Laptops photo editing: The best photo-editing laptops in 2023

Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED review

Digital Camera World Verdict

An extremely well-specked laptop that will appeal to anyone who’s got ideas of photo and video editing in their head. The powerful GPU in particular will resonate with anyone who wants to use hardware acceleration in editing apps, or run neural network-based routines. It’s also good for a little gaming once work is over, but watch out for that battery life.

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Pros

• +

  Powerful

• +

  Versatile

• +

  Great OLED screen

Cons

• –

  Expensive

• –

  Hot

• –

  Short battery life

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As camera raw files increase in size thanks to ever more densely packed sensors, the processing power required to edit them grows too. The kind of power you need to throw 60MP images around in Lightroom, or run neural-network-based denoising routines in something like Topaz AI, without encountering massive slowdown was once something you only found in desktop computers, but Windows laptops now contain the kind of chips we could only dream of being portable five years ago.

Take the Asus ProArt Studiobook OLED. It has, in the configuration sent to us for review, a 13th-gen Intel i9 processor, 64GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. There’s 8TB of fast SSD storage too, split across two drives. Those are the kind of specs you’d expect from a top-end gaming PC or a video-editing workstation, and yet you can carry it with you wherever you go. 

(Image credit: Ian Evenden / Digital Camera World)

Specifications

• Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED (1TB 32GB RAM) at Amazon for $2,499.99

CPU: Intel Core i9-13980HX  
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 (8GB)
RAM: 64GB
Storage: 8TB (2x4TB SSD)
Connectivity: Thunderbolt 4, USB 3. 2 Gen 2, SD Express reader, HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm headset jack, Ethernet
Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
Dimensions: 35.6cm x 27.1cm x 2.39 cm 
Weight: 2.4KG

Key Features

Aside from the Dial, there’s the usual keyboard and trackpad. The latter is the usual broad, slippery sheet your fingers can dance across in pursuit of a mouse-like experience, and it does well, with just enough of a tactile click when you press down on it. The keyboard is a different matter, as while it has a few millimeters of key travel, and packs in a numpad alongside the letter keys, making the most of the 16in chassis, it takes a few liberties that frequent typists will take a little while to get used to.

Asus plays slightly loose with the accepted sizes, shapes, and positions of the keys, making some, such as Enter, smaller and less tall than we’re used to – though this is understandable on a portable keyboard. It means you’re likely to hit the hashtag key that’s been squeezed in above Enter, and we found ourselves hitting + when we reached for backspace. The cursor keys, which here have a textured top to them to differentiate them from the surrounding buttons, have been slightly squeezed off the bottom row, extending off into the space above the trackpad. 

It’s nothing you won’t get used to with a few weeks’ use, but it can baffle the first-time user who’s wondering where all those + symbols are coming from.

(Image credit: Ian Evenden / Digital Camera World)

There’s an HD webcam built into the slim bezel surrounding the screen that’s also compatible with Windows Hello face recognition, and it also ties into one of Asus’ power-saving features. The laptop recognizes when you’ve walked off or looked away, and will dim the screen or lock the machine accordingly. 

The 16:10 OLED screen has a 3200 x 200 resolution and is touch-sensitive, able to register 4,096 levels of pressure from a stylus. Sadly it doesn’t fold over far enough to make this a 2-in-1, meaning actually using the touchscreen can be awkward as there’s not enough stiffness in the hinges to prevent it from retreating away from you if you press on it. There’s good color gamut support, with 100% of DCI-P3 displayed.

Just as important for photographers and videographers is the connectivity, and with a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, alongside old-fashioned USB 2.3 Type-A and an SD Express 7.0 slot, plus an HDMI 2.1 and 2.5Gbps Ethernet port on the back. Wireless is taken care of by Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3.

(Image credit: Ian Evenden / Digital Camera World)

Build & Handling

The Asus ProArt Studiobook OLED isn’t a particularly unusual-looking laptop. It’s a black plastic rectangle in the chunky charcoal black that’s always been popular for electronics, with ports in the usual places and a screen hinge that sits just in from the back, leaving a small shelf sticking out at the rear of the machine.

(Image credit: Ian Evenden / Digital Camera World)

It’s subtly logo’d, with a ProArt line on the back of the lid, and Studiobook on the underneath of the casing where no one will see it unless it falls on the floor. None of it erupts in RGB colors, though there is a white glow behind the keyboard, leaving the OLED screen to produce most of the light.

The big design peculiarity of the ProArt Studiobook is the Asus Dial, a rotating wheel similar to that provided by Microsoft for its Surface products, only built into the casing of the laptop. It allows you to customize its use, and while it can control things like the screen brightness and sound volume in Windows, when you flip into Photoshop it’s changing the size of brush heads, among other things, while in Premiere Pro it scrubs along the timeline, and in Lightroom it allows you to switch between Develop module tools with a press, before rotating the dial to alter their application.

(Image credit: Ian Evenden / Digital Camera World)

Performance

The combination of the 24-core Intel i9-13980HS CPU and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU is a potent one, and Asus has given them solid backup with 64GB of fast DDR5 RAM and 8TB of SSD storage across two drives. These are build-to-order options, and cheaper models with lesser specs are available if you just want to take advantage of the OLED screen and Asus Dial.

Swipe to scroll horizontally

On the model we were sent, however, Photoshop and Lightroom fairly fly along, There’s enough graphics processing power to provide significant hardware acceleration, and the 32 addressable threads mean parallel tasks in Lightroom such as exporting and generating smart previews are given an extra boost.  

The only thing that’s disappointing is the battery life, which is probably to be expected given the power-hungry nature of its components. The chassis isn’t exactly chunky, but neither is it slim, and when you start doing some heavier work such as raw file processing or gaming it drops fast. This isn’t a laptop to take far from a power socket for long periods, and it’s also picky about what it charges from, preferring its own charger or higher-wattage USB-C adapters over those you might use for a phone or tablet.

(Image credit: Ian Evenden / Digital Camera World)

Verdict

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. It comes at a price, however, though 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 editing right now.

Read more: find out more about the best photo-editing laptops and the best laptops for video editing in our guides.

Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED: Price Comparison

$1,599

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Ian Evenden has worked for newspapers, magazines, book publishers, and websites during his almost 25 years in journalism, and is never happier than when taking a new piece of expensive technology out of its box. When he’s not slaving over a hot keyboard, he lies in wait for wildlife before shooting it with a long camera lens.

Apple MacBook Pro 14 M2 Pro (2023) review

Digital Camera World Verdict

Apple’s silicon keeps getting better and better, with the M2 Pro pushing the boundaries on what is possible in a 14″ laptop. This thing flies, it is unbelievably fast, felt in everything from opening an app to exporting huge image and video files, the continued work on streamlining hardware and software is paying dividends for the Cupertino giant. With all the ports a creative will need, super fast WiFi for uploading and downloading large files, and improved speakers and webcam, there are some questionable design choices, but otherwise, this might just be MacBook near perfected.

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Pros

• +

  M2 Pro is unbelievably fast

• +

  Speakers are excellent

• +

  One of the best laptop screens around for color work

• +

  SD card slot!

Cons

• –

  Notch still feels unnecessary

• –

  Boxy shape feels big

• –

  Black keys on black keyboard not for everyone

Why you can trust Digital Camera World
Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out how we test.

The question of the best laptop for photo editing used to be simpler, with most of the top computers using a lot of the same internal components, including processors from behemoth Intel, with the separation in devices coming either in design or operating system preference.

Apple Silicon refers to Apple ditching Intel’s x86 processors and instead using its own custom-designed ARM-based processors for its Mac computers. Apple Silicon has set the world of computing alight, with its headline-grabbing speeds and efficiency.

• Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M2 Pro (2023) 1TB (1TB SSD) at Amazon for $2,299

The first Apple Silicon Mac was the M1 chip which debuted in November 2020 in the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini. Apple Silicon has already delivered improved performance and battery life, due to better integration and optimization between Mac hardware and software. Apple Silicon also allows Mac computers to natively run iOS (iPhone) apps.

Apple is now back with the new and improved versions of its second-generation M2 chip, with the latest evolutions of the M2 Pro and M2 Max. In this review, I’ll be testing out the M2 Pro chip in the latest Apple MacBook Pro 14.

MacBook Pro 14 (2023) Specifications

Processor: Apple M2 Pro chip with 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU
Configurable to: M2 Pro with 12-core CPU and 19-core GPU, Apple M2 Max with 12-core CPU and 30-core GPU, or M2 Max with 12-core CPU and 38-core GPU
Screen: 14.2in Liquid Retina XDR display, 3024×1964 native resolution at 254 pixels per inch
Display Technology: 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 1,000 nits sustained brightness, 1 billion colors, Wide color (P3), True Tone technology, ProMotion 120Hz adaptive refresh rate
Memory: 16GB unified memory
Configurable to: 32GB (M2 Pro or M2 Max), 64GB (M2 Max), or 96GB (M2 Max with 38-core GPU)
Battery: 70wH battery, 67W/96W MagSafe power adapter
SSD: 512GB
Configurable to: 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, or 8TB
Ports: SDXC card slot, HDMI port, 3. 5mm headphone jack, MagSafe 3 port, 3x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports
Connections: WiFi 6E (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3
Size: 1.55 x 31.26 x 22.12 cm
Weight: from 1.60 kg

Apple’s latest MacBook Pro 14 with M2 Pro (Image credit: Gareth Bevan)

MacBook Pro 14 (2023) Key features

The headline feature of the latest Macbook Pro 14 is its new M2 Pro or M2 Max processor, this is the absolute latest silicon from Apple’s own in-house chip design team. Both chips have up a to 12-core CPU, with the M2 Pro also being able to be configured with up to 19-core GPU, 32GB of unified memory, and a 200GB/s memory bandwidth. The M2 Max is able to have an absolutely monstrous up to 38-core GPU, 96GB of unified memory, and 400GB/s memory bandwidth.

By Apple’s own metrics, it claims that the latest M2 chips are up to 3x faster for photo editing and 15.7x faster for video editing than the last Intel-equipped MacBook Pro, which admittedly was released three years ago.

The model I am testing here is the M2 Pro with a 12-core GPU, 19 graphics cores, and a boosted 32GM of RAM. This calibration currently is listed on Apple’s store for $2,899/£3,099.

Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) (Image credit: Gareth Bevan)

As the name suggests the MacBook Pro 14 screen measures 14.2in, with a pixel ratio of 3024×1964 and 254ppi. The screens have been upgraded too, now using Liquid Retina XDR panels, this enables a much wider dynamic range and a broader range of colors, with each display being factory-calibrated color grading, photography, and design. The screens also feature ProMotion found on the latest iPhones, which boosts the screen to 120Hz, making movement on the screen much more fluid.

For those of us that now spend a lot of our work day on video calls, the Pro 14 has a 1080p webcam and a three-mic array, with what Apple claims are professional-level microphones. The laptop is also equipped with a six-speaker setup that supports Dolby Atmos.

Creatives everywhere rejoiced last year at the news that Apple was adding an SD card slot back on its Pro models, as well as a headphone jack for sound editors and audiophiles. The laptop also features the return of MagSafe charging, three USB-C cables with Thunderbolt 4, and a 2.1 spec HDMI connection.

Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2023) (Image credit: Gareth Bevan)

MacBook Pro 14 (2023) Build and handling

The new MacBook Pro 14 is very stylish as expected from an Apple device. The laptop is almost physically unchanged from last year’s revamped 14in model, which is fine, redesigns don’t need to happen every generation. For those coming from Intel models, the shape is much more rounded than the 13in Pro with all sharp edges nixed.

The shape just feels chunkier than the 13in M2 model. If this is entirely a design choice or a necessity for the M2 Pro or M2 Max chips being physically larger, or requiring more cooling it is unclear, but the rounded shape and thicker body make it feel much more substantial in size than the 13in MacBook Pro with its more svelte wedged design.

The power button with an inbuilt fingerprint reader is large and beveled, making it easy to locate. (Image credit: Gareth Bevan)

The keyboard is excellent, and MacBook keyboards really are some of the best around for typing on, (let’s confine the butterfly keys to history). Also banished hopefully forever is the touch bar, with Apple continuing to use the tried and tested row of function keys. The fingerprint reader is very fast and hasn’t given me many rejections yet, the larger key and depressed center make finding the reader that much easier.

The keyboard still continues to be black keys on a painted black background, which I find a divisive choice, I don’t dislike the look, but I find it makes the keys harder to distinguish from one another, sure they have backlighting, but the MacBook Pro 13 or MacBook Air’s border around each key is much easier to see in dark environments.

The MacBook Pro 13-inch (top) has a wedged shape making it feel much slimmer than the MacBook Pro 14-inch (bottom). (Image credit: Gareth Bevan)

Keyboard on the MacBook Pro 14 (left) versus the MacBook Pro 13 (right). (Image credit: Gareth Bevan)

The notch at the top of the screen, while doesn’t really affect use all that much, is still just an annoying addition. Dell has already shown several years ago that a webcam (as well as an entire Windows Hello array) can be tucked into the tiniest of bezels, so it really does just feel like this MacBook Pro has a notch just because it is an Apple ‘thing’.

The notch is still quite large and feels like an unnecessary design choice. (Image credit: Gareth Bevan)

The port selection continues to be terrific, with three separate Thunderbolt-equipped USB-C slots, I never found myself without enough connections, especially as the power has returned to the MagSafe connector, freeing up a USB-C that would usually be used for power. The SD card slot is also a hugely welcome addition for a photographer and videographer who is constantly forgetting to pack dongles.

I question the need for a HDMI port, with both video upstream and downstream, and power over one USB-C cable starting to become the norm with modern monitors. For connecting to other screens HDMI to USB-C cables are cheap and effective.

The the right of the laptop there is a HDMI, USB-C and SD card slot. (Image credit: Gareth Bevan)

On the left of the laptop there is a MagSafe charger slot, two USB-C ports and a 3.5mm audio jack. (Image credit: Gareth Bevan)

MacBook Pro 14 (2023) Performance

We ran a series of benchmarking tests on the new MacBook Pro 14 with M2 Pro, the results of which you can find below:

Swipe to scroll horizontally

You can see in the benchmarks that not only has the M2 Pro managed to make gains on the M2 released less than a year ago in the MacBook Air, but when you compare it to an Intel i7-powered machine from 2019, the improvements are truly incredible, with it being absolutely creamed on CPU benchmark tasks, especially when it comes to graphics tasks, with the Intel Iris Plus looking very obsolete.

Benchmarks are one thing, but how does this translate to real-world experience? Well, this Mac simply flies! I threw a couple of tests at it, exporting a batch of 200 edited RAW files to JPEG in Adobe Lightroom, exporting a 4K video in Apple ProRes using iMovie, and editing 10 RAW files at once in Adobe Photoshop. The M2 handled all of these with uncanny ease, still allowing several other tasks to be completed at the same time. The Intel i7 MacBook I compared it to ground to a halt several times during the same task, rendering the whole computer unusable until it finished.

The keyboard is very comfortable to type on with good key traction, however, black on black makes it harder to see in low light. (Image credit: Gareth Bevan)

Much of the negative press around these latest MacBooks seem to be complaining about the ‘slow’ SSD hard drives. I copy a lot of folders of mixed media files both to and from external drives and on the internal SSD as well as export photos and videos. Anecdotally, I cannot notice any perceptible difference between the write speeds of this MacBook Pro 14 and other machines I regularly use. Unless minor speed differences are absolutely critical for your work, I would say this is just not a problem.

The speakers on the MacBook Pro 14 are some of the best I have ever used on a laptop, or really any device, and are only surpassed in quality by the larger MacBook Pro 16. They offer a very rich sound, with a lot of nuisance between the highs and lows, vocals in songs are very clear and the bass is punchy but lacks a true rumble.

The webcam is a huge improvement over the terrible webcams that Apple continues to put in their 13in Macbook Pro, with a sharp, clear, and well-lit picture that no longer smudges and smooths all my features in Meet calls. I also had no complaints from anyone on my call about my audio, but it also didn’t come off as better than anyone else’s on other devices.

(Image credit: Gareth Bevan)

MacBook Pro 14 (2023) Verdict

If I was rating this based solely on the M2 Pro silicon that resides inside the MacBook Pro 14 then I would not hesitate to give this laptop the full five stars, as the processor is just unbelievably good. Apple has a habit of going overboard with its marketing claims, but in this case, there is just nothing that competes in the same league as the M2 Pro in this form factor. For photographers and videographers, this will just power through your work, all without completely tanking your battery life.

A lot of the overall design of the MacBook Pro 14 bothers me. I don’t like the rounded thicker feeling chassis, the notch, or the keyboard color scheme, and small touches like the laser cut ‘Apple MacBook Pro’ on the base feels a little tacky. But the abundant port selection and return of the function keys go some way to making up for its other design shortcomings.

However, it is clear the MacBook Pro 14 with M2 Pro is the ultimate creator’s companion, probably the best small-ish laptop on the market right now, and an almost necessary upgrade for anyone working on Intel-powered machines from previous generations. However, this power does not come cheap starting at over $2000/£2000 for the base model, start saving now.

If the latest MacBook Pro isn’t right for your needs (or budget!) these are the best photo editing laptops, and the best laptops for video editing. Or if you want the additional power a desktop can bring, check out our guide to the best desktop computer for photo editing. 

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M2 Pro (2023): Price Comparison

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Gareth is a photographer based in London, working as a freelance photographer and videographer for the past several years, having the privilege to shoot for some household names. With work focusing on fashion, portrait and lifestyle content creation, he has developed a range of skills covering everything from editorial shoots to social media videos. Outside of work, he has a personal passion for travel and nature photography, with a devotion to sustainability and environmental causes.

Editing photos and videos in Windows

Windows 11 Windows 10 More…Less

Whether you want to apply changes that affect the quality, quality, and appearance of your photo, or you want to add information on top of your photos, the Windows Photos app gives you all kinds of options to make your photos and videos look their best .

Photo change

With the Photos app, you can easily crop, rotate, customize the look, add a filter, and write or draw on a photo to communicate and provide context.

In the search box on the taskbar, type Photos . Select Photos from the list. Then select the photo you want to change.

1. Select Change image ( CTRL + E ) at the top of the screen.

2. Select Trim , Adjust , Filter or Markup to start editing.

3. Use these functions to adjust the light, color, look and feel of your photo.

Tip: To undo all changes applied to the photo, click the Reset button at the top left of the screen.

What each function does

Crop, flip or rotate photos to crop unwanted parts manually or use preset aspect ratios. You can also rotate the photo left and right by 90 degrees or incremental degrees, or rotate the image by 180 degrees.

1. When viewing an image, select Edit Image at the top of the screen.

2. Select Crop , and then on the toolbar at the bottom, select one of the options:

   • org/ListItem”>

     Turn clockwise or counterclockwise

   • Use preset aspect ratio

   • Vertical or horizontal

   • Free rotation of the photo using the slider

Adjust the light and color to set the mood and quality of your photos.

org/ItemList”>

1. Select Change image at the top of the screen.

2. Select Adjust , and then in the adjustment panel on the right, adjust the light and color sliders.

3. You can click and hold the space bar to view the original photo.

Use the filters to refine the tone of your images or add special effects to transform your photos with one click. To get started, open a photo.

org/ItemList”>

1. Select Change image at the top of the screen.

2. Select Filter , and then in the Filter panel on the right, select one of the fifteen available filters. Don’t worry if you don’t want to apply any filters – you always have the option “Original “.

3. You can click and hold the space bar to view the original photo.

Photos of markings . Sometimes there is more to a story than what photographs can convey on their own. Add a personal touch to your favorite moments by drawing on your photos.

To get started, open the photo or video you want to tag.

1. Select Change image at the top of the screen.

2. Select Markup , and then on the toolbar select one of the three drawing tools (2 available pens and one marker).

3. Select the line type (regular line, single arrow line, double arrow line) and color and size from the pen options.

4. Go ahead and draw directly on your image, and don’t worry if you mess up – you can always erase the markings you don’t like with Eraser Tool . Or, clear the entire drawing by selecting Clear all ink strokes next to the Eraser tool.

Photo change

With the Photos application, you can easily crop, rotate, auto-enhance, and apply filters to your photos.

Enter photos in the search box on the taskbar. Select Photos from the list. Then select the photo you want to change.

1. org/ListItem”>

   Select Edit & Create at the top of the screen.

2. Select Edit , then Crop and Rotate , Filters or Adjust .

3. Use these functions to change lighting, color, sharpness, and red-eye removal.

Tip: To make minor changes or edit errors, select Edit & Create > Edit > Corrections. Then select Red Eye or Spot Correction .

For more options, select Edit & Create, and then select Add 3D Effects or Edit with Paint 3D .

Get creative with your photos and videos

In some cases, there is more to photos and videos you can add something special. Make them more personal by painting something new on them.

First, open the photo or video you want to enhance.

1. Select Edit & Create at the top of the screen.

2. Select Draw , and then select one of the three drawing tools from the toolbar.

3. org/ListItem”>

   Select the selected tool a second time to view color and size options.

4. Draw something directly on the image. If you do something wrong, don’t worry – you can always erase the drawn elements that you don’t like using the Eraser tool. Or, clear the entire drawing by selecting Clear all handwriting strokes .

For more options, select Edit & Create and then select Add 3D Effects or Edit with Paint 3D .

Share your creations

If you are happy with your drawing, share it! To share a still resized image or animated drawing, select Share .

For more information about editing a video, see Create a video.

See also

Removing the background of a photo with Paint 3D

Grouping photos by faces

View all photos

How to choose a laptop for photo editing | Articles | Photo, video, optics

In addition to a camera, a set of lenses, a tripod and other accessories, a photographer needs a suitable computer or laptop for work. There are tasks for which a laptop is better suited. For example, when shooting a subject and catalog shooting, an approach is often used in which the camera shoots directly into a laptop – this allows you to minimize the percentage of defects. To learn how to choose the perfect laptop for a photographer, read this text.

Among old-school photographers, one can come across the belief that laptops are not suitable for full-time work, and that a “true professional” will definitely need a hefty powerful stationary computer.

This was once true. Low-powered mobile processors were not well suited for working with RAW files. A small amount of RAM threatened to freeze and crash when trying to process a heavy file with many layers in Photoshop. The screens, on the other hand, had TN matrices with low resolution, poor viewing angles and poor color reproduction, which were practically impossible to calibrate – it was impossible to seriously work with images on them.

But among modern laptops you can find both low-power budget devices suitable for office work and casual browser toys, as well as laptops for professional work with images, video editing and other complex resource-intensive tasks.

The laptop can be either the main (or even the only) computer of the photographer, or an additional one, which is used during field work, trips and business trips.

In the first case, you should choose the most powerful workstation with a productive multi-core processor, a good discrete graphics card, and a large amount of RAM and permanent memory. Since such a laptop is used stationary most of the time, an external monitor, card reader, external drives and other peripherals are usually connected to it. And all this requires free ports. It’s good if it has a full-fledged HDMI output for the monitor, USB ports (full-size and type C) and a separate input for the power supply so as not to occupy one of the type C ports under the PSU.0003

Well, if you often have to carry a laptop with you, you should pay attention to lighter models with a long battery life. The processor in it will be more economical, and there are not so many ports for external devices.

A portable laptop / Photo: unsplash.com

Laptop imaging processor

The best choice for a productive laptop is the latest generation of processors. At Intel, for example, you can look at the Core i912900H, Core i7-12800HX and Core i9-11900H. AMD has a high performance Ryzen9 6980HX, Ryzen7 6800H.

A laptop for field work is important not only for performance, but also for autonomy. So, you should pay attention to processors with fewer cores and not so high frequency – they consume less energy. For example, it can be Intel Core i7-1160G7 or i5-11300H, AMD Ryzen5 7520U.

Separately, we note the Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max chips. Thanks to the ARM architecture, they turned out to be both powerful and not very “gluttonous”.

Video card

More and more often, AI and neural networks are used in modern work on images. These are smart object selection in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, Retouch5Me automatic retouching plugins, photo enhancement programs (noise reduction, sharpening and photo size increase) from Topaz Labs, AI-based photo editor Luminar AI.

In their work, neural networks rely primarily on the GPU, and for their fast stable operation, you need a powerful discrete video card with at least 4 GB of memory. The NVidia RTX series graphics cards have proven themselves well – from the powerful GeForce RTX 3080 Ti with 16 GB of memory to the more budget RTX 3050 with 4 GB.

A lightweight laptop for field work can do without a discrete graphics card, and the integrated graphics in the processor will suffice. For example, Intel Iris Xe, AMD RNDA 2 or older AMD Vega.

RAM and hard disk

For comfortable work today you need at least 16 GB of RAM, this value can be considered the lower limit. For a light laptop, this will be enough.

Well, for a powerful laptop 16 GB will not be enough, in complex tasks the lack of RAM will slow down the entire system. Here it is worth choosing models with 32 or even 64 GB of RAM.

Solid state drives (SSDs) are used as permanent storage in modern laptops. We are interested in 2 parameters in them: volume and speed. The minimum required amount will be 256 GB. This volume is enough for a lightweight laptop to run the operating system and install basic graphics packages such as Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom or Capture One. For footage, you will need an external drive.

A powerful workstation needs a 1-2 TB drive. It will be possible to install all working programs on it and throw off photos for work. It is better to store an archive with processed photos on an external SSD or network-attached drive (NAS) so as not to take up space on a fast working drive.

As for speed, there are SATA SSDs operating at speeds up to 600 Mb / s, and more expensive and modern NVMe drives, in which read and write speeds can reach up to 5-7 GB per second. So it’s worth reading the specifications and checking that the selected laptop has a fast NVMe SSD.

What should be the screen of a laptop for photo editing

Even the most powerful laptop is of little use if nothing on its screen is visible, and the colors do not match reality.

Working on a laptop with an additional monitor / Photo: unsplash.com

For professional work with images, the Adobe RGB color space is used, but the finished photos are most often saved in the sRGB color space. So, it is worth choosing models that support these color spaces.

By the way, most modern notebooks support the DCI-P3 color space. It fully includes sRGB close in coverage to Adobe RGB, so a DCI-P3-capable screen would be a good choice.

MSI CreatorPro Z17

The MSI CreatorPro series is positioned by the manufacturer as a powerful solution for professional work with graphics and video.

MSI CreatorPro Z17 A12UMST-260RU is one of the latest and most advanced representatives of this series. It works on the twelfth generation Intel Core i9 processor, capable of processing up to 20 threads simultaneously due to the presence of as many as 14 cores (six productive, connecting in heavy tasks, and 8 energy efficient, allowing the laptop to “save power” during simple everyday work). It can also be noted that according to the results of the PassMark Core i9 testThe 12900H proved to be more powerful than the Apple M1 Pro and M1 Max processors, which have long been at the top of the lists of the most productive mobile processors.

Pay attention to the stylus. It is drawn not just for beauty – the laptop screen can work with the MSI Pen stylus and recognizes 4096 pressure levels / Photo: msi.com

The MSI Creator Pro Z17 laptop has a professional NVidia GeForce RTX A5500 graphics card with 16 GB of video memory. In terms of architecture, it almost completely repeats the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti mobile gaming graphics card.

The laptop also has enough memory. The aluminum case houses two fast M.2 SSDs of terabytes each and 64 GB of RAM. There is a full-size USB3.2 Gen2 port and two USB type C ports with support for Thunderbolt 4 and Displayport. There is also an HDMI port that allows you to connect monitors with a resolution of up to 8K. The built-in card reader for full-size SD cards will not be out of place for the photographer.

The 17″ screen is factory calibrated to 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. You can also switch to the more familiar sRGB for photographers. Screen resolution 2560 x 1600 pixels.

It should be noted that a workstation of this capacity is designed primarily for very resource-intensive tasks: architectural and 3D modeling, complex animation and video editing. For some photographers, this power may even be excessive. However, if you shoot with a 100-200 MP camera, like gigapixel panoramas, or just want an uncompromising computer that will be relevant in the coming years, the MSI Creator Pro Z17 will be a great choice.

The disadvantages of the model include weight (almost 2.5 kg without a power supply), low operating time (with a heavy load from the battery, it will work for 2-3 hours) and high cost.

Apple MacBook Pro M1 Max for photographers

Traditionally, Apple computers are popular with people of creative professions – designers, photographers, artists, programmers, musicians and videographers. So, buying an Apple MacBook M1 Max, you will get not only a powerful laptop, but also a stylish one.

MacBook Pro. Beautiful / Photo: tomsguide. com

Inside the recycled aluminum case is the M1 Max processor. Strictly speaking, it cannot be called just a processor. Unlike traditional solutions with a separate processor, video card and memory, Soc (system-on-chip) is used here – a single chip that includes 10 computing cores (2 of them are energy efficient), 32 graphics accelerator cores and 32 GB of LPDDR5 memory.

In terms of performance, the M1 Max has been tested to be about equal to a system with a fast mobile 11th generation Intel processor (e.g. Core i7-11800H or Core i9-11900H) and video cards of the NVidia RTX 3080 level. When working with images in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, it is slightly ahead of its Intel counterparts, but when working with video, it is quite far ahead – for example, video stabilization in Adobe Premiere Pro on it occurs almost twice times faster. So, if you have to work with both photos and video, you should pay attention to this laptop.

The screen is 16.2 inches and has a high resolution of 3456×2234 pixels. The Apple MacBook Pro M1 Max can connect up to three external monitors up to 6K resolution using Thunderbolt 4 ports with Display Port support, and one 4K monitor via the HDMI port.

Gaming laptop for photography – Xiaomi Book Pro 16″ 2022

Xiaomi Book Pro 16″ 2022 is a mid-range gaming laptop. This means that it has a fairly powerful “stuffing”, the power of which is enough for both demanding modern games and for working in graphics programs.

Traditional for expensive laptops design “under the MacBook” – aluminum body, large touchpad, backlit keyboard, black screen bezels. Screen, by the way, touch / Photo: xiaomi-on.ru

Our hero has an Intel Core i7 1260P processor inside, a 512 GB SSD and 16 GB of RAM – this is enough for most tasks of a photographer. But for complex tasks (gluing very large panoramas, working with high-resolution multilayer files in Photoshop), RAM may not be enough. So it is worth leaving more free space on the SSD for temporary files and the Windows swap file.

NVidia RTX2050 graphics card with 4 GB of memory is useful if you use Adobe Photoshop’s Neural Filters and other AI-based features (such as self-retouching) in your work. F it will also allow you to escape from work by installing a fresh game.

Color reproduction can be a weak point in gaming laptops – games and everyday tasks do not require the same color gamut and color reproduction as professional photo and video work. Everything is fine here with the screen. It uses a 16-inch 4K OLED panel with 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. True, for accurate color reproduction may require calibration.

Of the minuses can be noted a small number of ports for peripherals. The laptop has no full-size USB ports, no HDMI output, and no separate charger input. There are only three ports (one Thunderbolt and two USB type C), which are used both to power the laptop and to connect an external monitor.

Xiaomi RedmiBook Pro 15″ budget laptop for photography

The Xiaomi RedmiBook Pro 15″ laptop costs significantly less than previous models, while remaining powerful enough to work with photos.

It has an AMD Ryzen 5 6600H processor with integrated Radeon 660M graphics, 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD.

The screen has a resolution of 3200×2000 and is based on an IPS matrix, 100% sRGB coverage is declared / Photo: mi-xx.ru – for example, Asus ProART. There are not many ports: there is an HDMI port that supports external monitors with resolutions up to 4K, two USB type C ports (one of them is used to power a laptop, the second one can connect a DisplayPort monitor) and two full-size USB ports. Unfortunately, one of them is for some reason made of the obsolete USB 2.0 standard.

Blogger Macbook Apple MacBook Air M2 13.6″

Lightweight, durable and beautiful, the Apple MacBook Air M2 13.6″ is a good choice for those who do not need to process large amounts of photos.

Such a laptop would be a good choice for a travel blogger – it can process some of the best photos and mount a small video for social networks right during the trip, and after that you can also watch the latest movie.