What to Look for in a Photo-Editing Laptop?

I’m on a constant journey to find the right photo-editing setup for when I’m out of the office, I typically run a Macbook pro, but there’s no reason to not keep your options open these days! Have a read, see what you think! — S

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A big part of producing great photos is post-processing. This is why aside from your trusted camera and other photography equipment, an equally capable laptop for editing is needed. After all, photo manipulation software like Adobe Photoshop and Aurora HDR needs a number of hardware requirements such as 16 GB of RAM to function smoothly. But this begs the question: what constitutes a great laptop for photo editing?

Hardware specs

Whenever you choose a new laptop, you need to look at three specs: the CPU or processor, the GPU or graphics card, as well as its RAM capacity. These will determine the types of editing software that can run on your hardware and how fast they can run. Try to prioritise the CPU and RAM, as they determine how many images you can open at once. A laptop with an i7 CPU and 16 GB of RAM is ideal, but you can meet the minimum photo-editing specs with an i5 CPU (16 GB of RAM is non-negotiable if you want to run programs simultaneously).

Meanwhile, the GPU is responsible for rendering your graphics on your laptop’s display. Fortunately, it doesn’t tax the GPU to load 2D images, so you can get away with quality budget GPUs like the new AMD RX 6700 XT.

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Your chosen laptop’s motherboard is also important. This is your laptop’s “hub” or the component that allows all the other parts of the computer to communicate with each other. It’s a special type of PCB or printed circuit board with an expandable system due to the heavy system requirements the laptop needs to run. Every PCB has unique net clearance rules, such as energy limits, which it needs to follow to prevent the board from short-circuiting. If any activity on your computer goes beyond the threshold, the motherboard will experience a power surge, which will damage its systems and slow down your laptop forever.

Photo editing is such a hardware extensive activity, so your laptop should have a motherboard that can handle the power of your other components. Laptops that can support at least an 8th gen CPU such as the MacBook Air, Dell Inspiron 13-735 and the HP Pavilion DV7-2000 contain these powerful motherboards.

Macbook vs. Windows

It’s difficult to say whether a Macbook or Windows laptop is better for your specific needs. Ultimately, the answer is dependent on several factors such as the software that you use and your budget. Apple products naturally have a more accurate colour display, for example. This is because of integrated display technologies such as Super Retina, Mini LED, and OLED technology, which grants Macbooks that incredibly high contrast ratio and resolution. On the other hand, Windows laptops are cheaper and are more compatible with editing programs on the market. So if you’re using specialised software like PhotoDiva, you’re looking at a Windows laptop.

While there are minimum specs to follow, the perfect photo editing laptop for you is entirely based on your preferences and needs. Are you on a tight budget? Is the laptop going to be used for things other than post-processing? Consider the specs that you need, do your research, and arrive at your own decision.

For more photography gear guides, take a look at some of the other posts on our blog.