# Is there a good 14" windows laptop for lightroom?



## Roelof Moorlag (Jan 16, 2014)

I'm considering purchasing  a 14" because it seems to me the perfect size. 15" is too big for traveling and 13" too small for work on whole days.
However i have some requirements...
The specs i'm thinking of:

- Powerfull enough to run Lightroom 5 smoothly and tethering or greenscreen software (Photokey 6)
- I think this does mean: i7 processor and a ssd drive (or hybride?)
- Stamina. I have to work on it in the field as long as possible
- Does this mean a 4th gen processor with U at the end? Is it powerfull enough?
- Good screen (matt?) and keyboard
- Solid build
- 16 Gb RAM ?

Is this overkill?
It does not have to be a ultrabook, design is not important to me. Neither touchscreen is important to me.
I was thinking of the Lenovo Thinkpad T440S or P, Dell XPs14 and some other cheaper models from Thosiba and Asus.
Or is it better to look at 15" models?

The reviews i consulted were mainly focused on portability or gaming. Photography is hardly ever a criteria.
I hope to get some good advise here 
Thanks, Roelof


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## Replytoken (Jan 17, 2014)

Laptops are a somewhat personal decision, so while there are good solutions, and less than optimal solutions, it all comes down to trade-offs.  I have traditionally purchased 14" Lenovo Thinkpads because I like their build quality, support, keyboards, and value, but it comes at the expense of weight (not heavy, but not light) and screen quality.  The latter is mostly not an issue because I have two NEC monitors on my desk at home.  I think most of your specs. are fine, but it will be difficult to find a laptop with a good screen.  I believe that some Apple's machines have more friendly screens for photographers, but using a laptop screen is almost never going to be the same as a high quality desktop monitor.

Good luck,

--Ken


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## Roelof Moorlag (Jan 17, 2014)

Thanks Ken,
I'm aware of the trade-offs but it's difficult to find experiences from other photographers (other than Macs  )
Al the colour critical work i'm going to do back at home. It just have to be good, not perfect 
Roelof


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## John W (Jan 17, 2014)

This is my first post on this forum so hello to all members.

I thought I'd contribute to this because I think I will be facing similar decisions in the near future and I've been giving the matter a little thought recently.

Over the past dozen years or so I have bought 3 desktop computers and a laptop (for my daughter) from  Novatech (a UK company). I have been happy with their products and their customer support (both sales and service). Incidentally, I would be interested in any comments others might have about this company.

The reason I mention them is that the company seems to be very good at configuring computers to match the requirements of their customers and their pricing is competitive. There is one that appears to come very close to the requirements that Roelof listed, see

http://www.novatech.co.uk/laptop/range/novatechnfinityn1414.html

(I think there must be an error on that web page: the way it is presented it appears that the computer with Windows 8 is £750 but it goes up to  £935 for Windows 8.1, this would have to be checked)


The screen resolution is low (1366 x 768) but I think that's not surprising for a 14" laptop. The other point is that it is advertised as having 8 Gb RAM but is capable of being expanded to 16 Gb. If you would prefer to have 16 Gb I suggest that you contact the sales people (they respond within 24 hours), it may be that they would do the upgrade for you, they could certainly supply the additional memory. It has a touch screen which may mean that you would want to look elsewhere.

I would be interested to know if other forum members think that this would be close to an optimum solution for Lightroom at the price. 

In case you have suspicions, I have no connection with Novatech other than being one of their customers.

When I get closer to the point when I want to buy a new machine, I intend to come back to the forum for comments and advice. You all seem to be very helpful, enthusiastic and well-behaved.

John.


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## Victoria Bampton (Jan 18, 2014)

Hi John, welcome to the forum!  We're always well-behaved!  

Yes, I've used Novatech many times over the years, although it's been a few years since I last had cause to purchase anything from them.  www.pcspecialist.co.uk is another I tend to look at when researching Windows machines too.


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## davidedric (Jan 20, 2014)

In the UK,  so may be of limited interest,  there is also Chillblast.   They do have expertise in putting together photo editing systems,  and in matching components .  I bought a desktop from them last summer, it wasn't cheap, but it goes like smoke and I am happy with it.   You could contact them and see what they suggest or offer.


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