Thanks in advance!


This is a very vague and open-ended question. Maybe post some criteria like price, weight, storage capacity, screen size, etc. "Small but powerful" and "plenty of memory/hard drive" means different things to different people.

Here are some ideas:

https://www.techradar.com/news/best-laptops-for-photographers-and-photo-editing-in-photoshop

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Oct 11, 2021 06:35:52   #
jeffhacker Loc: Dallas, Texas
 
Terry in Indiana wrote:
My husband and I are taking a 3-week trip to Antarctica and I'd like to buy a small, lightweight, but powerful laptop that I can use to download my images as well as install Lightroom on so I can edit them as we go. Space and weight of luggage are at a premium, so I need small, lightweight, yet plenty of memory/hard drive. Oh...and I prefer a PC not a Mac. I've never had a "travel laptop" so this is all new to me. What recommendations can you give me? Thanks in advance!


I use a 13.3 inch MacBook Pro. Mine is a couple of years old, with an I5 intel processor, but the newest one with the M1 Apple processor should show even better battery life. I have a 512 gb SSD usually get about 7-8 hours on a battery charge. Much better than my other "travel" computer, a Dell XPS with an i-7 processor, which barely makes 3 hours. Same size drive on that. And, the new model can be had with 1 terabyte SSD if you want. I'm running Lightroom and Photoshop without problems.

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Oct 11, 2021 06:57:42   #
Rongnongno Loc: FL
 
I purchased the Dell XPS 15. I am using it as I type.
I am in Europe traveling.
I have had no issue and the battery last long enough for me (about three hours).
64GB, 2TB drive, i7. 15 inches
Price: $1,800.00

There are only two flaws:
It is possible to use two separate drives with this laptop. The internal drive connector is poorly placed and limits the drive size.
The number of connectors is limited. A HDMI is included, which is nice.

 


(Download)

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Oct 11, 2021 07:12:46   #
mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma
 
I bring my 13” MacBook Pro and 1T external drive on longer trips. Easy to pack and has everything I need.

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Oct 11, 2021 08:43:18   #
osoblancophoto Loc: Venice FL
 
Terry in Indiana wrote:
My husband and I are taking a 3-week trip to Antarctica and I'd like to buy a small, lightweight, but powerful laptop that I can use to download my images as well as install Lightroom on so I can edit them as we go. Space and weight of luggage are at a premium, so I need small, lightweight, yet plenty of memory/hard drive. Oh...and I prefer a PC not a Mac. I've never had a "travel laptop" so this is all new to me. What recommendations can you give me? Thanks in advance!


I use a Lenovo Carbon X1 14" and I absolutely love it. Super light and powerful in a small form- lighter and not much larger than most 13" models

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Oct 11, 2021 09:12:34   #
Chrisfarr
 
Check out the ASUS Vivobook i7 (10th generation or higher) 16 GB memory, 500 GB drive and a dedicated graphics processor. It is blazing fast. I bought one on a recommendation from B&H last year and am delighted -- they come in a variety of screen sizes -- I bought a large 14 inch screen because of poor eyes, but you could easily choose a smaller one and plug it into a big screen monitor at home. It is lightweight, very powerful, fast and has the best screen I've ever seen on a laptop. Great colors and a wide viewing angle. Mine cost $ 1500. (There are lots of different models -- mine was specifically recommended for graphic design/photo processing.)

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Oct 11, 2021 09:15:37   #
dbjazz Loc: Long Island, NY
 
Take a look at the Lenovo Ideapad 730S. I travel with mine all the time. It's small, lightweight, fast, and powerful.

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Oct 11, 2021 09:20:28   #
lsimpkins Loc: SE Pennsylvania
 
Rongnongno wrote:
I purchased the Dell XPS 15. I am using it as I type.
I am in Europe traveling.
I have had no issue and the battery last long enough for me (about three hours).
64GB, 2TB drive, i7. 15 inches
Price: $1,800.00

There are only two flaws:
It is possible to use two separate drives with this laptop. The internal drive connector is poorly placed and limits the drive size.
The number of connectors is limited. A HDMI is included, which is nice.

 
I purchased the Dell XPS 15. I am using it as I t... (show quote)


Your configuration is excellent for post production. I might add that the XPS also comes in 13" versions and that Costco usually has a good deal on one or two variants.

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Oct 11, 2021 09:42:38   #
Lighthouse51
 
I recently bought a Microsoft Surface for the same reasons, and I could not be happier with it. As an added plus, you can detach the screen and use it as a tablet. I uploaded some 1500 pictures I took while in Barcelona. They were in NEF and I converted them to DNG, on the laptop. I edited them in Lightroom, with excursions into Photoshop, both of which are installed on it. While it took a little longer than my desktop, I didn't switch back. Be sure to get as much memory as you can since photo editing goes much faster the more memory you have.

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