I am convinced that the best laptop for a photographer is the Apple MacBook Pro 15” with Retina display. I believe this for many reasons. But I had recently acquired a Dell Ultra Book and so I decided to give that a whirl while in San Francisco. But first I had to make it better.
The Dell came with a 256Gb Solid State Hard Drive (SSD) which was fast but not nearly large enough. So I found a 500Gb SSD on eBay at a very reasonable rate (brand new). Upon opening up the Dell I discovered that I would also need a hard drive frame, a bit of aluminum to keep the drive from rattling around inside the computer. So I got that too from eBay. The drive swap took less time that it is taking me to write about it and I was ready to move to the next step.
Naturally I needed an operating system. I found a guy with a copy of Windows 7 Pro 64Bit on Craigslist and went off to meet him. Now there is something very Mission Impossible about meeting a stranger in a deserted parking lot, handing over some cash, accepting a computer disc in return and then just driving off in different directions. This too went smoothly and I returned home with a legal copy of Windows 7 in a sealed cardboard envelope – complete with product code.
Installing it was not so easy. Inasmuch as the Dell had no CD/DVD drive I needed to burn an image of the install files onto a bootable USB drive. This is a multi-step process. First I had to download a utility to pull the install files off of the disc and into what is called an ISO file. Then I needed to download another utility to create a bootable USB drive and copy the ISO file to it. All on another computer of course. That complete I booted up the Dell and viola, the Windows Install program came up. Thirty minutes later I had a fully booting computer. The hardest part here was reading the product code off of the Microsoft label since it was written in 2 point text and all the 8’s and B’s looked indistinguishable.
Next was loading all of the software: Microsoft Office, Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, Trend Micro antivirus, plus some specialty tools I use from time to time. That all pretty much killed an evening. After that I had some tweaking to do and a few drivers to update, but the laptop booted fine (and very quickly too because of the SSD) and the applications I wanted to use all worked well. The 1900×1200 resolution display is not as good as the MacBook Retina display, but it is better than any other PC laptop I have experienced. Lightroom works sell, Photoshop editing is precise and predictable, and the MS Office apps function as expected. After getting Outlook configured to my email account, I was ready to rock and roll.
On site in San Francisco, the laptop worked very well. I used it to download photos into Lightroom, to blog about my experiences (you are reading one right now), to update Facebook so the folks back home could see what Vicky and I were up to, and to stay current with my email. At a little over four pounds it is fairly light and easy to transport.
Update – October 3, 2015
Okay, I have lived with this notebook for about three weeks now and while I still think that a MacBook is in my future, this machine is working just fine. The 14″ display is big enough for photo editing, the display is crisp and clear with plenty of resolution for editing, and the machine is pretty darn fast. I’m not a fan of the keyboard, which is one of my major criteria. But then I am not all that enamored of the MacBook keyboard either. One has to make compromises with lightweight laptops and I guess the keyboard is one such area. Too bad, from my point of view, since it is the primary means of interface on my part.
Otherwise the battery live is good – I’ve been working steadily for about two hours now and the meter says that I have four hours of power left – mobility is good, the unit seems sturdy and the hinges are firm. There is very little fan noise. The speakers are a bit tinny, but then I usually use headphones for audio anyway. The lack of a DVD drive has not proven to be any kind of problem but I would like a few more USB connections. I will by trying the HDMI port later today, but expect that to work fine as well.
One thing I do like about the new Dell laptops is the incorporation of multi-finger swiping capability in the touch pad. Like the MacBook, double finger swipes will scroll the page up or down which is certainly faster and more controllable then using the windows scroll bars.
All things considered, this Dell e7440 is a trooper and I will continue to use it until I get my Mac.