Some help with a laptop purchase

NotVeryTechie

Hi there

I got some fantastic advice here when I had to replace a monitor, so I hope I can get some help with a laptop purchase. I have a laptop mostly because I have space issues at home.

My requirements are:
I want a laptop with Windows 7 (can't stand Windows 8)
I use Photoshop so I need fairly good colour reproduction
I would prefer an extended keyboard
I don't do extensive gaming or any such stuff

I had a look at the
HP ProBook 455 G1 Quad Core 4GB 500GB Windows 7 Pro / Windows 8 Pro Laptop. It is a good price (£379) and I would increase the RAM from the 4GB it comes with to at least 8MB, probably 16MB. It has a 500GB harddrive.

I read a review that was not complimentary about the colour matching on this machine and that put me off a little. I still like everything else about it, but that did worry me.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

NotVeryTechie

No thoughts on this?

Handsome90

Sorry not an expert when it comes to colour accuracy of monitors. There are some photography forums (such as DPreview) who may be able to assist you in this.

fimacca

Not keen on HP. reliability ???

I would have a i3 or i5 processor, and lots of space for more memory.

Reviews ?

Lenovo are good............

Cycrow

For best colour accuracy you want to go for an IPS monitor on the laptop. These usually come in the more expensive ones thou.

what do you mean by extended keyboard, do you mean one with a separate number pad on ?

if so, you need to be looking at the larger 17" laptops.

Is there a reason you would prefer a laptop to a desktop?

esuhl

NotVeryTechie wrote: »

I want a laptop with Windows 7 (can't stand Windows 8)

You might struggle with that. Microsoft stopped selling standalone sales of Windows 7 in October 2013, and a year later withdrew its availability for PCs with a preinstalled OS.

If you can get a machine with Windows 8 Pro, you should be able to downgrade to Windows 7, however.

I'd definitely consider a desktop PC (or at least a separate monitor) if colour-accuracy is important.

NotVeryTechie

Hi there all

Thank you for the comments. I don't have the space for a desktop, so a laptop is what I will have to go with. I don't need studio quality colour on the monitor, but do need to get reasonable colour matching.

I do mean the separate keypad when I say extended keyboard.

The last laptop I bought came with Vista. I bought XP at the time and tried to downgrade, but the drivers were not available and it couldn't be done. I think you can do this on desktops, but not on a laptop. So, I ended up with Vista and have hated it all these years. It would be best to get a system that definitely can take Windows 7.

Grrr, I am so bad at making decisions and this is a big one and I don't want to get it wrong!!

Cisco001

May be look for something with IPS panel?

You will be looking to spend £500+
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/ultraNoteII-15/
https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/cosmosII/

NotVeryTechie

I love that website! I could spend all day reworking the spec

Are these, in your experience/opinion, super good quality? They are not familiar to me.