Issues viewing laptop monitor on color grading

Hi, I have recently purchased a MSI laptop with 17,3" screen 2800 pix resolution and Rec 709 color space covered also sRGB colorspace. I have been editing and color grading in a Mac Studio M1 with al LG monitor and I've been very comfortable color grading. Good. Out of the box the M1 Mac Studio & monitor did word perfect. Now I'm needing to edit on the go out of my studio and purchased this laptop MSI.

In my first batch today I experience a bad experience when I reviewed the results on my reference Mac computer and screen. Colors were inaccurate and I was unable to evaluate results on the MSI laptop, only after viewing the results on my usual screen I noticed that was unusable all my today color grading.

I am not expert on these themes but would need to reach a point to get color-grading with success results on my new laptop. Maybe first step should be to purchase a screen calibration device. But not sure if this will be enough. I felt that I maybe couldn't be able to recognize when the images were enough or more than enough: saturated / contrasty / cold-warm / green-magenta. etc..... But just after viewing on the Mac/LG studio editing screen I am able to recognize all the wrong adjustments in a second.

Would it be necessary a secondary screen for my laptop? That will be a very low "portable" solution. I'm maybe in time to return my laptop and change for a portable MacBook Air. My budget should be no far away than 1.200€. Any suggestions?

If you need any details about my MSI specs:

Processor: Raptor Lake i7-13700H
RAM DDR5 16GB*2
Storage: 1TB NVMe PCIe SSD Gen4x4 w/o DRAM
Screen: 17.3" QHD (2560*1440), 240Hz DCI-P3 100% typical
Graphics: RTX 4060, GDDR6 8GB

I have already do a calibration with an i1 Pro and create an ICC profile. Then now how should I configure the settings to view the same color in the DR viewer than viewing videos with a regular Windows viewer. I'm using the MPC-HC (64BITS) Viewer since it seems to be more similar to what I see in DR monitor. Any suggestion in my next steps? Any suggestions also about a trustable viewer for ProRes .mov clips on Windows 11?

I'm needing to edit on the go

I think that's a problem. I think this will always apply, Tony.

Well I see I'm far away from the right track!!!
My Desktop Mac Studio works fine with colorgrading, I have test results and visually compare the results and they have a logical semi-pro color grading accuracy.

but the MSI laptop it's a runaway horse that can't be tamed, even after calibration. Curiously, if I take an AdobeRGB image (photo) and view it in Photoshop on my laptop and my desktop reference monitor, the image looks perfectly identical. The same doesn't happen in DaVinci. I have problems with the video but not with Photoshop, even though the target profile for the calibration was Rec. 709.

For my 90% colorgrading will be in my home studio where I don't experience any issues in my color workflow. But pretended to have a small little gun for that 10% of the colorgrading tasks that need to do out of my studio and upload before return to my studio to evaluate results.

As I said in Adobe Photoshop works, actually images viewed out from Photoshop with different viewers show crazy colors, but I know that I must trust in the Photoshop view, and works fine for stills. I would be enough happy if I get a 85% of similarity between what I see in my studio desktop workstation and my laptop just for that fast-create-upload jobs. But the iO devices bring monitors with them so portability is gone then

Since you don't seem to exclude the use of a Mac, why didn't you get a MBP or an iPad for mobility?
Apple's reference modes are pretty close for semi-pro color accuracy.

Since you don't seem to exclude the use of a Mac, why didn't you get a MBP or an iPad for mobility?
Apple's reference modes are pretty close for semi-pro color accuracy.

You wrote while I was packaging my MSI pc to return back to the seller and find a MacBook Pro 16".

I still have a few days before the seller confirms the return and refund, so I’m looking for the right MacBook Pro. I tested a friend’s MBP next to my reference monitor, and the screen looked nearly identical. While it's not a perfect 'pro' tool, it seems ideal for the 10–20% of my color grading work I need to do away from the studio.

Any advice on minimum MBP specs? I work mostly in the COLOR tab of Resolve on short 30-sec clips. No complex edits, multicam, or heavy Fusion — just solid grading performance is what I need. I want to make sure that the footage I'm reviewing in DaVinci Resolve plays back smoothly in real time — with no stuttering, skipped frames, or stabilization issues — so I can accurately assess the cinematic motion, panning, and overall fluidity, without any slowdowns caused by the MBP hardware limitations.

My desktop is a Mac Studio M1-MAX 32 GB and it works perfect for my needs, but probably a little less can work with our slowdowns due my not complex needs when I'm "on the go"

What about a BSIC Starting point with a MBP with this specs: M1-Pro RAM16 GB. 512SSD with external SSD ?

I contemplate these upgrades Mi-Max. / RAM32. / 1 TB SSD
But the budget increases an 80% with these upgrades. What do you think about the basic STARTING POINT? or do you think that a RAM32 or a M1-MAX will be a necessary upgrade?

You should be fine with a basic model in that case, but don't skimp on RAM. Even Apple has understood that you need 16 GBas a minimum, even if BM is writing 8 for Macs. More won't hurt.
Saving with a relatively small internal SSD is no problem, external ones are plenty fast for serious work.

My wife wanted something light and small, and she's happy with a MBP M2 14" with 16 GB, but had issues with her very first M1 with only 8.

You should be fine with a basic model in that case, but don't skimp on RAM. Even Apple has understood that you need 16 GBas a minimum, even if BM is writing 8 for Macs. More won't hurt.
Saving with a relatively small internal SSD is no problem, external ones are plenty fast for serious work.

My wife wanted something light and small, and she's happy with a MBP M2 14" with 16 GB, but had issues with her very first M1 with only 8.

Thanks! I did no contemplate 8 GB RAM but have doubts between 16 and 32 GB. I saw now in your signature that you own a MacBook M1 Pro, 16 GPU cores, 32 GB RAM. Let me ask you how does it works? It's kind of one of my options and I see you opted for 32 GB Ram, and your wife has 16 GB so maybe you can provide me some fist hand feedback about both machines, that would be so helpful. also how do you compare the M2 generation (that seems to be no M2-Pro, just M2) to the M1-Pro, what has more power the "Pro" enhancements or the new generation M2 just for being newer?
Thanks again

I'm using that laptop with Fusion quite a bit too, so 32 GB was the better choice. My wife is using video up to UHD without any complex work in Fusion, only occasional titling, and has no issues so far.

Even if related to M4, this article might give you some insight:
https://digitalproduction.com/2025/05/1 ... -for-post/

In short, RAM is for stability and longevity, while computing power will mainly dictate speed of final renders.

Very interesting review Uli! I take with me your short explanation about RAM since in my case render time are not a worry at all, only fluid DR monitor reproduction, so my choice will be Mi-Pro with 32 RAM. (If I don't experience issues while returning back my previous MSI laptop). Thanks Uli !

One more thing:
While most common formats, H.264, H.265 and ProRes, are accelerated by hardware in recent Macs, there are a few professional ones that can be very demanding, like Red's RAW or Canon's RAW. These would profit from sheer computing power. You can get around that issue by using proxies on the road.

I'm only working with Mavic3 files, iPhone 16 Pro ProRes422 and Sony IV SLog ProRes, hope this will be fine with the M1 Pro with 32 Gb.... the MBP is now on it's way home!

Those should be fine.