Best laptops for photo editing 2023: Best overall, most portable, and more

Price When Reviewed:

$1,599.99

If you’re looking for a killer display, the Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED is a fantastic choice. The 4K OLED panel is a work of art. Not only does it produce vibrant images, but it’s a solid choice for those who deal with tension headaches from eye strain. If you find yourself spending hours upon hours looking at a screen, you might as well invest in one with a sharp picture. The VivoBook is also powerful when it comes to processing power. Let’s take a look under the hood, shall we?

The Ryzen 9 5900HX CPU is fast enough for photo editing software like Adobe Lightroom and Bridge. As for memory and storage options, it has 32GB of RAM and a whopping 1TB of PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD storage. That’s sufficient for quickly firing up multiple applications and storing gigantic RAW images. There are a few flaws to be aware of, though. The webcam is less than stellar and the fingerprint reader is temperamental. Overall, however, the VivoBook Pro is a fabulous machine that any photo editor would love.

Price When Reviewed:

$1,250

If you’re on a tight budget (been there), the MSI GF76 Katana is an excellent value pick. It features an Intel Core i7-12700H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of PCle 4 SSD storage. In other words, this laptop is fast enough to handle most photo-editing work as well as everyday use like browsing the web and streaming Netflix. The trackpad and keyboard are surprisingly comfortable, too.

The only real knock against this machine is the dim display. It’s not horrible, but some photo editors may prefer a brighter screen. That said, it’s 17.3-inches and that’s a ton of screen real estate to work with. If you’re a beginner photo editor looking to save some money, the GF76 Katana is well worth considering.

Price When Reviewed:

3899.99

The Asus ROG Strix G18 is a great option for power users because of its Intel Core i9-13980HX CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU as well as enhanced airflow and cooling. The G18 passed many of our intensive gaming benchmarks with flying colors. In fact, our reviewer says you can “expect exceptional performance for high-end gaming and for other CPU-intensive tasks like video editing or encoding.” In other words, the G18 is more than capable of handling any photo editing task you throw at it.

By the way, did we mention the enormous 18-inch display? It features a resolution of 2560×1600, an aspect ratio of 16:10 (taller screens are ideal for scrolling through documents and such), and a blazing-fast refresh rate of 240Hz. Visuals should be straight-up lovely, which is important when you’re editing an image. So long as you’re working with a flexible budget, the Asus ROG Strix G18 is worth considering.

Price When Reviewed:

$1,399

The Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED is so thin and lightweight, our reviewer first believed the laptop was fake when he took it out of the box. It (barely) tips the scales at just 2.2 pounds, which makes it the perfect traveling companion. The build is surprisingly rugged, especially given the slim profile. Although we love how remarkably featherlight it is, the display is a real standout as well.

The Zenbook S features a 13-inch OLED display with a resolution of 2880×1800, an aspect ratio of 16:10, and a maximum brightness of 550 nits. According to our reviewer, the display produces “gorgeous colors and incredibly dark blacks,” which is vital when you’re doing photo editing work. So, if you’re in the market for a portable laptop with a stunning OLED display, you should definitely check out the Zenbook S 13. 

Price When Reviewed:

$1,249.99

Battery life is an often overlooked feature when searching for the best photo editing laptop. When you’re on the road or out of the office, you need a laptop that will last without charging as long as possible. When we ran our battery benchmark, which cycles through a series of tasks and videos until the laptop dies, the Dell Inspiron 16 lasted a marathon 16.5 hours on a single charge. That should allow you to edit to your heart’s content without worrying about a dead battery. However due to that same battery, it isn’t the most portable, weighing a hefty 4.7 pounds.

It’s rather inexpensive, as well, but sacrifices are made for the price. Under the hood you get an Intel Core i7-1260P CPU, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. While that should suffice for most photo editing jobs, the lack of storage capacity means you will likely need an external drive to save all of your high-res photos.

As a bonus perk, the laptop also comes with a surprisingly robust quad speaker system so you can jam out while editing. For ports, you’re getting two USB Type-C, one USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, 1 HDMI, one SD card reader, and one 3.5mm audio jack.

Price When Reviewed:

$1,899.99

The Asus ROG Flow Z13 is one of the more unique picks in this roundup. It’s marketed as a folio-style gaming machine. You can pop open the kickstand on the rear plate and use it like a traditional clamshell. You can even remove the keyboard and use it as a touch-enabled tablet. The versatility of this machine makes it a cool choice for creative work. It has some pretty powerful internals, too.

The Flow is rocking an Intel Core i9-12900H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD storage. That’s plenty powerful for editing photos and general-use tasks like checking email and browsing the world wide web. The 1200p IPS touch display is also sharp and colorful. The Flow isn’t a budget-friendly option, though. This kind of versatility and power comes at a big price. However, if you’re able to comfortably stretch your budget, the Flow Z13 is a neat choice.

Price When Reviewed:

$2,000

In need of a dual-display setup but also need it to be portable? You need look no further than the Asus Zenbook Pro 14. It packs solid performance, including a Core i7 processor, GeForce RTX 3050 graphics, 16GB of DDR5 memory, and a zippy 1TB NVMe SSD. It also has a 14.5-inch 4K touch OLED panel that outputs an ultra-bright 547 nits while covering 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. It’s a main display worthy of the most serious content creators. But the truly unique feature is the secondary 12.7-inch 2880×864 screen located just above the keyboard. Since Windows counts it as a second monitor you are free to use it as a trackpad or to display a panel of touch controls for certain Adobe apps or any other helpful tool you might need while editing photos.

The Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED has a lot of power, but the battery life leaves a little to be desired, so you may need to carry around a charging cable if you plan to do serious work on the go. Despite this, the Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is a great option for photo editors or any other content creator and the latest version of Asus’ dual screen is the best yet.

Price When Reviewed:

$1,199.99

Price When Reviewed:

From $2,099.99

Price When Reviewed:

$3,499

If you’re married to the Apple ecosystem, you better listen up. The Apple MacBook Pro 2023 is an excellent choice for photo editors because it has a great deal of graphics firepower as well as a ton of storage space. The GPU has 19 cores, and the 2TB of SSD storage is perfect for offloading images. The 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display is also quite stunning, with a maximum brightness of over 1,000 nits and a resolution of 3456×2234. If you’re on the hunt for a killer laptop with loads of power, the Apple MacBook Pro 2023 is the one to pick.

Read our full Apple MacBook Pro 2023 review

1.

How much processing power will I need?

For most photo editing work, an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor is fine. Need more oomph? Go for an Intel Core i9. The most important thing is the number of cores. The more cores, the better your CPU can divide the workload. For AMD options, the Ryzen 5 series is zippy enough for basic photo editing work. If you need faster response times, shoot for a Ryzen 9.

2.

Do I need a discrete graphics card?

It’s not absolutely necessary, but it will make a difference when using photo editing applications. If you want super-fast performance, go with a laptop with that has a dedicated graphics card. For those on a strict budget, go for an Nvidia RTX 3060 or 3050 Ti. For a serious boost in graphics performance, aim for an Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti or a AMD Radeon RX6800S.

3.

How much memory is enough?

RAM will keep your laptop running nice and smooth as you edit those darling baby photos. We’d recommend 8GB of RAM as the minimum. For bigger projects, go for 16GB.

4.

Should I spring for a hard disk drive or an SSD?

RAW image files are massive, so you’re going to need a high-capacity SSD, as solid-state drives are faster and quieter than hard disk drives. 256GB is the minimum amount we’d recommend, but more is obviously better. For really big projects, go for 512GB or 1TB.

5.

Does screen quality matter?

We’d argue that screen quality is one of the most important aspects of a laptop, especially for photo editing work. Don’t settle for anything less than 1080p resolution. That’s your baseline. If you can spend a little more, 4K is best for detailed creative work and OLED tends to be more color accurate.

6.

Is portability important for a photo editing laptop?

Do you often take your work to a coffee shop? If so, you’ll want a laptop with a 13- or 14-inch display, as it’s smaller and more portable. Anything that weighs around three pounds or less is considered an ultraportable. That’s the golden number you want to hit.

7.

How long should my laptop last on a single charge?

If you plan on taking your laptop everywhere with you, 10 to 12 hours on a single charge is the sweet spot. That’s more than a full work day. However, know that battery size impacts the portability of the machine. The bigger the battery, the heavier the laptop.