Review Tech Best Product Reviews 
Although we earn a profit through affiliate links, we only provide unbiased opinions throughout our site.
If you’re an amateur or even professional photographer, having the best laptop for photo editing that you can get will be a huge advantage. The speed and efficiently of your machine will be important when trying to edit and adjust high quality pictures with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, or any other photo editing software.
Key things to keep in mind when shopping for a laptop for photo editing are graphics, processing speed, screen quality, RAM, and storage capacity. You should make sure your computer is powerful enough to edit high quality images without any lag or delay, while having a high resolution screen and graphics card that can work together to do each image justice. A high amount of RAM will support any multitasking and help make sure your processes always run smoothly. An SSD is also recommended so that your computer can more quickly retrieve program and media files during use. Make sure you have enough storage as well for all of the files you’ll be saving.
Here are the top eight best photo editing laptops on the market today:
- Apple Macbook Pro MJLQ2LL/A 15-inch Laptop
- Acer Aspire V17 Nitro Black Edition VN7-791G-71P5 17.3-Inch Full HD Laptop
- Alienware AW17R3-4175SLV 17.3-Inch FHD Laptop
- Dell XPS 15 Touch 15.6″ 4K Ultra HD
- MSI GE70 Apache Pro-012 17.3-Inch Laptop
- ASUS UX501VW-DS71T 15.6″ Laptop
- HP ENVY 17 TouchSmart Notebook 4 TB 16GB RAM
- 2016 Newest Lenovo Z70 17.3″ Flagship High Performance Full HD Laptop PC
OS X Retina display vs Windows
Mac’s main advantage over Windows when it comes to picture editing is their proprietary Retina display, which looks fantastic. The “Retina display” is Apple’s term for a screen with high enough resolution to make pixels virtually invisible to the naked eye. Images from a Mac with retina display are meant to appear as if you’re looking at a printed photograph.
Windows is available on plenty of machines with very high resolution. The term “Retina display” is a very clever way of presenting existing technology as something exclusive to Apple products. To Apple’s credit, their Retina display is quite impressive and that’s why they’re number one on our list.
Apple Macbook Pro MJLQ2LL/A 15-inch Laptop
Macbook Pro is one of the best all around computers in the world, if not the best. They pack any incredibly fast and powerful GPU, and are extremely well built. The color gamut on the Macbook Pro is excellent. It makes pictures look accurate and realistic. Coupled with Retina display’s elimination of visible pixels, the Macbook Pro offers one of the best viewing experiences on the market.
While the newest iMac’s Retina display boasts an amazing 5K display, the portability and compact form of the Macbook Pro allows on the spot photo adjustments from anywhere. The Macbook Pro and iMac meet in the middle on pricing depending on which model you choose, with the option to get a Macbook for up to $600 cheaper.
The 15.4” screen of the Macbook Pro has a crisp 2880 x 1800 resolution. It comes in three available flash memory and spec options, with 512GB being the highest capacity storage. It’s stocked with a 2.2GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with turbo boost up to 3.4GHz, 16GB DDR3L RAM, and Intel Iris Pro Graphics. You can order the 256 GB, 15.4” Macbook Pro for approx. $1,800.
Check Current Price on AmazonAcer Aspire V17 Nitro Black Edition VN7-791G-71P5 17.3-Inch Full HD Laptop
Containing an Intel Core i7-4710HQ with 2.5 GHz processing speed that turbo boosts up to 3.5 GHz, its light and thin size makes it far more convenient to bring around. Like the Alienware, it has an extra large 17.3 inch screen, but the Aspire V17 only has a 1920 x 1080 FHD screen. The V17 comes with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M, which may be slightly lesser than what the previous two on our list are using, but still packs enough punch to bring you a smooth and efficient photo editing experience. 16 GB of RAM, and storage that includes a 1 TB 5400 rpm hard drive with a 256 GB solid-state drive gives it plenty of memory around the board.
The Acer Aspire V17 comes with Windows 8.1 which is upgradable to Windows 10, and a backlit keyboard. This easily portable laptop is available for roughly $2,000.
Check Current Price on AmazonAlienware AW17R3-4175SLV 17.3-Inch FHD Laptop
Many would consider Alienware to be the best company for finding the most powerful and efficient Windows computer. Designed to handle the most state of the art graphics, and with an overhaul each year, Alienware laptops offer some of the best portable computing power money can buy. The Alienware 17 comes with a 6th generation Core i7 and either 16 or 8 GB of RAM. It’s also available in two resolution sizes from 3840 x 2160 UHD to 1920 x 1080 FHD. For storage, it includes a 1 TB HDD + 256 GB SATA SSD, significantly more space than the Macbook Pro. It has the latest NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M graphics, and ships with Windows 10 preinstalled.
At 8.3 lbs, the Alienware 17 is rather heavy. The extra weight affects its portability, but nonetheless, it can be moved from place to place without a problem. If you’re used to a thin and light portable computer though, be aware that the Alienware 17 is beastly.
Check Current Price on Amazon
