What computer systems should I go for - Designer?

[s15]

Hi all

 

I recently trialled Designer on my husbands cheapo windows laptop and it worked fine, however now I want to buy the full product i am in a dilemma...

 

I own a 27" iMac which i bought for the screen size but discovered i HATE being chained to a desk.

I want to get something portable but cant afford a MacBook so considered a windows machine but I see licenses cant be swapped.

 

I also want to be able to physically draw and I see Designer doesnt trace like Illustrator so I think I will need a graphics tablet... Now I am curious what everyone is running Designer on because I think my options are:

Sell the iMac and

> go Windows, buy a Surface pro - I like that surface pro is a graphics tablet and laptop in 1...

OR

> buy a macbook, invest in a graphics tablet...

I dont have a huge budget, Im just thinking out loud here so would love peoples opinions... I have a lot of hatred for windows machines as i have purchased pricey models in the past which always die by 12 months, or at best run super slow. I invested in the iMac and 5 years on its still brilliant and i have had about 4 windows laptops (work supplied) in the same time period...

 

Anyway all feedback and ideas greatly appreciated

[firstdefence]

I'd go with Macbook, but I am Biased being an OS X and iMac user for many years, so I'd opt for a MacBook and max the memory out.

My partner uses Affinity Designer (AD) on a DELL Inspiron 17 5767 i7 2.9Ghz 8GB Memory and a choice between a Radeon (TM) R7 M445 and the Intel(R) HD Graphics 620 this laptop is well specced for a £600 laptop and runs all the major photo/graphic apps with aplomb, but, it's not a mac and as far as I'm concerned that makes all the difference.

I think personal preference is the decider here but my vote is MacBook.

[R C-R]

If you can make do with being chained to the iMac for a while longer, another alternative is to wait for Affinity to release the iPad version of Affinity Designer (no eta yet but it has been confirmed that it is in development) & invest in an iPad to run it. Ideally, the setup would be an iPad Pro plus an Apple Pencil, which would cost north of $1000 USD for a well configured larger one, but would probably still be cheaper than a well configured Surface laptop. Note also that a new & improved Apple Pencil is rumored to be released soon, so waiting for that as well might be a good idea.

[s15]

I must admit, when it comes to computers i do really LOVE my Apple products! I would be so sad to move over to Windows, again I must reiterate the frustrations I have had with Windows being so unreliable and slow...

Is the iPad version a definite? If it is, I dont mind investing in an iPad Pro now whilst christmas sales are going on (and the pens are pressure responsive?) ... will it be a limited app version or a fully fledged version like we get on computers? I use LR and PS on the iMac and dabbled a while ago with their ipad versions and they sucked...

[R C-R]

18 minutes ago, s15 said:

Is the iPad version a definite?

It would seem so. Take a look at this 'teaser' posted to Twitter last July.

 

19 minutes ago, s15 said:

(and the pens are pressure responsive?)

The current Apple Pencil is both pressure & two axis tilt sensitive, but is only for the iPad Pro models. The combination offers palm rejection & simultaneous separate detection of Pencil & finger gesture inputs. It actually has two different sample rates, one for the Pencil & the other for fingers. I do not know if or how AD for iPad might use this capability.

 

36 minutes ago, s15 said:

will it be a limited app version or a fully fledged version like we get on computers?

We won't know anything definite about that until it is released, but judging from what I know about the iPad version of Affinity Photo, it will probably include most but not all the features of the desktop version.

[Uuiop]

MacBook Pro, every time. 15" if cash permits and well worth saving for.

Touch Bar version enjoys Affinity's touch Bar presence, convenient, but not essential.

The tiny "MacBook" is expensive and, well, tiny.

[Merde]

On 18.12.2017 at 9:50 AM, s15 said:

I own a 27" iMac which i bought for the screen size but discovered i HATE being chained to a desk.

Laptop (no matter what OS running) may be good for browsing, e-mail, social media etc. But for serious work I cannon imagine how one could use mouse and drawing tablet on a sofa or kitchen table.

[R C-R]

14 minutes ago, Merde said:

But for serious work I cannon imagine how one could use mouse and drawing tablet on a sofa or kitchen table.

I think most people use an active stylus or sometimes their finger with a tablet rather than a mouse. That is pretty much the point of using one -- with a mouse there is no simple way to do anything that responds on-the-fly to pressure or tilt inputs.

[Merde]

7 minutes ago, R C-R said:

I think most people use an active stylus or sometimes their finger with a tablet rather than a mouse. That is pretty much the point of using one -- with a mouse there is no simple way to do anything that responds on-the-fly to pressure or tilt inputs.

That is why I wrote mouse AND drawing tablet. You really need flat and stable surface (desktop) for that.

Another drawback: small screen size. 13" or even 15" is PITA and 17" I wouldn't call portable. Laptop makes sense as an additional computer, not the main (or only) one. Unless you work "in the field" exclusively...

[R C-R]

29 minutes ago, Merde said:

Laptop makes sense as an additional computer, not the main (or only) one.

But a tablet might make even more sense.

 

If it is an iPad Pro or similar, the smallish size should not be an issue since zooming in & out is very quick & easy using gestures. When the iPad Pro was new, I saw a video clip of some pro graphic artists at Disney or Pixar or one of the other major animation companies trying them out. By zooming in & out & rotating the canvas with gestures they were able to do both fine & large scale brushwork very quickly & precisely. This was with a prototype bitmap app, not a vector one, but I can imagine that depending on the implementation the same would be true for Affinity Designer for iPad.

 

It is something that can't really be done with a Mac laptop but probably could with a Surface one. 

[v_kyr]

Well if it should be something highly portable a iPad Pro + Pencil or Win Surface Pro/Book 2 makes sense here. - For a MacBook Pro one would always need sooner or later a third party Digitizer/Tablet (Wacom etc.), which sadly negates the overall portability and draw on the go principles. - So for mobile/portable drawing/sketching etc. devices with already build-in digitizers still have their advantages.

[Merde]

3 hours ago, R C-R said:

But a tablet might make even more sense.

You may be right, but I will not be able to see it for myself, because I don't own one. At least not an iPad, which I find extremely overpriced.

Actually, Affinity Photo is the only app I would consider buying iPad for.

[R C-R]

2 hours ago, Merde said:

You may be right, but I will not be able to see it for myself, because I don't own one. At least not an iPad, which I find extremely overpriced.

Actually, Affinity Photo is the only app I would consider buying iPad for.

We don't (yet) own an iPad that will run Affinity Photo either, but they are no more pricey than other low latency portable devices with comparable screen resolution, pressure sensitivity, onboard computational power, etc. I lack the talent to use one to best advantage but if I did an iPad Pro & Apple Pencil would be my first choice because I think it offers the best value for the money.