In this post, we will see the top 10 Best Laptops for Photo Editing. Editing photos is one of the key parts of any photographer’s workflow. But it can also be one of the more frustrating parts because photo editing software tends to be resource hungry.
The best Laptops for photo editing should be a content creators dream come true. The best Laptops for photo editing are equipped with zippy hard drive, stocked with artist friendly boards and jam packed with the relevant photo editing software.
It should also have an adequate storage to maintain a large library of flies and the GPU that can handle graphics intensive applications. As a photo editor you also need a beautiful display that is capable of accurately reproducing a wide range of colors.
Photo editing means you need the right tool for the job, and picking the right laptop for photo editing is important. We’ve listed down the top 10 best laptops for photo editing and their key features.
Top 10 Best Laptops for Photo Editing to buy in 2021
10. Asus VivoBook S15
The 10th best laptop for photo editing on our list is Asus VivoBook S15. Getting a decent laptop for photo editing doesn’t mean you have to buy the most expensive laptop out there. As you may know, Asus has always managed to deliver one of the best laptops in the market, and one of the best is the Asus VivoBook S15.
Design
This laptop is a budget-focused device that provides amazing performance, excellent design, and many more features you won’t find in another device in this price range. It’s designed for users looking for a good-looking and powerful laptop without spending the big Bucks.
It has a very nice-looking design, and it seems pretty premium. The build quality is just amazing. One of the best features that this laptop has is the ergo lift hinge that tilts the keyboard to 3.5 degrees which looks amazing. Furthermore, I should also mention that the S15 comes in different colors.
You can choose from the silver-blue with yellow trim, which looks great, and the firmament green with aquamarine blue also looks very pleasing. There are many other colors; you have to pick the one that fits you best. This one weighs around 3.5 pounds, and it measures 0.7-inches.
Display
It also has a very nice-looking display with a 15.6-inch full HD 1080P resolution wide-view panel with narrow edge bezels. I want to get back to the display a little bit because it has a very nice display that’s pretty adequate for the price point.
Performance
Furthermore, when it comes to performance and specs, this one is packed with an 8th generation Intel Core i5 8265U with a boost clock speed of 3.4 gigahertz, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and 256 gigabytes of SSD.
Battery
The battery life can last around 8 hours which is not that good, but still, I don’t think you can find a better laptop at this price point.
Conclusion
It delivers just enough brightness, colors, and sharpness, which might help you a lot during photo editing sessions.
Specification Table
9. Razer Blade Stealth 13
The 9th best laptop for photo editing on our list is Razer Blade Stealth 13. Razer is the best-known brand for manufacturing premium products for gamers. So we have to admit the Razer Blade Stealth is a great laptop for editing photos.
Display
The 13.3-inch IPS display is just average at around 72 percent of Adobe RGB. But its contrast is very good, and it’s incredibly bright at over 400 nits. It offers 10th generation Intel ice lake CPUs, but it’s a real secret weapon for a small and light laptop is its GPU.
Design
The Razer Blade Stealth is the very picture of a modern laptop. It’s slim at 0.55-inches thick and lights at about 1.7 pounds. The display of Blade Stealth has thin bezels, something earlier models notably lacked.
Performance
At the same time, the Razer Blade Stealth can’t keep up with the most expensive options on our list. It features a legit Nvidia Geforce GTX 1650 GPU, remarkable for such a small and lights laptop. That’s enough to help edit complex photos in a pinch, and if you need more power, plug in the Razer Core external GPU enclosure.
In addition, you’ll find that the Razer Blade Stealth makes for a great laptop for everything else you’ll do.
Battery
It offers good but not great battery life. It has the Razer design aesthetic with RGB lighting that lets you stand out if you’re so inclined or not if you aren’t.
Conclusion
The chassis is built from long-lasting metal that feels splendid in hand. The Razer Blade Stealth is a gorgeous laptop with enough power for your photo editing without needing quite so much space in your backpack.
Specification Table
8. Asus ZenBook UX333
The 8th best laptop for photo editing on our list is Asus ZenBook UX333. The ZenBook 13 US333 is our cheapest laptop here. But it doesn’t deliver reasonable performance.
Display
But only 74 percent of the Adobe RGB color space that’s not as good as the XPS 15 or MacBook Pro. But it’s in line with laptops that sell for hundreds of dollars more. According to the specifications, the display has a maximum brightness of around 265 nits, making it great for all but the most brightly lit environments.
The laptop also delivers an average color error of just 1.68; a lower number is better here. The ZenBook 13 UX333 FA isn’t the best in class. The MacBook Air hits an average error of 0.98, for example, but it’s certainly quite good.
Design
Its contrast is excellent at 1350 to 1, though, while color accuracy is 1.68, less than 1.0 is perfect, not as great as the more expensive options here but very good for a budget laptop. The 50 watt-hour battery provides excellent longevity, and the build is both solid and conservatively enticing.
Performance
Its configurations include an 8th generation Intel Core i5 processor and integrated graphics powering a 13.3-inch IPS display with full HD resolution. But you won’t find touch input. The screen supports roughly 100 percent sRGB color space.
Conclusion
You can spend a lot more on the laptop for photo editing, but unless you need the best possible colors on your display. The ZenBook 13 UX333 proof that you don’t have to break the bank.
Specification Table
7. Acer Spin 3
The 7th best laptop for photo editing on our list is Acer Spin 3. Acer is known for offering affordable laptops with tremendous battery life, and the Acer Spin 3 convertible is no different.
Display
As one can guess with the name, this is a convertible machine that gives a choice to the owner to use as a regular or a touch screen device. The Acer Spin 3 convertible comes with a 14-inch screen with touch support which can also detect capacitive pen input. The IPS display with such screen resolution makes the video watching and streaming experience much better than other models in the market.
Design
Acer Spin 3 weighs 3.6 pounds, thereby making it a bit heavy compared to the other laptops.
Performance
It is powered by the 8th generation Intel Core i7 8565U, one of the best Quad-Core processors that offer the right amount of performance and efficiency that might seek a laptop for photo editing. Also, the integrated Intel UHD 620 GPU can utilize device memory as video memory which offers up to 16 gigabytes of graphics performance.
The Acer Spin 3, like most laptops, offers 16 gigabytes of RAM, which is a great amount, and make sure that it can handle all the tasks even in the future without any issue. Also, it offers 512 gigabytes of flash storage, and the Windows 10 OS on this user-friendly machine can boot in less than 10 seconds.
Conclusion
However, it costs lesser than the other laptops with similar specifications. Though the company claims that the Spin 3 can last for 12 hours in our testing, we found out that the laptop can last around 9 hours without any issues.
Specification Table
6. Huawei MateBook X Pro
The 6th best laptop for photo editing on our list is Huawei MateBook X Pro. The Huawei MateBook X Pro is all-around great. It’s shiny, sleek, and offers some sweet features to go along with that pro look.
Display
There is no high-quality photo editing laptop that is complete without a fantastic screen, and Huawei delivers. While it doesn’t quite reach 4K resolutions, you’ll be happy to know that its 13.9-inch display offers gorgeous picture quality at 3K.
Design
If you’re a hands-on type person, you will appreciate the touchscreen capabilities, which should help speed up your workflow in a few key ways. Plus, the screen looks great in that sleek Huawei laptop with its high-resolution display and 178-degree viewing angle.
if you’re the type of person who likes to carry a laptop everywhere, you’ll love the laptop’s overall size as well as the lightweight kept down by the relatively small screen and the thin body with a laptop that fits easily in backpacks, handbags, and purses. It would help if you didn’t have much trouble carrying the Huawei MateBook X Pro wherever you go.
Performance
Now, let’s take a look at the mind behind the machine, starting with the processor. The Intel Core i7 is coupled with 16 gigabytes of RAM, perfect for running resource-intensive photo editing programs like Luminar, Lightroom, and more. It doesn’t get much better than that, especially not on these light and portable laptops, and speaking of portability,
Conclusion
You should be able to get in some photo editing done along the way. I haven’t mentioned storage space, but you need not worry. The Huawei MateBook X Pro features a 512 gigabyte SSD which gives you a sizeable chunk of storage for working with images and image files nice and tidy.
Specification Table
5. MSI GS65 Stealth
The 5th best laptop for photo editing on our list is MSI GS65 Stealth. It is surely one of the best photo editing laptops in the market.
Design
Because it’s capable of everything despite not being as powerful as some other photo editing laptops out there, it has a very attractive design. It’s super slim. The display is amazing and has many more great features that might help you with your photo editing.
I highly recommend this device to anyone looking for a nice photo editing laptop; it’ll be by your side for a long time. Firstly I want to mention that this one is pretty thin. This laptop measures just 0.68-inches which is amazing.
It also weighs just 3.1 pounds in total, which means that it’s very portable and you can take it with you almost everywhere. It is a bit expensive, but in my opinion, if you want a high-end photo editing laptop that has every feature that’s needed, then it’s worth it.
Display
The matte black and gold color finish make this laptop look extremely attractive. This laptop has a display that measures about 15.6-inches with a resolution of 1080P and a native refresh rate of 240 hertz, which is wonderful when it comes to displaying.
Moreover, you should know that it has managed to reproduce about 150 percent of the SRGB color space, and brightness is about 300 nits in total, which is the outcome of all this is extraordinary viewing experiences.
Conclusion
Everything about this laptop is top-notch, so photo editing is not a problem for the GS65 Stealth. If you can afford this beast, you should go for it.
Specification Table
4. Dell XPS 15
The 4th best laptop for photo editing on our list is Dell XPS 15. Another amazing high-end photo editing laptop is the Dell XPS 15. This one has a very nice-looking design, astonishing performance, and many more great features.
Performance
It’s packed with the latest Intel and Nvidia and is surely one of the fastest and most powerful 15-inch laptops on the market. The only thing that might sound like a disadvantage is the price. It is expensive.
It has 16 gigabytes of RAM and one terabyte of SSD storage which is amazing.
Design
However, if you’re looking for a premium photo editing laptop with an amazing performance, you should check out the Dell XPS 15 because it doesn’t let you down. As I just said, the design of this laptop is pretty nice, and it looks nearly the same as the other XPS models.
Display
It’s built with high-quality materials and is very durable. The XPS 15 has a nice UHD 3940 x 2160P infinity edge display with a 100000 to 1 contrast ratio.
Keyboard
Furthermore, the touchpad and the keyboard work perfectly. The keyboard delivers amazing typing experiences, and the touchpad is very smooth and very responsive. You can also play games and multitask without a single problem.
Conclusion
Overall, I can say that it surely is one of the most powerful laptops ever. If you’re looking for a laptop that has plenty of great features and you can take it with you almost anywhere. You should check out the Dell XPS 15 and see if this is the one you’re looking for.
Specification Table
3. Microsoft Surface Pro 3
The 3rd best laptop for photo editing on our list is Microsoft Surface Pro 3. The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 is another amazing laptop for photo editing.
Design
It has a beautiful-looking design, great build quality, amazing display, and many more great features to help you along during your photo editing sessions. This laptop may be a bit old compared to the other laptops here, but it surely is pretty durable, and it’s proven to be a very well-built device.
The double hinge on this one is equipped with a strong magnet that latches onto the laptop’s lower bezel. Surface Pro 3 is a great thing because it makes you type more comfortably for long periods.
Display
It has plenty of great features that might be very handy to use. Surface Pro 3 is a very nice-looking design and the fact that this one is pretty small means you can take it with you wherever you go. It has a very nice-looking bright silver-colored magnesium shell which is very smooth to the touch.
The laptop has a nice trapezoidal shape, just like its predecessors on the upper half for set vents on its edges. On both sides of Pro 3, you’ll find the 5-megapixel cameras capable of 1080 video recording.
Performance
Moreover, this one is packed with Intel’s 4th generation Core i5 processor, which is good enough for photo editing and multitasking. It comes with 4 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of storage capacity.
Conclusion
I should also mention that it has a 12-inch 2160 x 1440P touchscreen display that can deliver a nice looking sharp and bright colors. It surely is one of the best photo editing laptops in the market that comes at a very reasonable price.
It has an amazing performance that might help you a lot during your photo editing sessions.
Specification Table
2. Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch
The 2nd best laptop for photo editing on our list is the Apple MacBook Pro 15-inch. MacBook Pro top-ranked our benchmark tests and felt lightning fast in designing software.
Design
Along the top of the keyboard, you’ll find Apple’s touch bar. This row of virtual buttons dynamically changes according to your current app, and Photoshop greatly uses it. The touch bar automatically displays adjustment buttons and sliders depending on your selected product or tool.
Display
The main retina display has an aspect ratio closer to 3:2 than 16:9, making it better suited to displaying most cameras. The 2880 x 1800 resolution may be less than 4K, but it’s easily crisp enough. It also supports Apple’s true tone technology that automatically makes the screen’s color compensate for ambient lighting.
You disabled the feature for consistency and recorded an outstanding delta E figure to just 0.54. The screen brightness uniformity also scores well, leaving just the 84 percent adobe RGB coverage trailing some rival windows laptops.
Performance
This particular range-topping spec 8-Core Intel Core i9, 32 gigabytes of RAM, doesn’t come cheap. But you can save a packet by downgrading to the 6-Core Intel Core i7 model with 16 gigabytes of RAM and still have a lightning-fast Photoshop performance.
Conclusion
However, whichever configuration you choose, you only get thunderbolt three ports meaning if you want to connect conventional USB devices, you’ll need annoying adapters. If budget isn’t a problem, this is one of the best laptops for photo editing you can buy.
Specification Table
1. Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch
The 1st best laptop for photo editing on our list is the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch. This device is a definite powerhouse coming in with great workstation performance.
Design
It is not only the most powerful MacBook, but it is also one of the best laptops ever. It improves on nearly every aspect of the iconic workstation. MacBook Pro 16 is a bit expensive but if you have a budget for it. I would highly recommend the MacBook Pro because this is the best photo editing laptop you can buy.
Design
This one is pretty similar to all the MacBook Pros, especially because it resembles the 15-inch version. It measures 14.1 x 9.7 x 0.6-inches. It looks premium, and the extra-thin bezels around the screen deliver amazing minimalistic vibes.
Display
Moreover, the display of this laptop is just astonishing. It’s packed with a 16-inch retina display with 3072 x 1920 resolution. The detail reproduction is amazing, the sharpness is great, and the colors are perfect. When it comes to performance, you should know that it’s an absolute beast capable of completing any task.
Performance
It’s equipped with the latest generation Intel Core i9 CPU and 16 gigabytes of RAM, and one terabyte of SSD. Also, it has an AMD Radeon Pro 5500 MM graphics, which means you can play some games from time to time.
Connectivity
This one is packed with four thunderbolts, three ports, and a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack for connectivity.
Battery
It has a battery life of 12 hours which is amazing.
Conclusion
However, this is not a gaming laptop, but you won’t find a better option for photo and video editing than the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch.
Specification Table
Final Verdict
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch is the best laptop for photo editing. Other laptops on this list are also great. You can buy one as per your needs and requirement.
Dear Reader
If you find this review helpful and looking for the affordable and best laptops for photo editing, you can select and buy one from the above list.
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