Current art 3D laptop options?
greentooth
So I find myself in the market for a new laptop for 3D and other freelance work, with quite a bit of money for it, about $2000 with plenty of leeway to go higher.
What are the latest and greatest in portable workstations?
So far I'm looking at (in order of likely purchase):
Dell XPS 15 or Precision 5100 - Most generically useful PC, but will have to carry my wacom tablet with me. Reasonable price, decent battery life for a power book.
Surface 3, 4 Pro, or Book Pro - Has a digitizer built in, small screen but I'm used to the size from my last laptop.
Wacom Mobile Studio Pro - Most useful for work and study, useable as a cintiq on my home PC, I can even make use of the 3D camera. Unknown reliability, extremely high price.
Sony VIAO Z Canvas - No idea of the pros and cons.
There's some kind of a studio book from HP, but my last laptop was HP and it fried itself just out of warranty, so I will never buy from them again.
I have done the usual searching, due diligence, but I'm now looking for more anecdotal info and personal experience from other artists here. The Surface line seem the most useful for working on the go, but I like the screen size and power of the XPS 15. Both have high marks for reliability. The Wacom thing is very expensive, but has a bit of everything. Even the gimmicky 3D camera in back could be very useful for my line of work.
What are the latest and greatest in portable workstations?
So far I'm looking at (in order of likely purchase):
Dell XPS 15 or Precision 5100 - Most generically useful PC, but will have to carry my wacom tablet with me. Reasonable price, decent battery life for a power book.
Surface 3, 4 Pro, or Book Pro - Has a digitizer built in, small screen but I'm used to the size from my last laptop.
Wacom Mobile Studio Pro - Most useful for work and study, useable as a cintiq on my home PC, I can even make use of the 3D camera. Unknown reliability, extremely high price.
Sony VIAO Z Canvas - No idea of the pros and cons.
There's some kind of a studio book from HP, but my last laptop was HP and it fried itself just out of warranty, so I will never buy from them again.
I have done the usual searching, due diligence, but I'm now looking for more anecdotal info and personal experience from other artists here. The Surface line seem the most useful for working on the go, but I like the screen size and power of the XPS 15. Both have high marks for reliability. The Wacom thing is very expensive, but has a bit of everything. Even the gimmicky 3D camera in back could be very useful for my line of work.
Replies
Only thing is the GPU is a gaming gpu. The current 9M and 10M series gpu's do really well against workstations for rendering though so its not much of a loss.
While I have the money for all the gaming accouterments, I'd rather not spend more than I need to for that, especially since I already have a powerful gaming desktop PC. As old as it is, I'd be happy with the now old 960/965M a lot of these use.
http://polycount.com/discussion/178282/wacom-mobilestudio-pro-announced
But I'm due for an upgrade from my Lenovo Y500, a gaming laptop that does well with 3d art (after a SSD upgrade). And I'm thinking a Gigabyte p35x or an Asus gl502 laptop with a 1070 gpu, keeping my good old Intuous 2.
The Cintiq at work sure is nice though.