There’s a common belief some of the much less tech-savvy that a great laptop is an extremely best laptop for photo editing, period. Invest enough money, the goal for the best specs possible, and also you should be pleasant, proper? That’s now not quite the case. Chasing down the beefiest specs can result in you spending way extra than you need, and working on a budget means that you run the danger of prioritizing the most important factors in your work.
That is particularly true of photo editing laptops. The demands right here are different from what you’ll need in a gaming rig or an all-purpose computer. That’s why we’ve created a list of the 10 best laptops for photo editing and furnished you with an accessible guide for figuring out the factors which can be maximum important on your search.
10 Best Laptops for Photo Editing in 2020
1. Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop
The Razer Blade 15 may be marketed squarely as a gaming laptop, but the same specs that make it great for playing the latest version of Call of Duty also make it the best laptops for photo editing. The crisp FHD resolution and 15″ screen offer a level of detail that’s really top grade, but that doesn’t mean much if you don’t have the processor to keep pace. Fortunately, the Blade 15 comes with a meaty RTX 2070 Max-Q card. It’s more than enough to meet the needs of any professional.
An important consideration for photographers who don’t want to invest in a laptop that will become irrelevant in a year or two is the quality future-proofing at work here. A Thunderbolt 3 port is built-in, and the dual-channel memory can be updated as needed. It’s also primed for an SSD if you need faster, more reliable storage.
Key Features
- Customizable RGB lighting supports multiple presets
- Microsoft Precision touchpad is incredibly responsive
- Refreshingly free of pre-installed bloatware
- Leaves a small footprint despite its spacious screen
2. Microsoft Surface Pro 6
For the travel photographer, portability is critical, and you’d have difficulty finding a more portable device that better meets your needs than the Microsoft Surface Pro 6. It transitions easily between tablet and laptop mode and even comes with a stylus. That makes it potentially the best laptops for photo editing for photographers who frequently find themselves traveling. There’s no doubt that this is more tablet than it is a laptop, but its performance puts the Surface Pro’s conventional touchscreen counterparts to shame. The stylus in particular is highly responsive.
The fact that this is a tablet hybrid doesn’t limit you to using the best laptops for photo editing either. The built-in Microsoft Photos suite is actually a pretty respectable choice for some quick work on the go, but you also have support for mobile software like Fotor and Fhotoroom as well as full professional platforms like Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom.
Key Features
- Bridges the difference between laptop and tablet without sacrificing power
- Stylus works exceptionally well
- Incredibly lightweight and slim in design
- Makes the most of the Windows operating system
3. Apple MacBook Pro 15″
Macs were once seen as in an entirely different stratosphere from Windows machines for the best laptops for photo editing, and while that discrepancy has drawn far closer, the MacBook Pro is still recognized by many as the best laptop for photography. The flagship feature of this latest MacBook best laptops for photo editing is the touch bar, and while it may have seen conflicted reception in the general community, it’s a revelation for photography editing. The ability to have all of the important functions and macros for your favorite editing software so readily accessible is a great ideal that excels in its implementation.
Beyond that, this is the same old MacBook Pro in terms of specs and performance. It’s the fully-optioned version of the world’s most luxury laptop for photo editing photography. The bright, big screen is accompanied by a seriously weighty combination of GPU and CPU, and the memory is strong as well.
Key Features
- Hefty memory makes high-end multitasking manageable
- Retina display offers next level fidelity when displaying pictures
- Touch bar is especially useful for photo editing tasks
- SSD read speeds of up to 3.2 Gbps
4. Acer Aspire E 15 Best Laptops for Photo Editing
If you’re looking for the best laptops for photo editing under 1000 dollars that won’t let you down, the Acer Aspire E 15 has you covered. This budget laptop for photo editing sports surprisingly strong specs. The FHD screen weighs in at a full 15.6 inches, and it’s packed with a respectable GeForce MX150. By scaling down the GPU, Acer has managed to justify a lower-range CPU, and that allows them to chip a lot of price off without losing too much in value. It’s certainly not the highest performing laptop, but it excels way beyond it has any right to given the price tag.
Especially valuable is the huge number of ports built-in. USB ports are especially abundant, with a 3.1, two 3.0s, and a 2.0, and the requisite HDMI, VGA, and SD ports are present as well. In a somewhat retro flourish, there’s even a DVD-RW drive.
Key Features
- Well matched graphics and central processors
- Accessible compartment makes upgrading simple
- 2 GB devoted to discrete video memory
- Sharp and crisp display is great for accurate photo coloring
5. Microsoft Surface Book 2
If Microsoft and Apple are like the yin and yang of the personal computing world, the MacBook Pro and the Surface Book 2 are their champions in the arena of high-end laptops. This is by no means a cheap best laptops for photo editing, but it’s undoubtedly one of the best. Like the Surface Pro 6, it can easily transition between traditional computer and tablet mode. It’s remarkably light when used as a tablet but specced and featured with everything you’d want from a high-end machine.
It uses an eighth-generation i7 and really manages to make the most of it, and the Nvidia GTX 1060 complements it well. This isn’t a one-trick pony. It’s a highly functional laptop with top-end specs that just happens to implement the tablet conversion mode so well that it feels essential rather than just a trendy gimmick.
Key Features
- A tablet-laptop hybrid that offers four different modes
- Organically makes the most of the Microsoft ecosystem
- Offers 4x more power than the earlier Surface Book model
- Touchscreen is incredibly sensitive and ideal for hand drawing
7. ASUS ZenBook UX433FA-DH74
The Zenbook is one of the slimmest photo editing laptops around, making it great for those who travel often and prefer to travel light, but ASUS has packed a lot into this little baby. Great around-the-board features mean the Zenbook can suit not just your photo editing needs but everything you need to accomplish with a computer. It’s also a relatively affordable best laptops for photo editing.
The i7 processor this laptop uses is an incredibly capable CPU, and an integrated Intel UHD 620 graphics card rounds out those core specs. It won’t be able to really thrive in incredibly high-resolution editing, but it can accomplish what 90% of photographers will need to achieve with no difficulty. It can serve as a dedicated laptop for hobbyists and semi-pros or a travel companion for serious professionals.
Key Features
- Battery can run for an entire workday on a single charge
- Great all-around performance at a very reasonable price
- One of the smallest and most lightweight models around
- A ton of different connectivity options
8. Lenovo X1 Carbon Ultrabook
The ThinkPad used to be the high watermark for professional design on the best laptops for photo editing. In a market where laptop quality could vary wildly, Lenovo’s durable and powerful little machines were perhaps the most trusted names in the Windows market. And while there’s more worthy competition today, models like the X1 Carbon still manage to excel. The aesthetic design hasn’t changed much over the years, but neither has Lenovo’s commitment to quality.
This is an ultraportable laptop, weighing in at roughly two and a half pounds and sporting a very slim profile. The variety of ports, long battery life, and quality keyboard are all standard for ThinkPads, as well as being essential to most photographers. But this ThinkPad really shines through with its color quality. The X1 offers some incredibly solid color reproduction, and it offers a wide breadth of brightness without losing integrity. That’s an unfortunate rarity in the market.
Key Features
- Backlit keyboard is exceptionally sturdy and very responsive
- Great color reproduction and brightness of 300 nits
- Solid, latest gen hardware across the board
- IPS display is resistant to glare
9. LG Gram Thin and Light Best Laptops for Photo Editing
The LG Gram is a slim laptop that still manages to pack in a nice 17″ screen. That’s certainly a rarity, but the combination of portability and a spacious display is one that should especially appeal to the best laptops for photo editing. And despite weighing only a kilogram, there’s some muscle behind this laptop. The CPU is a new model i7, and it comes with a number of outlets, including one for the latest Thunderbolt cables.
While the storage may be modest, the SSD’s performance is actually pretty impressive. You can look forward to a read of 550.6 MB/sec and a write of 504.9 MB/sec. Similarly surprising for a laptop of this size is the quality of the battery. Doing everyday activities, it can last almost a day, and you can get at least half of that while regularly dealing with the rigors or photo or video editing.
Key Features
- Remarkably lightweight despite the large screen
- Fingerprint reader makes logging in a breeze
- Heavy duty battery can last almost all day long
- Nano carbon magnesium body is exceedingly resilient
10. Huawei Matebook 13 Signature
The Huawei Matebook 13 Signature blows the competition out of the water in one category: pricing. This budget laptop for Photoshop comes in at less than a grand, and while it might not meet the demands of the most exacting professional photographers, it’s perfectly capable of meeting the needs of most. The trackpad and keyboard are both exceptional, minimizing the sort of navigational frustrations that are so common in more budget-priced laptops.
For the price you pay, you get a lot here: an eighth-gen processor, a truly exceptional cooling system, and a sturdy SSD drive that you don’t have to worry about getting banged up. All these things, along with the very lightweight design, add up to a laptop that you can take with you anywhere. Nature photographers in particular will love the portability and ease of use here, and they’ll also love the lightning-fast charging.
Key Features
- Battery can give you 2.5 hours from a 15 minute charge
- One touch power solution makes it great for on the fly work
- Precision touch screen is both accurate and protected from smudges
- Shark Fin Design 2.0 cooling system is well above average
