The best photo-editing laptops won't just be the perfect tool for photographers needing to do some photo editing. A machine with a fast processor, plenty of RAM, and a large storage drive will also give you a computer ideal for home-working - these slimline marvels will quite likely outperform that dusty old desktop tower in your office!
What's more, the addition of a quality screen with consistent color and contrast will not only bring images to life, but can also help reduce eye strain and fatigue.
These days pretty much every major laptop manufacturer offers a model sporting a top-spec 4K screen with 100% sRGB color space coverage and wide contrast to keep highlight and shadow detail consistently visible.
The latest MacBook Pro models are still a force to be reckoned with for sheer photo-editing power, or just general home working. The current MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) is stupendously fast, while also boasting stunning screen quality so you can edit images with the best possible accuracy.
Don't ignore the latest crop of Windows PC laptops, though. The market is fierce, producing some excellent all-rounders like the Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 and Microsoft Surface Laptop.
Of course, the right laptop for you depends on many factors: will this be your main machine, or is this a secondary device? How important are power and speed versus portability and battery life? We’d recommend a 15-inch screen size as the best balance between portability and having a versatile Photoshop workspace, while 16-17 inches offers a super-comfortable screen real estate and is worth the extra weight penalty if you'll mainly working from home.
Here are the best photo-editing laptops you can get right now…
Ben Andrews
Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.
Recent updates
06/17/2024: Replaced previous-generation MacBook Air 15 with the current-gen 2024 M3 model - see our full review for more details. 09/12/2024: Replaced discontinued Razer Blade 17 with Asus TUF A16. Replaced discontinued MacBook Air 13-inch M2 (2022) with Acer Predator Helios 300
A laptop powerful enough for serious photo editing will never be cheap, but Asus TUF A16 is very well priced for the respectable performance it offers.
If you need a laptop that doesn't weigh you down as you travel, the Apple MacBook Air 15.3 M2 has you covered for use, on the train, on a plane, or in the coffee shop.
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Chunkier shape feels bigger than previous Intel 16-inch design
Buy it if:
✅ You want a laptop that can do everything: Even in base spec, the MacBook Pro is mightily powerful. But optioned-up, it'll out-gun pretty much any laptop or desktop.
✅ A stunning screen: Apple's Retina displays have long been at the forefront of image quality, and the current MacBook Pro display is a visual sensation.
Don't buy it if:
❌ You want the best value: There are plenty of alternatives on this list that perform almost as well, but for a lot less cash. You pay a huge premium to have the best.
❌ You want ANY form of upgradability: Current MacBooks have absolutely no upgradability, so choose those RAM and storage options very carefully when purchasing.
What the M2 Max gives you in terms of photo editing power is astonishing, the MacBook Pro 16 with M2 Max is an absolute demon of a laptop, it will tear through any photo editing you can throw at it and still be ready for more. It handles Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom without breaking a sweat and allows you to carry on with your other work at the same time.
Unfortunately, it also comes with a monstrous price that is truly quite hard to recommend spending, and photographers might be better served by the M2 Pro, which is available in the 16 and 14-inch MacBook Pro. But for those who want a bigger MacBook to see more of their images, the 16-inch is the way to go.
The MacBook Pro 16 is a fantastic laptop, with a lot going for it from the beautiful color-accurate screen, booming speakers, sharp webcams, and excellent keyboard and trackpad, it is a very worthy upgrade for anyone using Intel-based MacBooks.
✅ You want the ultimate portable powerhouse: Small enough to take almost anywhere, yet supremely capable for image editing: the MacBook Pro 14 is great when you're on the go.
Don't buy it if:
❌ You'll spend long periods editing: Though great on the go, we don't recommend the 14" MacBook Pro for prolonged editing stints - the screen is just too small. Go for the 16" 'Pro instead.
❌ You you can't stretch to a memory upgrade: The base 8GB of memory really isn't enough to future-proof the laptop - spec 16GB or more when purchasing, as you can't upgrade later.
Though it isn't a huge performance upgrade from previous M2-based 14" MacBook Pro models, we still found the latest M3 edition to be a joy to use. Editing is a breeze, as it handles Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere with ease, barely slowing down as you push the laptop to do more.
The base 8GB RAM option is low though, as you won't be able to add memory after purchase should you ever need more. We'd recommend speccing 16GB for peace of mind, or even 24GB if you want really be future-proofed.
The M3 MacBook Pro is packed with all the ports a creative will need, including three Thunderbolt 4-enabled USB-C ports, HDMI, and an SD card slot. What's more, it has super fast WiFi 6E for uploading and downloading large files, and improved speakers and webcam. This might just be the best MacBook Apple has ever made.
✅ You want a great screen: This has an OLED display, which offers stunning vibrancy, contrast and color accuracy. It's also touch-sensitive, which you won't get from a MacBook.
✅ You want editor-focussed features: We love the innovative Asus Dial. It can be customized to control various functions, including Photoshop tool selections—very useful.
Don't buy it if:
❌ You want long battery life: If you use all the performance available off-grid, the battery will drain fast.
❌ You're on a budget: The ProArt Studiobook rivals a MacBook Pro on performance but also shares its premium pricing.
Portable power like this is ideal for anyone shooting photos or videos in the field. It’s got everything you need in one package, including enough storage to empty your memory cards into.
In our benchmark tests, the Asus performed extremely well, and Photoshop and Lightroom worked at an impressively fast speed, We noted that the 32 addressable threads of this laptop allow parallel tasks in Lightroom, such as exporting and generating smart previews, are given an extra speed boost. Battery life, however, is a disappointment, which is to be expected given the power-hungry nature of the Asus's components.
However, all this power comes at a price, with the laptop, especially at higher spec models troubling most bank balances. Although as a laptop that’s versatile, portable, powerful, and with the Dial and touchscreen, has features that a comparable MacBook Pro can’t deliver it must surely rank as one of the best laptops for photo and video editing right now.
✅ Value is a must: This laptop offers respectable performance at an accessible price, while also packing a high-capacity battery.
✅ Image quality matters: The A16's display is a good size for longer editing stints, and it boasts an impressive 100% DCI-P3 coverage.
Don't buy it if:
❌ You travel frequently: The focus here is performance over portability - it's a relatively chunky design, being over an inch thick.
❌ You need a 4K display: The 2560x1600 resolution of this laptop is easily sharp enough for a 16" display, but if it must be 4K, keep scrolling.
A laptop that can handle serious photo editing will never be really cheap, but we reckon the Asus TUF A16 strikes a great balance of offering fast performance at an accessible price. Firepower comes from a potent 8-core AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor, teamed with 16GB of RAM.
Screen specs haven't been skimped on, either. There's an excellent 16-inch IPS display with a healthy 2560 x 1600 resolution, plus it covers a hugely impressive 100% of the demanding DCI-P3 color space. That resolution may be lower than 4K, but it's already more than sharp enough to give you a super-crisp viewing experience.
During our time reviewing the TUF A16 we found it to also have a surprisingly good battery life for a laptop this powerful. Expect around 10 hours of light use and video playback, though inevitably if you work those 8 CPU cores hard, you'll need to plug in much sooner.
If you're after a laptop that gives you maximum bang per buck, the Asus TUF A16 is just that: exceptional value for money.
✅ You want a well-balanced laptop: The Air is a good compromise, being super-thin and light, yet with a practical screen size and lots of processing power.
✅ You'd like long battery life: The Air is capable of up to 18 hours of runtime.
Don't buy it if:
❌ You'll be connecting lots of devices: The Air's selection of ports is woeful, so you're going to need a USB hub/dongle.
❌ Your budget is tight: the base model with 8GB RAM could prove restrictive, but speccing 16GB isn't cheap
The 2024 Apple MacBook Air 15 M3 is probably the best laptop currently on the market for most people, and a superb decision for any photographer, videographer, or creative who wants a larger gorgeous screen, combined with enough power to comfortably run the latest editing software, and all wrapped up in a lightweight package that can easily slip into a backpack.
There are more powerful Apple options for really demanding editing situations, but for most people, the M3 chip inside the 'Air 15 will provide more than enough oomph to edit comfortably.
The lack of abundant ports, and the absence of an SD card slot, holds this laptop back from being the ultimate laptop for content creators though, with the MacBook Pro being a slightly better all-rounder, if you're happy to carry a little more bulk.
Screen: 13.3-inch Pixel Sense, 2880 x 1920, 267 PPI, 120hz
Storage: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB SSD
SD card reader: No
Thunderbolt 4: Yes
Reasons to buy
+
Versatile laptop/tablet detachable hybrid
+
Very light and portable
+
Deceptively powerful for its form factor
+
Surface Pen is excellent
Reasons to avoid
-
Power might not be enough for demanding tasks
-
Keyboard not for heavy typers
-
Lacking in ports
Buy it if
✅ You want the ultimate travel companion: Most hybrid laptops are far more laptop than tablet, the Surface Pro genuinely does double duty.
✅ You don't want to compromise on performance: Traditionally, super-thin laptops offer lacklustre speed, but not here. It's not the fastest machine, but it can handle a surprisingly intensive editing workload.
Don't buy it if:
❌ You're a frequent typist: There has to be a compromise somewhere here, and it's the (optional) super-thin keyboard.
❌ You need lots of ports: It's almost a tablet in design, so therefore you don't get many sockets.
The Microsoft Surface Pro 9 is deceptively powerful from its compact laptop-tablet hybrid form factor. Not struggling to get through any productivity tasks thrown at it, it can also handle a good amount of photo and video editing with gusto.
The Surface Pro 9 is still a device that is hard to pin into any category. It is a very well-built and beautiful device with a kickstand and hinge that still reigns supreme in the 2-in-1 world.
If you choose to buy the Surface Type Cover and Surface Slim Pen (which you really should) then this is a fantastic productivity device for on the go. As it is designed for travel, there are only two USB-C ports for plugging in peripherals - but if this an issue you can opt to get a USB-C hub.
It is not the most powerful device for photo editing, but it is the perfect device for editing while on the move, or for setting up quickly on shoots.
✅ You want a quality hybrid device: The Surface Laptop Studio exudes quality and its hybrid hinge converts it from laptop to tablet (and everything in between) beautifully.
✅ You do a lot of typing: The quality keyboard is a pleasure to type with. The large trackpad with haptic feedback further helps with ergonomics.
Don't buy it if:
❌ You want ultimate performance: Though undeniably fast, this isn't the last word in speed.
❌ You need a wide-gamut display: To the naked eye the Surface's display is gorgeous, but it only covers 89% of the DCI-P3 color space, when rival can manage over 95%.
The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is perhaps the slickest touchscreen laptop specifically aimed at designers and those in other creative fields.
It features a hybrid design, so can convert from a laptop into a tablet, but it doesn't do so via the usual 360-degree hinge. Instead, the Surface Laptop Studio has a dual hinge so it can open up like a normal laptop, with a secondary hinge around the center of the display that lets you pull the screen forwards so the bottom locks in place magnetically just above the touchpad. Or it can sit flat where the lid would usually be. This gets you the “fat tablet” style of a 360-degree hinge, without leaving the keyboard sitting awkwardly underneath.
Inside, 11th-gen Intel processors and up to 32GB of RAM make light work of image editing, though the Surface Laptop Studio is far from the most powerful laptop on the market. However, like other Surface computers it excludes quality throughout, including parts workstations tend to neglect, such as the speakers and webcam.
Just be careful when it comes to ticking the option boxes when you buy, as the price can quickly increase to levels that are tough to justify for the performance you'll get.
✅ You want the MacBook design, in a PC: It's got the quality, design and feel to most closely rival a MacBook Pro, and is a joy to use.
✅ Screen performance is a high priority: We love the brightness, crispness and color fidelity of the PixelSense screen - it's a match for Apple's Retina display.
Don't buy it if:
❌ You're expecting it to be super-fast: If want a laptop for intensive photo editing, this isn't ideal. Performance is good rather than great, as the focus is on battery efficiency.
❌ You need to connect lots of peripherals: Taking inspiration from Apple, Microsoft as pared ports down to the bone. You'll need a USB dongle to use at home.
Microsoft's Surface Laptop 5 is a fantastic option for anyone design-conscious, who wants a traditional clamshell design Windows laptop that is oozing with style.
With a big, sharp, and colorful screen, a fantastic keyboard, and a large trackpad, the Surface Laptop 5 is a joy to use. Although a design overhaul wouldn't go amiss, with its chunky bezels needing reducing and a couple more ports squeezed in.
The Surface Laptop 5 performs very well at productivity tasks, easily handling Office apps for work or school, intensive web browsing, and video streaming, and photographers can be confident in performing light photo editing in Lightroom or Photoshop.
When it comes to video, the Surface Laptop struggles and keen filmmakers might want to look at options with a dedicated graphics card - or that sport an Apple logo.
✅ You want top value: The Helios is blessed with enough speed to worry laptops costing way more.
✅ You need lots of storage: spec the SSD+HDD option and you'll have fast and high-capacity storage.
Don't buy it if:
❌ You travel off-grid a lot: Battery life is mediocre at best - you'll want to stay plugged in.
❌ You want to travel light: This laptop is best kept on your desk.
The Acer Predator Helios 300 represents an awful lot of laptop for a relatively affordable price. Despite its accessible cost, we found during our testing that you still get respectable photo-editing performance, courtesy of Intel Core i7 power paired with up to 32GB of RAM. In fact, there's enough speed here to rival laptops costing much, much more. Factor the healthy amount of built-in storage (up to a 1TB SSD, or a SSD+hard drive combo) and you can store thousands of high-res raw files without running out of space.
The Predator Helios 300 is marketed as a gaming laptop, so there are extras like a Turbo button that'll give you an overclocked boost for intense editing bouts, plus there’s custom control over the cooling fan, so you can balance cooling performance with fan noise. Granted, they're not essential features for photo editing, but this laptop is great value regardless.
Swipe to scroll horizontally
Features
There's a decent spread of features for the money, including plenty of ports
★★★★
Design
Function over form, and the gamer-looks aren't particularly subtle
★★★
Performance
It'll breeze through most workloads, and the large screen helps with video editing
★★★★★
Value
Excellent value for the performance on offer, providing you're not after svelte styling
This is always going to be a compromise. The larger the screen, the more comfortable your image editing experience. However, lugging around a 17-inch laptop all day will soon get tiresome. If your laptop will spend most of its time at home, on your desk, then bigger is definately better. A 13- or 14-inch laptop is ideal for life on the go, and a 15/16-inch machine is a decent compromise between the two extremes.
Which display technology?
Laptop screens used to be more eye-sore than eye-candy, with appalling contrast and viewing angles. Thankfully IPS LCD display tech fixes this and you shouldn’t settle for anything less. The latest crop of OLED displays offer even better contrast and color vibrancy. Regardless of screen tech, a laptop that boasts pre-calibration to ensure the best possible color accuracy is always beneficial for accurate image editing.
How much storage do I need?
An SSD (solid state drive) is a must in any new laptop. All our options in this buying guide include one, but don’t get stuck with a small capacity: 512GB is a bare minimum if you’re working with 4K video, while 1 terabyte (TB) or more is preferable. Thankfully, you can supplement a laptop's internal storage by connecting a separate, external hard drive.
Do I need to pay extra to get a fast graphics processor?
A dedicated graphics processor in a laptop is great for gaming, but it's not a necessity for image editing. Today’s processors can fill in for them, and they pack enough pixel-pushing punch for photo editing. That said, a mid-range graphics processor could help accelerate some Photoshop filters.
How fast should the central processor (CPU) be?
The heart of a laptop, two processor manufacturers dominate: Intel, and AMD. However, laptop processor model numbers are practically impossible to decipher. Just focus on the ‘base frequency’ (speed, measured in GHz), and number of processing cores (two, four, six, and sometimes even more).
Mac or PC?
MacBooks are favoured by many photographers, and for good reason. But don’t rule out comparably priced laptop PCs, which can offer more bang per buck, sometimes with better upgradability.
When reviewing a laptop, we assess its internal hardware features, build quality, ergonomics, performance in a variety of usage scenarios, value for money, and its overall suitability for its target buyer. Although we'll evaluate a laptop with a typical user in mind, we will also pay particular attention to the perspective of photo and video enthusiasts, with special focus given to screen quality and color space coverage. Where possible, a monitor calibrator will be used to measure a laptop's display performance to assess whether it matches a manufacturer's claims, and software benchmarks like GeekBench are used to measure a laptop's processor and graphics card capabilities.
Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or even the latest camera phones, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's also the team's man-at-arms when it comes to camera bags, filters, memory cards, and all manner of camera accessories – his lab is a bit like the Batcave of photography! With years of experience trialling and testing kit, he's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.
