A photographer’s laptop should be powerful and have a good display. We will tell you how to choose the optimal characteristics for different tasks, and what to look for first of all.
Laptop for photo editing: basic requirements
Photo editing requires special capabilities and features from laptops. To do high-quality laptop images, you need a device with a high resolution, vivid color display, and a fast processor. Most of all, travelers like to take pictures and process images using compact laptops, right during their tour. If you look closely at what the market offers us, clear leaders are visible.
Of course, these will mostly be models with Kaby Lake chips, updated GPUs from Intel and Nvidia, and faster SSDs. There will also be laptops with more screen capabilities, such as the OLED version. So, what should you buy if your priority is photo processing?
Here are some points you should pay special attention to:
- Display: Improved analogs of H-IPS or True-IPS are devoid of drawbacks, and the color rendition does not sin with parasitic Glow-effects or changes in color temperature (tint). In budget versions, there is a color inversion when the viewing angle deviates, a diagonal color shift, and a drop in contrast.
- RAM: To use all the functions available in Lightroom in full, you need to get a laptop with a 4-core processor. High-performance chips from Intel such as the Core i5 and i7 are sure to delight any amateur photographer.
- CPU: Processing 3D structures are not always available on low-performance engines. For advanced users of editor programs, it would be more correct to purchase video cards from the Nvidia Quadro or AMD FirePro gaming series.
Best laptops for photo editing in Photoshop
- APPLE MacBook Pro 13 2019 Space Gray.
The model has a quad-core Intel Core i5 processor with a clock speed of 2.4 GHz, which will make it possible to work with several programs at the same time. The maximum frequency at Boost is 4.1 GHz. The laptop has a size of 13.3 inches, but its weight is no more than 1300 g. The screen resolution is FullHD 2560 * 1600 (IPS – touch), which will allow you to see clear lines when editing pictures or photos in Photoshop. 512 GB hard drive and connectors for all occasions, of which 4 are USB-C, HDMI (via an optional adapter), and a combo audio jack. RAM in this device is 8 GB.
- The Microsoft Surface Book 2
It is the sequel to the popular 2-in-1 series and remains a forceful laptop for photo editing as it comes with a full version of Windows 10 that will run Photoshop without any problems. It comes with beefed-up components, and its screen is great. Only marginally improved color calibration from Apple delivers superior image quality to the MacBook, but Microsoft provides a superb 3000 × 2000 resolution and ideal aspect ratio for APS-C and full-frame viewing.
- ASUS Laptop 15 X509JA-EJ028T
The case is when it is better to buy a laptop with an SSD configuration and successfully use it for editing photo and video files in large volumes at high speed. Matte displays surface with the anti-reflective matrix. Responsible for responsiveness is a processor, based on 4 cores (8 threads) from the tenth generation Intel Core i5, an integrated Intel UHD Graphics card, and the latest generation DDR4 8GB RAM. The most pleasant bonuses will be a high screen resolution in 1920 x 1080, a reinforced case, improved sound technology, and an expanded set of slots for connecting more devices and screens.