How to Choose the Best Laptop For Photo Editing

As any experienced photographer will tell you, taking photos is only half of their job. The other half: running those photos through an editor.

Back in the day, this was something you could only do on a desktop PC. Slowly, however, their edge in speed and power disappeared. Today’s laptops can do everything a desktop can—while being portable to boot!

Not sure how to choose the best laptop for photo editing? Here are the five main specifications you need to pay attention to.

Screen

To nobody’s surprise, bigger is better when it comes to screen size. If you’re using a high-quality device such as the Dell XPS 13, a 13-inch display can suffice. Otherwise, look for 15-inch screens and above.

When it comes to screen resolution, 1920×1080 pixels should be the starting point. Demanding photographers will usually opt for higher resolutions, up to 4K Ultra HD. A matte finish can reduce eyestrain or visual distractions.

Processor

Photo editing tends to require a lot of processing power. We measure that power in two ways: by the number of cores and clock speed (GHz). Though they’re both important, your priority should be the cores.

The easy way to think about cores is that each core can work on a separate task. Therefore, more cores translate to more power. If you want a good balance of price and performance, go with a quad-core processor.

Graphics Card

Unless you’re running a 4K setup, you don’t need a powerful graphics card for photography. The main purpose of a graphics processor is to offload work from the CPU. For casual users, integrated chip graphics should do the trick.

That said, a good graphics card can speed up the use of some photo editing apps. For example, using collage apps free is easier with a decent GPU. Still, opting for a high-end graphics card is unlikely to be worth it.

RAM

Your laptop will use RAM to run many instructions quickly without lagging. Without enough RAM, expect your system to freeze regularly. Also, having a high-megapixel camera will take your RAM to the limit.

Whether you’re a skilled or casual photographer, go with 16 or 32 GB RAM. Keep in mind that RAM is one of the cheaper upgrades on a laptop. Even if you don’t feel like you need 32 GB now, you may feel differently soon.

Storage

The more photos you edit, the more space you’ll need on your drive. Like with RAM, insufficient storage can slow down your editing work. This is particularly relevant if you’re editing huge RAW files.

These days, there’s not much reason not to go with an SSD drive. These drives allow memory-intensive apps to run much faster than HDDs. This is another upgrade that’s cheap for the value it provides.

What Is the Best Laptop for Photo Editing?

The bottom line: buy the best processor you can afford and go from there. An SSD and RAM are good value, as is a high-quality screen. At the end of the day, though, it all depends on your photo editing skills and needs.

Once you choose the best laptop for photo editing, you’ll have all you need to run a photography business. Check out our Pricing section to learn more about making your business website!