by CT |
Last Updated: April 11, 2021 
To edit and create beautiful photographs shots, photographers need quality display screens, intensive software tools, and of course a great photo editing laptop.
But this is where most photographers get stuck after they are done choosing their camera. There are so many laptops out there and a lot of aspects to consider to figure out the best laptop that works for you.
We have made your search easier and put together a list of the best laptops for photo editing.
Best Laptops for Photo Editing
1. Dell G3579
Gaming / All Purpose Laptop Under $600
- 15.6" FHD
- 8th Gen Intel i5-8300H CPU
- 8GB RAM
- 256GB SSD
- NVIDIA GTX 1050 4GB VRAM
Pros:
- It’s affordable
- Fast processor
Cons:
- Missing C-Type Port
If you are looking for a Dell laptop at around $1000, Dell G3579-7989BLK-PUS is the best option for you. Dell is known for providing high-quality laptops at affordable prices. The laptop is built using high-quality material and comes with a black metal chassis giving premium look and feel.
We loved the laptop because of its performance which comes through its 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H processor. The 15.6 inches laptop has got a full HD display with Anti-Glare technology which allows you to work smoothly on your laptop for long hours without any interruption.
For smooth and heavy multitasking, the laptop is packed up with 16 GB RAM and you can expand it up to 32 GB. To manage heavy photo and editing work, the device comes with a powerful combination of a 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD. The combination of storage provides greater performance and reliability.
The laptop has NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050TI dedicated graphics card of 4 GB. The laptop has dual fan cooling system to keep the system cool during multitasking and heavy usage of the laptop. The laptop has the necessary ports and slots. The laptop has enough capacity to handle all your CPU-intensive projects, gaming software and video/photo editing work without getting slow down or crashing.
2. ASUS VivoBook Pro
Thin and Lightweight Laptop
- Immersive multimedia laptop with 15. 6" HD...
- Large capacity 1TB HDD with 8GB DDR4 RAM
- Ergonomic chiclet keyboard for comfortable typing
- Lightweight design with brushed finish and...
- Extensive connectivity with USB 2. 0, USB 3. 0,...
- Relatively affordable
- Good in terms of speed performance
- Colorful display and well-designed
- Battery life is not good enough
- Relatively heavy
If you are a creative professional and tight on the budget, ASUS VivoBook Pro is a perfect laptop to consider.
Everyone wants to enjoy Powerful Apple MacBook Pro or Dell’s XPS series laptops but they can be a little pricey. ASUS comes through in this situation and offers a cheaper laptop with good performance and a high-end experience. Do not get us wrong, ASUS VivoBook Pro is not an alternative of MacBook Pro or Dell XPS laptop but still a good choice.
ASUS claims to use scratch resistant material for the laptops’ design. The design of the device is decent and prestigious but due to muted color, the grain gets lost in reflection. ASUS VivoBook Pro comes with a 4k ultra HD display with 3840 x 2160 pixels to give high-end and real experience.
The most important aspect of this laptop that we would want to highlight is its powerful performance. The laptop is perfect for professionals who have multitask. It’s powerful processor and 16 GB RAM allow you to perform multitasking without any lag or shutter. The laptop has got a good keyboard and trackpad which are essential for gaming and photo editing
3. Acer Predator Helios 300
Best Business Laptop
- 17.3" Full HD 144Hz 3ms IPS Display,
- Intel i7-9750H
- GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB
- 16GB DDR4
- 512GB NVMe SSD
- RGB Backlit Keyboard
- PH317-53-7777
- A Powerful laptop with good performance
- Comes with the latest hardware
- Perfect laptop for multi-tasking
- Dimmer Display
- Touch Screen issues are reported
If you are looking for a mid-range but a powerful laptop, stop scrolling because you have found a perfect solution to your problem.
You may be thinking that we are talking about the best laptops for photo editing but now we are discussing gaming laptops. How come? Well, you are right. We have included a gaming laptop in our list of best photo-editing laptops and we did it for a reason.
That’s because the Acer Predator Helios 300 is a powerful laptop which never lags or shutters, so you can use it for any purpose, whether its photo editing or programming.
You can see our full review of the Acer Predator Helios 300 here.
Acer laptop comes in a black-colored chassis and red color accents on a lid which gives it a premium and beautiful look. It has got a 15.6 inches Full HD display and the display is quite good which helps you to finish your photo editing work. It has a backlight keyboard which helps you to work even in dim lights. Although the company claims 7-hours battery life but when we tested the laptop, the battery worked for almost four hours. It has got all the essential ports and slots for the connectivity.
4. Dell Inspiron 15 5000
Ultra Thin & Light Portable Laptop
- 15.6" Full HD Display
- 10th Gen Intel Core i3-1005G1 Processor
- 8GB DDR4 Memory
- 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- HDMI, Webcam, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Windows 10 Home
- The keyboard is just perfect
- Design is beautiful
- Good performance
- Below-average battery life
We have included another laptop from Dell on our list because of its capabilities for video and photo editing works. This Dell laptop is a good choice for creative professionals who are looking for a mid-range laptop who does not create a hole in their wallets. The laptop has got a platinum silver chassis which gives a beautiful and classy look.
The laptop has got a powerful combination of 8th gen Intel Core i7-8550U processor and 16GB of DDR4 RAM. This combination allows you to run heavy software and multitasking without any interruption. It has a 17.3 inch HD display which comes with anti-glare properties to provide you a great visual experience. The laptop has enough dedicated graphics and storage capacity for your photo editing work. The machine has got all the necessary slots and ports for easy data transfer. According to our experts, the laptop is a perfect choice for multimedia usage.
5. ASUS ZenBook
Mid-level 2-in-1 Notebook
- 13.3-Inch QHD+ Touchscreen Laptop
- Intel Core i7
- 12 GB RAM
- 512 GB SSD
- Discrete GPU Nvidia GT940M
- Windows 10 (64 bit)
- Excellent value for the price
- Powerful Performance
- Excellent and well-positioned keyboard
- Fan Noise
ASUS is known for providing laptops having powerful performance and high portability. If you are interested in a laptop from ASUS, we would recommend you ASUS ZenBook UX430UN. The laptop has a metal chassis which gives premium look and feel. Just like other high-quality and powerful laptops, it has 14-inch full HD display. The laptop has also incorporated ASUS Eye care technology which is useful for reducing blue-light up to 30 percent to save your eyes from any damage.
As the ASUS products are known for their performance so the laptop comes with a powerful and latest 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8550U processor and massive 16GB of RAM. The laptop has an NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics card and 2GB dedicated memory. The laptop uses the fingerprint reader and has a comfortable keyboard. The laptop provides more value than the bucks you are going to pay for it. The ASUS lightweight laptop works well for multimedia professionals and meets their demands excellently.
6. HP Envy x360
Business Flagship Touchscreen Laptop
- 15.6" FHD Touch
- 10th gen i7-10510U
- 12GB
- 512GB SSD+16GB Optane
- High performance
- Lightweight and highly portable
- Enough Storage for data
- Battery life is not impressive
The feature we loved the most about this laptop is its beautiful design and we are sure if you are a person who cares for the design and looks of the gadget along with its specifications, then you are going to love this laptop. The laptop has got very beautiful silver colored aluminum chassis which gives a premium look. For excellent visual experience, the laptop comes with 17.3 inches of a full HD IPS display.
When it comes to hardware, the laptop does not disappoint us at all and offers the latest 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8550U processor. For multitasking and intensive usage, the HP Envy has 16GB of RAM. The laptop has got a massive combination of 1 TB HDD and 256 GB of storage. The HP has used 4GB NVIDIA GeForce MX150 dedicated graphics card to edit your photos using intensive photo editing software like Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop. The laptop comes with Bang & Olufsen audio for a high-quality experience of working on multimedia projects.
7. Dell XPS 15
Best 2 In 1 Convertible Laptop
- 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H CPU
- 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti
- Thin bzl 400 Nits Display
- Windows 10 Home
- Perfect Processor
- Slim & Beautiful Design
- Portable & Reliable
- Strong Build
- Rightly positioned Ports
- The webcam is poorly positioned
- Only Available Online
- Not Enough Support
As we all know that Apple laptops are hot favorites of digital artists for so many reasons. But if you want a laptop more powerful than MacBook Pro for photo editing in a relatively lesser budget, Dell XPS 15 9570 is the way to go. The powerful laptop is highly portable and contains all the necessary hardware for amazing photo editing work or anything else such as programming or gaming whatever. It has a premium design and stylish look.
The top-end version comes with 4K Ultra-HD anti-reflective touch display which makes the XPS 15 one of the best photo editing laptops. While editing your pictures, you can see your photos in detail. The laptop has 100 percent RGB and 98 percent Adobe RGB which ensures better color production than the laptops out there.
It comes with a massive 32 GB RAM which helps to perform intense multitasking smoothly. Its storage capacity is 1 TB which means you have more than enough storage space to store your heavy videos and images. The best part of the laptop is that all this massive hardware is packed in just 4.5 pounds laptop and you can easily carry the laptop with you.
8. ASUS ROG Strix
Best Laptop For Students
- 17.3” 144Hz 3ms Full HD
- Intel Core i7-8750H
- GeForce GTX 1070 8GB
- 16GB DDR4
- 256GB PCIe SSD + 1TB FireCuda
- Windows 10 - GL703GS-DS74
- Excellent port selection
- Excellent Display
- Beautiful design and strong-build
- Impressive battery life
- Loud fans
- Directional keys are not well-positioned
The last laptop on our list is another gaming laptop who can meet your gaming and photo editing needs perfectly. The laptop comes with a beautiful look and high-quality gaming keyboard. You can easily manage your photo editing work on this laptop as it has 17.3 inches of full HD display.
The gaming laptop uses the latest 8th-Gen Intel Core i7-8750H, 6 core processor and 16GB RAM which you can expand up to 32 GB. As the laptop is primarily designed for gamers so, it comes with 6GB of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 dedicated graphics card. The laptop has 1TB FireCuda Hybrid drive and FireCuda Hybrid drive is known for providing five times faster performance than Hard Disk Drive. Another cool feature of the laptop is its cooling and anti-dust mechanism.
Desktop or Laptop?
Which one is the best pick for photo editing?
Creative professionals use both laptops and desktops. Like every other gadget or device on the planet, both have advantages and disadvantages. So you will choose either desktop or laptop on the basis of your nature of work and work style.
For photographers, we suggest laptops because they have to travel a lot so you need highly portable devices. We would suggest them to go for a lightweight and durable laptop so you can work and edit photographs easily during traveling.
For designers, we suggest desktops because they don’t travel and you have to work from a fixed location mostly. Desktop computers are cheaper and powerful. The biggest plus is that they can easily upgrade or customize them according to their needs and nature of work.
But wait, let me tell you that laptops also come with powerful processors but the processor used inside laptops are clocked to work slowly in order to provide a good battery life. But in 2019, we have got enough powerful laptops equipped with latest new generation processors which are reducing the performance gap significantly between desktop computers and laptops. Even you will find mobiles with powerful and latest GPUs capable to run heaving photo editing software such as Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom.
In our opinion, a laptop is a good choice for photo editing but keep in mind you will pay extra for portability and will compromise a little on the performance. On the other hand, desktops are perfect for providing you with good performance. At the end of the day, the choice is totally yours. If you landed on this page in search of finding some good desktops, then APOLOGIES because we did not cover a single desktop are not going to cover desktops in our write-up. Now for folks who are interested in buying a suitable laptop for photo editing work, we are going to discuss important factors to consider before buying a laptop in this section.
Buying Guide for Photo Editing Laptops
In our list, we have recommended the best laptops for photo editing on the basis of our expert’s opinion. If you are going to buy any laptop from our list, then ensure to check all the important factors for buying a photo editing laptop. We have kept all these factors in our minds while creating our list.
1. Processor
The power and performance of the CPU mainly depend on the CPU of any laptop or computer. To run extensive software such as Photoshop, your laptop must have a powerful CPU. For professionals, we suggest an Intel i5 or i7 processor. For beginners, the Intel Core i3 processor works well. But in the future, you have to upgrade your laptop. So we recommend a laptop having an Intel Core i5 processor.
2. RAM
Being a professional photographer or photo editor, you have to work with using multiple software and files. For the smooth running of multiple programs and continuous photo editing on your laptop, we recommend getting a laptop having at least 8GB RAM. Ensure your laptop has some extra slots for RAM so in future you can easily upgrade RAM of your laptop.
3. Storage Capacity
As a professional photographer, you will capture a lot of images and pictures from your DSLR cameras and a picture captured from a DSLR camera has a size of 15 MB. So you will need a lot of storage space on your laptop to store all the images captured from DSLR. You can go for a laptop having 1 TB Hard Drive to store all your photos on your laptop. But we recommend another approach and that is opting for a laptop with 256GB or 512 GB SSD and buying an additional external hard drive to have the backup of your all edited images. We prefer SSD because they are faster than usual hard drives and enhance the performance and power of the laptop.
4. Graphics
In 2019, we have no longer need of using dedicated graphics cards in a laptop for editing photos because integrated graphics coming with new processors are enough to handle heavy photo editing software without any issue. We recommend considering laptops with at least 2 GB dedicated graphics because you can easily edit high-resolution images with it. If you are dealing with extremely high-resolution images, then we would suggest you go for a laptop with better graphics.
5. Display
Lastly, we are going to discuss the most important factor for a laptop suited for photographers and editors is the DISPLAY. The display must be bright and has color accuracy. Always check the RGB rating of the laptop. We recommend laptops with full HD display for medium-level editors. But for editors who deal with high-resolution images, we recommend 4K resolution 3840 x 2160 display.
6. Additional Tip
Using the mouse or trackpad on laptops for editing photos might be good practice for beginners. But most of the pros, don’t follow this practice and they use graphics tablets with stylus or drawing pens for editing photos. When you will connect your graphics tablet with your laptop, you will feel a lot of difference. Because tablets are more pressure sensitive and they provide more accuracy and precision in photo editing tools and software such as Adobe Photoshop. So, we are done with our important factors for buying a photo editing laptop.
Final Verdict / Conclusion
At the end of the guide, we hope you got answers to all your questions related to laptops for photo editing. We have provided you with a list of best laptops out there and we have tried to address different types of photographers who have different experiences and of course different preferences when it comes to laptops. Do you think any specific laptop we should include in our list or review it?
Also check: Laptops for Video editing
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