Are you enthusiastic about photography and photo editing? Are you a Photoshop geek (guru)? Are you looking for ways to step up your game as a photo editor? Then here’s what you need to do: buy the best laptop for photo editing and, as a result, enjoy the pleasant experience of editing your photos for hours.
The key points to consider when choosing a laptop for photo editing is a powerful processor, high resolution and color-accurate display. To help you out in finding the best laptop for photo editing, we’ve put together a chart below with your best options.
Top 10 Laptops for Photo Editing Overview Chart
| Picture | Name | Screen Size | Price | Rating (1-5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | 1. Acer Aspire V17 Nitro Black Edition VN7-791G-71P5 17.3-Inch Full HD Laptop | 17.3" | $$$$ | 4.8 |
 | 2. Lenovo Z70 17.3-Inch Laptop (80FG0037US) Black | 17.3" | $$$ | 4.6 |
 | 3. Apple MacBook Pro MGXC2LL/A 15.4-Inch Laptop with Retina Display (NEWEST VERSION) | 15.4" | $$$$$ | 4.5 |
 | 4. Toshiba CB35-B3340 13.3-Inch Chromebook 2 (Full-HD Screen) | 13.3" | $ | 4.4 |
 | 5. Dell Computer XPS 15 XPS15-4737sLV 15.6-Inch Laptop | 15.6" | $$$$ | 4.3 |
 | 6. MSI GE70 Apache Pro-012 17.3-Inch Laptop | 17.3" | $$$$ | 4.2 |
 | 7. ASUS Transformer Book 12-Inch T200TA-C1-BL 2-in-1 Detachable Touchscreen Laptop | 11.6" | $$ | 4.0 |
 | 8. HP ENVY 15t i7-4710HQ Quad Core Notebook Laptop PC | 15.6" | $$$ | 3.8 |
 | 9. ASUS N550JK-DS71T 15.6" FHD Touchscreen Aluminum Laptop | 15.6" | $$$ | 3.8 |
 | 10. Lenovo Yoga 2 11.6" TouchScreen 2-in-1 Laptop PC | 11.6" | $$ | 3.6 |
Windows vs Chrome OS
The most important thing to note for photo editors is that if you’re an Adobe user (thus if you use Photoshop; and let’s face it, you do), then Chrome OS is definitely not something you’re looking for; Adobe doesn’t exist on Chrome OS. Windows, in turn, does have Adobe, which makes it the best laptop for photo editing. Although if you still opt for Chrome OS there’s a way out for photo editing: Pixlr Touch Up.
Chrome OS also loses in terms of the amount of space on the hard drive. As an example, HP Chromebook 14 has 16GB of local storage, while Google offers 15GB of cloud storage for free. You can also access 100GB of cloud storage for free, but after two years you’ll have to pay for it. On the other hand, Acer Aspire V3, which is Windows, has 500GB on its hard drive, and 15GB of OneDrive storage.
Therefore, while Chrome OS will do fine for casual users, for professional photo editors a Windows laptop is a must, especially given the fact that you need to keep tons of photos on your hard drive. Apple iOS is just like Windows and excellent choice, and can handle all the programs you need.
Core i5 vs Core i7
- Core i5 and Core i7 from Intel’s 4th Generation family have Hyper-Threading Technology. Hyper-Threading Technology boosts laptop’s performance during multitasking. Which means if you’re working in several applications at the same time, for example, uploading your pictures to cloud storage while working in Photoshop, thanks to this feature you get a better performance from the laptop.
- While Core i5 can easily handle your usage of several applications simultaneously without lagging, crashing or freezing, Core i7 works even more powerful and faster. Core i7 is designed for photo editing, which demands a lot in terms of laptop’s performance in order to create high-quality pictures.
- Core i7 are simply the best CPUs you can get as they offer the best in terms of graphics, color-accuracy, power, speed and overall performance. That being said, if you’re a professional photo editor, Core i7 is your best option.
Top 3 Best Laptop for Photo Editing Reviews
1. Acer Aspire V17
Acer Aspire V17 with its large high-quality screen (17.3 inches) is simply the best laptop for photo editing this year. This “beast” (which is an accurate description) has a Core i7 processor and is all about power, speed and productivity. And as mentioned above, if you’re a professional photo editor, Core i7 is your best option.
Acer Aspire V17 Nitro is a beast that excels at every aspect of photo editing, thus turning the work in Photoshop into a pleasant experience.
This laptop’s Full HD IPS Display offers you bright colors and detailed imagery from all angles, which makes it a perfect laptop for photo editors.
If you like to work with your photos at night, Acer offers you a red-lighted keyboard. Even though it’s just a little thing, it makes the laptop enjoyable to use and work with.
2. Lenovo Z70 (80FG0037US)
Although Lenovo Z70 has a large screen, it is a lightweight laptop. This laptop is a great combination of Core i7 processor and discrete NVIDIA graphics.
What makes it an awesome choice for photo editors is that Lenovo Z70 is equipped with an anti-glare display, which means you can enjoy Full HD resolution even in bright sunshine.
The laptop offers you high RAM, lots of storage on the hard drive (1000GB), a fast processor, stunning graphics and, of course, a large display.
Lenovo Z70 comes in ebony black and has an incredible tactile feel which makes it a pleasure to use.
Another thing to note is the long-running durability of the battery as the laptop uses advanced energy-saving technology, which allows you to edit your photos for longer periods of time.
3. Apple MacBook Pro MGXC2LL/A
Apple MacBook Pro is another beast, which can withstand the test of time. In order to offer us a thin machine with a long lasting battery, Apple removed the optical drive.
The Retina display is simply stunning: the viewing angles are breath-taking and the screen is bright. MacBook Pro is well-developed, functional, fast, innovative and great at handling resource-heavy tasks.
The creativity and features of this Apple’s laptop are really taken to a new level, and it has a great overall design.
However, it’s not that flawless as you might think. Apple’s famous eagerness to push an operating system upgrade approximately every year seems to be harming the functional performance.
Although all new operating systems have their issues, the issues that Yosemite has can harm productivity to a pretty large extent.