Hello all,
After 6 years, it’s time to change my old laptop for a new one. I am a graphic designer, so I am looking for a good screen and enough power. The obvious choice would be a Mac, but in my spare time, I like gaming (Cyberpunk/Elden Ring and so on). In terms of graphics, while gaming, I don’t need the top-tier performance because I don’t care about ultra-graphics at all. If the game runs, that’s okay.
Summing up: I need a good screen for colors, gaming capabilities (but not top-tier), enough power, portability, and size (the old laptop is a brick and heavy to carry around). Budget: I can afford the price of the MB Pro 14 M4 base model.
Any suggestions I can start looking into?
Thank you all for your time.
I would look at a laptop with at least high DCI-P3 compliance, or even better, high sRGB compliance. OLED will do well for blacks but may not be compliant with the rest of the color profile.
The other thing to consider is AMD vs Intel. AMD used to be better with battery efficiency while Intel was better with computational performance, but I think the gap has gotten smaller in recent generations. If you’re running vector-based software or Photoshop, you’re going to want something with more computational power. On the other hand, a high-end chipset will serve you well unless you’re doing some very intensive work; battery efficiency can be more valuable sometimes.
Graphic cards are relatively close, but NVIDIA still has an edge in certain aspects with DLSS (essentially AI-powered graphical aid).
Last thing to consider is size/ergonomics/form factor. Personally, I wouldn’t go bigger than 15" as it becomes unwieldy. I wouldn’t recommend anything below 14" for graphical work. Some gaming machines can look very flashy to the point that they are not taken seriously. Back when I was doing freelance work, I had clients that wouldn’t take you seriously if they saw a laptop with RGB coming out of every corner, or something like a miniature spaceship. Nowadays, I use a Zephyrus G15; it’s got everything I need and doesn’t look like a gaming laptop. Just wished the ROG branding was a little bit more subdued.