Choose a laptop for a designer

Today, various types of creative professions are becoming increasingly popular, among which the work of a designer is among the first. Designers are engaged in the production of media content, for which they need to use various graphic editors, which, in turn, often require a powerful PC or laptop. With very rare exceptions, users choose stationary PCs for these purposes, giving preference to a compact laptop that can be used both in work and in the presentation of created masterpieces. Further, in the text we will dwell in detail on how you should approach choosing a laptop for creative work and which models you should pay attention to this year.

What kind of laptop does a designer need?

It is not easy to choose a laptop; it is always chosen according to the end goals and types of work of the user. For example, if the user is primarily engaged in creating drawings, then it is recommended to choose a tablet over a laptop or consider transformable laptops with a touch screen.

Regardless of the different types of design projects, we can highlight several key features of the laptop you are looking for:

• Firstly, the system must maintain multitasking and stability when working with resource-intensive graphic editors, such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw, After Effects, Sketch, etc.
• Secondly, the device screen must have a high pixel density and good color reproduction.
• Thirdly, an important parameter is the size and weight of the laptop. This is especially important for girls. Since the device will most likely be held on hand or in a bag for a significant amount of time, a lightweight laptop, in the range of 1.5 - 2 kg, but with a screen diagonal of at least 15.6 inches, will be much more convenient here. On the other hand, there are cases when a designer is critical of a large screen in a laptop, but it should be taken into account that laptops with large screens are much more expensive.

Main selection criteria

Having considered the general direction of the search, let’s move on to considering the characteristics of the hardware that are preferred in the desired device, and not only that. The screen is the first thing a person working with graphics should pay attention to. It should have comfortable viewing angles and color rendition, and all this is packed in a medium diagonal. There are several common types of screens often found on the market:

• TN is characterized by its low cost, poor color rendering and clarity. Most often they have poor viewing angles and low response times; they are only suitable for watching videos. Such a matrix absolutely does not fit the given criteria.
• VA – has slightly better viewing angles compared to the previous model, but still struggles with color reproduction and has mediocre color reproduction. The general verdict is also not suitable.
• PLS - a little more expensive than the previous ones, has decent viewing angles, and an acceptable response time. Theoretically, you can take it.
• IPS is the most preferred option on the market in terms of price-quality ratio. It has better color rendering, has better color rendering angles and allows you to view the image without distortion.Among the disadvantages, it has a slightly shorter response time, which, however, is not significant.

Processor - let's say right away, it is best to prefer the option from Intel, preferably the latest 8th generation. Options from AMD need to be chosen with extreme caution, since their budget models have worse performance compared to those from Intel, but the top-end Ryzen line with their Threadripper has become very interesting after recent updates and can easily compete even with Intel Core i9. But first things first.

The Intel line is represented by the following models:

• Core i3 – dual-core processors with from two to 4 threads. Usually they are enough for office text editors, but for resource-intensive programs they may not be enough;
• Core i5 – four (7600k) or six-core processors (8600k) with four or six threads. Confident average, you can take it;
• Core i7 – have four (7700) or 6 (8700) cores, eight or twelve threads.

The processor name contains a letter index:

1. Y - reduced power consumption.
2. U and T – optimized energy consumption.
3. M - simply says that there is a mobile version of the processor.
4. Q – Quadro says there are 4 cores.
5. X is a productive “stone” with high frequency.
6. H – a graphics module is present.

RAM – There should be as much RAM as possible. To work with graphic editors you will need at least 8 GB of RAM. Recommended volume – 16 GB.

Video card - the graphics processor is responsible for processing 3D graphics on a PC, so its choice should be taken seriously. If you are a photographer and do not plan to do video editing, then a special discrete card may not be needed. For those who work with video, the issue becomes somewhat more complicated.Software such as Adobe Premiere or Da Vinci require powerful graphics from a laptop. For video editing you will need Nvidia 10 or 20 series. It is best to avoid options with AMD. Video rendering is carried out using the OpenCL and CUDA libraries, but AMD only supports the first of them, and of this pair, the second is the most productive.

Hard drive – it’s definitely best to prefer options with SSD drives. Frequent use of programs equally wears out a hard drive, be it HDD or SSS, but the former, despite its relative cheapness, is significantly inferior to SSD in performance. It’s better to take a laptop with a small amount of memory for software, and store all your projects in the cloud.

A little more about important parameters

When choosing laptops, the least important detail is the manufacturer's brand. If you are used to working on Windows, then they all have approximately the same support, and you will most likely download almost all software, for example, drivers, from third-party sources.

For permanent work, the issue of autonomy is important. Ultrabooks have the best of them, but they usually lack a powerful graphics card.

When choosing a screen diagonal, it is worth considering that it is more difficult to find an accessory for laptops with a diagonal of 17 inches or more, especially if you live and work in the provinces.

What modern models are suitable?

After all the nuances of choosing have been considered, you can move on to specific models that, in our opinion, deserve attention:

• Dell Inspiron 7577. This model, in its maximum configuration, is equipped with a matte FullHD or 4K screen with a resolution of 3840 x 2160.Also, depending on the configuration, it can be equipped with an Nvidia GTX 1050, 1050 ti or 1060 Max Q video card, seventh generation Intel i5 or i7 processors and a 1 TB hybrid hard drive (in some cases a 256 GB SSD is added). It is also important to have a thunderbolt 3 port, which allows you to connect an external video card. The price of such a solution can vary from 50,000 to 90,000 rubles.
• Microsoft Surface Book 2 is an interesting replacement for the Macbook on Windows. The transformer is equipped with a 3000 x 2000 touch screen, an Intel Core i7 8700 processor, a spacious hard drive and an optimized battery that allows you to spend long hours working without external power sources.