Reddit mentions of ASUS U35JC-XA1 Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop (Black)

Pretty much almost any new dual core laptop today can handle basic Photoshop. You won't need anything too powerful unless you're working with super high resolution images or batch processing RAW files.

If you want to stick with a PC, you have tons of option to choose from. My recommendation would be the ASUS U35JC-XA1. It's the newer model of the 2009 Engadget's Laptop of the Year.

It also seems that you're some trouble with matching your print colors. That may be related to a software issue. You can try starting out by taking a look at this article. That'll teach you some of the basics of color management and calibration.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions!

I cannot stress enough that you do not need a new laptop if yours is only "a few years" old, but we're all gadget-heads here, so I understand your situation.

Before going the full-bore and buying a new laptop, you may want to try switching up your software and/or streamlining and cleaning up your PC. I mean, specifically, that you should look into getting a trial version of Adobe Lightroom, which does almost assuredly all the workflow stuff and post-processing you need, without the bloat and inefficiency of Photoshop.

Also, just generally keep a tidy PC to make sure you're not running a lot of background programs that are gobbling up your resources.

If you are serious about a new laptop, I'd have to agree with mhl12 that you're best off with an Asus, both from a durability standpoint and a price standpoint. Expect to pay around $750 or so. Bargain basement PCs will work for you, but might not keep up so well to future technologies, whereas if you spend over $1000, you're going to have more power than you need for digital processing unless you're looking into making a profession of it.

In terms of colour-matching, how you get your prints done is the biggest determinant of the colours on the paper, more-so than your monitor.

If you're printing them at home, make sure your printer isn't doing you any "favours." A lot of photo printers have built-in image-improving qualities, because they're designed to be used by people who don't actually care about tweaking the picture in post-processing.

If you're taking them to a shop to get printed, the biggest thing you can do is take a small sample of pictures to two or three different shops, and choose the shop you like the best. Print shops are not all the same, and I've had guys behind the desk tweak my photos before putting them through the printer. I almost decked him, but I did the next-best thing: I never went back.

TL;DR: Your monitor is likely not the problem, your printer is.

Im more asking in general, however the laptop I am looking at is the Asus U35f-XA1: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0044DEEME/

A friend of mine in college had an older version of this laptop and it handled tf2 decently well on a 1080p external monitor, which is pretty impressive given how old of hardware it had. My girlfriend got that exact laptop (the one I linked to) and it's significantly more powerful than the other, but I haven't tested it for tf2 performance (I could do so and then give a report, if you'd like). It seems there's an even more powerful version of it that came out recenlty for cheaper here.

Of all the laptops I've dealt with (quite a large number), I've been most impressed with this series. They back of the monitor is made out of what seems to be aluminum which is a nice protection for the monitor. The battery life is insane at around 9 to 10 hours. It has two video cards, an intel one which is really weak and uses very little power, and an Nvidia GT 610M 1Gb which is pretty decent and uses a bit more power. It certainly isn't a gaming computer as you'd normally think of one, but is quite a beast given its size, price, and battery life.

I would definitly recommend going with the ASUS U31SG-AS52.