Best laptops for Photoshop in 2024 (2024)

For a seamless Photoshop experience, your laptop needs the brawn of a champion. A modern processor like Intel Core Ultra i7/i9, AMD Ryzen 7/9, or the M2/M3 chipset is key. These powerhouses effortlessly handle complex filters, large files, and layered projects – no sweat. Don't be a RAM skinflint – 16GB is the minimum, but 32GB unlocks smooth multitasking and lets you wrangle high-resolution images with ease. Storage is equally important; aim for at least 512GB SSD for a comfortable buffer of image files and project backups.

Visuals are king in photo editing. A sharp, high-resolution display (QHD or 4K) with accurate color reproduction is a must. Features like wide color gamut coverage (think DCI-P3) ensure your edits translate perfectly across different screens. For heavy-duty tasks like 3D work, intricate filters, or demanding tools, consider a dedicated graphics card like Nvidia GeForce RTX or AMD Radeon RX.

Budget woes? Fear not! For basic editing, a modern CPU with integrated graphics can be a wallet-friendly option. Additionally, the future of AI-powered laptops promises strong performance at attractive prices – exciting times ahead!

We, at Laptop Mag, have rigorously reviewed numerous laptops. Those gracing this list excel in DCI-P3 color gamut, Delta-E color accuracy, and brightness tests. Combine these top-tier displays with powerful internals, and you've got a Photoshop powerhouse waiting to unleash your creativity. (Wink wink – check out our picks for the best monitors to expand your home setup or our best portable monitors for on-the-go editing bliss!)

CURATED BY

CURATED BY

Momo Tabari

Momo Tabari graduated with a bachelor's degree in Journalism & Media Studies at Brooklyn College and has been covering tech for four years. She has written over a hundred reviews and has plenty of experience testing and critiquing laptops.

The Quick List

The best laptops for Photoshop in 2024

Best Laptop for Photoshop Overall

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Dell's XPS 15 (9530) boasts a gorgeous 3.5K OLED display (137.9% DCI-P3 color gamut) and a powerful 13th Gen Intel Core i7/Nvidia RTX 4070 combo, making it a photo editing powerhouse. While the battery life (8 hours 58 minutes) may not be stellar, its performance and stunning visuals justify the starting price of $1,499 (though the OLED display bumps it up to $2,799). Perfect for creative professionals!

Just note that because of its high-res screen and demanding GPU, Dell’s XPS 15 lasted 8 hours and 58 minutes on Laptop Mag’s battery test, which fell short of the premium laptop battery average at the time of our review. The model we reviewed was $2,799, and though the base model starts at $1,499, you’ll lose out on that stunning 3.5K OLED display.

See our full Dell XPS 15 (9530) review.

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Best Budget Laptop for Photoshop

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Acer Swift Go 14 packs a punch for photo editing at $749, but the $999 model shines brighter. This sweet spot boasts a vibrant OLED display (175.7% DCI-P3, 395 nits) and a powerful Intel Core Ultra i7 155H, making the $200 upgrade well worth it.

This laptop’s display is one of the most vibrant screens we’ve ever tested at Laptop Mag. Acer’s Swift Go 14 earned a score of 175.7% on the DCI-P3 color gamut, well above the category average of 107.5%. The laptop averaged 395 nits of brightness, also above the category average of 349 nits. The only place the Swift Go 14 faltered in terms of rich color was when we tried out the laptop’s True Black 500 HDR mode. It looked artificial, and the display is significantly better without this mode turned on.

With such a brilliant, bright display, it’s no surprise that the battery life isn’t incredible. But listen, for the price and the gorgeous color accuracy, this budget laptop is a perfect option for Photoshop users. The Swift Go 14 lasted 8 hours and 5 minutes during our battery test, slightly below the category average of 8:13.

See our full Acer Swift Go 14 review.

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Best Samsung Laptop for Photoshop

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Starting at $2,199, the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra packs a powerful Intel Core i7 CPU, RTX 4050 GPU, and 16GB RAM, making it a strong contender for photo editing. Its 16-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display impresses with vibrant colors and a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, even in the base model we tested. While pricier options offer more storage, the base configuration delivers solid performance for demanding tasks like Photoshop.

The display produced 86.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which was lower than the premium laptop average (88.8%) but higher than the MacBook Pro 16 (83.7%). However, this test was performed at the laptop’s default setting, and you can adjust the display settings to increase vibrancy. With our Delta-E color accuracy test, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra performed swimmingly, with a low score of 0.15 (the closer to zero, the better). This color accuracy score was higher than both the premium laptop average (0.24) and the MacBook Pro 16’s score (0.21).

At this point, it may sound like this laptop is without flaws, but with powerful specs, a discrete GPU, and a stunning display packed into a thin, light package, it’s no surprise that the battery life isn’t great. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. In our battery test, Samsung’s Galaxy Book 3 Ultra lasted for 8 hours and 48 minutes while utilizing the 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and 150 nits of brightness. Compared to the average premium laptop (9:55) and the MacBook Pro 16 (18:56), this is a lower-than-I’d-like battery life, but it’s still enough to last a full work day without a charge.

See our full Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra review.

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Best Compact Laptop for Photoshop

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LG Gram 17 prioritizes portability despite its large 17-inch screen, weighing just 3.2 pounds. This powerful option packs a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU, Nvidia RTX 3050 GPU, 16GB RAM, and 1TB SSD, making it a capable photo editing companion at around $2,000.

The LG Gram 17 boasts a spacious 17-inch display (2560 x 1600, 144Hz) perfect for pixel-peeping. It delivers vibrant colors (115% DCI-P3) and impressive brightness (438 nits), ensuring accurate editing. While color accuracy (Delta-E 0.26) is good, it falls slightly short of some competitors. This powerful and portable option starts at around $2,000.

LG’s Gram 17 packs powerful internal specs that give you a stutter-free Photoshop experience and a large, vibrant display that accurately shows off the colors you’re working with. It’s so incredibly light at 3.2 pounds that you’ll barely feel it in your bag. You won't even have to add extra weight from the charger because this laptop has a stellar battery life. During our battery test, the LG Gram 17 lasted 12 hours and 2 minutes, longer than the premium laptop average of 10:14.

See our full LG Gram 17 review.

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Best MacBook for Photoshop

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For Apple users and design enthusiasts, the 2023 MacBook Pro 16-inch with M3 Max CPU reigns supreme for photo editing. While pricey (starting at $3,499), it offers powerful performance and a seamless experience within the Apple ecosystem. Opting for a 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM configuration delivers ample storage and smooth Photoshop performance, making it a compelling choice for creative professionals.

With either configuration, you’ll get that brilliant 14-core Apple M3 Max CPU mentioned earlier, as well as a 40-core Apple GPU with a 16-core Neural Engine and a gorgeous 16.2-inch 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display. Despite how colorful our review unit’s display appeared, it only earned a DCI-P3 score of 81.8%, lower than the premium laptop average at the time (97.2%). The laptop scored well on the brightness test, with an average of 560 nits, brighter than the category average of 391 nits.

Buying the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2023) is a smart choice for Photoshop because of the beautiful, bright display and the powerfully smooth internal specs. However, there’s another crucial spec to consider: the battery life. MacBooks are known for having great battery life, which is a fantastic feature for those wanting to use Photoshop on the go. The 16-inch MacBook Pro lasted an amazing 18 hours and 5 minutes in our battery test, significantly longer than the premium laptop average of 10:02.

See our full MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023) review.

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Best AI laptop for Photoshop

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The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is not only one of the best AI laptops you can buy right now, but it is absolutely the best one for Photoshop. For just $1,399 at the price of our model, it features a Meteor Lake Intel Core Ultra 7-155H processor, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and a 16-inch, 4K, OLED (3840 x 2400) display with a 1080p webcam. It's an impressive feat of engineering, coming in at a surprisingly affordable price with such shocking hardware.

With its 137.9% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is far above the mainstream average of (87.8%). This is no surprise thanks to the power of its beautiful OLED panel, but it also benefits from 368 nits of brightness, which also surpasses the category average (354 nits) but not by quite as much.

And with its Intel Core Ultra 7-155H processor, it's no surprise it managed 13,310 on our Geekbench 6.1 overall performance test, demolishing the laptop average of 9,006. You will not be disappointed by this thing in terms of price and power, especially for the added bonus of a great display.

See our full MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo review.

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How To Choose a Laptop for Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop isn’t an incredibly demanding software, so you won’t necessarily need a high-end, expensive laptop to create your visual masterpieces. However, there are a few key specs to look out for. When choosing a laptop for Photoshop specifically, the display specs are perhaps the most important, followed by the laptop’s CPU and amount of RAM and storage.

Working in Photoshop, color accuracy and a wide array of colors is important. That’s why Laptop Mag chose tested laptops with high color accuracy and a high percentage on the DCI-P3 color gamut for this list. The size of your display won’t matter as much as the resolution, brightness, and display technology. Modern OLED displays, in particular, are fantastic at displaying rich, deep blacks and bright, vivid colors.

For a CPU, we’d recommend not buying anything less than an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 or equivalent. Then, a good laptop for Photoshop should have at least 16GB of RAM to run the software smoothly and at least 512GB of storage to store all your Photoshop creations when you’re done editing.

If you also love to play video games, some of the best gaming laptops are equally great for Photoshop. Gaming laptops typically come with a discrete GPU, which is ideal for a graphics-intensive software like Photoshop, but it’s not necessary. You can save a bit of money buying a laptop with integrated graphics and still produce some amazing things in Photoshop.

How We Test Laptops for Photoshop

Every laptop we test goes through countless lab tests before a review goes live. We look at how a laptop fairs in regards to its performance, battery life, speakers, heat management, and display. While each laptop on this list has gone through every test we could run on it, there are a few specific test results we paid close attention to when choosing the best laptops for Photoshop.

When you work with Photoshop, it’s important that the colors you’re working with will accurately translate to other screens when your file is shared. To detect a laptop’s display brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter test. We also pay attention to each laptop’s Delta E score, showing how accurate a display’s colors are.

Additionally, performance is important in a laptop running Adobe Photoshop. The Geekbench benchmark tests a laptop’s overall performance. To test a laptop’s GPU, the 3DMark benchmark determines how well a laptop can run graphic-intensive applications. Discrete graphics are ideal when selecting a laptop for Photoshop, but you might forgo a discrete GPU for a more budget-friendly laptop.

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