Laptop recommendation - How do like your 15 inch laptop for photo and video edit

[haring]

I have always used 17 inch laptops for photo and video editing.

My question is how like your 15 inch laptop for photo and video editing? Have you ever wished you had a bigger screen?

Which laptop computer would you recommend for both, photo and video editing?

Thanks so much!

[tonysiciliano1]

At home I have a 30 inch monitor and use it for photo editing. On the road I take my 15 inch MacBook Pro and find it woefully inadequate. I'm sure it's partly because I am used to a big screen, but I think it's fair to say the bigger the better.

[Joe Towner]

What resolution 17" screen? What type of footage/photos (HD/4K/?? 24mp/36mp/50mp/??)

What is your eye sight like? What programs are you using? What is your workflow like - proxy files, etc??

[smthopr]

I have found my MBP 15 Retina screen laptop perfectly fine for photography when traveling.  I don't think I'd want to carry around a 17in machine   I do bring a mouse with me though!

For serious work at home, I plug in my 27in Eizo display and it works just fine.

Ah, but for video editing, well that WOULD be better on a bigger screen.  Maybe bring an iPad with you when traveling to use as a 2nd screen for more working area?  Also for video, depending on the application, it would be best to have the best graphics card possible installed on your laptop.  If you plan to use Davinci Resolve, it would be best to research laptops that have graphic cards compatible with running Davinci.

[gchappel]

I just purchased a dell xps15.
I tried a friends xps13, it was just too small.
My home PC has 3 large monitors.  I like lots of real estate.  At work we use 3-5 monitors for viewing.
I found the 15" a little too big to comfortably carry. 
It was fine for rough photo editing.  A little smaller than I like, but completely fine. 
I found the 15" to be the best compromise, for me.
I am overall pleased with the xps15.
gary

[haring]

Thanks so much!

[Eric Brody]

I think it's more than just the size. I use my laptop, 15" MBP 2016, when traveling to keyword and do some minimal editing. However, the very nature of the screen, as good as it is, precludes complex editing. Laptop screens are challenging to calibrate, my 27" NEC with Spectraview is much more accurate.

What I do is export my photos as a catalog from my laptop to my Mac Pro 2013 desktop, this can take a while, but then I have all the keywords and minor edits and I can much more easily work with the files. It is a big timesaver for trips with lots of photos.

This approach, use a desktop machine for "serious" work seems to be the consensus.

[Lightsmith]

The 17" laptop display works well for Photoshop so I can have the image on one side and all the sub-applications on the right side. It enables me to use the full height of the display for the image which I cannot do with a 15.4 display.

The 15.4" are made for general use and so the hardware is quite different from what one can get when buying a 17" "mobile workstation" laptop computer in terms of the CPU, video card, amount of RAM, use of multiple SSD's and other hardware options.