Lenovo Y700 vs Ideapad 700 vs Flex 4 for photoshop / general use

Hi guys,

I need help choosing between 3 machines:

y700 - https://www.adorama.com/le80nv00veus.html
ideapad 700 - https://www.adorama.com/le80ru00fsus.html
Flex - https://www.adorama.com/le80vd000jus.html

So, what I need:
I´m a pro photographer and I have a main desktop where I have raid HDDs and more processing power for the hard work, but... I eventually work from home doing mostly business work but sometimes some photoshop. Eventually I travel and need to work out town... but this doesnt happens a lot. So I will not be carrying around frequently. But yes, it´s a pain to take a big laptop in a photo equipment packed backpack when flying...

To let you know, photoshop doesn´t use much GPU. It benefits much more of powerfull CPUs when coverting raw files (the main bottleneck).

I need a laptop with 16gb ram, powerfull CPU and SSD. I usually use external monitors, so I don´t care that much to have a awesome screen. It´s good to have, but not essential I really don´t care about having over full HD resolutions. Battery life is also not essential... I will be in a powerplug most of the time, but of course, it´s always good to have! About portability... as I said.. I don´t carry everyday, but I would never have a 17 inch. 14-15.6" is ok, but I really would prefer a 14" If it doesn´t make heating dissipation and processing power suffer...

A robust machine in sense of construction (heat dissipation and durability) is important, so I prefer to carry a bigger machine than have problems. Dell would be nice, because of international guarantee but I couldn´t find somewhere to buy with paypal in a good setup.

I don´t play games, I don´t care about sound and backlit keyboards. My budget is maximum 1.400 USD.


So... to tell the truth I already order the Y700 in the link, but I still can change my mind till tomorrow. So It just showed up these other 2 options.

The ideapad 700 as far as I read, has almost the same configuration. But it´s a little smaller and lighter, what is really desirable. It has a smaller battery, but... Y700 is 4k screen that should consume more battery anyway.

About y700 4k display... I couldn´t find much info. Im not sure If its a touch version or not (I prefer no touch). And I don´t know If it has better color accuracy than regular FHD. I would go with a FHD, but it´s not availlable.

Build quality of idea 700 seems to be great. It has 2 fans and I read that cooling are very close to the Y700 (http://laptopmedia.com/review/lenov...he-new-slim-and-powerful-multimedia-notebook/).

So... I really don´t know If I should change the y700 for the idea 700... If it´s almost same configuration but more portability in Idea, would be a good choice uh ? Or am I missing something ?

About the flex 4... its a new machine... 7th generation CPU, but U version, so 2 cores instead of 4. It´s touch (one more thing to consume battery and have problem). But... super portable... can 7th gen 2 core beat 6th gen 4 cores ? Is it worth ? It´s new, no reviews... this scary me a bit. Probably it´s a no!

Thanks in advance!

There is no doubt that y700 is your best choice.

you are right PhotoShop doesn't require a GPU. Unfortunately, most websites suggest you get the latest one. For What? To Edit 2 D images? LOL. But there's a few sites who go into more details plus autodesk own FAQ page shows you theres only a few affects that "benefit" from a dGPU:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/photoshop-cc-gpu-card-faq.html

Having a dedicated graphics card is useful nonetheless just to avoid a few pop ups and warnings when going over the tools & effects you apply here and there.

I would have chosen the ideapad since this is for Photoshop only and portability is more important. The 960GTX Card which is far far better than the 950 (that one jump in number is actually a big leap). Photoshop is happy with tons of RAM , any dedicated graphics card. Anyone reading this should prioritize in RAM followed by CPU since most processors today are ultra fast. RAM will be the most limiting factor.

A 4k display is nice but I doubt you are doing everything with your laptop and not with an external monitor which has far better gamut and accuracy and the battery will take a huge drop from that too.
I guess you already pulled the trigger hopefully it served its purpose.

electronz said:

Anyone reading this should prioritize in RAM followed by CPU since most processors today are ultra fast. RAM will be the most limiting factor.

Click to expand...

Not true. There's tons of processors, and laptop makers as well as the cpu makers have intentionally builtin ambiguity into their naming and numbering marketing strategies. The only thing we (consumers) can do is check benchmark websites to ensure we're getting the processing power we actually need and expect at a particular cost tier. My experience with Photoshop would dictate 4GB of RAM to be more than sufficient, but for rendering in real-time having as much processing power as I can afford is the greater benefit.

Do all of your choices have an IPS display? The Y50 I'm typing this on had an absolutely horrid TN (or whatever is not IPS) from the factory. I was able to upgrade it for about $100 but that is not for the faint of heart. I would think that IPS would be critical for photography post processing but since you don;t mention it, I'll ask.

Otherwise I'd just say that the laptop I'd by today would be a Dell XPS with QHD screen, but that would be my preference and may not be yours. They can be had with I7, lots of RAM, NVME SSD and FHD (non-touch) or QHD (w/ touch) and I think this is true of both 13" and 15" models.

Have fun with your purchase!