The 4 Best Laptops For Photo Editing - Fall 2024

The best laptop we've tested for photo editing is the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023). This premium workstation provides an amazing user experience. Its Mini LED display is sharp and superbly calibrated out of the box, so you can get right to work without further calibration. It's also bright enough to combat glare in well-lit settings. The only downside is that it doesn't have full coverage of the Adobe RGB color space, as it can't reproduce the highly saturated greens. Regarding hardware, there's more than enough processing power to handle complex photo editing tasks. Depending on your budget and needs, you can configure it with a base M3, M3 Pro, or M3 Max SoC. Apple's M3 chips are even more power-efficient than their M2 predecessors, resulting in an even longer battery life of 14 to 15 hours of light use.

The HP OMEN Transcend 14 (2024) is our top pick for Windows users. Although it carries the OMEN name, this model has a relatively tame design, so it's fine for a professional work environment. One advantage of this model is its OLED display, which offers near-full Adobe RGB coverage. However, it's not as color-accurate out of the box as it oversaturates colors. Its Intel Core Ultra CPUs and NVIDIA 40-series discrete GPUs make it superb for intensive tasks. The Core Ultra CPUs sport an NPU (Neural Processing Unit), which some photo editing apps leverage for tasks like image generation or denoising. There's also a wide port selection, including two USB/Thunderbolt 4s and an HDMI 2.1; there's no SD card reader like the MacBook Pro, though. The biggest downside is its short battery life of around six to seven hours of light use.

If you don't need a discrete GPU for your workflow, get the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) instead. Like the HP OMEN Transcend 14 (2024) above, this premium 2-in-1 convertible has a beautiful OLED display with near-full Adobe RGB coverage. The display supports pen input if you prefer working with a stylus; depending on your region, the pen may not come in the box. You can get it with the same Intel Meteor Lake CPUs (up to a Core Ultra 7) and up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. It has an excellent haptic touchpad, an outstanding 4k webcam, and a decent port selection with two Thunderbolt 4 ports. The battery lasts around 11 hours of light use, which is impressive for a Windows laptop. One thing to know: the OLED display flickers, so it may cause eye strain if you're sensitive to display flicker. The base model starts at $1450 USD (MSRP); you can get it directly from HP if you have trouble finding it elsewhere.

For Mac users, we recommend the Apple MacBook Air 15 (2024). This premium ultraportable sports a large, bright 15-inch display that lets you work more comfortably, and its 2.8k resolution looks incredibly sharp. However, it's an IPS panel, so the contrast ratio is worse than the picks above, and it doesn't have full Adobe RGB coverage (it's missing highly saturated greens). Still, it offers a fantastic user experience; it has a sturdy build, all-day battery life, and a fast M3 SoC that can easily handle photo editing tasks. Its battery life lasts almost 13 hours of light use—better than either HP laptop. Plus, this is a fanless device, so you don't have to worry about loud fan noise distracting you from your work. Port selection is its biggest weakness, as it only has two USB-C ports. The M3 model supports two external displays, which is an improvement over its M2 predecessor, but it can only do so with the lid closed.

Our mid-range pick is the HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2024), a 13-inch ultraportable. One significant trade-off at this price point is the display. While the FHD+ and QHD+ IPS displays get quite bright and offer full sRGB coverage, they fall short in Adobe RGB coverage; their color accuracy is also mediocre out-of-the-box. There's plenty to love about this laptop, though. It's configurable with AMD's Zen 4 Ryzen CPUs that can handle moderately demanding workloads. You also get a 1440p webcam with facial recognition support for quick logins and a wide port selection with four USBs and a true HDMI 2.1 port.

Battery life is great at around 10 hours of light use—you can charge the laptop via USB-C, so you won't have to deal with a proprietary charger. Unfortunately, the build quality is a pretty significant step down from our picks above and the biggest compromise for this model's more budget-friendly price. Its aluminum and plastic chassis flexes a fair amount, and the device as a whole feels hollow and cheap. The finish scratches easily from everyday use, which is unfortunate as its design prioritizes portability. Another minor complaint is the touchpad; it's plastic and doesn't track continuous inputs all that well, like when dragging and dropping items across a long distance.

Our budget pick is the Acer Swift 3 14 (2022). While this 14-inch model was originally a more expensive offering, it's a couple of years old, so some variants are available at a wallet-friendly price. As a result, you get some features that you normally only see on higher-end models, like a 2.8k OLED display with full coverage of the sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces. You even get two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support. However, not every model fits within the budget price point, and those that do come with some important compromises.

On cheaper variants, you only get 8GB of soldered RAM, and you can't add more; this can quickly become limiting when working with multiple apps simultaneously. 16GB models are available if you need more RAM, but they can be harder to find and cost more. This laptop also comes with the three-generation old Intel Core i5-12500H. It's still a capable CPU that can handle demanding tasks, but unlike Intel's newer offerings, there's no NPU to help with AI-accelerated tasks. Battery life is also mediocre, lasting just over 6 hours for light use. You'll need to keep the charger close by for this one if you plan to use it out and about.