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Create beautiful photos, logos, social media graphics, and facebook covers with PicMonkey’s easy yet powerful photo editing and graphic design software. As far as Mac photo editing software goes, you should be able to find a basic editing program for under $100, typically starting for as little as $30. Paying more than $100 will often land you a professional editing program with additional editing tools and presets compared to the basic versions.
Trying to figure out which are the best laptops for photographers? Photo editing software can be pretty demanding, especially if you're working on high resolution raw files and utilizing advanced effects, so you'll want to make sure that you’re investing in a laptop that has all the makings of a powerful photo editing tool.
Best Photo Editors For Mac
At the end of the day, the best laptops for photographers can rival traditional desktop hardware when it comes to raw horsepower. Additionally, unlike laptops of old, many boast pixel-perfect displays with stunning color, as well as wide contrast to keep highlight and shadow detail consistently visible.
Best Photo Editor Overall Best for Editing Novices Best Budget Pro Photo Editor Best for Sharing Photos Best Free Editor for Mac Users Best Open-Source Photo Editor Product. HP Photosmart Essential provides a simple set of tools for editing and sharing photos. While not offering a ton of options and functions, the program does a fine job of sticking to the basics.
We put together a list of the best laptops for photographers and photo editing for you. In this guide, we’ll go through all the best laptops and Ultrabooks that can help photographers, no matter which photo editors you’re using – whether it’s Adobe Photoshop or GIMP.
HP Photosmart Essential provides a simple set of tools for editing and sharing photos. While not offering a ton of options and functions, the program does a fine job of sticking to the basics.
1. Apple Macbook Pro with touchbar
CPU: 8th-generation Intel Core i5 – i7 | Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.3-inch, (2,560 x 1,600) IPS | Storage: 256GB – 2TB SSD
The best Macbook Pro ever
Expensive
If you're after the latest and greatest laptop from Apple, then this year's 13-inch Macbook Pro with touchbar is a brilliant choice if you're looking for a laptop to edit photos on. It's the best laptop Apple has ever made, and builds new features into the classic design. Of course the headline feature is the Touch Bar - it's a thin OLED display at the top of the keyboard which can be used for any number of things, whether that be auto-suggesting words as you type or offering Touch ID so you can log in with just your fingerprint. This makes it an excellent laptop for photographers using Photoshop, as it has a number of Photoshop shortcuts, such as being able to quickly select a color or change the opacity of a layer by swiping your finger, features that all the other laptops on this list lack.
Read the full review:Apple Macbook with touchbar (13-inch 2018)
- See more like this: The best Macs and Macbooks 2018
2. MacBook Pro 15-inch
Same body, big leap in power
CPU: 9th-generation Intel Core i7 – i9 | Graphics: Radeon Pro 555X – Radeon Pro 560X | RAM: 16GB – 32GB | Screen: 15.4-inch 2,880 x 1,800 (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology | Storage: up to 4TB SSD
True Tone works well when you want it
Expensive
Keyboard still feels a little flat
With Apple having recently fitted its MacBook Pro 15-inch with Intel’s latest 9th-generation processors, these laptops are better and more powerful than ever, which means it’s just the ticket for demanding post-processing tasks. Of course, the fact that it boasts Touch ID and an improved Touch Bar, and is upgradeable to 4TB of SSD storage means that you can have a more seamless experience doing so. Although you will have to adjust to not having an SD card port and only two Thunderbolt 3, this is still one of the best laptops for photographers.
Read the full review:MacBook Pro 15-inch
3. HP Spectre x360 15T
CPU: Intel Core i7 | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 15.6-inch UHD (3,160 x 2,140) LCD touchscreen | Storage: 256GB SSD – 2TB SSD
![Hp photosmart app for mac Hp photosmart app for mac](/uploads/1/3/3/2/133276620/985555319.jpg)
Impeccable performance
Sharp 4K display
Combining elegance with performance, the HP Spectre x360 15T boasts the same great features inherent to the Spectre line, but also takes things to a whole new level. Touting an 8th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics and 8GB of RAM in its base configuration, this 2-in-1 can handle anything your daily workload throws at it – and then some (like a bit of light gaming like playing Anno 2070, for example). The fact that it’s a 2-in-1 and HP Pen compatible means that you can use Lightroom and Photoshop in tablet mode, if that’s more convenient for your workflow.
Read the full review:HP Spectre x360 15T (2019)
4. Huawei MateBook X Pro
A brilliant laptop for photographers
CPU: 8th-generation Intel Core i5 – i7 | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce MX150 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.9-inch 3000 x 2000 LTPS | Storage: 512GB SSD
Beautiful design
Terrific battery life
Webcam not great
The Huawei MateBook X Pro has proved to be a truly brilliant contender to more established brands like Apple and Dell. This is a gorgeously-designed laptop with a stunning screen (albeit with a rather odd aspect ratio). Better yet, it comes packed with cutting edge components that allow it to perform brilliantly, and a battery life that runs rings around many of its rivals. It’s also competitively priced, giving you excellent features, design and performance for less. The combination of brilliant screen, powerful components and (relatively) affordable price makes this one of the best laptops for photographers in 2019.
Read the full review: Huawei MateBook X Pro
5. Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13.5-inch)
An amazing laptop that does even more as a tablet
CPU: Intel Core i5 – i7 | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 620 – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.5” 3000 x 2000 PixelSense Display with touchscreen | Storage: 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB PCIe SSD
Seamless tablet integration
Pricey
The Surface Book 2 is Microsoft's followup to its popular 2-in-1 device, and it’s definitely one of the best laptops for photographers. With a full version of Windows 10 installed, it can run Photoshop with any issues. It comes with boosted components, and its screen remains gorgeous. Only Apple's marginally better colour calibration gives the MacBook's image quality the edge, but Microsoft fights back with a superior 3,000 x 2,000 resolution and an ideal aspect ratio for viewing APS-C and full-frame images. The screen's touch-sensitive, but its real party trick is its ability to detach from the rest of the laptop to become a tablet. It's a shame that the Surface Pen stylus doesn't come included, as we'd definitely recommend buying for your photo editing sessions.
Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13.5-inch)
6. Dell XPS 15
The best 15-inch laptop available this year
CPU: 8th-generation Intel Core i5 – 9th-generation Intel Core i9 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630 – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 | RAM: 8GB – 32GB | Screen: 15.6' FHD (1920 x 1080) – 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) InfinityEdge Anti-Glare Non-touch IPS | Storage: up to 2TB SSD
Amazing power
Slim design
Packing the same InfinityEdge technology as the smaller XPS 13, the 15-inch screen extends right to the edge of the machine which means it's as small as it's possible for a 15-inch laptop. It's quite expensive, depending on which version you get, but the very top end version has a 4K color-accurate display, which makes it one of the best laptops for photographers. You'll be able to see your photos in crisp detail as you edit them, and the impressive specifications mean it will keep up with all the edits you make to the largest photos in your collection.
Read the full review:Dell XPS 15
7. Dell XPS 13
Touchscreen can streamline photo browsing and culling
CPU: 8th-generation Intel Core i3 – i7 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620 | RAM: 4GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.3' FHD (1920 x 1080) – 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) InfinityEdge Anti-Glare Non-touch IPS | Storage: up to 2TB SSD
Extremely portable
Mediocre battery life
This laptop's claim to fame is being the smallest 13.3-inch laptop on the market. It's slim screen bezel helps contribute to a svelte 304mm x 200mm x 15mm form that needs to be held to be truly appreciated. But it’s also among the best laptops for photographers. The XPS 13's screen is touch-sensitive, and it boasts a similar resolution and pixel density to the MacBook and Surface Book. Image quality is more in line with the ZenBook though, falling slightly short on colour and contrast intensity compared to Apple and Microsoft's displays. A highly portable package with little compromise other than battery life.
Read the full review: Dell XPS 13
8. HP Spectre x360
A best 2-in-1 gets better
CPU: Intel Core i5 – i7 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.3-inch full HD (1,920 x 1,080) – UHD (3,840 x 2,160) touchscreen | Storage: 256GB – 2TB PCIe SSD
Very well built
Expensive
Sartorially-conscious photographers will love the look of this 13-inch stunner, sure. But the 2019 Spectre x360 also takes things to another level, power-wise. With its gem cut design and sleek profile, it’s this one of the most beautiful laptops on the market right now. However, HP also fitted this with powerful Intel Whiskey Lake processors and long battery life, which means that you’re getting one of the best laptops for photographers.
Read the full review: HP Spectre x360 (2019)
9. Lenovo Yoga C930
CPU: Intel Core i7 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.9-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,080) – UHD (3,840 x 2,160) IPS Glossy Multi-touch | Storage: 256GB – 2TB SSD
Strong build quality
Excellent battery life
Pricey upgrade options
Sleek, slim and with solid specs to boot, the new Lenovo Yoga C930 not only deserves to be voted one of the best 2-in-1 laptops to date, but it’s also a worthy addition in our best laptops for photographers list. That’s without mentioning the fact that it now touts a 4K display model, which is just excellent for editing those high resolution full-frame shots. This 2-in-1 is a strong contender for photographers on the budget, but if you do decide to go for gold, you might have to break the bank.
Read the full review: Lenovo Yoga C930
10. Microsoft Surface Laptop 2
CPU: Intel Core i5 - i7 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620 | RAM: 8GB - 16GB | Storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB or 1TB SSD
Competitive power level
No Thunderbolt 3 option
While it doesn't represent a huge improvement of the original Surface Laptop, the Surface Laptop 2 offers enhancements in all the areas we were hoping for, including updated hardware that brings solid performance upgrades. This is a laptop that finally delivers on what Microsoft set out to do with the original: a pure, powerful Windows 10 laptop experience. If you're not sold on the 2-in-1 nature of the Surface Book 2, but love Microsoft's premium build quality and design, then the Surface Laptop 2 is the laptop for you, especially if you’re looking for the best laptops for photographers.
Read the full review:Microsoft Surface Laptop 2
Key things to look out for
Watch the video above for the top 7 things to consider when buying a laptop.
It's easy to get bogged down in the tech and spec soup of computer terminology, but there are a couple of key areas photographers need to think about.
The first is the quality of the screen. This used to be more eye-sore than eye-candy, with appalling contrast and viewing angles, but thankfully IPS display tech fixes this and you shouldn't settle for anything less.
An SSD (solid state drive) is a must as your primary storage in any new laptop. A conventional hard disk drive will bottleneck performance like flat tires on a Ferrari, and while dedicated graphics cards are great for gaming, they're not a necessity here. Today's processors can fill in for them, and they pack enough pixel-pushing punch for photo editing.
The MacBook is favoured by many photographers, and for good reason. But don't rule out comparably priced laptop PCs, which can offer more bang per buck with better upgradability.
Join Adobe Creative Cloud and save 15% on your first year
TechRadar has teamed up with Adobe to offer a special discount on Creative Cloud All Apps membership. For the first year, you'll pay just $45.04/£42.46 per month – down from the regular price of $52.99/£49.94. You'll get access to Adobe's full suite of creative apps, including Photoshop, Lightroom and Illustrator, plus 100GB cloud storage for your projects. Offer ends August 26 2018.
TechRadar has teamed up with Adobe to offer a special discount on Creative Cloud All Apps membership. For the first year, you'll pay just $45.04/£42.46 per month – down from the regular price of $52.99/£49.94. You'll get access to Adobe's full suite of creative apps, including Photoshop, Lightroom and Illustrator, plus 100GB cloud storage for your projects. Offer ends August 26 2018.
- Want more choices? Check out our list of the best laptop 2019
Photo editing pushes laptop capabilities right to the edge. Top-quality work demands a high-resolution, color-accurate display, and a fast processor. Video editor on mac. But the rigors of traveling with photo gear plus a computer make small, lightweight machines with long battery lives a real plus. Similarly, storing thousands of high-resolutions calls for a large hard drive, while peak performance is only possible with an SSD.
When we last looked at the best options in the market, there were some clear leaders. We’ve now updated our list, with new and improved models that have come on the market over the last six months. In particular, Kaby Lake chips, updated GPUs from Intel and Nvidia, and faster SSDs have arrived. There are also more high-resolution screen options, including some OLED versions. If you are in the market and photo editing is a top priority, one of these laptops is likely to suit your needs.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga (2nd gen) and Yoga 920
The Thinkpad X1 Yoga delivers a lot of punch, including stylus support, in a sleek package
I’ve lumped these two machines together because they are similar, but also offer some tradeoffs depending on your needs. Both machines are have 14-inch displays, support a stylus, and can fold back on themselves in classic Yoga fashion. Both qualify as Ultrabooks and weigh in at about 3 pounds, with support for up to 16GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and a fingerprint reader. Both units also feature excellent keyboards and TrackPoints, and do pretty well on ports, with USB 3.0, USB-C, and Thunderbolt support.
After the above, there are some differences. The X1 Yoga has the option of an amazing 2560×1440 OLED display that is about the best I’ve ever used for watching movies or showing off images. The Yoga 920 doesn’t offer an OLED option, but you can get it with up to a 4K IPS panel. The X1 Yoga also only comes with a dual-core 7th generation i7 (i7-7600U), while the Yoga 920 can be configured with a quad-core 8th generation CPU (i7-8550U). Video outputs are also slightly different, with the 920 featuring DisplayPort over USB-C and the X1 Yoga having a more traditional HDMI port.
Neither unit has an SD card slot, unfortunately, although the X1 Yoga does have a slot for a microSD in the back. However, the slot is hard enough to access that you’ll probably wind up with a card reader anyway.
- Price: $1,682 and up
Microsoft Surface Pro (newest 2017 version)
If you like to use a tablet or stylus for your image editing in your studio, and want to have access to the same capability on the road, the Microsoft Surface Pro may be ideal. It’s powerful for its small size, and features a pressure-sensitive active stylus while also offering a reasonable keyboard. You’ll probably also want to pair it with a Bluetooth mouse like the Microsoft Arc Touch. Microsoft removed the model number from the most recent version, so don’t confuse the new Surface Pro with the original version that also carried that name.
By itself, the 1.7 pound unit certainly won’t give you the same big-screen experience of larger laptops, but its 12.3-inch screen is sharp and high-resolution. While the base model comes with an i3, you can bump up to an i5 or i7 for more power. You’ll also want an external card reader to use with your camera, but with up to 1TB of internal SSD, you may not need an external drive to keep your images while you travel. When you’re in one location for awhile, you can use the mini DisplayPort to drive an external monitor–or even do what I do and travel with a portable USB-powered display. The entry level version is now $800, with a loaded model costing up to $2,700 with an i7, 16GB of memory, and a 1TB SSD. You’ll need to purchase a keyboard cover and stylus on top of that, unless you already have them.
- Price: $800 and up
Apple MacBook Pro 15 and MacBook Pro 13
Apple’s MacBook Pro has long been a favorite among professional photographers. Best image editor app for mac. A big part of it is, of course, that it runs the same macOS many of them run on desktop computers. But it was also an early pioneer of ultra-high resolution LCDs with a large color gamut, and a relatively compact, stylish, design. However, many PC vendors have caught up in features, and surpassed the now-aging MBP models in raw performance. Apple has made some recent improvements, including adding a Force Touch trackpad, faster SSDs, a fingerprint reader, and improving the battery life–although the lack of an SD card slot remains a sticking point.
The current version of the MBP 13 with Retina Display starts at $1,500, while the 15-inch Retina model starts at $2,400. As is typical, photographers will more likely be interested in the higher-end configurations, which are $2,000 and $2,800, respectively. The new models have higher price points than before, but with beefier specs. You can now get up to a 1TB SSD in the 13-inch model, and a 2TB SSD in the 15-inch. With 30MP and up cameras becoming common, and 4K video widespread, these larger hard drive options are a welcome addition. The 15-inch version comes with a discrete Radeon Pro GPU to help maximize image processing performance. The 13-inch models rely on an integrated GPU, although those have gotten substantially faster over the last couple years, so you may not miss having a separate discrete GPU. Both versions feature up to 7th-generation Core i7 CPUs–dual-core for the 13-inch, and quad-core for the 15-inch.
Hp Photosmart D110 Software For Mac
- Price: $1,300 and up
Dell XPS 15 Touch (2017): Still a Winner
Spoiler Alert: The newest version of the Dell XPS 15 is once again my favorite laptop for photo editing. I’ve just bought my third XPS 15, this time the 2017 Touch edition. Featuring an optional 4K display that covers 100 percent of Adobe RGB, a Kaby Lake quad-core Core i7, an Nvidia 1050 GPU, a 1TB SSD, and up to 32GB of RAM, it has just about everything a road warrior photographer could want. It hasn’t really gotten any lighter over the last year, as it is still over 4 pounds, but it is a little smaller and sleeker. While starting configurations of the machine run as little as $1K, configured as above will run you just over $2K.
The only things I could see regretting are that it doesn’t have the Kaby Lake Refresh chips yet, and there’s no stylus support. Also, you pay a heavy price in battery life for the 4K display and discrete GPU. Don’t count on more than 4 hours of reasonable use, so it isn’t the ideal option if you’re mostly on the go without a power plug. It’s also overkill if you don’t need a quad-core CPU or high-end GPU. For straight ahead benchmarks, some of the dual-core models in this roundup are just as fast. But if you want high-performance 3D graphics, Photoshop processing, or video rendering without a full-on gaming laptop, this model delivers. If you are willing to wait, I’m sure there will be an update early next year, or the not-yet-available HP ZBook x2 offers Kaby Lake Refresh and an active stylus, although it is larger and heavier.
The unit has a good selection of ports, including HDMI, USB 3.0, Thunderbolt, and an SD card slot. Starting at a little over 4 pounds, the latest XPS 15 is about the lightest laptop you can find that can pack this much punch, and with the aforementioned 100 percent Adobe RGB color gamut.
To provide some perspective on progress in this category, the above image shows three generations of Dell XPS 15 laptops. Over the last 4-5 years they’ve shrunk significantly, weigh 1.5 pounds less, and pack nearly twice as much power under the hood. The display has also jumped from a gamut similar to sRGB to one that is almost identical to the much-larger Adobe RGB color space.
Hp Photo Creations Software For Mac
- Price: $1,949 and up
HP ZBook x2
The HP ZBook x2 looks to be a creator’s dream portable
HP has spared nothing in designing the ZBook X2 for creatives of all kinds. It has the latest and most powerful CPU (up to i7-7600U) and a workstation class GPU (Nvidia Quadro M620), but still weighs in at less than 5 pounds. There aren’t any review units to look at yet, but the 4K, 100-percent Adobe RGB, DreamColor display promises to be gorgeous. Somewhat unique for a high-end machine, not only does it support a full-featured Wacom stylus, but is a 2-in-1 so you can remove the keyboard and use the tablet flat or with the kickstand to prop it up.
HP has built some pre-packaged bundles for particular uses, such as Photographer, Digital Artist, and Video Editor. HP has also provided some customizable keys alongside the screen, so you can further accelerate your workflow.
- Price: $1,749 and up, pre-orders start November 21st
Hp Photosmart 6520 Software For Mac
Don’t fret if we missed your photo editing favorite
Adobe Photo Editor For Mac
It was hard to pick out just a few machines from the dozens of excellent laptop models out there. For many, apparently small features like backlit keyboards, multiple USB 3.0 ports, Thunderbolt, stylus-support, high-resolution display, choice of DisplayPort, HDMI, or VGA output, or battery life can easily change which model is right for your particular needs. This is especially true with Windows Ultrabooks–with literally dozens of similar models crowding the sub-four-pound, SSD-powered Windows laptop space.
Unfortunately, some laptop makers are also making it harder to compare the actual specifications for their units. Manufacturers often completely neglect to state maximum RAM capacity, base CPU speed (they seem to like bragging about the higher Turbo Boost speed instead), or drive RPMs (or interface used in the case of SSDs). Hopefully, though, the models we’ve described can serve as a baseline for your shopping so you’ll know what’s available and what some of your alternatives are.
Hp Photo Editor For Windows 10
If you have a very-high-end photography workflow, that involves a lot of multi-layer Photoshop images, and are okay with lugging around something larger, also take a look at our best laptops for engineers guide for ideas.
Photo Editor For Mac Free
If you have a different laptop you love for your photo editing work, let us know about it in the comments.
Now read: The top laptops for everyone