Reddit mentions of MSI P65 Creator 8RD-021 Thin Bezel Gaming/ Productivity Laptop 15.6" 100% sRGB Display GTX 1050TI 4G i7-8750H 16GB 256GB NVMe SSD Win 10 PRO, Aluminum Silver

For school with some GPU power in this price range I would recommend the MSI P65 it has a Hexa core I7 CPU, a GTX 1050Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD.

The laptop is fairly portable at 4.2 lbs with decent battery life .

I would go with this MSI prestige mainly because of the 100 sRGB coverage which is a big plus for for your photo editing work, and it comes with great supporting specs and price.

Something like this MSI P65 Creator 8RD-021 would do a very good job for you based on the tasks you have to do.. It definitely has the performance needed for photo and video editing and a huge plus is that it has a very color accurate display. It also has a solid battery life and good build quality.

For the tasks you listed, you'll probably need a strong processor, strong GPU, and a good display. The MSI P65 Creator has a good mix. i7-8750H processor, GTX 1050 Ti graphics card, and a 1080p display with 100% sRGB.

i don't know why anybody is recommending U series,you need vm's and clearly need more cores and compiling times on kernel is ridiculous on U series chips.

the i7-H has a very crucial benefit which is having 6 cores while no other U series have more than 4.

your budget is a bit limiting because almost everybody thinks H series need a good gpu as if here were no devs.

your options would be an mainly used xps15 or a lenovo X1 extreme 2nd gen especially used and this msi prestige (upgradable but inverted motherboards so hard to do) :

https://www.amazon.com/MSI-P65-Creator-8RD-021-Productivity/dp/B07HRZKPYP

Have a look at the MSI Prestige P65 Creator 8RD wwhich should suit you well with exception of the left and right-click buttons

· Screen: 100% sRGB Full HD LED IPS display

· Processor: i7-8750H

· Graphics: GTX 1050TI 4G

· RAM: 16GB

· Storage Type: 256GB NVMe SSD

This MSI has a premium look and feel to and is ideal for editors, CAD users and above-average gamers. It is fast, quiet and lightweight which makes a decent pick for students as well. Usually, a laptop with this much power only has 4-5 hrs of battery life but this laptop has around 7 hrs which is great. This laptop is not the easiest to upgrade as it has a reverse motherboard which is a turn off for some people.

I've been producing music for almost 2 years now and I have the Asus Zephyrus M (i7 8750H/GTX 1070). I used to have a laptop with an i7 7700HQ and the jump up from 4-6 cores was almost unbelievable. I hardly ever "redline" in FL Studio anymore, and I use Kontakt regularly, sometimes even in more than 5 channels. I hardly ever use above 70% of my CPU.

As for RAM, definitely 16 GB or more because of those VST's. I use so many VST's while producing (I hate bouncing audio because of the loss of control if I need to tweak something within Sylenth1, Spire, Serum, or what not..) so I upgraded to 32 GB. FL Studio and all of my VST's run buttery smooth. A bit overkill, I know, but I have had zero issues with this laptop and it's configuration, whereas my older laptop with a quad core and 16 GB of RAM usually gave me issues towards the halfway point of producing a track.

With these specs, either the MSI P65 Creator comes to mind, although it only has a 256 GB NVMe SSD, but here's another one with just amazing specs from Computer Upgrade King (the shop where Lisa from Mobile Tech Review gets a lot of her review units from), or the Razer Blade 15, which is at your maximum price range but has a 128 GB NVMe SSD and an extra 1 TB HDD.

Now, I know these are "gaming" laptops, but honestly, nowadays, they aren't relegated to just the gaming niche anymore. Most of these companies, like Acer, Asus, and MSI, have been making their gaming laptops more accessible to a wider audience with hardware and features that appeal to a larger target demographic, specifically those of us who are content creators (as you can clearly see in the name "P65 Creator").

With that being said, either of those laptops will definitely let you reach the full potential of your DAW and any Virtual Instruments you have. Other people might say to not get a "gaming" laptop, but I honestly think that, now, they are so much more than just gaming-centric.

It's actually pretty nice for the price, I'll check it out, thanks
I also found this msi p65 with 1050ti and i-7 8th gen, is msi good in terms of build quality and such, what do you think about it