New Computer - biting the bullet after 11 years

[Tronhard]

I got my main computers for both general and photography work about 11 years ago. One was running Win10 and could not be upgraded, so I was pondering over a replacement for a wee while. I decided to only run one unit as my home computer for all purposes, but wanted a laptop for its portability. The issue was brought to a head with the failure of my Adobe certified monitor (also about 11yo), and while that might seem as a double-whammy, I saw it as a chance to clear the decks and start a new platform.

I decided on a Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 2 (AMD). This one has the following specs:
Processor AMD Ryzen™ 7 PRO 7840U Processor (3.30 GHz up to 5.10 GHz) - selected upgrade
Operating System Windows 11 Pro 64
Memory 64 GB LPDDR5X-6400MHz (Soldered) - selected upgrade
Solid State Drive 2 TB SSD M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 Performance TLC Opal - selected upgrade
Display 16" WQUXGA (3840 x 2400), OLED, Anti-Reflection/Anti-Smudge, Dolby Vision™, Non-Touch, HDR 500 True Black, 100%DCI-P3, 400 nits, 60Hz - selected upgrade
Factory Color Calibration Factory Color Calibration - selected upgrade
Graphic Card Integrated Graphics with 4GB graphics memory
Camera 5MP RGB+IR with Microphone - selected upgrade
Wireless Qualcomm® Wi-Fi 6E NFA725A 2x2 AX & Bluetooth® 5.1 (Windows 10) or Bluetooth® 5.3 (Windows 11)
Integrated Mobile Broadband Quectel EM05-G 4G CAT4
Ethernet Wired Ethernet
Fingerprint Reader Fingerprint Reader
Keyboard Backlit, Black with Number Pad - English (US)
Battery 4 Cell Li-Polymer 86Wh - selected upgrade
Power Cord 65W USB-C Low Cost 90% PCC 3pin AC Adapter - ANZ
Warranty 1 Year Courier or Carry-in
Plus a second Lenovo 65W Standard AC Adapter (USB Type-C)- ANZ
1YR Premier Support Upgrade from 1YR Courier/Carry-in
I have had several Lenovo units and they have all proved reliable and durable. As regards suitability for photography,

Fast, bright, practical: The Lenovo ThinkPad P16s G2 AMD with Ryzen 7 and a Radeon 780M reviewed

No dedicated graphics card, no visual highlights but in turn, great performance, robustness and an OLED display. Even the P16s' graphics performance needn't shy away. So, good all around? Well, almost!

www.notebookcheck.net

Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 2 Review | Laptop Decision

Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 2 is a 16.0-inch laptop with a Windows operating system. Read our Lenovo ThinkPad P16s Gen 2 review to find its pros and cons.

laptopdecision.com

The monitor I chose is a 27” ASUS PROART 4K OLED display, colour-certified for Adobe, which itself comes with 3xUSB-C, 2xHDMI, DisplayPort, and about 4 USB-A.

So far, it's been excellent. Having both USB-A and USB-C has allowed me to attach a selection of drives: for SD and a backup SS drive. I also use a couple of MS Surface Pro tablets, but with smaller internal drives, the ability to plug in a SanDisk 1TB Extreme micro SDXC drive with a copy of my photos. This unit is absolutely tiny and can be packed up with the tablet without snagging.

 

[Lyn2011]

Congratulations with your new computer. I have Lenovo too and it's reliable. In the near future I have to upgrade also, thanks to Windows with their upgrades every time.

 

[Joeseph]

Nice! I've had Lenovo's at work & they have always been pretty reliable workhorses.

 

[Bobtographer]

My frist Laptop was a Dell. Then I was on a boudoir workshop where the photographer was using a Lenovo. Thing was built like a brick, anti spill keyboard etc. I was sold and have had Lenovo ever since. It's just a shame they've gone the way of Apple and started soldering RAM. Hopefully they'll still let us swap out the SSD to larger instead of soldering that too.

Even though you've selected Factory Calibration, your home/office will have different lighting to the factory, so you'll want to calibrate yourself anyway.
Not sure how only 80% of ARGB could class as Adobe colour certified on a monitor? (but pretty decent for a £260 dispalay I guess)

 

[olykam]

For use that doesn't require the use of proprietary software, i.e. Adobe Suite, AutoCad, etc., switching the operating system over to Linux can keep a computer current and running fast for years. My wife uses my daughter's 13 year old former Win7 college laptop for her everything stuff, which is mainly web based stuff with the occasional LibreOffice document. An old i7 and 16G is way more than enough horsepower for Linux. And if my non-tech wife can migrate to Linux Mint, anyone can. She's had more frustration migrating from Android to iPhone.

I'm facing the same frustrating problem on my aging rig. Most of us photogs need access to software that won't run on Linux. The casual computer user however, doesn't have to be a victim of vendor lock in.

 

[Archibald]

I need a desktop for most of my work, and have a 2-year-old 13 inch laptop for travel. The laptop is used for reviewing the day's pics, backing them up, and preliminary edits. Final edits of pics is left for when I get home, because my experience is that the laptop edits can always be improved later on the desktop. Of course the laptop is also used for communication and for storing documents.

If you have a good monitor for your laptop, I'm sure your edit results will be better.

I just upgraded to a new desktop computer, a custom build from a local shop. It's my first AMD computer. It runs fast and cool. Running Lightroom Enhance on a CR3 file takes 6 seconds. My old box took 30 seconds, and that Dell laptop takes 10 minutes.

 

[Kuma5]

Congrats!
I'm going to be in the same boat planning the Win 10 end. The rigs are ancient so they are not hardware compatible. I may keep the ancient i7 going yet disconnected. The processing power between the new and old is nice. The older i7 does a video conversion about 20% faster than the even older AMD 8650 CPU rig. The online rig is even older but it is fine for the online stuff.

 

[Tronhard]

I think that the processing power of my new system is massively faster, and while the monitor I had before was excellent, this new ASUS is bigger, with higher resolution and a lot more ports for connectivity. With just one USB-C cable, I can have connectivity and instant control of the screen and all devices connected to the screen.
My, still functional, Lenovo T400s is still a good workhorse, and it's a shame that the security on it is not compliant with the later versions demanded for Win11. Still, it can function on my separate network that will still be firewall protected and run through a VPN, so I can still use it for more mundane tasks.

 

[Bobtographer]

Yeah the 7840U is a crazy 28W CPU!

 

[Tronhard]

I need a desktop for most of my work, and have a 2-year-old 13 inch laptop for travel. The laptop is used for reviewing the day's pics, backing them up, and preliminary edits. Final edits of pics is left for when I get home, because my experience is that the laptop edits can always be improved later on the desktop. Of course the laptop is also used for communication and for storing documents.

If you have a good monitor for your laptop, I'm sure your edit results will be better.

I just upgraded to a new desktop computer, a custom build from a local shop. It's my first AMD computer. It runs fast and cool. Running Lightroom Enhance on a CR3 file takes 6 seconds. My old box took 30 seconds, and that Dell laptop takes 10 minutes.

I had an ASUS Proart monitor previously, but as I got that 11 years ago, it was of a lower resolution. This new one is a 4k unit and looks awesome. That said, I love the OLED display on the laptop.

 

[Wilt]

I think that the processing power of my new system is massively faster, and while the monitor I had before was excellent, this new ASUS is bigger, with higher resolution and a lot more ports for connectivity. With just one USB-C cable, I can have connectivity and instant control of the screen and all devices connected to the screen.
My, still functional, Lenovo T400s is still a good workhorse, and it's a shame that the security on it is not compliant with the later versions demanded for Win11. Still, it can function on my separate network that will still be firewall protected and run through a VPN, so I can still use it for more mundane tasks.

I have been using a desktop PC with 27" monitor with 2560 x 1440 resolution and Windows 10, and have been utilizing a font display setting of 100% acceptably.
What are you finding for acceptable text size display magnification with a 27" higher resolution (4K) monitor?

 

[Bobtographer]

4K 100% at arms reach from display. My new 32in I'm 1.5 arms reach away. I wish Microsoft hadn't taken away the 75% scaling