# Best Budget Laptop?



## Ampelion (Oct 15, 2012)

I just started using lightroom (to edit a bunch of bird photos I took in Sulawesi), and it is frustratingly slow on my old laptop so I'm looking for a new one. My budget is relatively low (<$1000). I prefer Windows, and I'd like a large screen (about 17"). Which laptop meets these criteria and has the highest quality display?

Best,
Ben


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## Tony Jay (Oct 15, 2012)

Ben, with Lr4.2 you cannot get away with a poorly specified system.
Additionally get a machine that has a 64-bit version OS - probably Windows7 64-bit for you.

Others will likely give more specific advice but another option to consider is a workstation instead of a laptop since much more bang-for-the-buck is possible as well.

Regards

Tony Jay


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## Replytoken (Oct 15, 2012)

Might I suggest getting a laptop with a smaller screen and taking some of your money to buy yourself a reasonably good external monitor?  By and large, and yes there are some exceptions, laptop screens are generally not good for critical color editing.  You might be better served by finding a good IPS monitor to use with a laptop or desktop.  NEC has a store that sells refurbished monitors, and you might be able to find an affordable monitor with an IPS panel, and still have enough money for a decent W7 64-bit laptop.  Regarding laptops, I tend to go with Lenovo ThinkPads.  While some new models are not quite built like they used to be, they are generally well designed and well constructed.

Good luck,

--Ken


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## clee01l (Oct 15, 2012)

I think there may be a lot of Laptops that meet this $1000 restriction that can perform well while processing LR images.   I agree with Ken that screen size $$ might be better applied to a good auxiliary monitor.   I think most people use a laptop as a semi permanent computer doing most of there work in one spot.  To this end, a large laptop screen is not a requirement if a large screen HDTV is available (you probably have a large screen TV with a DVI0D/HDMI/VGA port)  A quad core 8GB laptop with a 15" or smaller screen will be suitable especially if there is a 25" or larger HDTV nearby.  
Also you might be able to get by with your existing laptop used for mobile requirements if those requirements do not include LR.  If you can confine your haevy LR work to ine location, then a suitable quad core tower can be had for lesst than $800 leaving $200 for a monitor if you don't already have a 1080p HDTV.


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