The best laptop for photo editing

Create your ideal images with one of the best laptops for photo editing.

best laptop for photo editing

by Isabel Martins |
Updated on

When it comes to creating some truly spectacular photographs, there are several essential components - one of them being a laptop for photo editing.

Laptops can be an excellent tool for editing your photographs as they have crisp displays and impressive resolutions, and they're easy to transport.

Although laptops themselves aren't cheap, and if you're looking for the best laptop for photo editing, then the added quality of the resolution and display will cost extra.

Nonetheless, there are plenty of options out there, and our guide of the best laptop for photo editing has several different devices, so you don't need to break the bank. We've included one for every budget.

If you're not searching for a laptop, take a look at our best monitors for photo editing.

Best overall laptop for photo editing

If you're looking for the best laptop for photo editing, then you've found it. The Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch offers you a whole 16GB RAM, 512GB of storage, and a large 16-inch screen, and the Touch Bar works brilliantly with Photoshop.

Pros

  • Impressive display
  • Large screen size

Cons

  • No touch screen

Best value for money

If you love the MacBook Pro but want to spend less, then the 13-inch is a great option. This model offers you 16GB RAM, 256GB and a great display, so you are getting slightly less than the above MacBook Pro, but it is significantly cheaper.

Pros

  • Great value for money

Cons

  • Not enough ports

If you're not a fan of Apple then we recommend the Dell XPS 15. It has a 15-inch screen, a 16:10 display and some very impressive speakers. The laptop's operating system is Windows 10, which is compatible with most of the top photo editing applications.

Pros

  • Great display

Cons

  • Smaller touchpad

Best for professional photographers

The Lenovo ThinkPad1 is ideal for professionals, aside from being feature-packed, it is an impressively powerful laptop. It boasts 16GB RAM, an 11th-gen Intel Core processor, a whopping 4,096GB of storage, a 15-inch screen, and an awesome resolution.

Pros

  • Very fast performance

Cons

  • Quite expensive

Best budget laptop for photo editing

The Acer Swift 3 is ideal for any photography beginners. It's pretty affordable and packs everything you'd need for basic photo editing, with a 14-inch screen, 256GB of storage and a full and bright display.

Pros

  • Strong performance

Cons

  • A bit basic

What should I look for in a photo editing laptop?

There are several factors to consider when it comes to selecting a laptop for photo editing. Firstly, you have to look at your level - if you're a professional photographer, you'll need a more powerful laptop with a larger display and a higher resolution. A good example of this would be the Apple Macbook Pro 16 inch.

If you're just starting out, you might want to consider saving some money and going for one of the more basic models such as the Acer Swift 3.

Other factors to consider include resolution and display size. If you require a larger display, look for laptops that are 14 inches in size and above. The screen resolution shows how many pixels are on the screen. The higher the number of pixels, the clearer, sharper and better the images are displayed on the device.

Isabel Martins is a Commercial Content Writer for What's The Best, specialising in technology.

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