Weight and designĪll laptops are portable in theory, but there’s a huge difference between a 13-inch ultra-portable and a 17-inch desktop replacement. These are usually paired with a great graphics card, like NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX or RTX cards, which helps the CPU on graphics-intensive tasks like heavy-duty photo and video editing. Clock speeds start around 2.3GHz but can “boost” under certain conditions to as much as 5.3GHz. The most powerful photo editing laptops will use the latest 6- or 8-core CPUs from Intel, AMD, and Apple. But no matter who makes the processor, you can usually judge overall performance by looking at the maximum clock speed and the number of cores that your processor offers.
Most laptops will use either an Intel Core or AMD Ryzen CPU, with Apple’s latest MacBook Pro and MacBook Air featuring their own Apple Silicon M. Raw CPU performance is measured in clock speed (GHz), the higher the better, and the number of “cores” that it has at its disposal. The performance core of every computer is its CPU, and if you’re looking for the best photo editing laptop, you want to make sure you don’t cut corners on performance. The best laptop for photo editing will go above and beyond this, boasting 95% to 100% coverage of the more extensive DCI-P3 or AdobeRGB color spaces. The higher the percentage the better, but you’ll want your photo editing laptop to cover at least 99 to 100% of sRGB. Creator laptops will usually list color accuracy as a percentage of three different color spaces: sRGB, DCI-P3, and/or AdobeRGB. When it comes to color accuracy, you’ll want to pay attention to the advertised color space coverage. The smaller your screen, the less you need to worry about resolution, but a 4K laptop is always best when you’re looking for the best laptop for photo editing.
In terms of resolution, all modern laptop displays break out into three categories: 4K, QDH (also known as 2K), and Full HD. If you’re going to buy a photo editing laptop, a high-resolution display with great advertised color accuracy is a must. Most people can get away with skimping on the quality of their laptop display, but not photographers. These are all things you’ll want to consider when searching for the best laptop for your photo editing workflow. Power and graphics performance are a given, but do you want a 4K display? Is a lightweight laptop a must for you? What about durability? And do you want a traditional clamshell laptop, or would your workflow benefit from a versatile 2-in-1 design?
No single computer can do everything well, but when you’re looking for the best laptop for photo editing, you can begin by prioritizing the features that matter most to photographers. Not everyone has the same editing needs, so we’ve collected an array of options, some of which Features to consider when shopping for the best laptop for photo editing
We compared specs line by line and chose models that offer the best performance to price ratio for most people. For this roundup, we pulled from a mixture of hands-on experience, editorial reviews, and user reviews. The writers and editors at have spent thousands of hours editing photos in front of computers. How we picked the best laptops for photo editing Best rugged: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme.With such a laundry list of requirements, it might seem like finding the best laptop for photo editing is an impossible task, but these laptops do exist, and we’re here to help you find the best option for your specific needs. You’ll want a computer with plenty of ports, an SD card slot, and a large battery, and all of this should be packed into a relatively lightweight design that won’t add needless bulk to your bag. The best laptop for photo editing needs to have a high-resolution, color-accurate screen, a powerful CPU, a dedicated graphics card, and a rugged and reliable design.
But with so many options to choose from, it can be hard to know what features to prioritize. In recent years, laptops have gotten thinner, lighter, and more powerful all at the same time, with “creator” models offering a dynamite combination of performance and portability that lets you do serious photo editing from anywhere in the world. There was a time when serious photographers did all of their post-production on a desktop, but that’s changed.