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Wide gamut laptop?
I'm looking to buy a new laptop, which in essence will be a replacement for my desktop. Apparently, there currently are a few wide gamut laptops on the market, which cover sRGB and sometimes even Adobe RGB color space. These are true RGB LED screens, not White LED screens.
With the high replacement rate of laptops, it's hard to see the wood for the trees and many manufacturers seem to have replaced these top-notch screens with lesser versions recently(e.g. Dell XPS 16, vs new Dell XPS 15).
Any advice on these wide gamut laptops?
Do I really need one for photo editing, and if so, which one to get?
Background information:
I'll mostly use the laptop for photo editing, but also for work (Word, Excel, ArcGIS) and personal use (games, internet)
I'm currently using a Lenovo T410, which seems to have OK color representation (I don't get complaints about the occasional photo that gets printed in magazines), but which according to tests is rather poor in representing even sRGB colorspace.
Budget is not really an issue (within reason).
Thanks for any advice!
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I haven't seen it tested as such, but just looking at the MacBook Pro with Retina display looks pretty impressive. You'll need to dual boot because the Apple versions of Microsoft products tend to be second class, unless you're a light user.
If you can hold off a bit longer, some of the screens designed for Windows 8 may be winners. It's too early to tell, since the OS has been out only a few weeks, but the Ultrabooks, with articulated displays, look promising.
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Pretty much all the laptops I've seen have significant changes in color and contrast as I moves my head to view the screen. Some LED backlit screens are better and the retina screens seem pretty good but I think a IPS monitor is best for photo editing. So you could always buy an IPS monitor to plug in to your laptop for working at home.
Roger
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If it were me I'd get a fast laptop with a decent screen and use a separate monitor of the highest quality I could afford. You're never going to find a laptop screen equal to a quality monitor not by a long shot.
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The Mac's nicely covers the sRBG colorspace, but not much more. The advantages are mainly in the insanely high resolution.
There are several laptops out there with an IPS screen (some of the Asus Zenbooks and the Dell Precision6700 for instance), but not all of them have a good cover of sRGB or Adobe RGB color space.
The Dell Studio XPS16 had an IPS screen which covered all color spaces completely (says the Notebookcheck test), but as said, its follow up, the XPS 15 has a WLED screen that doesn't even cover sRGB. The Lenovo W520 exceeds sRGB by far, but doesn't completely cover Adobe RGB. I'm not too fond of Lenovo's though.
I'm wondering whether there are any of the more modern notebooks comparable to the XPS16 out there. I really need something that I can put away easily at the end of the day, even at home, but that stil has what it takes for good image editing.
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My HP Elitebook with their new screen [can't think of what they call it] it is very good IMO. Color does not change with viewing angle and appears very true. Take a look at one if you het the chance, I think you may like it.
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I've looked a little further in to this and like to share my findings with you. I just found this list (see below) of laptops with IPS screens on the notebookreview forum, with thanks to the original poster. The list is from November this year, but is already a bit outdated. The HP Envy no longer has the IPS screen. Not all of the IPS screens have equally good gamut, however. The Sony's suffer from a defect which became known as "Orangegate", where the reds are consistently shown as orange, which of course ruins the usability of the screen for photo editing. Apparently, Sony have been working to fix the issue. See this thread for more info. Both the Dell Precision workstation and HP Elitebook workstations fully cover Adobe RGB. They're heavy and expensive though. Given the relatively limited price difference between the regular screens and the IPS screens, I'm suprised that HP and Dell don't offer them as an option on their consumer line laptops. I'd immediately order one if they did. The Vizios look good and are cheap, but I couldn't find any information about the gamut of the screen. They also have keyboards without numpads, which I need for work.
----Consumer Laptops----
Dell XPS 12 / XPS Duo (12.5", 1920 x 1080, IPS, glossy)
Asus UX31A (13.3″, 1920 x 1080, IPS, matte)
Asus UX32VD (13.3″, 1920 x 1080, IPS, matte)
Asus UX51VZ / U500 (15.6" 1920 x 1080 IPS, matte)
Vizio CT15 (15.6" 1920 x 1080 IPS, matte)
Vizio CN15 (15.6" 1920 x 1080 IPS, matte)
Sony Vaio S15 (15.5" 1920 x 1080 IPS, semi glossy) *orange-gate issue*
Sony VAIO SE (15.6″, 1920 x 1080, IPS, glossy with anti-glare coating) *orange-gate issue*
HP ENVY Spectre XT TouchSmart Ultrabook 15t-4000 (15.6″, 19280 x 1080, IPS, glossy)
HP Envy 15 (15.6”, 1920×1080, IPS, glossy with anti-glare coating) *orange-gate issue*
-----Workstation laptops---- (expensive, large, ugly)
Dell Precision M4600 (15.6″, 1920×1080, IPS, matte)
Dell Precision M4700 (15.6″, 1920 x 1080, IPS, matte)
Dell Precision M6600 (17.3”, 1920×1080,IPS, matte)
Dell Precision M6700 (17.3″, 1920 x 1080, IPS, matte)
HP EliteBook 8560w (15.6″, 1920×1080, IPS, matte)
HP EliteBook 8570w (15.6″, 1920×1080, IPS, matte)
HP EliteBook 8760w (17.3″, 1920-1080, IPS, matte)
HP EliteBook 8770w (17.3″, 1920×1080,IPS,matte)
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Best Laptop screen to my eyes and for image editing by far is the 17" Samsung Chronos series. Matte finish (fine) and superb color fidelity. I looked at just about everything and this screen calibrates really close to my NEC 27" Multisync.
Place them side by side with the same image on them and I honestly can't see any differences.
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I've just got my hands on a HP Elitebook 8760 Workstation with the 1920x1080 Dreamcolor (IPS screen, complete coverage of gamut) today. Haven't had time to play around with it too much, but so far things look very promising.
Thanks for all the input!
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Originally Posted by
Jerry van Dijk
I've just got my hands on a HP Elitebook 8760 Workstation with the 1920x1080 Dreamcolor (IPS screen, complete coverage of gamut) today. Haven't had time to play around with it too much, but so far things look very promising.
Thanks for all the input!
Jerry,
Thanks for the update. Please let us know your experience after using it for a while.
Roger
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Jerry, you got it, good for you. Hope you like it and best wishes.
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I will keep you posted. To start with, here are the results of a test of the screen on Anandtech.com.
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Gary, I'm trying to send you a response to your PM, but get an error message stating that your message quota has been exceeded. I'll post it here:
"Hi Gary, under the Start menu, where the programs are, is a map called HP. It's got a program called HP Mobile Display Assistant. With this program you can completely manage the colors of your display."
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