Laptop for 6th Form

deejaybee

Hi


My daughter requires a laptop for 6th Form .


Main applications used will be Photoshop ( one of her subjects is Photography ) and Word.


Needs to have good battery life,and not heavy.


The plan was to get the following :


https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=4UG09EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB


She ran it past a family member who works in IT, and he reckoned the spec was decent for the money ( she would get a student discount also )


Alas, it is out of stock currently, so in the meantime i would appreciate critique of the above model, and also alternative suggestions, either new or recon etc


Thanks

jbainbridge

Looks ok.

I prefer this https://www.ebuyer.com/900693-asus-x409fa-ek034t-core-i5-8gb-256gb-ssd-14-win10-home-laptop-x409fa-ek034t

Thinking about it .. I'd get this https://www.ebuyer.com/900688-asus-x409ua-ek035t-core-i3-4gb-256gb-ssd-14-win10-home-laptop-x409ua-ek035t. Better value and the i3 processor will probably mean the battery lasts a bit longer. Should still handle Photoshop etc.

debitcardmayhem

jbainbridge wrote: »

Looks ok.

I prefer this https://www.ebuyer.com/900693-asus-x409fa-ek034t-core-i5-8gb-256gb-ssd-14-win10-home-laptop-x409fa-ek034t

Thinking about it .. I'd get this https://www.ebuyer.com/900688-asus-x409ua-ek035t-core-i3-4gb-256gb-ssd-14-win10-home-laptop-x409ua-ek035t. Better value and the i3 processor will probably mean the battery lasts a bit longer. Should still handle Photoshop etc.

Realistically the i3 has not enough memory for photography , and laptops at the mid range price point aren't going to give great colour gamut, ok it's not for semi pro use, but just saying.

EveryWhere

deejaybee wrote: »

Hi


My daughter requires a laptop for 6th Form .


Main applications used will be Photoshop ( one of her subjects is Photography ) and Word.


Needs to have good battery life,and not heavy.


The plan was to get the following :


https://store.hp.com/UKStore/Merch/Product.aspx?id=4UG09EA&opt=ABU&sel=NTB


She ran it past a family member who works in IT, and he reckoned the spec was decent for the money ( she would get a student discount also )


Alas, it is out of stock currently, so in the meantime i would appreciate critique of the above model, and also alternative suggestions, either new or recon etc


Thanks

In this case one has to pay special attention to it's ability to reproduce colours. If you can get a 4k colour accurate screen, all the better.

Examples may advertise themselves as covering 100% Adobe RGB. You'll want to get as close to that as possible. sRGB is possibly more important to photographers. but it gives you an idea.

A couple of examples with 4k resolution screens;
https://www.dell.com/ph/p/xps-15-9560-laptop/pd
https://www.asus.com/uk/Laptops/ASUS-ZenBook-Pro-15-UX550GD/

You might find a refurb here and there. Though make sure parts haven't been changed or that you accidentally bid on a Full HD version.. You can check Dell machines via their Service Tags.

Typical reviews can be found at NotebookCheck;

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-XPS-15-9560-i7-7700HQ-UHD-Laptop-Review.200648.0.html

that

Wow i5 and i7 recommended with 4GB not enough memory and 4k screens - for 6th form school work??? Really! There was me thinking or a circa £200 recon, Ok, i'm old and jaded, bring back the slate board

deejaybee

Thanks for the feedback so far, appreciated :T

cranford

I have a similar I5 touch screen model to the one you are interested.
It has a good keyboard, good battery life and is very portable and HP don't seem to put loads of bloatware on it so only takes 10 mins to set up. The performance is the same as a similar spec Lenovo Yoga I7 that is 3 years old (given to grandson).
Don't forget to get your daughter to back every thing up on pen drives or even a external drive!
Rather than pay for Word I use the free Libreoffice as Microsoft now charge per year for office although the Student version may be different but its over £100.

Farway

cranford wrote: »

Don't forget to get your daughter to back every thing up on pen drives or even a external drive!
.

This aspect is critical, my grandson has just completed his photography, all images taken on the course had to be on the school's system

Unfortunately this system was deleted in error and a lot of the pupils lost all their course work
Luckily he had separate back up
I only mention it as a word of warning not to rely on one back up source

EveryWhere

that wrote: »

Wow i5 and i7 recommended with 4GB not enough memory and 4k screens - for 6th form school work??? Really! There was me thinking or a circa £200 recon, Ok, i'm old and jaded, bring back the slate board

It's just a foundation from which to begin research. Knowing what is best for Photoshop and photography.
So you know where you can compromise. £600 is a lot to spend on a laptop, so best to concentrate the resources on the most important aspects. Resolution and colour accuracy will be high on that list.
You can compromise on other aspects.

cranford

If you need to purchase soon then you could consider the HP 14-dk0018na Full-HD Laptop which has just been reduced to £599 (plus your student discount).
This has an AMD Ryzen 7 processor which is just under the Intel I7 but the integrated Ryzen graphics processor is superior to the integrated Intel 620 graphics processor which may give improved photo editing.
You could also ring Hp about delivery times on the laptop you were interested in. When I ordered the laptop I have was out off stock just for a few days.

EveryWhere

cranford wrote: »

If you need to purchase soon then you could consider the HP 14-dk0018na Full-HD Laptop which has just been reduced to £599 (plus your student discount).
This has an AMD Ryzen 7 processor which is just under the Intel I7 but the integrated Ryzen graphics processor is superior to the integrated Intel 620 graphics processor which may give improved photo editing.
You could also ring Hp about delivery times on the laptop you were interested in. When I ordered the laptop I have was out off stock just for a few days.

Ignoring both colour reproduction and screen resolution.....