Xmas gift - XPS 13 - 7th generation or 8th generation for these tasks?

So I think my sister might be getting a XPS 13 as a Xmas gift from Santa.

The main tasks are web-browsing.
showcasing 3K pictures to clients ( going through tons of pics, zooming in on features, opening more pics, repeat )
It doesn't seem like much but these are lot of uncompressed 3K files and that need to be opened up and clients should be able to move/zoom/ without any lag or delay.

For this task, would a 7th generation i7 good enough? I know the i5/i7 8th generation is like a LOT more powerful but do I need the 8th generation for the above mentioned tasks?

Thank you

 

A Kaby Lake is more than sufficient for web browsing and image viewing. What software will she be using to organize and display these images? Check the recommended requirements for that. My only suggestion would be to shoot for 16GB of RAM if she plans on having multiple large images files open simultaneously, or if she uses software that can cache the images for quicker response. I'm guessing an SSD is standard in the XPS 13 so that will help even more.

 

For a year and a half, I used an XPS 15 9550 with a 6th Generation Core i7 quad processor and 16 GB of RAM (until I gave it a soaking with a full cup of coffee).

I do serious photography work with very large RAW image files and large converted TIFF files. Working with those large files with a RAW converter and with Photoshop and viewing the files, zooming, navigating, etc. didn't com close to challenging the power of that XPS 15 9550.

Thus, I'm confident in saying that an XPS 13 with a 7th generation i7 processor would be more than sufficient for anything that your sister might be doing, and I can't imagine that, for what she is doing, she would notice any difference between the 7th generation processor and the 8th generation processor. I think that even 8 GB of RAM would be enough for what she would be doing, but I'd get at least 16 GB to be on the safe side.

 

If she is just going to show pictures to clients, and not going to do any actual editing on the laptop. The 7th gen, i5, 8gb and an SSD is going to be more than enough. If she plans on doing short photoedits on location as well, you may want to opt for 16gb. If it is going to be a true productivity device (as in, multiple longer photo edit sessions), the 8th gen i5 or i7 plus 16gb of RAM will make everything go faster (though, it is not essential, it's pure convenience). Especially in the render times of the photos. If prices are the same, or very similar, definitely opt for the 8th gen. It's going to be more future proof. But that doesn't mean the 7th gen is a slouch, not at all.

However, I do want to advise you to also look at a Surface tablet. They are a bit on the expensive side, but they use 3:2 aspect ratio screens. Generally, photos taken with a DSLR will have a (non-cropped) 3:2 aspect ratio. This means that the photo will cover the entire screen, instead of having black bars on either side of the photo, essentialy enlarging the photo. It may also be handy to pass the tablet to the client, instead of looking at the photos on a laptop a distance away.