TR Forums

Hey guys,

So I got a DSLR and I'm traveling ALLOT! That means I have a hard time working with all these photos etc. I know I've started other mobile computer threads but I never followed through. At this point though I think its time to pick an item and start saving for it.

What products would you say I should look for, a high density mac book pro? I'm looking for something I can work on images on. I'm open for any and all recommendations as far as what sort of device that should be.

I had considered the surface pro but its about 3 inches smaller than I care to work with honestly, I want something slightly larger. Additionally its battery life is atrocious. Perhaps there is nothing out there that you guys would recommend but maybe there is something on the horizon I should look for. I need windows 8, and as such would expect touch input.

Thanks.

I'd definitely recommend a laptop with a high density IPS panel. You'll see more of your images and enjoy better color accuracy. Obviously you're going to need a reasonable amount of processing power, and it sounds like you're concerned about battery life as well. If you're not in a hurry I'd say start saving your pennies now and keep an eye out for Haswell laptops as they start hitting the market. Should be a bunch more hitting the market over the next couple months. If you need something more immediately, it gets into how much you're looking to spend, how much do you really care about battery vs. power, are you willing to carry along an external harddrive or do you need massive storage built in...

AntiSp4wn wrote:

I'd definitely recommend a laptop with a high density IPS panel. You'll see more of your images and enjoy better color accuracy. Obviously you're going to need a reasonable amount of processing power, and it sounds like you're concerned about battery life as well. If you're not in a hurry I'd say start saving your pennies now and keep an eye out for Haswell laptops as they start hitting the market. Should be a bunch more hitting the market over the next couple months. If you need something more immediately, it gets into how much you're looking to spend, how much do you really care about battery vs. power, are you willing to carry along an external harddrive or do you need massive storage built in...

Portability, i'm happy with a 13" laptop but beyond a tablet that is a little small to work with images. So I think I'm considering 2 different products, a laptop and a tablet. Tablet I'd like a 13" as 10 is just too small for a functional tool in these regards but is not so big its unweildly. Laptop wise I expect a 13 will feel small for what I'm trying to do, and so perhaps a 14 or 15 inch is preferrable. Heck maybe a 17 inch! I don't know. I probably need to get some time at a micro center or bestbuy to consider.

Mac Pros are some of the nicest pieces of hardware out right now. I'm not sure there are still 17" laptops that aren't complete bricks. If you don't mind the weight, Dell Precisions are nice.

kamikaziechameleon wrote:

I had considered the surface pro...

Don't do it. The hardware is nice, but the software is awful.

Flatland_Spider wrote:

Mac Pros are some of the nicest pieces of hardware out right now. I'm not sure there are still 17" laptops that aren't complete bricks. If you don't mind the weight, Dell Precisions are nice.

kamikaziechameleon wrote:

I had considered the surface pro...

Don't do it. The hardware is nice, but the software is awful.

I have windows 8 on my home pc, my work pc and soon on my phone. I'm not afraid of windows 8 in any way. I understand the gripes people have with it and they are right to complain in the way they do. But I get too much from its benefits to get caught up in protesting the very prevalent inadequacies.

I think Sharp makes some high-dpi laptops? Wait, Toshiba using a Sharp panel?

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/05/ ... cbook-pro/

I guess as long as you can live with Windows sucking at scaling UI elements with DPI, you should be fine. I'm assuming you were going to run Win8 on the Mac anyway.

Razer Blade? Razer Blade Pro? The key requirement here if you're serious about photography would be an IPS panel. Which greatly reduces your options. I don't know of any laptops outside of the Razer Blade series or the 15" Retina MBP that gives you both IPS and a quad-core CPU.

Scrotos wrote:

I'm assuming you were going to run Win8 on the Mac anyway.

Yeah, I'd have to. I own a Ipad and honestly am not impressed with the OS in the slightest. Its really just takes the nuts out of a computer to work in their constrained environment. Simple basic fundamental functions are stripped out and require stupid levels of thought to work around. I never had issues with my android 4 phone that I have with my ipad 3.

slowriot wrote:

Razer Blade? Razer Blade Pro? The key requirement here if you're serious about photography would be an IPS panel. Which greatly reduces your options. I don't know of any laptops outside of the Razer Blade series or the 15" Retina MBP that gives you both IPS and a quad-core CPU.

Laptop wise it does appear to be a horrible selection to pick from. The razors are nice but the MBP is best. The Toshiba is a compelling offer, oh how it looks that I should wait for haswell. I'm saving... I'd love to get some sort of tablet with a wacom pen, would absolutely change my world. But the screen density and size for the surface pro is just too small for me. I got to mess with it over the weekend, I want it in 13" 10 inch tablets are only good for reading books.

kamikaziechameleon wrote:

I have windows 8 on my home pc, my work pc and soon on my phone. I'm not afraid of windows 8 in any way. I understand the gripes people have with it and they are right to complain in the way they do. But I get too much from its benefits to get caught up in protesting the very prevalent inadequacies.

It's a totally different experience when the primary interface is touch. The Surface comes with a stylus, if that tells you anything, and I ended up setting it up with a mouse and keyboard when I had to set one up for my Boss.

I don't get any benefits from it, so they don't make up for its inadequacies.

kamikaziechameleon wrote:

Yeah, I'd have to. I own a Ipad and honestly am not impressed with the OS in the slightest. Its really just takes the nuts out of a computer to work in their constrained environment. Simple basic fundamental functions are stripped out and require stupid levels of thought to work around. I never had issues with my android 4 phone that I have with my ipad 3.

OS X is different then iOS. OS X is a full featured operating system, and iOS is an application oriented operating system. The difference being that in iOS each application holds all of its data in a binary blob, and if the data is going to be shared, the application has to have an API/ABI that allows that.

You're expecting things from iOS that it was never designed to do. As long as you accept iOS was design for people to consume content, rather then create content, with each application holding it's own data, you'll have a much better experience.

Android on the other hand, was designed more like a traditional operating system, which is why you didn't have to work around stuff. Applications are just programs that manipulate data on a filesystem.

slowriot wrote:

The key requirement here if you're serious about photography would be an IPS panel. Which greatly reduces your options. I don't know of any laptops outside of the Razer Blade series or the 15" Retina MBP that gives you both IPS and a quad-core CPU.

Dell Precision Laptops can be ordered with an IPS panel, a quad-core CPU, along with boats loads of RAM and storage. The trade off is the weight.

kamikaziechameleon wrote:

Yeah, I'd have to. I own a Ipad and honestly am not impressed with the OS in the slightest. Its really just takes the nuts out of a computer to work in their constrained environment. Simple basic fundamental functions are stripped out and require stupid levels of thought to work around. I never had issues with my android 4 phone that I have with my ipad 3.

As was mentioned, iOS and OS X are totally different. Unless you need specific Windows only software, if you get a Macbook you will be better off getting used to OS X.

With the title "mobile development" I thought this thread was going in a completely different direction, but funnily enough the recommendation still would have been a Mac with OS X.

Flatland_Spider wrote:

kamikaziechameleon wrote:

I have windows 8 on my home pc, my work pc and soon on my phone. I'm not afraid of windows 8 in any way. I understand the gripes people have with it and they are right to complain in the way they do. But I get too much from its benefits to get caught up in protesting the very prevalent inadequacies.

It's a totally different experience when the primary interface is touch. The Surface comes with a stylus, if that tells you anything, and I ended up setting it up with a mouse and keyboard when I had to set one up for my Boss.

I don't get any benefits from it, so they don't make up for its inadequacies.

kamikaziechameleon wrote:

Yeah, I'd have to. I own a Ipad and honestly am not impressed with the OS in the slightest. Its really just takes the nuts out of a computer to work in their constrained environment. Simple basic fundamental functions are stripped out and require stupid levels of thought to work around. I never had issues with my android 4 phone that I have with my ipad 3.

OS X is different then iOS. OS X is a full featured operating system, and iOS is an application oriented operating system. The difference being that in iOS each application holds all of its data in a binary blob, and if the data is going to be shared, the application has to have an API/ABI that allows that.

You're expecting things from iOS that it was never designed to do. As long as you accept iOS was design for people to consume content, rather then create content, with each application holding it's own data, you'll have a much better experience.

Android on the other hand, was designed more like a traditional operating system, which is why you didn't have to work around stuff. Applications are just programs that manipulate data on a filesystem.

slowriot wrote:

The key requirement here if you're serious about photography would be an IPS panel. Which greatly reduces your options. I don't know of any laptops outside of the Razer Blade series or the 15" Retina MBP that gives you both IPS and a quad-core CPU.

Dell Precision Laptops can be ordered with an IPS panel, a quad-core CPU, along with boats loads of RAM and storage. The trade off is the weight.

I've worked in OSx as a development environment before and I simply don't like it. A large portion of that is simply a taste thing, I don't care for the GUI at all, but I also have several technical underpinnings that drive me crazy.

As I am looking for something that can travel I don't want a brick if I can avoid it.

Also working with the win 8 surface pro I did like it ALLOT I just can't work in a 10" tablet, its too small for me I want a 13" tablet. I don't know why the rest of the world is going to smaller tablets it drives me crazy.