- Best Mac Pro Laptop
- Best Camera For Mac Book Pro
- Mac Pro Best Price
- Best Camera App For Macbook Pro
- Best Digital Camera For Mac
- Best Camera For Mac
Best Digital Cameras for 2018. Our editors hand-picked these products based on our tests and reviews. If you use our links to buy, we may get a commission. Best Logitech Cameras For Mac: *NEW* C922X Stream Pro Tripod Mount Improved Frame Rates Up To 60FPS #1 CHOICE: Mac Compatible HD Webcam With Mini-Tripod Like: Revised C920-series optimized for high frame-rate live streaming: 1080p @ 30FPS and 720p @ 60FPS with H.264 video compression. Optical glass lens. Dual stereo microphones. For a more professional Mac fans, we commend the 15-inch MacBook Pro. It’s the only option that has enough power to handle more intense applications and heavier workflows.
Trying to figure out which are the best laptops for photographers? Photo editing software can be pretty demanding, especially if you're working on high resolution raw files and utilizing advanced effects, so you'll want to make sure that you’re investing in a laptop that has all the makings of a powerful photo editing tool.
At the end of the day, the best laptops for photographers can rival traditional desktop hardware when it comes to raw horsepower. Additionally, unlike laptops of old, many boast pixel-perfect displays with stunning color, as well as wide contrast to keep highlight and shadow detail consistently visible.
We put together a list of the best laptops for photographers and photo editing for you. In this guide, we’ll go through all the best laptops and Ultrabooks that can help photographers, no matter which photo editors you’re using – whether it’s Adobe Photoshop or GIMP.
The Mac is still the best device for serious photo editing, so you need some serious photo editing apps to make an impact. The built-in Photos app on Mac offers several useful photo editing tools. You can crop, adjust lighting and color, set the white balance, add filters, remove unwanted blemishes, and a. Best Digital Cameras for 2018. Our editors hand-picked these products based on our tests and reviews. If you use our links to buy, we may get a commission.
1. Apple Macbook Pro with touchbar
CPU: 8th-generation Intel Core i5 – i7 | Graphics: Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.3-inch, (2,560 x 1,600) IPS | Storage: 256GB – 2TB SSD
The best Macbook Pro ever
Expensive
If you're after the latest and greatest laptop from Apple, then this year's 13-inch Macbook Pro with touchbar is a brilliant choice if you're looking for a laptop to edit photos on. It's the best laptop Apple has ever made, and builds new features into the classic design. Of course the headline feature is the Touch Bar - it's a thin OLED display at the top of the keyboard which can be used for any number of things, whether that be auto-suggesting words as you type or offering Touch ID so you can log in with just your fingerprint. This makes it an excellent laptop for photographers using Photoshop, as it has a number of Photoshop shortcuts, such as being able to quickly select a color or change the opacity of a layer by swiping your finger, features that all the other laptops on this list lack.
Read the full review:Apple Macbook with touchbar (13-inch 2018)
- See more like this: The best Macs and Macbooks 2018
2. MacBook Pro 15-inch
Same body, big leap in power
CPU: 9th-generation Intel Core i7 – i9 | Graphics: Radeon Pro 555X – Radeon Pro 560X | RAM: 16GB – 32GB | Screen: 15.4-inch 2,880 x 1,800 (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology | Storage: up to 4TB SSD
True Tone works well when you want it
Expensive
Keyboard still feels a little flat
With Apple having recently fitted its MacBook Pro 15-inch with Intel’s latest 9th-generation processors, these laptops are better and more powerful than ever, which means it’s just the ticket for demanding post-processing tasks. Of course, the fact that it boasts Touch ID and an improved Touch Bar, and is upgradeable to 4TB of SSD storage means that you can have a more seamless experience doing so. Although you will have to adjust to not having an SD card port and only two Thunderbolt 3, this is still one of the best laptops for photographers.
Read the full review:MacBook Pro 15-inch
3. HP Spectre x360 15T
CPU: Intel Core i7 | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 15.6-inch UHD (3,160 x 2,140) LCD touchscreen | Storage: 256GB SSD – 2TB SSD
Impeccable performance
Best Mac Pro Laptop
Sharp 4K display
Combining elegance with performance, the HP Spectre x360 15T boasts the same great features inherent to the Spectre line, but also takes things to a whole new level. Touting an 8th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics and 8GB of RAM in its base configuration, this 2-in-1 can handle anything your daily workload throws at it – and then some (like a bit of light gaming like playing Anno 2070, for example). The fact that it’s a 2-in-1 and HP Pen compatible means that you can use Lightroom and Photoshop in tablet mode, if that’s more convenient for your workflow.
Read the full review:HP Spectre x360 15T (2019)
4. Huawei MateBook X Pro
A brilliant laptop for photographers
CPU: 8th-generation Intel Core i5 – i7 | Graphics: Nvidia GeForce MX150 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.9-inch 3000 x 2000 LTPS | Storage: 512GB SSD
Beautiful design
Terrific battery life
Webcam not great
The Huawei MateBook X Pro has proved to be a truly brilliant contender to more established brands like Apple and Dell. This is a gorgeously-designed laptop with a stunning screen (albeit with a rather odd aspect ratio). Better yet, it comes packed with cutting edge components that allow it to perform brilliantly, and a battery life that runs rings around many of its rivals. It’s also competitively priced, giving you excellent features, design and performance for less. The combination of brilliant screen, powerful components and (relatively) affordable price makes this one of the best laptops for photographers in 2019.
Read the full review: Huawei MateBook X Pro
5. Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13.5-inch)
An amazing laptop that does even more as a tablet
CPU: Intel Core i5 – i7 | Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 620 – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.5” 3000 x 2000 PixelSense Display with touchscreen | Storage: 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB PCIe SSD
Seamless tablet integration
Pricey
The Surface Book 2 is Microsoft's followup to its popular 2-in-1 device, and it’s definitely one of the best laptops for photographers. With a full version of Windows 10 installed, it can run Photoshop with any issues. It comes with boosted components, and its screen remains gorgeous. Only Apple's marginally better colour calibration gives the MacBook's image quality the edge, but Microsoft fights back with a superior 3,000 x 2,000 resolution and an ideal aspect ratio for viewing APS-C and full-frame images. The screen's touch-sensitive, but its real party trick is its ability to detach from the rest of the laptop to become a tablet. It's a shame that the Surface Pen stylus doesn't come included, as we'd definitely recommend buying for your photo editing sessions.
Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13.5-inch)
6. Dell XPS 15
The best 15-inch laptop available this year
CPU: 8th-generation Intel Core i5 – 9th-generation Intel Core i9 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 630 – Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 | RAM: 8GB – 32GB | Screen: 15.6' FHD (1920 x 1080) – 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) InfinityEdge Anti-Glare Non-touch IPS | Storage: up to 2TB SSD
Amazing power
Slim design
Packing the same InfinityEdge technology as the smaller XPS 13, the 15-inch screen extends right to the edge of the machine which means it's as small as it's possible for a 15-inch laptop. It's quite expensive, depending on which version you get, but the very top end version has a 4K color-accurate display, which makes it one of the best laptops for photographers. You'll be able to see your photos in crisp detail as you edit them, and the impressive specifications mean it will keep up with all the edits you make to the largest photos in your collection.
Read the full review:Dell XPS 15
7. Dell XPS 13
Touchscreen can streamline photo browsing and culling
CPU: 8th-generation Intel Core i3 – i7 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620 | RAM: 4GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.3' FHD (1920 x 1080) – 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) InfinityEdge Anti-Glare Non-touch IPS | Storage: up to 2TB SSD
Extremely portable
Mediocre battery life
This laptop's claim to fame is being the smallest 13.3-inch laptop on the market. It's slim screen bezel helps contribute to a svelte 304mm x 200mm x 15mm form that needs to be held to be truly appreciated. But it’s also among the best laptops for photographers. The XPS 13's screen is touch-sensitive, and it boasts a similar resolution and pixel density to the MacBook and Surface Book. Image quality is more in line with the ZenBook though, falling slightly short on colour and contrast intensity compared to Apple and Microsoft's displays. A highly portable package with little compromise other than battery life.
Read the full review: Dell XPS 13
8. HP Spectre x360
A best 2-in-1 gets better
CPU: Intel Core i5 – i7 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.3-inch full HD (1,920 x 1,080) – UHD (3,840 x 2,160) touchscreen | Storage: 256GB – 2TB PCIe SSD
Very well built
Expensive
Sartorially-conscious photographers will love the look of this 13-inch stunner, sure. But the 2019 Spectre x360 also takes things to another level, power-wise. With its gem cut design and sleek profile, it’s this one of the most beautiful laptops on the market right now. However, HP also fitted this with powerful Intel Whiskey Lake processors and long battery life, which means that you’re getting one of the best laptops for photographers.
Read the full review: HP Spectre x360 (2019)
9. Lenovo Yoga C930
CPU: Intel Core i7 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620 | RAM: 8GB – 16GB | Screen: 13.9-inch FHD (1,920 x 1,080) – UHD (3,840 x 2,160) IPS Glossy Multi-touch | Storage: 256GB – 2TB SSD
Strong build quality
Excellent battery life
Pricey upgrade options
Sleek, slim and with solid specs to boot, the new Lenovo Yoga C930 not only deserves to be voted one of the best 2-in-1 laptops to date, but it’s also a worthy addition in our best laptops for photographers list. That’s without mentioning the fact that it now touts a 4K display model, which is just excellent for editing those high resolution full-frame shots. This 2-in-1 is a strong contender for photographers on the budget, but if you do decide to go for gold, you might have to break the bank.
Read the full review: Lenovo Yoga C930
10. Microsoft Surface Laptop 2
CPU: Intel Core i5 - i7 | Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620 | RAM: 8GB - 16GB | Storage: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB or 1TB SSD
Competitive power level
No Thunderbolt 3 option
While it doesn't represent a huge improvement of the original Surface Laptop, the Surface Laptop 2 offers enhancements in all the areas we were hoping for, including updated hardware that brings solid performance upgrades. This is a laptop that finally delivers on what Microsoft set out to do with the original: a pure, powerful Windows 10 laptop experience. If you're not sold on the 2-in-1 nature of the Surface Book 2, but love Microsoft's premium build quality and design, then the Surface Laptop 2 is the laptop for you, especially if you’re looking for the best laptops for photographers.
Read the full review:Microsoft Surface Laptop 2
Key things to look out for
Watch the video above for the top 7 things to consider when buying a laptop.
It's easy to get bogged down in the tech and spec soup of computer terminology, but there are a couple of key areas photographers need to think about.
The first is the quality of the screen. This used to be more eye-sore than eye-candy, with appalling contrast and viewing angles, but thankfully IPS display tech fixes this and you shouldn't settle for anything less.
An SSD (solid state drive) is a must as your primary storage in any new laptop. A conventional hard disk drive will bottleneck performance like flat tires on a Ferrari, and while dedicated graphics cards are great for gaming, they're not a necessity here. Today's processors can fill in for them, and they pack enough pixel-pushing punch for photo editing.
The MacBook is favoured by many photographers, and for good reason. But don't rule out comparably priced laptop PCs, which can offer more bang per buck with better upgradability.
Join Adobe Creative Cloud and save 15% on your first year
TechRadar has teamed up with Adobe to offer a special discount on Creative Cloud All Apps membership. For the first year, you'll pay just $45.04/£42.46 per month – down from the regular price of $52.99/£49.94. You'll get access to Adobe's full suite of creative apps, including Photoshop, Lightroom and Illustrator, plus 100GB cloud storage for your projects. Offer ends August 26 2018.
TechRadar has teamed up with Adobe to offer a special discount on Creative Cloud All Apps membership. For the first year, you'll pay just $45.04/£42.46 per month – down from the regular price of $52.99/£49.94. You'll get access to Adobe's full suite of creative apps, including Photoshop, Lightroom and Illustrator, plus 100GB cloud storage for your projects. Offer ends August 26 2018.
- Want more choices? Check out our list of the best laptop 2019
It's called the MacBook Air, but it's an Air in name only. This new version of the popular laptop might as well be called the MacBook Pro Lite, because that's essentially what it is.
The long-standing tapered Air design, with its thick screen bezels, smallish touchpad, deep keys and multiple types of ports is gone, replaced by the familiar design cues of the post-2016 MacBook ($870 at Walmart) and MacBook Pro. If anything, the new Air looks and feels like a half-step between the 12-inch MacBook and the 13-inch MacBook Pro, rather than an evolution of the classic Air.
In person, as seen during a hands-on demo session following Apple's Oct. 30 event, it was hard to distinguish this new Air from Apple's other laptops at first glance. (One Apple rep misidentified a nearby new Air as a Pro to us.) Picking up the new Air, it immediately felt lighter and smaller than the current Air, which -- having had the same basic design since 2010 -- many of us are intimately familiar with.
You get more screen and less body, thanks to a display that cuts the thick bezel border by half and adds edge-to-edge glass over it. Now the Air display looks much like the one on the MacBook Pro, with a wider color range, although the Pro still has a lock on Apple's color-shifting True Tone display and support for the P3 color gamut.
At 2.7 pounds (1.25 kg) and about 15mm thick, its size and weight is actually very middle-of-the-road when it comes to 13-inch laptops. The slimmest systems get down under 10mm, but at the expense of battery, features and processing power. If you want super thin and light, step up to that aforementioned 12-inch MacBook for just $100 more -- but know you'll be losing considerable features and power.
Now playing:Watch this: MacBook Air 2018 now has a Retina display
While size and weight aren't particularly unusual versus other laptops in this price class, the new MacBook Air does feel substantially more solidly constructed than most of the competition. Like the current Pro and 12-inch MacBook, the new Air still feels as tough as a tank, with its one-piece aluminum construction (now 100-percent recycled aluminum, according to Apple). That's one of the reasons MacBooks, both Air and Pro, have been able to command premium prices for so long -- because you're making an investment in a product that will hopefully last for several years, which has often been the case for the traditional MacBook Air.
It's all about the keyboard
As the only MacBook with a traditional island-style keyboard, the MacBook Air was the one refuge for those who disliked the super-flat butterfly mechanism keyboards in newer MacBooks. Now the new Air is firmly in the same camp as the other models.
Best Camera For Mac Book Pro
Some may lament the loss of the older style of keyboard. Personally, I've never found the butterfly keyboard as troublesome as others, and I've certainly dealt with more difficult keyboards in more expensive products. (I admit this may be a minority opinion.)
It takes a period of adjustment to get used to the subtle tactile feedback, but once you get used to it, it's fine for even long-form typing. But yes, you may never grow to love it.
But the positive tradeoff is that the new Air also includes a much bigger touchpad. It's the same Force Touch style as on all the other MacBooks, which means it doesn't have a diving-board hinge on the back, and instead uses four corner sensors to register clicks. The larger surface area is frankly more important than the mechanics behind it.
Will diehards take this change hard? They might, but that old keyboard was never as great as you remember, and the bigger touchpad is a great addition.
Apple October event: Complete coverage
Ports of call
If the keyboard change bothers you, the port situation isn't going to be much better. Following not only other Apple laptops but also many of the premium Windows laptops from the past two years, the MacBook Air is now USB-C only. That means any of your USB-A peripherals are going to need a dreaded dongle.
That said, it's got two USB-C ports, instead of the single one on the 12-inch MacBook, so you can do more than one thing at a time, like connect a peripheral and the power cable. And these are Thunderbolt 3-enabled USB-C ports, so they cover the full range of high-end duties: high-speed data transfer, for example, or output to 4K and 5K displays. External GPU boxes (eGPUs) are also supported, but I have yet to try one with the new Air. (Those tests will follow soon.)
But back to that power cable issue: The late, great MagSafe connector is gone, so one of those two USB-C ports will often be used for power. While it's great to see Apple using industry-standard USB-C ports for that -- you can invest in third-party USB-C power delivery (PD) battery packs, for instance -- it still means that you may be back down to a single open port.
The entry-level 13-inch MacBook Pro has a similar pair of Thunderbolt 3 USB-C ports, but lacks the Touch ID fingerprint reader found here. The fingerprint reader is really the best part of the Touch Bar experience, and it's a great addition to the MacBook Air. I didn't have a chance to register my own fingerprint and try it in action, but based on my use of the fingerprint reader in MacBook Pro systems (powered by the same T2 security chip), it's a system that works quickly and reliably.
Still the ultimate student laptop?
One area where the new MacBook Air may lose some ground is as the default student laptop on many college campuses (and the default work laptop at many companies). Even though this is a much better laptop in nearly every regard, it loses one big advantage the previous MacBook Air had -- its price.
At $999 in the US, the MacBook Air was an affordable luxury for many students, artists, writers and anyone who wanted a premium experience at a less-than-premium price. The new Air starts at $1,199 (£1,199, AU$1,849), which is a 20 percent jump, even though both the old and new entry-level models have 8GB of RAM and 128GB of solid state storage. That puts it just below premium laptops such as the $1,299 MacBook, which lacks a second USB-C port and fingerprint reader, and the $1,299 13-inch MacBook Pro, which lacks the fingerprint reader.
Mac Pro Best Price
Keep in mind the Pro still has a few extra advantages. Its eighth-gen processors come from a faster family than the low-power ones in the new Air, and the Pro has faster eDRAM.
The overall design and usability, and the jump from fifth-gen Intel processors to eighth-gen ones, certainly makes this well more than $200 better than the old MacBook Air. But it also moves to being that much more of a stretch for many would-be owners.
Best Camera App For Macbook Pro
Fortunately, that old-school Air is still available, at least for now, just as the old 13-inch MacBook Pro was for more than a year after the newest design debuted in 2016. If you're firm in your need for USB-A or HDMI ports, or an island-style keyboard, pick one up now, because no one knows how long it's going to last. But note that based on the past several years of concerns we've had about the low-res screen, thick bezel and outdated CPU, it's hard to recommend that classic model right now.
We hope to test and fully review the new MacBook Air soon, so stay tuned for our benchmark results and full review.
Best Digital Camera For Mac
iPad Pro hands-on: Apple's other big reveal.
Best Camera For Mac
Everything Apple announced: Mac Mini, a new Pencil and more.