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Calibration was a success. no problems. Test prints matched pretty good. 1st time the RGB numbers were right on point without adjustments.

= The main thing with laptops, is they are designed to be portable and have long battery life. When you throw in a powerful video card, that requires A LOT more power and cuts down on battery life. Why is this important? Because of all of the fancy tools and other AI Crap that Adobe keeps putting in their software, and it's these features / tools that require a high-end video card in order to function. Even things like the ACR module, primarily use the VIDEO GPU in order to function; while the CPU is still important, when it comes to Adobe's current products, the choice of Video Card GPU and having dedicated Video Memory is more important than the CPU!!! This is not CS6 where it really didn't matter what Video Card you were running. Photoshop is a professional program, and Adobe expects you to have current "Professional Grade Hardware" to support it. The "Consumer" version of Photoshop is Photoshop Elements, but most people run Photoshop. As far as brands, I've had the best luck with Lenovo Laptops. Avoid HP / Hewlett Packard Laptops at all cost, they are JUNK. Avoid Laptops that only list "Intel Graphics" or "Intel Integrated Graphics" for Video Cards. Photoshop will flat-out refuse to work with them and give you error message after error message. Right now, things are in a state of flux; with AI Data Centers being the "Gold Rush of 2026," RAM prices are triple of what they used to be a year ago. Plus some manufacturers, like Micron, are switching to the AI Data Center Market only and are closing the consumer lines, like Crucial RAM. This limits supply and drives up the cost of RAM, which then gets passed down to the consumer. Now enter all of the people who want their laptops to be desktop replacement, combine that with the stupid choices that Adobe is making, and I'm finding recommending things to be nearly impossible. Especially when it comes to Laptops. People with their damn Laptops; I hate Laptops for Photo Editing, I always have...I've just given up arguing. Yes. People have problems with RTX 3070 Video Cards and the current versions of Photoshop. A 2000 series is even worse. Expect LAG when sorting/culling photos. OMG! THE. LAG. The RTX 3000 Series cards were released around 2020, and that was a solid 5 years ago technology-wise. Why do they offer 2000 in current laptops? Because they are cheap. I call it "Shrink-flation;" Manufacturers don't want to charge more, so they give you less for your money. Take Ice Cream for example, you don't get a Gallon anymore, but "Almost a Gallon." At the very least, headed into 2026, I would invest in a RTX 4060 with 8GB of dedicated Video RAM, not shared. That is the bare minimum that I will recommend in 2026 and not lie to you. Personally, I'm still saying a RTX 4070/4080 with 8GB-16GB Dedicated Video Memory is still preferred by me and gives you more wiggle-room. "But Laptops don't offer that!!" Yes I know. I hate laptops for Photo Editing. The Lenovo Laptops that did, are no longer sold. Well, that's not completely true...HERE IS A LENOVO LAPTOP THAT CHECKS ALL OF MY BOXES. Yes, it's a special order. Yes it's expensive. A year ago, that Laptop would be around $2499 in price, with prices as they are, they are closer to $3500!! Bottom Line: That Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 that you were talking about is what I would buy with my own money to be used for Photoshop CC, and not Bullshit you.

Honestly? If you can hold out for a few more months, I would. The M5 chips are on the horizon, and the Mac Mini will be refreshed soon. 2027 will likely be the Mac Studio with a M5 Chip. The Mac Laptops that usually get the newer chips tend to be ones with the smaller screens; larger screens come later, usually around the time of the Mac Mini refresh. In a nutshell, now is NOT the time to be buying anything when it comes to Macs. If you can wait 6 months, that would be ideal. Now, here is a curveball… Memory (RAM) manufacturers are gearing up to jump on the AI Datacenter Bandwagon. It’s the new “Tech Goldrush” and prices of RAM are insanely high. Why? Limited supply and manufacturers are only producing RAM (in large quantities) for these Datacenters that have yet to be built. Bonus Points, after they build them, the power companies can’t provide power to them, so they sit idle. What does this mean for us? The RAM Prices are going to push Apple’s profit margins, which may or may not affect pricing. Since there is no upgrading after the fact, you have to buy the RAM configuration that you think you will need in a few years and not for right now and that costs money. Adobe keeps adding AI Crap and other fancy tools / bloatware, which causes a higher demand on hardware performance. So you are right to be concerned about Cores and such. Kudos to you. The days of CS6 are gone, and Adobe wants to keep people hooked on their subscription model so they keep adding things which then in turn add more hardware requirements, which determines what you pay. It’s a stupid cycle. So what to do? At the end of the day, it’s your money. The M4 units should work perfectly fine for the next 5-7 years. If you want a 7-8 year lifespan, then look towards the M5 line when they are released. I would not buy a 14” Laptop for photo editing, unless you absolutely have no choice otherwise. A 16” M4 MBP would work for about 5 years or so, just be sure to purchase AppleCare because that Lithium-Ion Battery will need to be replaced in 3-4 years on average. Plus, you will need to purchase ALL the upgrades that your heart desires, because there is no upgrading after the fact. This is such a hard time for me to write a concrete set of upgrade instructions, and I’m waiting on Apple to release things, which is why nothing has been touched. Adobe’s products are relying on the Video GPU and Dedicated Video Memory more-and-more, with each and every update. So make sure you have as many Video Cores that you can afford and at least 64GB RAM. 1TB HD is a Minimum, and I’m toying around with the idea of 2TB being optimum. it just sucks that all of this costs so much money. Use my current recommendations as a guide, and if you want to buy more of something, that’s perfectly fine.

Hi Damien,. apologies! Was meaning to update you but haven't been on my editing computer for a few weeks. Here's the final version. The daughter gifted it before Christmas, and she was delighted with it! Thank you for your help!

Huzzah!!!

FIXED!!! I unplugged the power cable to my monitor and plugged it back in. 🥳

Thank you! Did that, got my driver updated, rebooted, and my display is still gigantic! How can I get things back to a normal size? The display resolution box is grayed out and scale says its at 100%. But dude, my 97 year old granny who lives 70 miles way could see my computer screen...

I'd be more concerned with editing on a plane / airport, as the light around the tablet WILL change how you see your colors. Just like a laptop. So for culling and passing the time, sure. For serious editing work...you want to do that at home, in the area that you normally edit in. Give it a shot and report back. I'm curious.

RTX 5070 or 5080, with at least 8GB of dedicated Video RAM, using the NVIDIA Studio Drivers. (The more VRAM the better, like 12GB or 16GB+.) The "Studio Drivers" are meant for programs like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. The default Drivers are meant for Video Games / General Computing. I have never been a fan of the "60" or "50" of NVIDIA's lineup. (i.e. 3060 / 4050, etc.)