Best Lap Top Displays

<p>What type of display in a laptop works best with color photo editing? Any recommendations for a laptop in the $600 range? </p>

<p>I am not an expert, but given the color bit depth and changes with angle of view in laptops, it's hard to recommend a laptop that is good for anything except casual editing. If you are doing "serious" editing, a NEC or Eizo are the way to go though a search will locate any number of other recommendations. Many use a laptop with an external display successfully. Good luck.</p>

 

<p>you wanna order the second least expensive champagne from the wine card, but expect the best one.</p>

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<p>you wanna order the second least expensive champagne from the wine card, but expect the best one. </p>

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<p>Seems like we are a bit condescending. For $600, he wants to know what is the best laptop he can get for photo editing. What is wrong with that? <br>

Maybe if we don't have anything helpful to say, we should keep our comments to ourself.</p>

<p>I did not want to repeat that a laptop is REALLY not the best option.... for the same price you will get a much better machine in a desktop.<br />(There was no "intention" in my first answer)</p>

<p>So, Alan asks a very important question, one to which I would also like an answer.</p>

<p>I previously had an inexpensive laptop, an HP G42-415DX which I paid <$500 for about 2 years ago. Its screen is very sensitive to angle. At best, it is a poor monitor for photo editing. I frequently had to re-edit photos when I got home to my desktop and reasonably good display.</p>

<p>I now use a Toshiba Portege R830 laptop. It is a $1200 laptop. The display is much better. It is less sensitive to the angle and the photos look better. When I process photos on my laptop and later move them to my desktop, they look great and I rarely if ever have to reprocess them.</p>

<p>The Toshiba R830 specs claim the display is a "13.3" diagonal widescreen TFT display at 1366x768 native resolution" and that it is "LED backlit".</p>

<p>I have seen the displays on Apple MacBooks. They seem better to me. Are they? Can anyone quantify it?</p>

<p>I am ready to replace my desktop and want to get a good machine for photo editing. I'll probably replace it with a laptop. My current display is an LG Flatron W2361VG. I'm pretty pleased with it, but that Apple 27" display claims 2560x1440 resolution and "in-plane switching" which they claim gives a better viewing angle. If I sit head-on (as I do when editing photos) is the picture actually better?</p>

<p>And my Toshiba R830 is clearly better than my inexpensive G42, but why?</p>

<p>Any insights here would be much appreciated.</p>

 

<p>Try to get a laptop with full HD native screen resolution 1920x1080.<br>

Not sure if a $600 will get you one of them.</p>

 

<p>There are a couple of high-end HPs that have really decent IPS displays in them. These are $2500+ laptops, though. Otherwise, most laptop panels are very mediocre and certainly not optimal for photo-editing, and cheaper laptops sure will have poor panels. They're optimised for price, and that means colour depth, accurate blacks and whites etc. aren't high on the agenda. They will give a pleasant image that's not very accurate but it looks fine.<br>

Of course you could calibrate the laptop display, but at the lower prices, they will always remain a compromise. Reading online reviews may help finding the least compromised one at best. There isn't a specific brand that stands out for its superior LCD panels, so it's really a model-per-model search.</p>

<p>Compared to a really good desktop display built for high end color calibration (SpectraView from NEC) no laptop (and few desktops) come close. You can hook up just about any desktop to a laptop so get something that does the job well. The NEC P221W is their entry level unit, might be close to that budget of $600:</p>

<p>http://www.thenerds.net/NEC.NEC_Display_MultiSync_P221W_BK_SV_Widescreen_LCD_Monitor.P221WBKSV.html?affid=8&gclid=CPKTtcLzl7ICFYhxQgodS3gAZw</p>

<p>So, comparing the NEC P221W ($669) to my cheap LG (I paid $269 about 3 years ago, I think they are $149 now.) the advantage seems to be that it is "built for high-end color calibration" and it includes "the SpectraViewII Color Calibration Solution, which combines award-winning NEC LCD monitor technology with a color measurement sensor and sophisticated software."</p>

<p>Can't I just get a monitor calibation tool separately?</p>

<p>Comparing the specs from Andrew's link and <a href="http://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-W2361VG-PF-lcd-monitor">http://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-W2361VG-PF-lcd-monitor</a></p>

<p>I get:</p>

<ul>

<li>resolution 1680x1050 vs 1920x1080 (LG better)</li>

<li>22" vs. 22" (same)</li>

<li>16.7M colors vs. 16.7M (same)</li>

<li>viewing angle 178/178 vs. 170/160 (NEC better, but minor difference)</li>

<li>contrast 1000:1 vs. 50,000:1 (LG better)</li>

<li>brightness 300 Nit vs. 300 cd/m2 (I'm guessing same)</li>

</ul>

<p>So apart from color calibration, the LG seems better and is clearly cheaper.</p>

<p>What am I missing?</p>

<p>Thanks for the input everyone. I wanted a laptop to adjust photos while on vacation and traveling as I use a desktop at home. I guess i'll have to be satisfied with its limited color accuracy.</p>

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<p>So apart from color calibration, the LG seems better and is clearly cheaper.<br>

What am I missing?</p>

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<p>The LG model you have utilizes TN technology vs. PVA technology used by the NEC, and IPS technology used by better NEC monitors and most monitors by other brands favored by photographers. TN monitors are cheaper and seem to be aimed at gamers and general consumers. <br>

A simple web search on the differences among the three monitor types will be more enlightening than anything I could write in this space.</p>

<p>ME</p>

<p>How about an iPad?</p>

 

 

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<p>How about an iPad?</p>

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Can't be Color managed.

 

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Just purchased an Asus G76 with a 17.3" display, solid state, &12GB RAM. It's primarily directed at

th game market & very useful for photography.

<p>Regarding calibrating an iPad; there is reportedly now a free app from iTunes called SpyderGallery that allows calibration of an iPad using a Spyder 4 attached to an external computer (not to the iPad). I have not tried it since I use a MacBook when traveling and a Mac Pro at home. The MacBook does OK for preliminary photo editing using Aperture but I save my serious editing and printing for when I am at home.</p>

<p>http://regex.info/blog/2012-03-27/1964</p>

<p>Andrew. That's good information and will help me resist adding an iPad to my pile of, perhaps too many, Apple products (but I sure do love my older Mac Pro).</p>

<p>It seems the question is what type of sreen IN a laptop works best for photo editing. <br>

Answer: IPS or PVS screen. $600? Unlikely.</p>