Good, cheap, portable laptop for graphic design

subywagon on 26/02/2015 - 23:41

I'm trying to figure out what laptop would be the best value for money for my situation. As I do a lot of Photoshop and Illustrator work (often have both programs with multiple windows open at a time) I need something that would easily handle such abuse, no spinning wheel of death please! At the same time I don't really need it for gaming (I use my PC for that), but it does need to be portable as I often travel, either overseas or just to clients around the city.

Oh and I'm probably the ONE graphic designer that doesn't really buy into the Apple brand… I will consider if it's value for money though!

So please give forth suggestions as what laptop could best suit my situation.

Thanks guys :)

Computing Computer Laptop

Comments

  • scotty on 27/02/2015 - 00:17
    +1

    Budget? MS Surface Pro 2/3? Probably not "cheap" but they are certainly very portable & great for graphical work / illustrations.

    • the-mal on 27/02/2015 - 08:01

      Second the Surface. Definitely not cheap but if you want good graphic performance you won't find a cheap portable laptop that fits the bill.

      Cheap. Portable. Good performance. Pick two.

  • plmko on 27/02/2015 - 03:30
    +1

    I'm actually someone looking for similar things and there's one thing in common: if you want serious colour gamut for photoshop, pony up the cash.

    Initially I was looking to spend ~$1000 but it looks like I'm going to have to go close to $2000.

  • mrmarkau67 on 27/02/2015 - 09:17

    The gold standard for this kind of work is Dell Precision and HP Zbook. They have dedicated GPUs and are certified by the graphic design software vendors.

    But these are very expensive. If you need something more affordable but still very portable, go for Macbook Pro.

    Or go for an older secondhand windows machine and sacrifice battery life and portability. You can get great value for money because high end windows laptops depreciate fast.

  • subywagon on 01/03/2015 - 11:35

    My budget is around $1000. Unfortunately these days my graphic design work consists mostly of creating adverts and not much illustrative work (hopefully I can get back into it in the future) so I don't really need touch screen tablet like capabilities at this point. Also as my work is web-based, not print, color gamut isn't a priority.

    Basically I work with a lot of high res photos/graphics and have multiple AI and PSD files open at once creating adverts, along with chrome windows while working in Wordpress at the same time. So I need something with a lot of grunt. I'm starting to think a gaming laptop might end up being the way to go for me?

    • iridiumstem on 01/03/2015 - 12:12

      2nd hand ThinkPad W series?

      Though as the-mal have mentioned you usually have to choose between cheap, portable, and good performance, and from my experience, cheap and build quality usually don't go together unless you look at refurb or second hand stuff.

  • subywagon on 01/03/2015 - 13:38

    Thanks for the replies.

    Yeah you are right AznMitch. I guess I need a good balance between power and portability.

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