mac or pc ?

January 11, 2008 8:51 AM

which is the best laptop if you're working with graphics ?

i've got the choice of a macbook pro or a pc laptop - i thought initially that the macpro would be good but i keep reading about its poor display and there are so many pc laptops out there - i'm asking the wise people of mefi to help !

so it's the macbook pro or a pc laptop at the same cost.

posted by sgt.serenity to technology (21 comments total)

Depends on what you mean by "graphics". Little 24k things for the web? Or multi-meg corporate info-graphics for print? Photo retouching/editing?
posted by Thorzdad at 8:56 AM on January 11, 2008

Whichever has an IPS screen. If neither, they both fail.

If you can still get one, there do exist Thinkpads with high quality IPS screens suitable for graphics work. I'm sure there are other brands that have them as well, I just happen to know about Thinkpads. (and they're good laptops!) ;)

The problem with non-IPS screens is that the colors shift quite a bit, so it's pretty much impossible to have any degree of accuracy, even if you calibrate the screen with a colorimeter.
posted by wierdo at 9:00 AM on January 11, 2008

But, ultimately, it's really up to what you're most comfortable with. All the major pro graphic software runs on both platforms.

Like you, I've heard of some people with issues about the MacPro screens. But, I also think that was early in the lifecycle. I suggest you test-drive one at an Apple store and see if you have any issues.

I'm a Mac-user, so I'd always suggest you give the Mac the nod, mostly because I really like working in OSX. YMMV.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:00 AM on January 11, 2008

Oh gee. I have a new MacBook, and I don't have any problems with the screen. I do think some Windows laptops may have the capacity to be brighter, but I have never felt my MacBook (or PowerBook before that) was ever too dim.

I think either can do what you want, depending on specific features. I'll just say this: I use my 13" MacBook to do all kinds of graphics, from small, web-resolution images, photo retouching, high resolution printed postcards and posters, and all the way up to large (like, severl feet by several feet) banners.

I stay with the Mac platform because I like the overall experience better than Windows. The way my digital camera works with it, the iLife suite, and the style of course.
posted by The Deej at 9:05 AM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

mac user here too, typographer and designer by trade. worked on both. i can deal with windows but it still has terrible text antialiasing compared to mac's imho.

wierdo's right, thinkpads are good laptops if you go windows; my boyfriend has two of 'em that he uses daily.
posted by patricking at 9:05 AM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

oh, also: forgot to mention. i have a 15" macbook pro and it's literally the first laptop from apple i would actually consider a working environment for busy designers. intel switchw as very wise. i have an old g4 craptop here as well and the thing makes me want to kill myself.
posted by patricking at 9:06 AM on January 11, 2008

If you decide to go the Mac way wait a few days, there's an Apple event on the 15th and many people are expecting changes to the MacBook Pro line, meaning either cool new toys or a possible discount on what it replaces.
posted by baserunner73 at 9:20 AM on January 11, 2008

I agree w/Patricking; the MacBook Pro is a very capable machine, the first laptop I 've used that is really capable of heavy lifting in graphics and video.
posted by Mister_A at 9:20 AM on January 11, 2008

I suggest reading this article by the photographer Rob Galbraith. He dissects the different quality screens available in terms of colour reproduction, and comes to the conclusion that the Macbook Pro (with a matte screen) is the first seriously usable laptop out there.
posted by Magnakai at 9:35 AM on January 11, 2008

If you are looking to do 3D/CAD work, you are not going to find an Apple notebook with the appropriate Quadro/FireGL card.
posted by mphuie at 9:36 AM on January 11, 2008

Whatever it'll be, Apple will announce it on the 15th. So, as baserunner says, wait a few days.

Why a Mac? Better colour management and better type management for a start.
posted by popcassady at 9:42 AM on January 11, 2008

actually, after the apple events, apple generally discounts and refurbs the crap out of the prev. generations. i have yet to actually buy a new mac. go to apple store, then look in the left sidebar for the special deals section.
posted by patricking at 9:46 AM on January 11, 2008

If you're doing print graphics, I'd go with the Mac. Almost all print shops will accept Windows files, but due to a long-ingrained history of print graphics typically being Mac-centric, most pre-press operators are skilled on their Macs and not necessarily as versed on the Windows side. That's not to say that you'll run into problems, but the general sentiment in many shops seems to be along the lines of, "Ugh. PC file. Do YOU want to do it?"

That being said, I tend to look at a computer as a tool. Some of it comes down to preference. I don't particularly care for Window but have been working on Macs and PCs for years. I prefer Macs.

Perhaps another question to throw at you... what sort of graphics do you plan on doing? 3D? Web? Photos? Design & layout? All of the above?
posted by bucko at 9:57 AM on January 11, 2008

My cousin does very high end ad layout and art direction for car manufacturers and other expensive items. He has a MacBook Pro and finds the screen very satisfactory. To say he's anal retentive about colour is a severe understatement. By paying attention to his colour management chain and calibrating at each step and paying for specialized profiles for the ink and paper he uses as well as the print shop he gets colour matching that's good to his eyes. Maybe PC laptops are somewhat brighter but he tends to keep his monitors dimmer than I do because he wants to match the white of the paper, not the maximum theoretical intensity of white that the monitor is capable of. I only know that because I asked him why his monitors were dim compared to the default setup.
posted by substrate at 10:27 AM on January 11, 2008

We do scientific imaging (fluorescent microscopy and the like) and analyses - of the LCD monitors and laptops, ThinkPads have been the best (we have Dell- and IBM-branded LCDs, a couple of Sony Vaios, an Acer, and an LG) in terms of clarity, sharpness, brightness and general eye-feel.

Thinkpads are also very solid machines, in general.
posted by porpoise at 2:27 PM on January 11, 2008

yes, i'm working mainly with photos and photoshop.
posted by sgt.serenity at 8:40 PM on January 11, 2008

i'm working mainly with photos and photoshop.

Then the answer is a tablet-PC. (with convertible form-factor)

For photoshop on a laptop, having the wacom tablet built right into the screen, and a secret slot in the laptop to hold the stylus, is as good as it gets. I'm never going back, and I now view the ergonomics of un-enabled laptops as terrible.

(When I say tablet-pc, more specifically I mean a convertible, not a slate-only, as you'll mostly use it in laptop form-factor but with a stylus available, instead of wasting time with stupid finger-pads and mouse junk. You'll want something sufficient to be a desktop replacement).


Also note that not all tablet-pcs use wacom digitizers - some use other brands, such as finepoint, which can be inferior for photoshop, for example being only binary touch sensitive, rather than the graded pressure sensitivity of a wacom or a graphics tablet. So check that the digitizer technology it is using is Wacom.
posted by -harlequin- at 10:11 PM on January 11, 2008 [1 favorite]

For photoshop on a laptop, having the wacom tablet built right into the screen, and a secret slot in the laptop to hold the stylus, is as good as it gets. I'm never going back, and I now view the ergonomics of un-enabled laptops as terrible.

cheers, does it have a name or anything ?
posted by sgt.serenity at 11:36 PM on January 11, 2008

I'm not up with the specs of the latest models, since my current one (with the help of some upgrades) has been going strong for years, so I haven't been "in the market".

Most big computer brands offer tablet-PCs, in various shapes, specs, and sizes. So just go to Dell, Gateway, IBM, or wherever, and search for Tablet PC.
The gist is that tablet-pc is a hardware "spec" that requires the laptop to have, among other things, a digitizer in the screen, built-in microphone, offer either a slate form-factor, or a standard form-factor that can transform into a slate and back again. etc etc. The operating system is a special "Tablet Edition" of XP (or these days, Vista, I assume), which is a super-set of the professional edition (ie, contains all features of pro edition, and in addition has the tablet features, such as handwriting recognition, voice recognition, etc etc). One purpose of Tablet Edition is that it allows you to use every function of your computer without a keyboard (ie for when in slate mode). For example, anywhere in any software where you can enter text, you can choose to bring up a box and use handwriting instead, if you wish.

One useful bug-as-feature thing about buying a tablet PC is that it cuts your laptop options from hundreds of devices, to tens, so you can find the best fit for yourself more quickly and easily. The flip side of course is that if you have a long list of esoteric features that are all "must have", there might not be a model that caters to them all.

The TabletPCbuzz forums can be a goldmine of useful info and help, from people who own and use any model you are considering buying.

Tablet-PCs tend to be designed to be really portable - meaning long battery life and lightweight. These are great things, and you pay more for these when buying any laptop, but even though the entire point of a laptop is portability, you still want to be aware of the tradeoffs that a portable device must make, in case there are things more important to you than the tradeoff in portability. For example, a lot of tablet-PCs cut down on size and weight by using an external DVD drive. It looks like Apple is about to get on this bandwagon, so it might be a good and hip thing, or, if like me you want to watch DVDs frequently and don't want to mess around with external drives, you might want to get one with an internal DVD. Likewise, long battery life in a laptop precludes the kind of energy-sucking egg-boiling noisy-fan-cooled graphics card you get in a desktop machine, hence gaming laptops tend to have battery life of only an hour or less, and so tablet-PCs are not normally made with that kind of graphics card. So when considering specs, size, weight, and battery life seem like minor specs, but they influence the other specs.
posted by -harlequin- at 12:54 AM on January 12, 2008

you can choose to bring up a box and use handwriting instead, if you wish.

Clarification: The writing-box converts the handwriting to text which appears in the software as if you had typed it. But I don't use the handwriting, I bought a tablet-pc for the digitizer, not the handwriting or other bells and whistles, I use the keyboard, and I type much faster than I can write :)
posted by -harlequin- at 12:59 AM on January 12, 2008

Okay, so Apple didn't announce it.

Take a good look at a Mac Book Pro.
posted by popcassady at 12:43 AM on January 18, 2008