5 best laptops for photo and video editing

Today, there are several laptops in the market tailored for photo and video editing that can help supercharge your creative workflows, handling demanding tasks and rendering projects with ease.

Unlike everyday laptops, these are specifically built to run demanding software and usually come with beefy specs. When shopping for a laptop that can take care of photo and video editing, there are a few key features you should look for. Firstly, you’ll want a powerful processor to manage demanding editing software, along with more RAM to keep everything running smoothly.

You’ll also want to look for a laptop that features a high-resolution, colour-accurate display and a solid GPU to handle all that graphical heavy lifting. However, beyond just raw specs, there are also several factors to consider including battery life, portability, and durability, especially if you’re on the move a lot.

5 best laptops for video and photo editing

To help you find the perfect fit for your creative needs, here’s our roundup of the best laptops for photo and video editing right now:

1. Apple Macbook Pro M3 Pro 

2. Lenovo Yoga Book 9

3. Dell XPS 14

4. Asus Zenbook S 13

5. HP Spectre 16 x360

1. Apple Macbook Pro M3 Pro

When it comes to purely photo and video editing tasks, not many laptops can match the raw power and finesse of the Apple MacBook Pro M3 Pro. Its M3 Pro chip with a 12-core CPU and 18-core GPU is perfect for handling everything from layering effects on hi-res photos to rendering complex 3D projects. The 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display is still the best in terms of colour accuracy and brightness and supports True Tone technology and ProMotion technology for adaptive refresh rates up to 120Hz. The display also comes with a staggering 1,000 nits of sustained full-screen brightness, offering an incredible dynamic range along with a 1 billion-to-1 contrast ratio and a wide colour gamut.

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Beyond performance, the MacBook Pro has an amazing battery life and promises up to 18 hours of video playback. The base model comes with 18GB of unified memory (or RAM) and can be configured up to 36GB for even smoother multitasking. You also get a super-fast SSD storage which can also be bumped up to 1TB.

2. Lenovo Yoga Book 9

If you enjoy the setup of two monitors for work but need the flexibility of a laptop, the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i might be the way to go. With its revolutionary dual-screen setup featuring two 13.3-inch colour-accurate OLED displays, you can edit high-resolution photos on one screen while watching a video or having your mail open on the other.

Under the hood, the Yoga Book 9i is powered by a 10-core 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor coupled with 16GB of RAM and a spacious 1TB SSD for ample storage. Despite dual OLED displays, the Yoga Book 9i promises an impressive battery life, and can deliver up to 9.5 hours of usage on a single charge, thanks to its 80Wh battery. As for connectivity and ports, the laptop comes with Bluetooth 5.1 and Wi-Fi 6 support, along with three Thunderbolt 4 ports for high-speed data transfer or to connect external displays.

3. Dell XPS 14

The Dell XPS range has always been about the perfect mix of functionality and form, and the XPS 14 is no different. This ultraportable powerhouse is packed with a ton of high-end features, all housed within a beautifully designed chassis.

With a beastly 16-core Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and a whopping 32GB of RAM, the XPS 14 can handle anything from heavy-duty editing to hardcore gaming. But the real standout is the stunning 3.2K OLED display with Dolby Vision. It features a smooth 120Hz refresh rate, delivering vivid colours, deep blacks, and crisp detail. Additionally, you get a speedy 1TB SSD M.2 storage and a backlit keyboard, a fingerprint reader, along with a sharp 1080p webcam.

4. Asus Zenbook S 13

The Asus Zenbook S 13 is perfect for people who edit photos and videos on the move, thanks to its lightweight design and long battery life. This 13-inch laptop weighs just one kilogram but can handle almost anything you throw at it. You get a stunning 13-inch OLED display, which is sharp and bright at 550 nits, gets great colour accuracy with Pantone-certified colour coverage of up to 100% DCI-P3, and also an impressive 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, thus making dark and light areas look incredible.

As for the other specifications, you get a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a spacious 1TB SSD. Despite being slim, it still comes with a pretty comfy chiclet keyboard, a smooth trackpad, a handy MicroSD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

5. HP Spectre 16 x360

The HP Spectre series is among the best 2-in-1 laptops out there. And with the new HP Spectre 16 x360, the company is introducing a suite of on-device AI capabilities to help you get things done faster and more efficiently. It has a sleek, all-metal look and a gorgeous 16-inch OLED touchscreen with incredible resolution and vivid colours. Inside, you’ve got the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chip, a whopping 32GB of RAM, and a huge 1TB SSD. You also have the option to opt for Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics, which will provide extra graphical horsepower for GPU-intensive workloads and even some light gaming.

The HP Spectre 16 x360’s 360-degree hinge lets you switch effortlessly between laptop and tablet modes, while the handy 9MP IR camera with a privacy shutter is perfect for on-the-go work and video calls. As for connectivity, the laptop features Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 4 Thunderbolt ports, 2 USB-C ports, 1 USB-A port, HDMI 2.1, and a combo audio port. Additional features include a backlit keyboard, quad stereo speakers, and DTX Ultra support.

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These five laptops can more than keep up with your vision, without breaking a sweat, and help you create your next masterpiece. So what are you waiting for? Bring home one of these five incredible machines today!