Best Laptops for Photoshop 2018: let’s check our list for the best laptops for photo editing using one of the most popular software in this niche currently
Are you a designer or work with photography? Check out our detailed list with the best laptops for Photoshop in 2018, explaining the main hardware aspects that a great laptop should have for photo editing.
First let’s get to our table with the best laptops for Photoshop and its main specs:
| Model | Screen Size | Processor | RAM | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Dell XPS9560-7001SLV-PUS | 15.6 UHD | i7-7700HQ | 16 GB | Check on Amazon.com |
 | Lenovo Legion Y720 | 15.6 Full HD | i7-7700HQ | 16 GB | Check on Amazon.com |
 | Eluktronics N850HK1 Pro | 15.6 Full HD | i7-7700HQ | 16 GB | Check on Amazon.com |
 | ASUS M580VD-EB76 | 15.6 Full HD | i7-7700HQ | 16 GB | Check on Amazon.com |
 | GIGABYTE Aero 15W-BK4 | 15.6 Full HD | i7-7700HQ | 16 GB | Check on Amazon.com |
Now, let’s get to our guide on how to buy the optimal laptop for photo editing.
Laptops for Photo Editing: Overview
If you work with photo editing you probably have used Adobe Photoshop and some of its versions throughout the years. Photoshop is extremely popular and preferred by a wide range of purposes: from occasional users to professional photographers, everybody seems to have a great opinion on Photoshop. Photoshop is also relatively affordable, which makes it even more popular.
If you use or Photoshop already, you probably already know, that it is somewhat a resource demanding software. That is mostly the case if you work with very large images with many layers. For that reason, choosing a powerful laptop, able to run Photoshop smoothly might be the right idea, especially if you are a professional in design or photography.
Considering this, let’s analyze a few key hardware aspects you should considering when choosing among the best laptops for Photoshop currently. Some of they are: the processor and the graphics card, RAM and storage, and display type and resolution.
Processor and Video Card
As I always mention on Value Nomad, the CPU (processor) and the GPU (graphics card) are the main hardware components of high-end laptops.While Photoshop can easily run in mid-end laptops, the higher is your image size and quality, the more resource demanding Photoshop becomes.
Considering you will be working with heavy images, you should aim for a fast processor and a dedicated video card. Ideally, a dual core with hyper-threading would be the minimum. I would also recommend that your CPU is from the Skylake or Kaby Lake Intel generation of chips. If you can get a quad core laptop, that is even better.
A powerful graphics card is slightly less relevant than a processor for using photo editor software like Photoshop. However, I would recommend getting a laptop with a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M or a superior model in terms of benchmark.
RAM and Storage
RAM and storage are also important to guarantee an efficient workflow with using Photoshop on your laptop PC. Even if RAM is quite important, in most cases 8 GB RAM DDR4 will be good enough to work with Photoshop.
As for storage, it will highly depend on the number of images you work with on a frequent basis. Ideally, you should aim for solid state drive as those are faster, but if you are looking for more affordable options, consider a HDD with a lot of storage capacity. There are many laptops featuring both a HDD and an SSD, those are ideally not only for Photoshop but for virtually any task.
Display and Resolution
That is another crucial aspect you should consider when buying a laptop for photo editing purposes. However, even mid-ranges have the specs which I consider optimal on a laptop for photo editing.
The recommended aspects here are that the resolution would be Full HD. You may want to buy a laptop with an even bigger resolution like QHD, but at this point, I would not consider this as very important.
Best Laptops for Photoshop 2018
Now that we know what we are looking for, let’s check some of the bet laptops for Photoshop in 2018:
Dell XPS9560-7001SLV-PUS 15.6″ Ultra Thin and Light Laptop with 4K touch screen display, 7th Gen Core i7 (up to 3.8 GHz), 16GB, 512GB SSD, Nvidia Gaming GPU GTX 1050, Aluminum Chassis
This Dell XPS is, in my opinion, the best laptop for Photoshop currently available. It has just everything a designer or a photographer could wish for.
It is extremely powerful, extremely light, and astonishingly beautiful. Its aluminum body give it a luxury feel and a very appealing design for virtually any kind of user.
It’s powerful i7-7700HQ is currently the most popular high-end quad core processor available for laptops. On top of that, it also has a quite powerful GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050.
Click here to buy this laptop on Amazon.com
| Processor | Intel Core i7-7700HQ |
|---|---|
| Display | 15.6 inches UHD |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 512 GB SSD |
Lenovo Legion Y720 – 15.6″ Gaming Laptop Computer (Intel Core i7-7700HQ / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 / 16GB / 512GB / Windows 10 Signature Image) 80VR0078US
Even if this Lenovo is more focused on gaming, it has the perfect hardware setup to work with large photography and image files. It is also quite compact considering its performance, therefore, I believe it deserves its place among the best laptops for Photoshop users.
Some of the highlights of this Legion Y720 version are its processor, its GPU, and its storage. Powered by the i7-7700HQ quad core chip this laptop is certainly ideal to run demanding games. It’s 512 GB SSD is fast and has more than enough capacity to storage your data.
Click here to buy this laptop on Amazon.com
| Processor | Intel Core i7-7700HQ |
|---|---|
| Display | 15.6 inches Full HD |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 512 TB SSD |
Eluktronics N850HK1 Pro Premium Gaming Laptop – Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad Core Windows 10 Home 4GB GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 15.6” Full HD IPS Display 512GB Performance SSD + 16GB DDR4 RAM
Eluktronics is one of my favorite laptop brands, so it is no surprise that they also have a version in this list of the best laptops for photo editing on Photoshop. You can read the full review of this specific model clicking here.
The design of this laptop is without a doubt, one of the most beautiful this year. Its black chassis are extremely well finished, with aggressive angles, certainly appealing to gaming enthusiasts.
Considering its a gaming laptop, I would say it has pretty compact dimensions for a 15 incher. For those looking for something bigger, the N870HK1 has very similar specs as the N850HK1, but a 17.3 inch display.
Finally, its RGB backlit keyboard allows full customization of your keyboard lights, adding even more awesomeness to its triumphant design.
Hardware
The hardware aspects of every Eluktronics device have helped the brand to built a high reputation among gaming enthusiasts. This laptop is no exception to this rule, and has a pretty powerful hardware setup.
To begin with, its processor is part of the latest generation of Intel chips, called Kaby Lake. The i7-7700HQ is a quad core processor with an extremely high benchmark, ideal for gaming and complex tasks. You can read more about this processor in this post.
Just like its processor, its GPU is equally impressive. The NVIDIA GTX 1050 Ti is a dedicated video card with 4GB GDDR5 VRAM, ideal to run most games released this year with excellent graphic settings. However, it is important to know that there are more powerful GPUs from the same series, such as the GTX 1070.
Eluktronics laptops are also known for its fast solid state drives, which in this case has a capacity of 512 GB. Finally, it is important to mention that this laptop has plenty of memory with 16 GB DDR4 RAM.
Click here to buy this laptop on Amazon.com
| Processor | Intel Core i7-7700HQ |
|---|---|
| Display | 15.6 inches Full HD |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 512 GB SSD |
ASUS M580VD-EB76 VivoBook 15.6″ FHD thin and light Gaming Laptop Computer (Intel Core i7-7700HQ, GTX 1050 4GB, 16GB DDR4, 256GB SSD+1TB HDD)
This is one of the latest and currently one of the most powerful in the ASUS VivoBook series. It does not only have an impressive hardware setup, but it is also extremely thin and beautiful. Photographers will certainly enjoy the portability of this model.
In terms of hardware, it comes with the Core i7-7700HQ, a powerful quad core processor with hyper-threading. It also has a dedicated video card, the GTX 1050, quite popular among similarly priced high-end thin laptops.
Click here to buy this laptop on Amazon.com
| Processor | Intel Core i7-7700HQ |
|---|---|
| Display | 15.6 inches Full HD |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 256 GB SSD + 1 TB HDD |
GIGABYTE Aero 15W-BK4 15.6″ Thin Bezel FHD IPS 7th Gen Intel Kabylake i7-7700HQ NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
The Gigabyte Aero 15W-BK4 is the last in our list of the best laptops for Photoshop, however, that does mean it is less interesting. This extremely powerful laptop, has an elegant design with a very thin bezel, and is as powerful as any other model in this list.
The CPU in this Gigabyte laptop is the popular core i7-7700HQ processor. Part of the Kaby Lake generation of Intel chips, this quad core processor uses the hyper-threading technology to run most recent gaming titles pretty flawlessly.
The graphics card in this laptop is also one of the latest and most popular currently available for laptops. the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (mobile) has a pretty high benchmark and guarantees high FPS and sharp graphics for gaming or other demanding software.
The Gigabyte Aero 15 bezel display is extremely thin, adding to an overall low weight and compact dimensions of this laptop. In terms of resolution, its 15 inch display is a Full HD, however, there are other models of the Aero 15 with UHD screens.
Click here to buy this laptop on Amazon.com
| Processor | Intel Core i7-7700HQ |
|---|---|
| Display | 15.6 inches Full HD |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 512 TB SSD |
Did you like our list of the best laptops for Photoshop users? Check also our list with great affordable laptops or AutoCAD.