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10 Best Budget Laptops For Photoshop 2021 | Reviews & Buyer’s Guide

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April 8, 2021

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Whether you are a photographer, freelancer, or graphic designer, today, I’m going to show you some of the Best Budget Laptops For Photoshop with Buyer’s Guide, which helps you to choose the best one for your needs.

Photo editing needs a bunch of resources that we don’t often have on the go. Not only is Photoshop, but all the advanced photo and video editing software are heavy, and power-hungry applications require a dedicated computer. 

Many of us think that the desktop computer is more suitable for these tasks. Yeah, it is really good to keep track of your work on a powerful desktop computer with a widescreen, but laptops help us to do it from wherever we prefer, giving us an advantage over the people who work on a desktop. Laptops are now versatile enough to run applications like Photoshop, Illustrator, and other graphic design programs with ease, but not all laptops are equal.

You may also like: Best Laptops For Lightroom

Since you will spend money to buy, then you must purchase the appropriate one which has the perfect configuration you need. So here are some powerful Laptop Best For Photoshop that can smoothly run graphic design applications without hiccups, and this article is for you.

List Of Top 10 Best Budget Laptops For Photoshop and Graphic Design:

1. MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2019
2. ASUS VivoBook S14 Thin & Light
3. Dell Inspiron i5577
4. Acer Aspire E 15
5. Acer Predator Helios 300
6. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
7. Asus Zenbook Flip UX461U
8. MSI GL62M
9. MacBook Pro 15-inch
10. HP Envy 13

Let’s take a look at each one of them.

Best Budget Laptops For Photo Editing 2020-Comparison Table

	MacBook Pro 16-inch, 2019	16.0-inch	2.3 GHz 8‑core Intel Core i9, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD	Check Price
	ASUS VivoBook S Thin & Light	14.0-inch	8th Gen Intel Core i7-8550U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD	Check Price
	Dell Inspiron i5577	15.6-inch	7th Gen Intel Core i7-7700H, 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 1TBHSS	Check Price
	Acer Aspire E 15	15.6-inch	8th Gen Core i5-8250U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD	Check Price
	Acer Predator Helios 300	15.6-inch	7th Gen Core i7, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD	Check Price
	Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon	14.0-inch	AMD Ryzen 5 3500U, 8GB DDR4	Check Price
	Asus Zenbook Flip UX461U	14.0-inch	8th Gen Core i7-8550U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD	Check Price
	MSI GL62M	15.6-inch	7th Gen Core i7-7700H, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, 1TB HDD	Check Price
	MacBook Pro 15-inch	15.0-inch	9th gen Intel Core i7 – i9, 16GB-32GB RAM	Check Price
	HP Envy 13	13.3-inch	8th Gen Intel core i7-8565U, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD	Check Price

Choose The Best Laptops Under $400 From Bellow:

MACBOOK PRO 16-INCH, 2019

Magic keyboard, Larger display, Better sound, Faster performance, Best laptop for photo editing

Many Photographers have been relying for years on Apple’s range of powerful MacBook Pro for several good reasons as they pack this laptop with versatile components that are necessary for photo editing, especially since the advent of the touch bar and lightweight, stylish bodies.

MacBook Pro 13-inch runs the macOS operating system, which means you can use popular photo editing software like adobe photoshop and it is comfortable to bring around as well, which makes this laptop great for photographers who want to work when on the go. 

Crucially, it also provides outstanding battery capacity, ensuring you can use it for a whole working day without trying to locate a power source. I think this is the best budget laptop for photo editing, so that you can pick this best laptop for photoshop. 

Pros

New & Improved Magic Keyboard
Larger Display is comfortable for editing
Great Performance
Nearly 11 hrs battery life
Excellent Speaker 
Slimmer Bezels

Cons

The display is not 4K
Limited to four Thunderbolt 3 ports
Little bit Pricey

Technical Specification

ASUS VIVOBOOK S14 THIN & LIGHT

If you are a photographer &  want to purchase a laptop to use when you are travelling, and you need a good laptop for video and photo editing.

I believe that a Desktop Computer or a MacBook is always a better option for this purpose because it will be stronger, faster & more effective sometimes, but when you are outside or travelling? 

Yes, for this time, you really need the best laptop for photo editing, but a high-performance machine will be costly. So, ASUS VivoBook S14 is a good alternative, which is not so pricey. Still, at the same time, it is really the best budget laptop for photoshop or any other photo and video editing application. It’s a nice-looking, pretty slim laptop with an aluminium finish.   

This stylish laptop has 14 inches Full HD Wide-view display with up to 178 degrees wide view, 8th Generation Intel Core i7 8550U (Turbo up to 4.0GHz) Quad-Core processor and most importantly it has NVIDIA GeForce MX150 dedicated graphics card. 

It has a 256 SSD drive, and you can also buy with another hard drive, which is 1TB, but in my opinion that an SSD drive is always better than a regular hard drive. You can buy a 500 SSD, it will be more expensive, but 256 SSD is enough if you don’t want to store anything on it.  

It has a 14-inch matte IPS panel with no reflections and the definition is full HD 1920 x 1080 px which is more than enough for photo and video editing. 

It is supposed to hold for a full day of work, mainly designed for beginners; they are not too demanding on high performance like graphics designer students and mobile users. 

If you want to buy a powerful laptop at a reasonable price, the ASUS Vivobook S14 is a great way to go.

Let’s see some positive and negative side of ASUS VivoBook S14,

Pros

Illuminated Chicklet Keyboard
NanoEdge display
Great Autonomy
Complete Connectivity
Excellent Speaker 
1920 x 1080 px Resolution
Reasonable Price

Cons

Lacks a bit brightness 
Suitable for graphics design students not advance user

Technical Specification

DELL INSPIRON I5577

Best Budget for Photoshop

The Dell Inspiron i5577 is actually rated as a gaming laptop, but it is also suitable for use as the best laptop for your photo editing. It is ranked as the best laptop for all adobe applications, not only reliable for photoshop tools.

If you are searching for a sufficient budget launch, then the one in Dell Inspiron i5577. You know this machine never provides the same display efficiency as MacBook. Still, again, it is also less expensive than a half of what MacBook offered allowed by the Retina Monitor. 

So what’s good in the Dell Inspiron i5577? With its 7th generation CPU, it’s a little behind, but this doesn’t seem to impact its performance in picture editing. The increased clock frequency is 3.8 GHz; at the same time, the laptop base clock frequency is 2.8 GHz.  Dell is designing the laptops with cooling technology to keep them working lengthier.

It has an anti-glare LED-backlit screen, which is a nice added feature for anyone who spends much time editing images. Dell Inspiron has an NVIDIA GeForce GTX1050 dedicated graphics card with a Full-HD resolution of 1920×1080 with impressive battery performance. 

With super connectivity, this machine PUS comes with three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI-out, but display post is missing, which might be disappointed some hardcore gamers. Wired connectivity comes via an RJ-45 port, whereas Bluetooth 4.2 adapter and 802.11 ac dual-band Wi-Fi look after the wireless connectivity portal.

Overall, This is the best one for photographers’ dell company offer due to its balancing between maximum performance and high temperature. 

All these features make it fall under the category of best laptops for Photoshop.

Let’s see some positive and negative side of Dell Inspiron i5577,

Pros

Not much pricey
Attractive Design
Bottom-mount keyboard
Excellent performance 
Excellent graphics 
Smooth and speedy file transfer
Glare free LCD

Cons

Slightly Wighty at 5.7 lbs 
Short Battery life (5hr+)

Technical Specification

ACER ASPIRE E 15

Budget Laptop for Photoshop

Acer Aspire E15 is one of the best value desktop replacement laptops because it has a full HD 15-inch display, discrete graphics, SSD, reliable battery, and especially less expensive price for the budget-minded buyers. 

Except for several other laptops listed in this article, Acer Aspire E15 is not the luxury one, but it looks professional and sober due to its compactness. The overall quality of this machine is very premium. 

Taking a glance at its specifications, the laptop is designed with the latest 8th generation Intel core i5 processor and dedicated GeForce MX150 2GB graphics card to process CPU intensive projects supremely. For better performance, you can make use of the Turbo Boost feature to clock it up to 3.4 GHz. It has 8GB DDR4 RAM with 256GB SSD, which can make you satisfied at this price.    

This machine is specially designed for versatility, ease of use, and speed. You can easily carry it out in your backpack because it comes with relatively lightweight. 

15.6-inch FHD LED-backlit display will deliver you remarkable on-screen experience. The most amazing thing is its incredible 15 hours of battery life so that you can travel anywhere without any hesitation. 

And the keyboard is more comfortable to type on, and you will be happy to know that the full-size keys are well spaced even with a number pad. 

So, we can say Acer Aspire E15 is the most budget-friendly laptop for photoshop, which can manage almost all photo editing software like photoshop, illustrator, lightroom, and so on. 

Let’s see some positive and negative side of Acer Aspire E15,

Pros

15.6-inch FHD LED-backlit display
Long Battery Life
Comfortable Keyboard
Lighter than its look  
Lots of Ports
Large Touchpad
Premium-like productivity performance

Cons

Large Display Bezels
Bulky design

Technical Specification

ACER PREDATOR HELIOS 300

Budget Friendly and High Performance

As we know, photo editing laptops need excellent performance specs and decent display to run files properly; that’s why they are generally very costly. 

However, Acer Predator Helios 300 is an excellent pick for you here under the $1000 price. This laptop comes with a robust set of technical specifications and an incredible 144 hertz 15.6-inch Full HD wide IPS display. That will make the Acer Predator Helios 300 one of the best budget laptops for photoshop right from the get-go.

It comes with an excellent NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 dedicated graphics card and all the features you’ll need for any photo editing application for a reasonable price. 

The Acer Predator Helios 300 has a dimmer display than other laptops listed above, but if you have no problem with that, you will get the best laptop for editing photo & video. 

On the other hand, even if you are a gamer too, then it is a good option for you because it has an IPS panel that delivers 84% of the sRGB functionality to support all colorful games. 

This black color aggressive design laptop has a lovely predator logo and a metal lid with two red highlights and the design is not much different from other performance laptops Acer offer. The keyboard looks gorgeous for its metal deck, red WASD keys, and a number pat utilizing red backlighting which helps you to work even in dim lights. 

Superfast 7th generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, 16GB DDR4 RAM, and 256GB Flash Memory Solid State gives you an ultimate photo editing experience.  

This laptop’s battery life is relatively nice and provides up to 7 hours of proper power backup on a single charge. No need to worry about this machine connectivity because it has all the port and slots you need. 

Some positive and negative side of Acer Predator Helios 300,

Pros

15.6-inch FHD LED-backlit display
Backlight Keyboard
Nice Screen quality
CoolBoost Technology  
Lots of Ports
144Hz Display
Seamlessly integrated component monitoring and boosting.
Less Expensive

Cons

RTX 2060 is a better GPU

Technical Specification

LENOVO THINKPAD X1 CARBON

Ultralight . Ultra Powerful . Ultra-no-brainer

Combination of the ultralight ThinkPad X1 Carbon merges elegant design, new look, seamless responsiveness, extreme lightweight (under 2.5 lbs), including excellent battery life to create the ultimate in mobile productivity make this best budget laptops for photoshop. 

If you are a professional graphics designer and want to edit photos, videos, render 3D graphics, and you want a laptop that isn’t a MacBook Pro, then this is the best option for you. 

This laptop delivers up to 15hr battery life and multi touch screen along with RapidCharge technology, which provides 80% capacity in just an hour. So you can quickly boost your battery up to 12hr in 60 minutes only.  

More than 200 quality checks and tests against 12 military-grade requirements ensure that this laptop can run in any extreme conditions. 

Four layers of reinforced carbon fiber construct the chassis of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1, and a magnesium alloy roll-cage increases its strength, so it is reliable to handle whatever life throws your way. 

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 comes with the latest 8th Generation Intel Quad Core CPUs, which boosts the performance of this laptop 35% over the previous Generation. With 16GB of LPDDR3  RAM and 512GB SSD boots the ThinkPad X1 faster and launches any program quickly. 

It has the kind of world-class keyboard which with a deep, 1.8 mm of travel and a strong 2 grams of required actuation force. The keys provide excellent tactile feedback, so because of this keyboard’s great comfort and responsiveness, you can use this keyboard for your photo editing project easily. 

For Graphics designers, it has the low-weight touch FHD display, which offers unbelievable color accuracy, increased brightness, expanded contrast. 15.95-millimeter thin super-bright display in a narrow-bezel design will help you to make your task beautiful.   

With Cortana Premium, you can control your ThinkPad X1 by voice commands from 4 meters distance. Integrated 360-degree field microphones ensure that your voice is heard across the room, which can wake your laptop with a simple phrase. You can find any files and calendar events quickly as well, which can make your day easy. You can even increase your battery performance by putting your ThinkPad X1 Carbon into Modern Standby mode.

You will get all rolled into one device like Thunderbolt, USB 3.0 data transfer, DisplayPort, etc. because This laptop comes with Intel Thunderbolt 3, which brings up to 40Gbs to USB-C lightning-fast data transfer. You will also get four times the data and twice the video bandwidth ao any other port type by connecting a cable to a Thunderbolt 3 from your USB-C port. 

 The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon has an incredible screen. This Full HD IPS slab with 2560 x 1440 resolution corresponds to quad-HD, in other words, 4x higher than HD resolution. 

Finally, with its many assets, to ensure what’s on your display is for your eyes only, Lenevo offers a combination of software and hardware that work together as part of ThinkShield security. Privacy Guard is built into your display to decrease the angle of vision.

Some positive and negative side of ThinkPad X1 Carbon,

Pros

Incredible Screen (WQHD Resolution) 
Divine KeyboardRapid
Charge technology run in extreme conditions  
Carbon-fiber reinforced chassis
More than all-day including wireless battery life
Excellent and quality construction

CoNS

Only 2 USB ports

Technical Specification

Asus Zenbook Flip UX461U

The world’s thinnest 2-in-1 laptop with discrete graphics

This laptop also offers the advantage of lightness, portability like Asus ZenBook Pro as I mentioned above. You can easily carry this laptop on your backpack when you are traveling without adding too much weight to the equipment. 

It has some extraordinary features like it’s the world’s thinnest 2-in-1 with discrete graphics instead of intel integrated graphics of most convertibles. It comes with a creative powerhouse that’s breathtakingly thin, light with 360°-flippable touchscreen, and it’s support pen to take you over the boundaries of any other laptop in the market.    

With its 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8550U Quad-Core Processor, it has a superfast 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, and an NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics card that is twice as fast on our gaming benchmarks which is enough to run any photoshop application and will never keep you waiting. With this outstanding performance ASUS make it the best budget laptops for photoshop.

When you want to edit photos and videos, any kind of graphical content, want to create any complex projects, and mining data, this laptop will give you the raw power to do anything you need to do effortlessly and do it quicker. 

With exceptionally polished style and elegance, creative ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 does it all, for example, whether you want on-the-go creativity in tablet mode, compact document crunching in laptop mode, or stress-busting relief in any mode.

The ASUS ZenBook Flip is designed for professionals and beginners or those who have not too much when it comes to photo and video editing tasks.

Definitely, you’ll be able to run any applications such as Photoshop and other graphics software but don’t anticipate outstanding efficiency until you start working with filters, tools, and effects. 

Personally, I know someone who is using this laptop, and he said he bought this laptop to work with adobe photoshop to perform basic operations. This laptop satisfies the needs and is an outstanding device for entry-level users.  

This laptop comes with two sophisticated colors: Icicle Gold and Slate Grey, all-aluminum design, just 13.9 millimeters thin, 12.3 ounces light. An ultra-compact footprint will give you a 14-inch screen in less space than many other laptops with 3-inch models. 

It features a 10-point multitouch display with high-precision sensors that meet the industry norm requirements and will provide you with an outstanding touchscreen experience ever.

It has a 57Wh lithium-polymer battery and fast-charge technology so you can boost up your battery 60% within a 50 minutes lunch break. 

So you can pick this laptop for photo editing purposes without any frustration.

Some positive and negative side of Acer Predator Helios 300,

Pros

NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics card
Pen Supported
RapidCharge technology
Outstanding Audio 
Stylish design
More than all-day battery life
Excellent and quality display

Cons

Slightly dim display
Lacks 4K screen option
No Thunderbolt 3 port

Technical Specification

MSI GL62M

(Editor Choice) Faster System Performance

If you are looking for the best budget laptops for photoshop this is one of the right pick for you. Having done the review of the MSI GL62M 7REX-1896US, I was quickly impressed by the excellent performance that the laptop managed to give me. For my assurance, I was doing some productivity jobs, gaming, and the laptop was satisfying all along. Thanks to SteelSeries powered keyboard for giving me excellent typing experience, and the display was crisp to enjoy videos and graphics works. 

Besides being a decent laptop for graphics designers + gamers, the MSI GL62M is an outstanding portable workstation deserving of the name.

The MSI GL62M comes with the latest Intel Hexa-core CPUs; You can make it a partner if you are looking for the best laptop for photoshop and other similar applications. 

It’s a Superb laptop, it can be said that this was designed for photoshop. On Amazon, this laptop has a rating of 4.1 out of 5 by 269 users. If you have a smart budget and professional graphics designer, then this is the best option for you. 

The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti 4G GDDR5 graphics card renders this laptop a powerpack machine, and it acts as a mini powerhouse. The MSI GL62M is nothing short of a beast. 

With Core i7-7700HQ processor, the MSI GL62M also has a fast hybrid hard drive configuration, and 8 GB RAM (max 32 GB) can handle any professional tasks, as well as any graphics projects such as photo & video editing. For this kind of project, MSI GL62M stacks as well as a framework that can perform well on advanced media tasks like audio file convert, graphics design in photoshop, etc. 

But is the MSI GL62M 7REX-1896US worth it as a whole? Let’s take a peek, shall we?

As soon as you take the laptop out of the box, the MSI GL62M 7REX-1896US tells you that it is the best budget laptops for photoshop.

I have to remind you, though, that the soft touch will take fingerprints, so be alert of that. Open the lid you are met by more plastic on the deck, but it’s smooth instead of the soft-touch material on the lid. Yeah, there’s an excellent balance. The keyboard keys are highlighted in red color, which looks excellent. 

The MSI GL62M is the best budget laptop for photoshop classified by MSI, and you will be happy to know that this laptop has more ports than you might think in the first place. 

The monitor is decent because the 1080p quality on the IPS screen looks fantastic. After being limited to 60 hertz, you’re also not going to have a lot of difficulties. The GTX 1050Ti is a perfect complement to the display.

If you’re searching for a decent overall laptop or the best laptop for photoshop, the MSI GL62M 7REX-1896US should be more than perfect for all purposes. It’s expected to represent you properly, without any problems whatsoever.

Some positive and negative side of MSI GL62M 7REX-1896US,

Pros

Cooler Boost 4 exclusive technology
SteelSeries powered keyboard
High-end for professionals
Advanced Graphics card
Best for photoshop, photo editing
Built-in microphone allows crisp and clear voice
Excellent and quality crisp display
Fairly light and thin

Cons

Battery life poor 
Middling gaming performance
No Thunderbolt 3 port.

Technical Specification

MACBOOK PRO 15-INCH

Best option for photoshop

A video editing expert and a professional photographer has been relying on this Pro series MacBook offer by Apple. 

I’m using this series for one year plus, thanks to Intel core i9 for making it the most powerful laptop I ever used for multimedia editing, data analysis, and other productive tasks. 

If you’re hunting for a relatively new MacBook Pro update, this may not be the best one for you. If you already have a 2017 or older MacBook, though, then this update is certainly worth it.

The MacBook Pro 15-inch (2019) has all features I  need for photoshop or any types of photo and video editing application, it runs smoothly, with macOS 10.14 it works faster and is very responsive when I’m doing daily tasks. 

Of course, if you use it for ordinary things like web browsing and writing emails, you’d be doing a disservice to a laptop of this level. Even with the more demanding and intense workloads that I’ve attempted – like transcoding high-definition video files and this mac tackles them without any problem. 

The efficiency improvement for the 15-inch MacBook Pro arises from the Core i7 and i9 processors of Intel’s 9th generation – the i9 becoming a label created for the most powerful processors of the previous one.

It has six or eight-core, whereas the previous generation topped at six cores, which enables them to achieve up to 40 percent higher output in genuinely multi-threaded apps – which involves much of the artistic resources that Digital Arts readers use at the professional level, particularly when developing motion and animation tasks.

So you will see colossal efficiency when you are rendering Cinema 4D, making intricate vector graphics in Illustrator, pilling on the layers in photoshop. 

Cinebench will give you an idea for any projects that use the graphics chips such as encoding in Premiere Pro, Final Cut, and After Effects apps Adobe photoshop provides.

Some positive and negative side of MacBook Pro 15-inch,

Pros

Excellent performance SteelSeries powered keyboard
Beautiful retina display
Advanced Graphics card
Best for photoshop, photo editing
Accurate trackpad
It has 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports

Cons

Pricey

Technical Specification

HP ENVY 13

Best Quality but still budget-focused!

If you are searching for the best quality photo editing laptop but still on a budget, you can purchase the HP Envy 13. 

This is our most recommended laptop for photographers who have to use photoshop on the go. It provides 4K IPS micro-edge WLED-backlit touchscreen display with protective Gorilla Glass nbt(tm), which is vivid and crisp looking. 

8.2 million pixels can bring your content to life in a hypnotic experience with a 178-degree wide-viewing angle. 

The HP Envy 13 comes with some powerful application, paired with some significant quality and efficiency chops – which would salivate every budget-conscious photographer. At an affordable price, you will get the best quality lightweight, streamlined chassis laptop while most of the laptops with 4k display cost more than this.  

If you take a look at the specification of HP Envy 13, it comes with a super-fast 8th Generation Intel Core i7 quad-core processor, up to 4.6 GHz frequency with  Intel Turbo Boost Technology and 16GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM which is more than enough for all photoshop applications and cheap laptop for photo editing as well.  

NVIDIA GeForce MX250 dedicated graphics card makes it more magnificent for media creation and graphic design projects, and including all features, the hard drive storage (512GB SSD) is enough for a photographer’s needs. 

Finally, the battery backup is the most important of any laptop because, many of the time, we’ll use it when we are traveling. In this case, this HP Envy 13 will give you 5 to 6 hours backup on a single charge, which could fall short if you go a lot, but if you are ok with this, then this is the best budget laptops for photoshop for budget buyers who don’t want to compromise on features.

Some positive and negative side of HP ENVY 13,

Pros

High-quality 4k touchscreen display
Stylish & lightweight chassis
Excellent Performance
Nice Colour space coverage
Good quality keyboard and touchpad
Affordable price for a premium laptop
Good selection of ports

Cons

Average battery life
No Thunderbolt 3 port

Technical Specification

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How to Purchase Budget Laptop For Photoshop in 2020 | A Complete Buyer’s Guide

Ok, I think you’ve read all the reviews regarding best laptop for photoshop and illustrator, now it’s time to look at the laptop buying guide part; in this part, you’ll learn the essential aspects you need to evaluate before you purchase a laptop. 

Before buying the best laptop for photoshop, you have to keep some things in your mind. The first and only thing you can consider is that you’ll benefit from your purchase. Photo editing applications are more advanced; they will require high-performance hardware for better operation. 

Almost all new photo and video editing software can load high definition files, and they can perform scrupulous editing and modify large scale photos and videos. To use this kind of application, you need to have a laptop that can handle them. For any photographers, a laptop is very convenient because they make field editing possible. 

Sad to say, you’re probably never going to get the same quality of performance from a laptop that you can get from a desktop computer for the same expense, but you need to understand that you’re compromising a tiny portion of portability processing capabilities, which is a massive advantage to photographers. If you’re searching for the best laptop for photoshop, then you need to know what to look for.

Let’s go straight to what kind of features or specs are essential when picking a laptop for photo editing.

Performance

The principal role that any graphics-adapted laptop will be able to perform is to open whatever app or application you need to create your projects. 

For example, the Adobe creative cloud or suite consists of flagship software such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Dimension, Animate, After Effects, Media Encoder, on the other hand, some other software like Sketch, Corel paint, or Autodesk suites such as 3DX Max or Sketchbook. 

The key factors for evaluating a PC’s or a laptop’s capacity are the processor’s processing ability, the graphics card, and the amount of the term of brightness because a high-quality photography file contains many fine details, to display these details precisely without any problem a significant amount of computing power is needed. 

What to Look For When Buying A cheap laptop for photo editing

As we know, all these processes are handled by the CPU of any laptop or PC so for faster processing you need to buy a laptop with a faster CPU. While the other components are essential too, the processor inside your laptop is of utmost importance as it can perform most of the picture editing tasks.

While the other components are essential, the CPU inside your laptop or PC is of utmost importance as it can perform most of the photo editing tasks. Many of the recent laptops come with an integrated graphics card which is set up into the processor, and that is not nearly as important as a CPU so for high-quality graphics design you need a laptop with faster CPU or processor that you can pick in your budget.

Adobe Photoshop Minimum System Requirements

For Windows,

For Mac, 

CPU or Processor

The CPU or processor is the brain of your laptop, which plays a vital role in deciding all performance. This small chip will run all power demanding applications you use, and photoshop or any graphics design program are no exception; they also need a powerful CPU. Adobe recommends you purchase a laptop with Intel Core i5 or a newer generation processor. 

They also recommend using a 2GHz or faster processor, but if you can buy with a better processor, it’s worth it. For better performance, we recommend buying a laptop with 2.5GHz or faster for high performance. This is even essential for 3D modeling projects. 

RAM 

When you are working with multiple files and programs,  as a professional photographer, you need a laptop that will always run smoothly while editing photos, videos and related media tasks. RAM is a short term memory of any laptop or computer in which files are loaded when you work on them.

If you intend to do a lot of Photoshop editing then you might want to suggest upgrading to 16 GB RAM but Adobe recommends 8GB of RAM in the laptop for photo editing, and they claim that 2GB of RAM is the minimum. You can check for the extra RAM slots so that you can increase that when you require in future for better performance.

Resolution and Screen Size

Of course, in terms of graphics design, the screen quality is essential. During the graphic design process, one of the critical challenges is to ensure that the final result is well-read, which might be a little confusing if the view on your laptop resembles a 2000s-style flip phone. The high-resolution screen will help you to show the actual image while working with editing software because a screen with high resolution will give you a sharper picture. Even resulting in the broader workspace, a high-resolution screen allows your laptop to handle small icons, toolbar, and fonts as well. 

So, Quality is really significant when selecting a screen, as it helps you to make adjustments to the more beautiful aspects of your photography. The color your laptop screen creates decides how much adjustment you can make to each image. 

In terms of screen size, Most of the users like a screen size between 13 to 15 inches. 

2k-4k display: They are not facultative beasts, but this will be a great pick when you work with very high resolution such as TV, Monitor and iPhone XS, etc. 

Last but not least, the best adobe laptop screen should be bright and the one that shows accurate colors; for that, please check the sRGB rating. For regular editing tasks, we recommend you to buy a laptop with 1920 x 1080 resolution, but if you want to work with a high-quality image, you can buy a laptop with a 4k display that will give you excellent output. 

Storage 

A fast hard drive is an essential part of a computer because it helps you to run your software more quickly. Modern laptops or computers provide two types of hard drive such as HDDs which are traditional, and the latest one is SSDs which is not really a hard drive. 

SSDs are definitely worth a look for a professional photographer or an architect because they’re super fast and allow you to run your program in only a few seconds. Copying speed of SSDs (generally above 200Mb/s) is also faster than a traditional hard drive (varies between 50-120 Mb/s) and SSDs can launch a software 30% faster than HDDs. 

If you are still going for an HDD then go for a 7200 rpm drive. It’s not mandatory to have an SSD but a prerequisite. So for a better result, the decision is yours. 

Graphic Card

Many of the recent laptops come with an integrated graphics card which is set up into the processor, and that is not nearly as important as a CPU so for high-quality graphics design you need a laptop with faster CPU or processor that you can pick in your budget. Still, if you want to use a 4k display you will need a dedicated graphics card because adobe photoshop takes advantage of the extra power of graphics card to make some tools work.  

Many tools in photoshop are not requested by the GPU, so if you don’t have it, there is no problem in itself but it’s better if you have one and it’s useful for video editing. So, if you want to buy a laptop with a graphics card or GPU then choose at least 2GB of VRAM (Recommended by Adobe).

Mac vs Windows 

Everyone knows that Mac is always a higher-performing machine than Windows for any media-editing application such as Photoshop and other applications Adobe provides. 

As we know, Adobe creative suite was first to develop to work with Macs, but it is not true that they are going to perform with the program more seamlessly today. 

On the other hand, some graphic designers believe that depends on your budget; you require software to use, how can you adapt your computer,  you can pick one but Windows and Mac both systems are equally reliable. 

They said that Windows is still the safest operating system and is compatible with all popular graphic design software which is not the case of Mac.

So, you can buy anyone depending on your budget. 

4 Tips for Buying the Best Laptop for Photoshop

1. Modern Adobe software does not Support old GPUs and significantly limit the functionality, so be careful about that

2. Pick a laptop with as many ports as possible because for convenient tasks; you need to use more external devices such as a portable hard drive, graphic tablet, external monitor and more additional devices. 

3. Focus on the amount of RAM, for faster performance pick a laptop with a high amount of RAM as much as you can. 

4. If possible, choose a laptop with SSD hard drive because it can significantly speed up your work.