Photojournalism + Travel Laptop - which should I pick?

[Nick Powell]

Hi everyone! I'm an aid worker/photojournalist and usually find myself in situations where I need a fairly solid laptop that can enable me to edit photos on Lightroom and Photoshop quickly/precisely (screen quality) on the go.

I've saved up around $1,500 AUD (all prices are AUD), and love purchasing second hand. I'm currently looking at the following options:

ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 6: i5 8th gen / 256GB SSD / 16GB RAM = $1,150

Huawei Matebook 13: i5 8th gen / 256GB SSD / 8GB RAM = $1,189

Dell XPS 13 9380: i5 8th gen / 256GB SSD / 8 GB RAM / 4K PANEL = $1,270

The above are various deals I've seen on eBay that look pretty good to me, but I do know if I go higher and closer to my budget I could also look at:

Macbook Pro 13" 2017: i5 2.3GHz / 256GB SSD / 8GB RAM = $1,450

Dell XPS 15 9570: i5 8th gen / 256GB SSD / 8GB RAM / GTX 1050ti = $1,450

Huawei Matebook 13: i7 8th gen / 512GB SSD / 8GB RAM / MX150 = $1,500

I don't really care about the OS, I'm fairly flexible to Windows/OS X. Really what I'm in need of is a reliable and sturdy laptop, that is just a photo editing machine while also being portable and able to take a bump. Something that would ideally last a few years as well would be amazing!

I'm pretty torn with those options, so any advice or your choice of those would be great!

 

[vov4ik_il]

I travelled with ThinkPad X series for over 8 years (hundreds of cities, long flights, different weather conditions, lots of abuse) until changed occupation. I had every model (upgrade once a year) between x31 and x240 and only have positive feedback. I had one time battery failed and it was shipped to me overnight by the customer support at no cost.

Edit: since you mentioned image designing and display quality, MacBook is the most popular choice. ThinkPad is just a good workhorse.