Bob
I have a sort of bread and butter hp Pavilion ze4200 and it has not problem handling Elements. My wife has an older lowly IBM think pad with something like a 320 mhz processor and it handles Elements well, although a bit slower but not appreciably. The big problem is the screen. If the tilt is wrong or the light in the room is wrong you will have trouble balancing the colours. How and where you sit will help lessen this problem. What you will need is an extra pointing device, an external mouse is cheap and will save you countless cuss words.
Grant
I bought a Compaq Presario X1010US last December and I can run Elements and CorelDraw 12 on it without any problems (sometimes I am running both at the same time). Windows XP Home, Centrino processor, 512MB RAM, 60gig hard drive, Graphics ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 and a 15.4 inch screen (1280 x 800). Comes with CD/CDRW/DVD, SD drive, 3 USB’s, Firewire and PC card slot. Ethernet, built-in wireless connection…all there. Weighs 6.5 lbs.
The graphics are so clear on this laptop that even when looking at different angles, I am astounded. The extra real estate with the wide screen are a BIG plus for working in Elements.
There is no built-in 3.5 floppy drive, but I got one (USB) for free through HP-Compaq. There was a rebate coupon for the drive included with the package. I don’t use the Secure Digital drive that much, but I have an 128 disk if needed. My daughter has the same laptop and also has an IPAQ. The SD card is a lot more useful to her.
I bought mine through Staples, since I have a business account with them. Ordered it on a Tuesday and it was delivered to my door on Wednesday afternoon. Nice.
Reviews are very good the X1000 series and different features/packages are available now…as well as a lower price tag. So it might be worth looking at. 🙂
Patti
The problem I have with laptops is their screen. It’s not designed to handle graphics apps (I mean, image editing), and it’s very hard to get a consistant level of brightness at various angles. Make sure to "try before you buy". My Dell Latitude (PII 300) is showing that problem. Its viewing angle is just too narrow to offer the comfort of movement my head needs, from working extended hours in front of the laptop.
As for surfing, word processing, it’s more than OK, though.
On your list, I would add an extra battery. My PC laptop has two bays, each one can contain certain devices, like a floppy drive, a CD-ROM, or a battery. To be able to work for up to 4 hours, I remove the CD-ROM and I install an additional battery.
Windows XP main module (let’s call it like that for now) requires 128MB of RAM. We added 128 to our 128MB Dell laptop, it helped a great deal. But even now, if I open a rather large image (say one of my Canon 10D’s picture, 3072 x 2048) in Photoshop Elements and add a few adjustment layers, it slows down greatly. I suspect this is caused by the slow hard drive, but still, if it’d be possible, I’d upgrade to 512MB of RAM.
Ray
Bob,
Will you not consider a PowerBook? I have the 17 inch MAC PowerBook and travel extensively. I get OOHHS and AWWS as people see it in the airplanes and airports. It has all you want and a DVD burner for your really large files. As in anything, I echo Ray’s words in "try before you buy". I started on Windows then made the Switch. I’ll never go back. Its so much simpler, easier, fewer troubles, attractive, and virus-problem free-at least it has been for me.
Happy Choices
Carl
Thanks for all the suggestions — I will definitely try out keyboard and display before I commit. While I love PowerBook design and I’ve worked with Mac’s in the past, at this point I have too many Windows-only programs I use to make the switch — Mac networking is something I really miss.
Bob Warren
Bob,
We bought the iBook a few months back and we now have it set up with a wireless network to the iMac. Its really good we now can both be on the internet at the same time (dial up … as there is no broadband in our village).
I know what you mean about the software issue … we had a windows laptop before but bought the iBook as we had already had all the Mac software.
Wendy
Bob,
As a side note, Photoshop Elements’ software disc is hybrid (Mac + PC). If you just plan on using it view / edit picture, an iBook could do the trick for you.
I plan on getting a very small iBook (12") that I’ll be able to carry at the coffee shop (where they have WiFi internet access). It’s small enough to fit in my back pack.
That said, the newer PC laptop are equally slim. If you can, consider a DVD burner as well (forgot to mention that earlier this morning). As digital photography keeps on getting fatter, CD-RW will look like a floppy drive in a two years, more or less.
Ray
Bob, I have a very minimal Windows laptop; as a matter of fact, I think it only has and 850 mHz processor, 128 MB of RAM and a 25 GB hard drive. It does very well with Elements, although I really use the laptop primarily for image capture (via a PCMCIA card reader) and very light editing (such as preparing a preliminary e-mail size edit. As Ray pointed out, the screen is really the Achilles heel; any resemblance between an image’s appearance on my laptop and desktop is purely coincidental…
Chuck
Hmmm. This is kind of interesting. Until Ray made his comments about the display on his Dell Latitude, I would have recommended one. My son has an older Latitude that I’ve used quit a bit for a scanning project that required a Win machine. The display on that was excellent.
Furthermore, I have an older Mac PowerBook (ca 2000), and I’ve been able to do quite a bit of successful Elements editing on it, too. As a matter of fact, the default color settings produce a print every bit as good as the CRT on my desktop machine, which has always been so close to the print that my poor eyes haven’t been able to see a variation.
One thing I would recommend if you’re going to use a laptop for any digital stuff is to get one with a larger screen. If I had the bucks for a Lapzilla like Carl has, I’d love that 17" display! 🙂
I bought a Gateway Laptop about 18 months ago and I would not recommend it because of the screen. I use it for business and to download photos while away from home and that is about all. While it is underpowered it will handle all of the graphics apps without a problem. I agree with others, any match between images on this and my desktop is pure coincidence.
—
Have A Nice Day, 🙂
James Hutchinson
http://www.pbase.com/myeyesview http://www.myeyesviewstudio.com/ wrote in message
It looks like I’ll be on the road for a client for an extended period
and without access to my usual desktop computer except on the weekends. What recommendations do folks have for a Windows-based laptop that can handle graphics applications like Elements/Photoshop? I’m assuming lots of RAM, a big hard drive, CDRW and a WiFi connection — any other things I should be looking for? Thanks.
Bob Warren
Hmmm. This is kind of interesting. Until Ray made his comments about the display on his Dell Latitude, I would have recommended one. My son has an older Latitude that I’ve used quit a bit for a scanning project that required a Win machine. The display on that was excellent.
Just to make sure I’m not confusing anyone on this issue, the Dell laptop I have does nice colors (but not exactly WYSIWYG though) and the picture quality (pixels or dots of the screen) are ok as well. It’s rather the viewable angle that poses a problem. You don’t have a lot of latitude (despite its name!) before you move too far up, down, right or left and start to see a very dark screen.
And it’s rather old technology (1999 or 2000). Most probably, they fixed or improve this feature since then. But still, when I go at Staples, I notice a lot of laptops displaying this exact same condition (minimal viewing angle). Higher priced units don’t seem to show the same issue, however (HPs or Compaq, I’m unsure about the brand)
Ray
