Netbook is killing me

Throwing this out there - it's not an especially exciting subject - but does anyone have any recommendations for a decent laptop to edit photos on?

Let me get specific. My flatmate shipped-out taking with them their desktop (Windows, 2gb RAM, screen with decent-ish resolution - so it seemed. Oh, and Lightroom), which has left me with this puny Samsung 'netbook' which really isn't so great for editing. Low RAM, underpowered CPU and dinky, low-res screen.

I'm a total amateur so I don't require a top of the range MacBook Pro (wouldn't that be nice), and shoot in JPEG half the time, but I need something better than my current netbook, even for light editing.

My budget would be £500 max. I need a fairly portable laptop, too, rather than a desktop. I've considered reconditioned Apple Macbooks - but still over budget, and besides I don't know a reputable dealer. I know whatever option should have at least 2GB RAM, better 4GB, but bar this, I'm unsure on screen and CPU characteristics, or even current retuable brands anymore (I've bought 3 Samsung netbooks in a row ).

Any ideas?? I don't have the willpower to trudge through PC World without a clue


--
K5 II, kit zoom and a few primes

If your after a low budget model. Try this one. I have seen them as low as £265. Will run any photo shop version with ease

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5089693.htm

How about an iPad and one of the Apps like Snapseed? Comfortably within budget and much more fun and addictive than a laptop? Better screen too. Not much good if you need office productivity tools (word processing, spreadsheets, etc) but otherwise much more portable and useful than a cheap laptop.

It will not run Photoshop CC but will run Elements 11.

IPad with photogene is superb. The new mini iPad 2 is an awesome piece of kit and so cheap too.

i have a 5 month old Toshiba i5 ultrabook for sale for £450 cost me £600 end of June, used it just four times. Ive gone macbook pro so its now surplus...

This Toshiba i5 ultra book could be the answer to your prayers, comes with a partial warranty left I imagine.

I have an Asus N56VZ - fantastic full HD screen, great for processing images, Core i7 ivybridge processor, 1tb Hard Drive, dedicated graphics card, plus as a bonus it has Bang & Olufsen speakers built in for the best sound I've ever heard from a laptop - not a benefit for photography, but I like it!

It swallows up all my photo processing tasks with ease. It's not cheap, but it is bloody good!

Regards
David

This is turning into 'Who has the biggest?'

There are a whole raft of new laptops due soon, with Haswell processors. Most will be within your price range and offer long battery life too.
A tablet isn't really suitable for you since you have no desktop to back up to.
I am planning on updating my Samsung netbook soon. I have never used it for editing, only for storing and viewing photos when travelling. I do like the non reflective screen and hope some of the new offerings will have that too.
His Nibs bought a 15" Asus i5 recently for under €500 so they are out there already. The battery life isn't great though, about 4 hours.

A tablet, in my case an iPad 4th generation is perfectly viable for backing up, every photo I upload to my iPad is automatically sent to my Dropbox account, iCloud account and Mac computer through WiFi using a simple and cheap app.
Where an iPad and other tablets lose out is the inability to run Photoshop CC because a substantial amount of processing power needed. Tha majority of 'fast' laptops may also struggle because they lack the sophisticated graphics power needed to run the intensive or 3D plugins. Even more for you to think about, good luck!

A few suggestions for an ipad then. Thanks!

I've barely ever used an ipad for more than browsing the internet so I'm not hugely familiar really. Would an ipad be user-friendly for editing photos? Relying on touch-screen interface, for example? And I understand ipads don’t have a usb port - so how do you overcome the storage issue? If there are good answers to these issues, it might really be a good option.

And thanks cabstar for the sales-pitch . No, much appreciate the input re. Toshiba. I will consider your offer in time .

If anyone else wants to throw their 2 cents in, please do! And thanks for the advice so far . .

You might also consider a Microsoft Surface tablet - cheaper than an iPad and somewhat more flexible.

Yes you can back up photos to a cloud server, but - what if you don't have fast internet? When you are travelling bandwidth is normally restricted and speeds desperately slow, assuming you have access to WiFi at all.
Plus there is the cost of keeping lots of photos in the cloud, not to mention what happens to them if your cloud provider changes their T&C, or gives up or gets taken over at some point.

I shoot RAW - big files, which I cannot transfer to Dropbox, even from my home glass fibre broadband service simply because of the size of them. In fact last week I couldn't even move a full size jpeg to Dropbox as the file was too big for my server. I ended up FTPing it straight to my son's NAS.

By the time you have added a keyboard, and a mouse/stylus, and a case to your tablet you might as well have a small laptop, with all the extra advantages that gives - more storage, faster processor, USB built in, often an SD card reader built in too - no need to keep adding extras to it just to be able to use it as you want. Touchscreen laptops are coming down in price all the time and with the new Haswell processors they have better battery life too.

I see my last comment was posted during the time when Gwyn and Glowingblue were also writting.

Thanks Glowingblue for the summary regarding ipad and storage solutions - this kind of setup isn't avaialble / isn't practical for me right now as I'm on the road a lot of the time without the ability to backup to a cloud. And thanks Gwyn for pointing out about the new Haswell chip coming out .. argh, information overload!!

Where laptops fall down in the type of screen they use - this means working at a huge disadvantage for imaging purposes. A proper IPS screen can't be beaten, giving a relaxed and natural image that doesn't tire the eyes. The NEC ones are the best I've seen, hugely expensive, but the Dells that we use also show the same qualities.

Laptops and tablets don't really cut it in general and I guess if there are any that do the cost will be very high.

Having said that a laptop can be invaluable when travelling and after using many different makes we have found that Sony offer the best quality and reliability. Sadly also quite a high price compared to many.