The best laptops for Photoshop

Prime Day update: Below you’re going to find a lot of MacBooks in our list. If you’re interested in finding the absolutely up-to-date best deals on them – especially our top pick, the MacBook Air, M3, 15-inch – head over to our Prime Day MackBook deals page. And if you need an external display, we also have a roundup of the best Prime Day monitor deals.

The best laptops for Photoshop need to be able to power through the more power-hungry GPU-accelerate features in Adobe‘s software while providing colour-accurate displays that allow you to see your photos, designs or digital art as they really look. However, different users will have varying priorities in terms of portability, screen size and budget.

As a regular Photoshop user myself, I’ve used the software on a wide range of laptops, and our team of reviewers has tested even more, from budget laptops for Photoshop to MacBooks and some of the most powerful Windows laptops around in our quest to find the best. We’ve put them all through benchmark tests and hands-on real-world use with Photoshop itself. We’ve evaluated display size and quality, performance, build and battery life to identify the best Photoshop laptop for different needs. The result is the handpicked selection below. 

If you want to complete your Photoshop setup with an external display, also see our guide to the best monitors for photo editing. And if you don’t yet have Photoshop, be sure to check our Adobe Creative Cloud discount guide and our pick of the best photo editing software.

Quick list

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The best laptops for Photoshop in full

The best laptop for Photoshop overall

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What you need to know

The MacBook Air isn’t the most powerful laptop in Apple‘s lineup, but it’s more than capable of running even the most demanding Photoshop workflows. The more powerful MacBook Pros are really overkill for most people for using Photoshop alone, and they’re much more expensive. This laptop provides the specs you need at a more accessible price. 

Design and build: The 2024 MacBook Airs don’t change things from recent years’ models, but then they didn’t need too. They’re slim and light, look sleek and have a premium feel. Those who use a lot of peripherals should bear in mind that there are only two ports (Thunderbolt 4), so you may need a dock if your need demand more than this.

The Air now comes in two sizes, 13in and 15in, and we’re recommending the latter at the top of our list for Photoshop since we think the larger screen is more comfortable for photo editing and design work, while the device is still a little lighter and more compact than a 16-inch MacBook Pro. That said, if portability is a priority, the smaller laptop provides almost identical performance. 

Performance: Speaking of performance, MacBooks don’t have dedicated graphics cards, but we found the integrated GPUs in Apple’s own silicon to be powerful and efficient, and the M3 chip was easily capable of handling GPU-accelerated tools in Photoshop. It can get warm under pressure since it doesn’t have a fan (partly what allows Apple to make it so slim), but you should only need more power if you’re also doing more demanding tasks, such as video editing, in other software. As for battery life, we measured over 16 hours in our tests, which makes this a great option if you like to work in places where where you might not have a power source.

Display: We found the LED-backlit display to be a delight for working in Photoshop. It’s bright enough for most situations at 500 nits (those working in HDR might want to jump down the MacBook Pro further down our list) and it’s a good size for working across multiple panels.

Pricing: The MacBook Air is a ‘midrange’ laptop as far as Apple goes: not it’s cheapest or nor its most expensive. In terms of specs, there are Windows laptops that can offer a bit more power for the price, but I think the MacBook Air 15 strikes a great balance of price, performance, screen size and portability to make it the optimum choice for Photoshop. See below for prices in your region.

Read more: Apple MacBook Air M3 (2024) review. If you’re looking for a more compact, portable MacBook, we still highly recommend the 2022 M2 MacBook Air 13, which is seeing some great offers at the moment.

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Best laptop screen for Photoshop

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What you need to know

We rate this as the best Windows laptop for Photoshop, and indeed pretty much for anything. Asus is a reliable brand, and we’ve been impressed with many of its laptops. This is one of its most powerful and well built yet for creatives.

Design and build: At 16 inches, this is a fairly large laptop more suited for using at a desk than on the go. We found it to be very well built with a premium feel, and there’s also a nice little innovation: a dial to the left of the trackpad. We found this took a while to get used to it being there, but once customised the dial can be used to adjust brush size, to zoom in or control things like exposure and saturation in a way that feels less awkward than using fiddly sliders. We found it to be handy once we got used to it.

Performance: Available with a powerful Intel Core i9 CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 dedicated graphics, the laptop made light work of complex workflows using GPU-powered tools in Adobe’s software in our testing, easily handling any Photoshop task we put to it. With up to 64GB of memory backing it up, you shouldn’t have to worry about it struggling under the weight of piles of layers. And with plenty of configuration options for storage, going all the way up to 8TB, there’s little danger of not having enough space for work. The downside of all this is that this is a power-hungry machine. We only got around four and a half hours from a charge)

Display: The large OLED display is gorgeous to look at and perfect for creatives working in different colours spaces thanks to customisable colour sRGB, DCI-P3, Display-P3, and Native colour profile options. We tested 100% of the DCI-P3 cinema gamut, and a Delta-E score of less than one for excellent colour accuracy. The fact that it’s a touchscreen will also be a plus for digital artists who want to work directly with a stylus. Its stylus support recognises 4,096 pressure levels, which is a boon for digital artists who want to work directly on the screen.

Pricing: Other than battery life, the only downside we found is the price. Unless there are discounts, you’re looking at over $2,000 / £2,000 for the starting specs.

Read more: Asus ProArt Studiobook OLED (H7604) review

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Most powerful laptop for Photoshop

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What you need to know

The MacBook Pro 16 sits at the top of Apple’s range of MacBooks, both in size and performance. It’s available with either the M3 Pro or M3 Max chip, which are designed to provide more efficient graphics performance for video and 3D work.

Design and build: The MacBook Pro looks good and it feels good to use. The smooth matte-like finish on the Space Black model feels very premium and wipes down easily. There are plenty of ports, including HDMI and an SDXC card slot for those who transfer photos that way. We love the size of this 16-inch model, but for a more compact option, the 14-inch version provides comparable specs. 

Performance: We found the newest MacBook Pro to be a beast for pretty much anything in terms of performance. In our tests, the M3 Pro chip could easily handle complex video editing workflows, let alone photo editing. Even the M3 Pro-powered configuration is more than you need for Photoshop alone: the base M3 version of the 14-inch device will also handle the software with ease, and it’s cheaper. But if you want a large screen to edit on, this the MacBook for you.

Display: We loved the Liquid Retina XDR display, which reached the claimed 1,600 nits of peak brightness (the average is 500 nits) in our own tests. That makes this a great option for digital artists doing HDR work. With mini-LED tech and a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, it achieves deep blacks and bright whites. We also tested excellent colour accuracy and the 120Hz refresh rate can be locked, which we found allowed smooth performance for video work.

Pricing: This is the most expensive MacBook by some way, and the base model is $200 / £200 more expensive than the Asus ProArt Studiobook above too. There are sometimes discounts about, which can shave up to around $300 off the price of higher-spec configurations.

Read more: MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3, 2023) review

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The best value laptop for Photoshop

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What you need to know

The Asus ProArt Studiobook at number 2 in our list is our favourite Windows laptop for Photoshop, and it’s an all-round workstation that can handle a lot more. But if you’re not looking to edit video or 3D work as well as images, you might not need all that power. We highly rate the Asus Vivobook Pro 16 as a more affordable but still highly capable laptop aimed at creatives.

Design and build: Our reviewer found the metallic casing felt robust and premium. The laptop weighs 1.9 kg, which is fairly light for a 16in device. And at just 19mm thick, we found it easy to carry in a bag.

Performance: The VivoBook wasn’t as capable as the Studiobook in our testing but it was still perfectly capable of handling even the most demanding tools in Photoshop easily thanks to the dedicated Nvidia GPU. Battery life can’t compare to that of a MacBook, however. We only got up to three hours of life when photo editing, although it lasts longer for general browsing and entertainment.

Display: The screen has a more narrow colour coverage than the Asus ProArt Studiobook but it’s still good enough for most people’s Photoshop needs, especially for non professionals. It has an OLED display, which we found provided excellent contrast. We found the 600 nits of peak brightness were enough to make the screen comfortable to use in bright light, and the 3.2K version provided great definition. 

Unlike the Studiobook at number two in our list, this isn’t a touchscreen, which might put off some digital artists who want to be able to draw directly on the display. However, the display provides solid colour accuracy, validated by Pantone. This makes it a candidate for both digital work and proofing photos and artwork for printing. 

Pricing: We think the Vivobook Pro 16 is extremely well priced for a laptop with these specs, particularly considering it has a dedicated graphics card and an OLED display.

Read more: Asus Vivobook Pro 16 review

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Best Photoshop laptop for portability

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What you need to know

Most of our picks as the best laptop for Photoshop are 15-inchers and above since we generally find a larger screen more comfortable to use for Photoshop, allowing easier visualisation of different panels and comparison of images side by side without it all felling too cramped. The downside is that they aren’t the lightest or more compact laptops for taking on the road. For that, my top pick is the Zenbook S 13 OLED, which is perfect for carrying in hand luggage or working at a cafe table, while still providing excellent performance and colour.

Design and build: This laptop feels almost impossibly light, weighing just 1kg. The design is beautiful to look at, and despite the small size, the neat chiclet keyboard and trackpad are comfortable and responsive. Such a thin body doesn’t leave much space for ports, but there is still a USB-A 3.2, two Thunderbolt 4 (which can support a display and power delivery), HDMI 2.1 port and an audio jack.

Performance: We tested the 32GB RAM configuration of this laptop, and unsurprisingly photo-editing in Photoshop presented no problems. The fan started working with the more intensive tasks and documents, but performance was smooth. Our PCMark 10 testing backed this up suggesting excellent performance for photo editing and office work tasks while our video tests were less impressive due to the lack of a dedicated graphics card. For Photoshop alone, most users would probably be fine with the 16GB RAM configuration.

We found battery to be excellent, further backing up the Zenbook S 13 OLED’s credentials as an ideal laptop for travel and for working on the go. Our streaming video test have us 13 hours and 10 minutes on a single charge, beating many Windows laptops.

Display: Our reviewer found described the screen as the best he had ever tested on a small-form laptop. With 550 nits of brightness, it’s comfortable to work on even in bright sunlight, while and Pantone-certified colour coverage of up to 100% DCI-P3 (we also tested sRGB coverage of 113%) ensures we can rely on what we’re seeing. With a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, the OLED display also boasts excellent resolution of dark and light areas. It was also a pleasure to watch films and TV on the device.

Pricing: We think the ZenBooks S 13 is a little on the expensive side for a laptop that doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card, starting at a little over the price of the MacBook Air at the top of our list. It’s get pricey if you take the specs higher, but it’s one of the best compact Windows laptops we’ve used and is well worth snapping up when offers appear.

Read more: Asus ZenBook S 13 OLED review

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The best 2-in-1 laptop for Photoshop

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What you need to know

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 is a sleek touchscreen laptop with an innovative versatile form factor that allows it to be used as a tablet or in easel model. We think it’s a great option for using a stylus for editing images or creating digital art in Photoshop.

Design and build: The laptop feels very premium, with a well-engineered flexible design that allows it to smoothly be switched between three different positions: standard laptop, easel mode and tablet (see our reviewer’s photos above). The size is a nice compromise as well. At 14.4in, the laptop is fairly compact without making the Photoshop interface feel too cramped on screen.

Performance: There are RAM options from 16GB to 64GB, and along with 13th Gen CPUs from Intel, you get a choice of Intel Xe graphics or an Nvidia RTX 4060 and RTX 2000 Ada professional GPUs, so there’s plenty of power here. Of course, if it’s just the performance you want, you can get it for less from other laptops, but you’d have to give up the drawing and input abilities that make this such a great pick for image editors and other creative pros in the first place.

Display: We loved the super-crisp 3:2 screen. With a 120Hz refresh rate, we found it to be highly responsive when drawing in Photoshop with a stylus (note that no stylus is included as standard. Microsoft sells its own Surface Slim Pen 2 separately). The ability to switch to tablet or easel mode is also great for drawing in different situations, for example flat on a desk with the laptop flat on our laps.

Pricing: Starting at well over $2,000 / £2,000, the Surface Pro Laptop 2 is an expensive laptop. We feel the price is justified if you’ll take advantage of the innovative form factor, but if you don’t think you’ll use a stylus, you can find comparable power in cheaper packages. 

Read more: Surface Laptop Studio 2 review.

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The best Photoshop laptop with a large screen

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What you need to know

I generally like a lager laptop screen for using Photoshop since it makes it easier to work across multiple panels and to see layers tabs. I’ve mentioned several 16-inch laptops, but there are larger devices. A 17-inch laptop is generally the largest size available among devices aimed at creatives. There aren’t many to choose from, and the Dell XPS 17 easily tops the list.

Design and build: We found the XPS 17 be impressively slim for a 17-inch device, and that extra screen space is very welcome for editing in Photoshop, especially in complex pieces with lots of layers. The size is good for ergonomics too, and we found the keyboard very comfortable to work on. However, this advantage is also a downside. While it’s relatively slim and light for a 17-inch laptop, it won’t fit in all cabin-friendly backpacks and weighs 2.53kg, which means it isn’t the most suitable device for nomadic Photoshopping.

Performance: This large laptop can be configured with pretty much all the power you want, certainly more than enough for Photoshop. Our review model came with 32GB RAM configuration with intel i7-11800H and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060. It was very fast, resolving even GPU-intensive tasks quickly. 

Display: We found the large 4K touchscreen display is a pleasure to work on. We found picture quality to be excellent, providing sharp details and accurate colours. The brightness reached 500 nits, and it covered 100% of Adobe RGB and 94% of the DCI-P3 gamut in our tests.

Pricing: The Dell XPS 17 is relatively pricey, starting at around the $2,000 mark, but you get a lot of laptop for your money. In fact, it’s slightly cheaper than some smaller options on our list, including the Surface Laptop Studio above. 

Read more: Dell XPS 17 review

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The most versatile laptop for Photoshop

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What you need to know

Most laptops have one screen. Why would you need more? Well, Asus makes a very strong case for having two with its Zenbook Duo OLED, a laptop we gave a rare five-star review. Not only does it have a bright, beautiful 14-inch OLED display up top, but lift away the keyboard and another full-size 14-inch OLED display reveals itself. 

Design and build: We’ll get straight to the most striking aspect of this innovative laptop: the second screen. It’s novel and it works well. A kickstand allows it to be placed above the main screen or beside it in portrait orientation. The keyboard and trackpad then connect via Bluetooth (the laptop’s internals are actually inside the bottom screen). You basically get double the screen in a compact 14-inch laptop.

So why have we put this at the bottom of our list? Well, despite its usefulness for Photoshop, I suspect that most users still won’t go for this two-screen format, which does have its limitations. You need a certain amount of space and a flat surface to spread out. And if you have that space, you may well prefer to get one of the best monitors for graphic artists to use as an external screen instead. You’ll also stand out a mile if you try using the extra screen in a cafe. Also, while the setup feels reasonably secure, there is a bit of wobble when using the extra screen on top of the other, and I might worry about someone knocking it in some locations.

Performance: We expected performance might suffer as a result of that second screen since the laptop comes with integrated graphics, but we were very impressed. We found when we used both OLED screens and also connected an external monitor via the HDMI port, the mouse pointer did start to stutter a bit, but that’s adding another screen into the equation. 

We found that the performance of the integrated GPU to be fine for Photoshop too, but it may start to stutter if you push it with more demanding tasks like video editing. We were also impressed with battery life, getting more than 12 hours in laptop mode (using the second screen does lower this). 

Display: We found the second screen makes this compelling as a Photoshop laptop since you can put a reference picture on the second screen while you work on image adjustments on the ‘main’ display. The downside is that they are treated as two separate screens in Windows, and there is a space between them, plus an angle that can cause some reflections. 

Fullscreen apps are never bigger than they would be on a single 14-inch screen, so the extra space is only useful for keeping a document or browser open on one screen while you work on the other. The included Asus Pen 2.0 has 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity and a 266Hz sampling rate. Our reviewer found it felt natural to use, although it’s a shame it doesn’t attach magnetically to keep it safe.

Pricing: The price of this laptop is surprisingly reasonable for an innovative device with two displays, starting at around the same price as the 14-inch Zenbook higher up our list. And you get the ASUS Pen 2.0 included.

Read more: Asus Zenbook Duo OLED review.

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Also tested

Some of the laptops we have reviewed come very close to beating out the laptops above when it comes to performance and fit for Photoshop. As you’ll see from the linked reviews, they often score high in our tests. So here are some other great options, should you not find what you’re looking for above…

Dell Precision 5470
This model handles not just Photoshop with ease, but also more resource-intensive tasks like image editing and 3D rendering with no lag or performance issues to speak of. It can give the MacBook Pro 14-inch M2 Pro a run for its money, even though that costs $1,000 more.
Read our 4.5-star review

Acer Swift Edge 16
The Acer Swift Edge 16 is an excellent all-around mid-range laptop. It may lack the graphics power for 4K gaming or heavy 3D rendering tasks, but it can handle basic editing in Photoshop.
Read our 4.5-star review

Framework
Framework is great for Photoshop work, because you can upgrade it if you find yourself needing more power as file sizes get larger. The hot-swappable ports are super useful, especially if you have more than one place of work. For example, you can swap the HDMI port for a MicroSD port if you need to.
Read our 4.5-star review 

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How to choose a laptop for Photoshop

Photoshop is a creative application beloved by photographers and digital artists alike thanks to its varied toolset and wide range of features. It’s far from the most demanding piece of software available, but it’s certainly one of the beefiest for photo editing. This means that, although the minimum system requirements are not hugely demanding, not every laptop can do a decent job of running it. 

There are a few things to look out for when choosing the best laptop for Photoshop for you. Firstly, you’ll want a modern processor. Both Intel and AMD list CPUs in numerical order regarding power, and the rule is generally ‘the bigger, the better’, so a 9th-generation Intel i5 won’t perform tasks as efficiently as an 11th-generation Intel i9. We recommend at least a 9th generation Intel i5 or a Ryzen 5 3600 as a minimum.

Memory (also known as RAM) is also important, and most laptops provide several choices here, usually 8GB, 16GB and sometimes 32GB or even 64GB. Adobe states 8GB as a minimum, but 16GB is recommended, and our experience backs up that recommendation, particularly for more complex workflows. A dedicated graphics card can also be beneficial for certain tasks if your budget can stretch to it (see more on this below). 

You’ll also want a laptop with a display that provides good resolution and good colour coverage and accuracy. All of the laptops we recommend above meet this criteria, but if you’re shopping around aim for 100% sRGB and as much covered of Adobe RGB as possible. An OLED screen will usually provide better contrast and richer, deep blacks.

You’ll also want to consider storage size. Most laptops offer a choice of configurations, and your needs here will depend on the size of files that you produce and whether you rely heavily on cloud storage and external SSDs. Adobe recommends having at least 100GB available to use Photoshop. For most people, we would recommend going for a laptop with A laptop with a 512GB SSD (make sure it’s an SSD rather than a slower hard drive).

Aside from this, the best laptop for Photoshop for you will depend on your own priorities. Due the number of panels that it’s possible have open on Photoshop, I generally prefer working on a larger screen: 15in or more. However, this means sacrificing portability, and if you’re going to be working on the move a lot, you may prefer a 13-inch or 14-inch laptop, which will be easier to fit into a bag and lug about. Display size may also be less of a priority if you plan to use an external monitor.

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How we test laptops for Photoshop

When we test laptops for Photoshop, we first carry out a series of benchmark tests to measure the laptop’s overall performance.

• Cinebench R23/2024 – this assesses the performance of a computer’s CPU and GPU using real-world 3D rendering tasks

• Geekbench 5/6 – this tests the CPU’s processing power, both by using a single core for a single task at a time as well as all the CPU’s core to see its ability to multitask

• PCMark 10 – this test assesses a computer’s ability to run all everyday tasks from web browsing to digital content creation, testing app launch speeds, 3D rendering and even battery life

We also use a calibrator to test the display of the laptop, checking colour gamut, colour accuracy, brightness, contrast and uniformity. We also tests storage performance and assess each laptop’s general ergonomics, build and usability, including keyboard quality, chassis rigidity, trackpad response and battery life. 

Finally, we test each laptop in real-world use cases by performing various tasks in Photoshop itself in order to check how it performs in a real workflow. We carry out basic photo editing using adjustment layers and masks and create digital art using various brush tools. We also test new AI tools and the GPU-accelerated tools, which can cause some laptops to struggle.

FAQs

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