Asklemmy @lemmy.ml TheSlyFox @lemmy.zip 8 mo. ago

What's a good laptop for dev / adobe suite?

I recently started working with a lot of clients that use the adobe suite, mostly illustrator. And wanted to get a laptop to work and move around with.

I'm trying to stay away from apple, seeing those prices for the storage they have I'm looking for another option.

I'm looking into ThinkPads but there are so many options I don't know what would be a good choice, must have a good bright screen and a good keyboard.

19 comments

Do not get a Thinkpad if you're using it for graphic design. The screen color calibration is terrible (even when compared to low end devices)

Last I checked I think some of the Dell laptops have a decent screen (XPS, latitude lines). But they tend to be more on the pricer side.
- Yeah colours on my T14s sucks, but good enough for engineering
  
  My T480 is my favorite laptop. But this is NOT one of its use cases.
- That’s not universally true. My thinkpad has the most colour accurate screen in my house. Much better then my apple laptops or pretty decent dell screens.
  
  The issue is Lenovo will also sell absolute garbage screens, so you need to pay attention when ordering. Iirc mine was a $500 upgrade or something equally shocking.
  
  Yeah, my school provided X280 that I later bought out for cheap had a TERRIBLE screen
- oh i see! , ill check the XPS, my budget is around $1,000ish USD, see what i can find
  
  I had nothing but bad experiences with my xps. Two fan failures and now a battery failure in the last few years.
  
  The XPS my dad has is amazing, but I think it was significantly more than $1k, closer to $2k.
I’m kinda with the other person…go with an Apple, even a cheap air will work better than any windows option (my m2 air literally works better with adobe stuff than my custom built gaming pc with a 3080 in it). Yeah the storage thing sucks, but you should be using a NAS for your data storage anyway, and if you do really need it for things like travel, you can always get an m.2 nvme USB stick and put literally whatever size m.2 in it you want. But yeah, the storage situation sucks in Apple land.
- I didn't know about n.2nvme USB!, I'll look into that, I have an m1 air, memory and ram is the problem. Probably go up to a pro? Or an air with more ram then?
  
  Hm. I'm not sure. my air I think only has 16gb, but I'm able to run Lightroom, Photoshop, IntelliJ, and Insta360's whatever it's called all at the same time. The biggest downside with the airs is that they have no fans so they get hot rather than allowing full use. If I was using it for clients I would definitely go with a Pro. I'm mostly using it for personal use. My work laptop is an M1 Max with 32GB and it just chugs through anything I throw at it, but that's like... $4.5k lol. Not sure I would suggest that. But like, 16gb on a Pro is probably what I would go with if I was going to upgrade my air and needed something beefier. I have 1tb on my pro and I immediately maxed out the storage cause I shoot in raw. I do wish I had gotten 2TB of storage, but it's so expensive. It's honestly the worst balancing act, but macOS is sooooo much better for adobe software (and programming) that it just really isn't worth it for a windows or linux computer with higher specs.
  
  sooo. I'd recommend a Pro, with at least 16gb of ram. That will probably cover all your needs. You might be juggling stuff with your usb drives, but that's kinda a fact of life with lots of assets anyway, so I'm not sure that's a pro or con over other laptops. Get enough that you can hold at least like 3 clients at once on your drive.
  
  I have these two usb m.2 cases:
  
  https://www.dockcase.com/products/dockcase-explorer-edition-m2-nvme-smart-ssd-enclosure-pro-glossy-silver
  
  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08G14NBCS
  
  I actually like the second more. The first is really cool and has an extra output/input for power and 5second power loss capacitor backup and stuff, but it's wayyy bigger and I just don't need that when I already carry too much camera stuff. It's also way cheaper lol, leaving you more money to buy bigger drives.
I use a framework for my laptop. I brought my own ram and storage.
I got a Dell xps 9310 last year and I love it, it's small and powerful, everything I need for Adobe suite and DaVinci resolve.
Just get a MacBook Pro.

I don’t get the stubbornness that makes you choose an inferior tool. It’s a piece of equipment you need to do your job, just get the best equipment you can. Why would you sabotage yourself by using shitty tools?

If you’re a professional developer you really only need one main piece of equipment to do your job and it’s not even a lot of money to begin with. Compare this to many other trades. For example: a nephew of mine installs A/V equipment, basically a glorified electrician. He drives a €25k van with about €15k worth of tools and supplies in the back. I bet his hourly rate is less than yours.

Drop €4-5k on a nice loaded MacBook Pro. That’s, what ? One week of billable hours?
- He literally said, the price for the storage. That's why.
  
  You can get external storage.
  
  Which is a bullshit reason. Even if he needed to max it out, that’s a couple of thousand extra at the most. It’s a business expense and a small one at that. The time wasted looking for an alternative is probably costing him more than he’s saving.

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