Do I need an iMac or MacBook?

[Georgie123]

I'm a switched on pensioner, and love Apple stuff. I have an iPhone and IPad Air. I do a fair bit of photography and editing, and have been using a clunky Toshiba laptop which is now dying. I have a huge number of photos stored on a hard drive, and many in the Cloud. I’m tempted by an IMac, but would a laptop be just as good? Can I use or would I need an external storage device if the memory ever filled up?
Would an IPad Pro be an alternative? Suggestions gratefully received!

 

[Zxxv]

MacBook Pro and a desktop monitor = best of both worlds

 

[Analog Kid]

I'm a switched on pensioner, and love Apple stuff. I have an iPhone and IPad Air. I do a fair bit of photography and editing, and have been using a clunky Toshiba laptop which is now dying. I have a huge number of photos stored on a hard drive, and many in the Cloud. I’m tempted by an IMac, but would a laptop be just as good? Can I use or would I need an external storage device if the memory ever filled up?
Would an IPad Pro be an alternative? Suggestions gratefully received!

Depends on how you do your photography work. If you travel and want to work on your images while on the road, the MBP is your best bet. If you bring your images home to work on then the iMac displays are much larger and quite nice. As @Zxxv points out, a MBP with a monitor can give you the best of both worlds depending on what you're willing to spend.

The iPad Pro isn't a viable alternative for photography work. I can use my iPP for most of my casual computing needs, but I haven't gotten comfortable with it for photography yet. Affinity Photo is available for the iPad though and worth checking out.

The other point I'll mention because you mention that you're pensioner-- bigger displays can be much easier on the eyes.

You'll want external storage for two reasons: bulk storage and TimeMachine backups. SSDs are fast, but expensive, and you want enough free space on the drive that it doesn't slow down too much. Keeping the bulk of your library on an external drive and the images you're working with on the SSD with is probably the best approach. Time Machine is a must. You'll want your backup drive to be separate from your photo library drive, and the backup drive should be big enough to back up your local hard drive and your photo library drive.

 

[G5isAlive]

Analog kid gave an excellent answer... I agree the iPad Pro is not a desktop replacement. Its going to come down to this, do you want to travel with your computer or not? If not, a laptop by design is more expensive and a compromise...get an iMac. If yes... well lugging an iMac is a pain lol. Get a laptop. But even then, why are you traveling with your computer? If it’s only to look at photos... an iPad is great for that. If you only really work at home, an iMac , iPad, combo is killer.

 

[Zxxv]

Analog kid gave an excellent answer... I agree the iPad Pro is not a desktop replacement. Its going to come down to this, do you want to travel with your computer or not? If not, a laptop by design is more expensive and a compromise...get an iMac. If yes... well lugging an iMac is a pain lol. Get a laptop. But even then, why are you traveling with your computer? If it’s only to look at photos... an iPad is great for that. If you only really work at home, an iMac , iPad, combo is killer.

Maybe they want to sit on the sofa or in bed or at the kitchen table or in the garden and edit pics. MacBook Pro + desktop monitor = the best of both worlds. But I repeat myself.

 

[G5isAlive]

Maybe he wants to sit on the sofa or in bed or at the kitchen table or in the garden and edit pics. MacBook Pro + desktop monitor = the best of both worlds. But I repeat myself.

Maybe. I would suggest that’s covered by ‘travel’, can be a short journey lol. I stand by my comment that spec by spec an iMac is cheaper (and has a bigger screen) and runs cooler, can last longer, than a laptop. Laptops are engineering compromises. Its not true that a lap top with external screen is as sturdy and easy as an iMac. Mind you that’s in comparison, I just find ‘best of both worlds’ to be an oversimplification that does not examine the pros and cons.

My father, also a pensioner, is happy with his iMac, iPad, combo.

 

[cdcastillo]

I'm a switched on pensioner, and love Apple stuff. I have an iPhone and IPad Air. I do a fair bit of photography and editing, and have been using a clunky Toshiba laptop which is now dying. I have a huge number of photos stored on a hard drive, and many in the Cloud. I’m tempted by an IMac, but would a laptop be just as good? Can I use or would I need an external storage device if the memory ever filled up?
Would an IPad Pro be an alternative? Suggestions gratefully received!

Both would be more than enough. The question here comes down to this:

Dou you need to move the computer frequently? = Laptop
Otherwise = iMac

 

[theluggage]

I’m tempted by an IMac, but would a laptop be just as good? Can I use or would I need an external storage device if the memory ever filled up?
Would an IPad Pro be an alternative?

If you don't need the portability of a laptop, you'll get more "bangs per buck" and a bigger/better display with an iMac. The only exception is if you just prefer the format of a laptop - I've heard some people say that (e.g.) laptops are more usable with bifocal glasses (which makes sense, but probably not with modern varifocals & your mileage may vary).

Yes, you'll need external storage with anything for backup/archival. Your existing hard drive will almost certainly work and there's a range of USB, networked and wireless storage options available. Modern USB3 external drives are much faster than the old USB 1/2 drives of yore.

Regarding storage:

All the current Mac laptops have solid-state drives (SSD) for storage, which make a huge difference in performance when they're used as your main system disc, because the system is constantly accessing hundreds of different files. Consequently, its quite expensive to get them with more than 256GB of storage, so you'll probably keep large media libraries etc. on an external drive.

At first glance, the iMacs look like they give you loads more storage - 1TB, 2TB or 3TB, but, beware - the cheapest 21" model just has an old-fangled, slow mechanical 1TB hard drive (just say "no") and the 1TB "Fusion drive" only has a very small 24GB SSD "cache". The 2/3TB Fusion drives have a more effective 128GB SSD cache, and might be worth considering if you're worried about built-in storage, but my advice would be to go for the biggest SSD-only option that you could comfortably afford and supplement it with external hard drives for archival.

iPad Pro?

The iPad Pros are more powerful & have better displays than your iPad Air but only incrementally so. The only "night and day" change has been the Pencil, which is great for a narrow range of applications. If you can't imagine making do with just your current iPad then an iPad Pro-only solution probably isn't going to work for you.

 

[jaduff46]

I love the screen real estate of the iMac, especially for photo work. And mine is a 2010 pre-Retina. What’s best for you, as noted above, really depends on your workflow. I tend to bring everything home and upload and process when I have the chance. I use the iPad Air for everything else especially if we’re traveling. Been on it exclusively for the past several months as we’re in the process of moving and the iMac is in storage.

Thinking about upgrading to the MBP with a nice external monitor as @Zxxv suggests, which would give me the screen real estate at home and more horsepower while on the road.

 

[maflynn]

The iMac is awesome, no question, but it lacks one thing - portability. That's where the MBP shines, and with Coffee Lake, these bad boys are fast.

 

[Georgie123]

If you don't need the portability of a laptop, you'll get more "bangs per buck" and a bigger/better display with an iMac. The only exception is if you just prefer the format of a laptop - I've heard some people say that (e.g.) laptops are more usable with bifocal glasses (which makes sense, but probably not with modern varifocals & your mileage may vary).

Yes, you'll need external storage with anything for backup/archival. Your existing hard drive will almost certainly work and there's a range of USB, networked and wireless storage options available. Modern USB3 external drives are much faster than the old USB 1/2 drives of yore.

Regarding storage:

All the current Mac laptops have solid-state drives (SSD) for storage, which make a huge difference in performance when they're used as your main system disc, because the system is constantly accessing hundreds of different files. Consequently, its quite expensive to get them with more than 256GB of storage, so you'll probably keep large media libraries etc. on an external drive.

At first glance, the iMacs look like they give you loads more storage - 1TB, 2TB or 3TB, but, beware - the cheapest 21" model just has an old-fangled, slow mechanical 1TB hard drive (just say "no") and the 1TB "Fusion drive" only has a very small 24GB SSD "cache". The 2/3TB Fusion drives have a more effective 128GB SSD cache, and might be worth considering if you're worried about built-in storage, but my advice would be to go for the biggest SSD-only option that you could comfortably afford and supplement it with external hard drives for archival.

iPad Pro?

The iPad Pros are more powerful & have better displays than your iPad Air but only incrementally so. The only "night and day" change has been the Pencil, which is great for a narrow range of applications. If you can't imagine making do with just your current iPad then an iPad Pro-only solution probably isn't going to work for you.

Depends on how you do your photography work. If you travel and want to work on your images while on the road, the MBP is your best bet. If you bring your images home to work on then the iMac displays are much larger and quite nice. As @Zxxv points out, a MBP with a monitor can give you the best of both worlds depending on what you're willing to spend.

The iPad Pro isn't a viable alternative for photography work. I can use my iPP for most of my casual computing needs, but I haven't gotten comfortable with it for photography yet. Affinity Photo is available for the iPad though and worth checking out.

The other point I'll mention because you mention that you're pensioner-- bigger displays can be much easier on the eyes.

You'll want external storage for two reasons: bulk storage and TimeMachine backups. SSDs are fast, but expensive, and you want enough free space on the drive that it doesn't slow down too much. Keeping the bulk of your library on an external drive and the images you're working with on the SSD with is probably the best approach. Time Machine is a must. You'll want your backup drive to be separate from your photo library drive, and the backup drive should be big enough to back up your local hard drive and your photo library drive.

Thank you very much for such a comprehensive and useful reply!

 

[theluggage]

Thank you very much for such a comprehensive and useful reply!

Its also worth pointing out that there is a strong possibility that new iMacs, probably with more powerful processors, and a new low-cost Macbook may be released later this year (if you were considering the cheaper MacBook Pros). This has been discussed exhaustively elsewhere on the site, but nobody really has details or guarantees. However, if you don't want to wait and see, the current iMac range is pretty good (modulo my comments on storage). There will always be something new in the pipeline...

 

[psingh01]

I don't know how editing photos would work on an iPad but I've gone on vacations with just my iPad and used it to store the photos I've taken. So if you want to travel light that is an option and have an iMac at home.

I'd definitely go for a real computer to replace your laptop though. Whether iMac or MacBook you'll probably need external storage anyway. Even if just for backups.

For work I use the 15" MBP and it is fine without an external monitor. My personal computer is a 13" Air and I do have an external monitor for it which works great. I wouldn't want to edit photos on the smaller screen, but its good for portability.

 

[Georgie123]

Thank you very much for your input, I appreciate it. I’m toying with a laptop as it takes up less space, but I probably wouldn’t take it out the house as my iPad is so good. But I’m thinking the iMac might have better storage etc, but then again, I could get a bigger extra screen and attach to the laptop.....I just can’t decide!