Last Updated on May 29, 2023 by Ali Raza
With the advent of digital cameras, editing photos instantly and on the go has become very important today than ever before. For this reason, laptops have become an inevitable and portable tool for editing, cropping, and printing photos on job sites according to various needs. In order to tweak pictures far more comprehensively, the best laptop for photo editing must be equipped with the right software and accessories. In addition, the photo editing laptop must comprise features and specs which support tasks ranging from simple editing to complex batch processing and workflow management. They must aid the speed and efficiency of photo editing.
Accordingly, here are the key factors one needs to consider while choosing the best photo editing laptop– processing power, memory: RAM size and hard disk, Wi-Fi capabilities, battery life, screen size, resolution, color and display, ease of use of keyboard and mouse to zoom in and out, photo editing software and accessories. Adobe Creative Suite, which includes Photoshop, Image Ready, Illustrator, is the most popular and the best laptop for photo editing software package in the industry. So, any laptop used for photo editing must support Adobe Creative Suite efficiently.
Of course, choosing the right laptop for you will depend on several factors. For instance, will it be your primary device or is it an extra device? How important are speed and power compared to battery life and portability? We’d suggest a 15-inch screen size to ensure the perfect combination of portability and an extensive Photoshop workspace. A 16-17-inch screen provides a very comfortable screen real area and is worth the weight loss when you’ll mostly work at your home.
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HP Spectre x360 15
16 GB DDR4 RAM
512 GB SSD Storage
Battery Upto 13 Hrs
Display Size 15.6 Inches
Processor core 2.6 GHz _i7
Nvidia Graphics
OS Windows 10 Home
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga
16 GB LPDDR4X RAM
1TB SSD Storage
Battery Upto 5 Hrs
Display Size 14 Inches
Processor core 2.8 GHz_i7
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
OS Windows 10 Home
ASUS ZenBook Flip 13
16 GB LPDDR4 RAM
1TB SSD Storage
Battery Upto 5 Hrs
Display Size 13.3 Inches
Processor core 2.8 GHz
Intel Iris Xe Graphics
OS Windows 11 Home
Here are the 8 lists of best laptops for photo editing.
1. HP Spectre x360 15
The Spectre the x360 15 sports an elegant design thanks to its black-and-gold design. If versatility and performance on a laptop are important to you, then the HP Spectre x360 15t is an ideal option. The 360-degree hinge on the convertible lets you quickly transform the laptop into a tablet or stand mode whenever you need to.
The Spectre 360 in this package comes with the 15.6-inch ultra-HD screen 4K (3840 x 2160) touchscreen as well as it comes with a 2.6-GHz 10th-Gen Intel Core i7 For boosting your experience it comes with a 6-core processor with 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD.
When we conducted our HP Spectre x360 15 hands-on for photo editing, we were amazed by its sleek design, stunning display in 4K as well as a comfy keyboard. In terms of design, the Spectre x360 15 is smaller than its predecessor but still has the same gorgeous finish hood that has copper accents and sharp diamond-cut edges.
The HP 2-in-1 — which comes with the Intel Core i7’s six-core H-series processor and an Nvidia GPU with a discrete GPU is perfect for digital artists, photographers, and video editors who want an accurate, fast notebook equipped with a 4K display which will make your eyes wide in admiration.
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2. Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch
The latest MacBook Pro 16″ marks a new chapter in Apple computing and the entire field of computers. What’s the reason for this massive shift? Apple’s latest M1 processor is the much-hyped component that signalizes Apple’s separation from Intel to use custom silicon.
The Apple M1 Pro MacBook Pro 16 is among the top 16inch laptops you can buy. This laptop has a 16-inch Retina-LED backlit display apple’s M1 Pro 10-core chip, with 16GB of RAM as well as a powerful 512SSD. To handle graphics it has a 16-core GPU that makes it suitable for gaming.
If you see M1 Pro MacBook first time then you easily notice its sleek, sophisticated design, gorgeous display, and wide range of ports. I am sure you awarded an M1 MacBook Pro an overall rating of 5 stars out of 5 for its exceptional performance and battery longevity. This is the Editor’s Choice laptop for power users.
When it comes to performance then The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M1 has more graphics power overall as well, it also boasts one longer battery life we’ve seen on laptops. Apple could have just stopped there but instead, you’ll get speedier loading of web pages and a better camera, and an incredibly seamless interface with Mac, iPad, and iPhone because of native Universal applications. 5nm chips also improve the microphones and camera and make it a fantastic computer for photo editing.
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3. Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio
Instead of a detachable lid, like that of the Surface Book it replaces, or an attached keyboard, like the Surface Pro Studio, the Surface Laptop Studio employs a unique hinge that permits the display to flip and adjusted to different positions. It’s a great idea. It is not just possible for be the Surface Laptop Studio to be transformed into an electronic drawing board however, it does so without compromising the laptop’s function.
With the 11th Gen of Intel Core i7 processor and 32GB of RAM, this well-equipped Surface Laptop Studio had no difficulties running a heavy task. Many software like photoshop, illustrator, and a dozen Edge windows loaded quickly and you didn’t feel any lag at all even when you streamed video and played music in the background. The Surface can be used to be a gaming notebook as long as it’s equipped with an optional GeForce GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU that has 4GB of VRAM.
This flexibility, in conjunction with outstanding performance and longer battery life, makes it Surface Laptop Studio a compelling choice for creative professionals. Combine a great keyboard/touchpad combination, powerful speakers, and a 1080p webcam then you’ll see that Surface Laptop Studio finds its spot among the top laptops.
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4. Acer Predator Helios 300
The Acer Predator Helios 300 is one of the best laptops you can buy for the price and has one of the best display options for editing photos in budget laptops as well. When you configure the system, you’ll get an Intel Core i7-the 11th Generation processor, an SSD with 512GB and 16GB RAM. It also comes with an individual 6-GB NVIDIA 3060 graphics chip.
The display is it’s a 15.6-inch display with IPS technology that covers about 90 percent of the sRGB spectrum. In terms of displays, it is among the best options for laptops with photo editing capabilities that are budget-friendly.
It’s also among the most powerful alternatives within our budget-friendly category and that’s a major difference. It’s our top choice within this price range in our opinion, due to the quality of the screen, as well as the performance underneath the hood.
There are several variations of this laptop, with a pricey model with a screen of 17 inches. If weight and size aren’t an issue, then that is an alternative to think about for photo editing.
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5. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga
It’s the Lenovo the ThinkPad X1 Yoga is coming back in 2021, with a handful of internal upgrades, like the 11th generation Intel 5 Pro processors. However, the battery life upgrade is more appealing and it’s claimed that the 11-generation model lasts for about 15 hours on a charge. And if you want a laptop for professional work then The ThinkPad X1 Yoga is dubbed the best 2-in-1 laptop for professionals. It’s the ideal choice for photo editors.
You can choose the complete HD version or the one that has a stunning 4K screen. If you want to edit photos it is recommended to go with the former. The 4K display model can cover 133 percent of the sRGB color spectrum. It also has bright 488nits which means you can edit your images on bright, sunny days and not have to strain to read what’s on your display.
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6. Razer Blade 15
The Razer Blade 15 is our top choice for the top gaming laptops; however, its top-of-the-line display options and hardware excel in editing photos. The 15.6-inch display can be upgraded to the UHD resolution, which comes with 100 percent DCI-P3 and sRGB colors, HDR support, and lots of brightness. If you’re looking to play games and edit images and edit photos, this Blade 15 has the right hardware for your needs.
If you’re a fan of competitive games, you’ll gain an edge thanks to Razer Blade 15. Razer Blade 15’s high refresh rate of 300Hz. display. But the Razer Blade 15 review unit isn’t perfect and could be improved. Although we were impressed by its stylish, all-aluminum design aspect, its small metal chassis has some disadvantages, particularly in the area of temperature. It also had a hard time beating its competitors in a variety of other areas, such as gaming, battery life, and performance.
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7. ASUS ZenBook Flip 13
The ASUS ZenBook Flip 13 is best for editing photos. it has modern, powerful processors, perfect RAM, solid-state storage as well as the ability to display high-resolution screens that accurately display the images you’re working with.
If portability is a must and you want to be able to travel, then check out this model: Asus Zenbook Flip 13 It doesn’t have discrete graphics, and the processor may not be as powerful however, the display is amazing and the laptop is very portable.
The model is equipped with the Core i7 processor, 16GB of SSD, and 512GB of SSD RAM. The 13.3 inches display has full HD with a resolution OLED touchscreen display, boasting an impressive 100% sRGB coverage and DCI-P3 gamut coverage. It’s ideal for editing photos. It can also be used as a tablet.
However, performance may not be up to par because of the absence of discrete graphics. However, since it weighs only 2.7lbs this could be a sacrifice you’re willing to accept.
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8. Acer Swift 3
If you’ve been examining the expensive prices for the majority of these choices with a sense of dismay then the Acer Swift 3 is your preferred choice among the top laptops to edit photos. While it’s priced at a reasonable price and affordable, this laptop is capable of running powerful photo editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop.
It’s about half the cost of the MacBook Pro – but it is a well-designed device that is solid and sturdy. With the majority of the choices, we’ve provided being strong in terms of the components they use, one might believe that is the Acer Swift 3 is offering is quite weak in contrast. Since it is equipped with an i5 Intel processor as well as 8GB of RAM which is enough for the majority of editing software to operate smoothly.
Its 13.5-inch display is astonishingly excellent and comes with IPS technology that allows it to display vibrant and vibrant colors and boasts full HD (2256 x 1504) resolution. The keyboard is easy to work with which makes this an excellent option for those who want the ability to tackle serious photography with no expense. This is ideal for hobbyists or students who want to begin editing photography on a small budget.
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Given all these factors, it can be overwhelming and daunting to choose the best laptop for editing. Below is a comprehensive guide describing the features and specifications required by laptops for editing?
Features and Specifications:
The key hardware specifications that are essential for a high-performance photo editing laptop are:
- Speedy Processor or CPU
- Large capacity Random Access Memory (RAM)
- Large capacity hard disk
- Large size and high-resolution screen
- Long-life Battery
- Wi-Fi capabilities
- Graphics card/Graphics processing unit (GPU)
- USB and peripherals.
- Speedy Processor or CPU
As per Moore’s law, the processing power doubles, and the size of the CPU reduces to half every 18 months. This means that the latest CPUs available in the market today, in 2016, are twice as powerful, yet half the size of the processors sold in late 2014. The more powerful the processor is, the better the laptop’s performance. Tasks like photo editing require a rather powerful processor compared to simple word processing or online browsing tasks. Processors’ power is represented by three components 1) Speed measured in gigahertz 2) Bit architecture represented as 32-bit or 64-bit3) Core architecture.
- Speed – Higher the gigahertz, the faster the processor is. It is recommended to have a laptop with 2 gigahertz or more to run Photoshop or similar software efficiently.
- Bit architecture – The best laptop for photo editing should have a 64-bit processor. This 64 bit represents the amount of data that can be handled by the processor. 64-bit processors are better than 32-bit processors for obvious reasons.
- Core architecture – Modern processors are multiple processors baked into a single chip. As the saying goes, two heads are better than one. In the computing world, multicore is better than a single core. Today’s popular processors have quad-core (four cores) and are good enough, but for the best laptop for picture editing, the processors with six cores are recommended.
Even a simple photo editing task such as cropping can take up a few thousand lines of machine code to execute, while complex editing and batch processing can bring your laptop to its knees. Unlike components like RAM and hard disk, a CPU cannot be upgraded. The processor must have high speed to support the smooth working of editing software such as Photoshop. Reduced speed will slow down the laptop, making it difficult to work on large files and images. Hence, it is recommended to buy the most powerful processor available in the market. High-speed Intel Core7i family or AMD A10 processors serve the purpose.
Random Access Memory (RAM)
RAM is the main memory of the laptop and is measured in bytes. It is the temporary area where data is being processed while the instructions are executed. Higher the bytes, the better the performance of the laptop. Photo editing generally requires a lot of data to be processed. It is recommended to use 8 gigabytes or more RAM for photo editing tasks. The advantage of RAMs is that they can generally be upgraded to a higher capacity over time if the processor and motherboard can support it. The laptop for photo editing should have 16 gigabytes of RAM, with an option to upgrade the RAM in the future.
Hard Disk
The main storage component of a laptop is the hard disk. While RAM is for the temporary storage of data, hard disk is for long-term storage. With the advent of newer technology, photography is not limited to cameras alone but has expanded to mobile phones as well. High-end mobile phones and digital cameras (including SLR and point and shoot cameras) can capture very high-resolution pictures. This means that the size of the photo files tends to be very large. It is not uncommon for a single photo file to be 10s of megabytes. In addition, if you are a professional photographer who shoots images in RAW file format, the file sizes can easily cross the 100 megabyte mark. Therefore, it is recommended to have a huge capacity hard disk.
Hard disks come in two varieties these days 1) SATA 2) SSD
- SATA –These hard disks are cheaper but slower than SSD hard disks. Since the SATA technology has been around for a while, the capacity improvements have been immense. Hence, SATA hard disks tend to have a larger capacity than their SSD counterparts.
- SSD – the latest kid in the block is the SSD hard disk. These are extremely fast and are compact in size but lower in capacity. Hence, laptops with SSD hard disks tend to be lighter. However, SSD hard disks tend to be pricier than SATA ones.
The laptop for photo editing is recommended to have at least one terabyte of hard disk capacity, preferably SSD, to serve the high storage demands of photo editing. However, with the rise of cheap cloud storage, you are not always limited to the hard disk capacity of your laptop. Yet, a hard disk is an essential companion when you are offline and need to access your photos for editing.
Screen
Gone are the days of screens where you had to squint your eyes to see a sharp image. Laptops these days have technology such as retina technology where you cannot even distinguish between two pixels on the screen. These screens are not only high in resolution but also support millions of colors and match the real world scenes to near perfection. Such screens are a must have for the best laptop for photo editing. With these high-end screens, common photo editing tasks including contrast, saturation, brightness, hue, sharpness always yield great and desired results.
The larger the screen, the better is the view of pictures to edit and zoom in. It is advisable to get a minimum screen size of 15 inches if the size is not too much of a hassle while travelling. The display and color quality must be crisp and precise in order to edit pictures efficiently. Higher resolution, with at least 2880x1800pixels with 32 bit of color depth and 220 pixels per inch, will help edit fine and tiny details accurately on Photoshop. In addition, the laptop resolution defines the clarity of the image – the higher the resolution, the clearer the image and the better it will look when printed in brochures or catalogs. If you’re printing bigger size pictures, you will need even higher resolutions to make it them look clear.
Touch screens have become very common in the market. Touch screens can be handy to zoom in and out of photos with your fingertips. While not a must have feature, touch screens add an accessibility dimension to the laptops.
Long-Life Battery
A commonly ignored aspect of a laptop is its battery life. In the quest for the fastest and lightest laptop, the battery is the common victim. You will need longer battery life, especially if you are always on the go. This will enable the laptop for photo editing on sites without interruption. The best laptop for photo editing should have at least 8 hours of battery life to get you through the workday.
Wi-Fi Capabilities
Whether you are accessing your photos online or backing up your hard disk on the cloud, you need to have good Wi-Fi hardware on your laptop to support your photo editing activities. IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n is the latest standard in Wi-Fi and ensures that you have the maximum bandwidth available. Moreover, the top of the line digital cameras also allows you to wireless connect to the laptop and access digital storage directly. So, a laptop that supports a/b/g/n Wi-Fi networking is the one that is ideal for photo editing.
Graphic Card/Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
While the CPU does the heavy lifting of the overall processing, a GPU card can come in handy for those complex image processing activities such as oversampling, texture mapping, and high-precision color functions. A good GPU is a must have for the best laptops for editing.
USB Ports and Peripherals
The best photo editing laptops must support multiple peripherals such as a USB card reader, a mouse, or a drawing tablet, using several USB and other ports.
A common way to transfer photos from the digital camera to the laptop is using a USB card reader. Simply detach the memory card from the camera and plug it into the card reader, and photos are readily available on the laptop.
Even though your laptop supports a touch screen and has a touchpad, the ease and comfort of the good old mouse are unbeatable. You can connect your mouse to the laptop either through a cable using the USB port or wirelessly via Bluetooth.
Yet another popularly used gadget for photo editing is the drawing tablet. With the ability to use a stylus to add embellishments to the photo, the drawing tablets bring out a whole new dimension to photo editing.
If you usually use an external monitor to connect your laptop, your laptop will need an HDMI or RCA port.
So, which are the best laptops for photo editing? Many professional photographers unanimously choose Apple manufactured laptops that are high-end and expensive. They are very well worth the price for the functionalities – speed and performance- they offer. Apple’s MacBook series with retina display is custom-made for photo and video editing. It is the best laptop for editing in the industry if you’re ready to dig deep into your pockets.
While Windows laptop families, such as HP Pavilion, Dell Inspiron, Lenovo Yoga, Acer Aspire, and Asus ZenBook, have reasonably priced products, it is very essential to upgrade the specific products with the necessary hardware in order to use them seamlessly for photo editing.
Adobe Creative Suite is available across both the Windows and Mac platforms. Professionals often opt for Mac as they are more durable and are less prone to malicious attacks. Microsoft offers many free apps that can be downloaded and used for editing on Windows. If you are a Linux fan, there are picture editing laptops by HP and Dell, designed specifically for Ubuntu, a popular Linux operating system. Photo editing software such as GIMP is readily available to use on such laptops.
Choosing the right laptop for your photo editing needs can be an expensive endeavor. You will not only need a set budget for the laptop, but also an additional amount for hardware upgrades, photo editing software, peripherals, monthly fee for cloud services, and more. If you also print your work, that becomes a separate beast in itself.
Whether MacBook or Windows laptops, whether high end or low price-point laptops, the best photo editing laptop must be equipped with the appropriate features and specs that support the photo editing tools – both software and hardware accessories – required to perform the editing tasks efficiently and speedily.
Of course, choosing the right laptop for you will depend on several factors. For instance, will it be your primary device or is it an extra device? How important are speed and power compared to battery life and portability? We’d suggest a 15-inch screen size to ensure the perfect combination of portability and an extensive Photoshop workspace. A 16-17-inch screen provides a very comfortable screen real area and is worth the weight loss when you’ll mostly work at your home. Here are the 8 lists of best laptops for photo editing.
