New Laptop

[Peter Boughton]

it is also possible that PCSpecialist is building machines based on chassis sourced from Cleve.

Well they do have a page dedicated to Clevo machines (it's not in the menus, but is listed on the Sitemap), but more conclusively: many of the machines have photos from every angle - checking the bottom view of a couple revealed a label with Clevo on.

[Mike Farley]

Thanks, Peter, that's very useful. Based on specs it looks as though the Clevo W230SD could be what I am after. It can be spec'd up to have a full HD matte screen and it also has the advantage of a separate graphics card as it is primarily intended for gaming. I'll see what the reviews have to say.

http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/7239/

[Mike Farley]

Once image quality becomes the prime criterion for a laptop, most of the competition falls away rapidly and Apple looks to have got things pretty much sewn up with its Retina displays. The only Windows machine I have found so far which seems to match up is the Asus Zenbook UX305. Not such a high resolution as the Macbook Pro, but a matte screen to eliminate unwanted reflections. I still need to check out Clevo, which seems to supply chassis to Chillblast as well as PCSpecialist.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/computing ... 5-pdt.html

My concern with the SSD based machines is lack of storage capacity, especially the Zenbook which is only available in the one configuration. Until now, I have been able to get away without using external drives which will have to change if I decide to go for that option.

[Rose]

I have LR and PS installed on my MacBook Pro now... shall I bring it along tonight ?

[Mike Farley]

I have LR and PS installed on my MacBook Pro now... shall I bring it along tonight ?

Yes, please. Last week I spent some time at the Apple store in Regent Street going through the options, but they did not have any machines with Adobe's applications installed. It will be useful to see how it performs.

[davidc]

I have a 3k matte screen on my machine and though I could have gone for a 4k screen I opted not to because of windows scaling issues and the impact it would have on gaming. Going for the gaming video card will else improve the performance of lightroom and photoshop.

3k seems to be a nice balance for me, and the images are noticeably better in terms of colour gamut to my last laptop (which in itself was very good).

[Mike Farley]

Thanks to Rose for bringing her MacBook Pro to the club last night for me to try. Rose's machine is in a fetching shade of lilac which complemented her outfit perfectly. I am now imagining that she has a MacBook in every conceivable hue to match everything she has in her wardrobe.

Apart from, for me*, the surprising fashion commentary, the MacBook is impressive. Despite being a relatively compact 13.3", the display somehow seemed bigger and not at all cramped. The performance with Lightroom and Photoshop was on a par with my desktop, possibly a bit quicker. A downside was that the PowerPoint presentation I tried was not fully compatible with Keynote. The fonts did not match, the background did not display correctly and some of the more whizzy effects were broken. OS X does not have a PowerPoint viewer, so the options are either to install PowerPoint or create Keynote versions of the presentations.

If I do end up with a MacBook, I was thinking about buying it from PC World. Until yesterday there was a 10% discount** on offer, but that appears to have just finished. So that leaves paying full price to Apple or the wonders of Amazon Marketplace where the keenest prices seem to be. Based on people's feedback, some care needs to be exercised there to ensure that a UK spec model is supplied. I am not interested in the training offer at additional cost which is only available by purchasing at an Apple store and I can get it in the bog standard aluminium finish, which is all I want. Neither should it affect the purchase of Applecare if I want it, although I would need to check.

* My wife will no doubt attest that I hardly ever notice what she is wearing. I am a man. Enough said.

** I did ask John Lewis if it would price match under its "never knowingly undersold scheme", but it declined. As the sticker price is the same as theirs and the discount was only available by using a voucher code. Apparently that does not count even though the amount being charged to my card is lower at the till. Bizarre, but that's the way the company wants to conduct its business.

[Mike Farley]

I have a 3k matte screen on my machine and though I could have gone for a 4k screen I opted not to because of windows scaling issues and the impact it would have on gaming. Going for the gaming video card will else improve the performance of lightroom and photoshop.

3k seems to be a nice balance for me, and the images are noticeably better in terms of colour gamut to my last laptop (which in itself was very good).

My understanding is that Microsoft has already addressed scaling in Windows 8, but not all third parties have updated their applications. 4/5k screens are still quite expensive, but it is something which will be addressed as prices fall.

I am not aware of any laptops which yet come with 4/5k screens, so I presume this relates to desktop machines?

Gaming is not a consideration for me and the graphics incorporated into the CPU are reasonably powerful these days, so I would expect some benefit for Lightroom and Photoshop performance.

[Rose]

My MacBook is bog standard, the same as everyone else's Mike... But I have a silicon shell case on it for protection. And yes, you can get those in all sorts of colours from Amazon. It also came with a purple neoprene cover and purple silicon keyboard protector I drew the line at having a purple keyboard though... One can go too far...

[Mike Farley]

..... I have a silicon shell case on it for protection. And yes, you can get those in all sorts of colours from Amazon.

So you could colour co-ordinate for every occasion.