Best laptops for Photoshop in 2023

The best laptops for Photoshop feature a modern, speedy processor, plenty of RAM and storage, a decent battery life, and of course, a vivid, sharp display that accurately represents the colors you’re working with in the software. A laptop equipped with a discrete GPU is an even better option for Photoshop users because there’s greater processing power for graphics-intensive tasks, but for the budget-conscious, a fast CPU and integrated graphics will work swimmingly. 

We’ve reviewed quite a few laptops here at Laptop Mag, and the ones that made the cut for this list generally score high on our DCI-P3 color gamut, Delta-E color accuracy, and brightness tests. Combine top-tier displays with powerful internals, and you’ve got a pretty awesome laptop for Photoshop. 

With a score of 175.7%, the Acer Swift Go 14 scored the highest in our DCI-P3 color gamut test, and at $1,049, it’s also the most affordable laptop on this list. Our top pick still has an excellent DCI-P3 gamut score of 137.9%, but it’s equipped with a dedicated GPU and more RAM to make your time in Photoshop smoother. 

Working in Photoshop usually takes up your entire laptop screen, so check out our best monitor picks to expand your setup at home or our best portable monitors to give you more screen space on the go. 

The Quick List

Best Laptop for Photoshop Overall

The Dell XPS 15 (9530) was made for creative professionals, and bringing your vision to life through Photoshop will be a breeze with this laptop. This laptop sports a 15.6-inch 3.5K OLED display that reproduced a glorious 137.9% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. It may not be the brightest display we’ve ever tested, averaging only 371 nits, but the beautiful OLED panel makes up for it a little bit. 

With a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU, the XPS 15 can tackle almost anything you throw at it. You can edit photos, stream videos with stunning clarity, or have a ton of tabs open in Google Chrome, and this laptop won’t stutter. Heck, you can even play major AAA games on it if you want. 

Just note that because of its high-res screen and demanding GPU, Dell’s XPS 15 lasted 8 hours and 58 minutes on Laptop Mag’s battery test, which fell short of the premium laptop battery average at the time of our review. The model we reviewed was $2,799, and though the base model starts at $1,499, you’ll lose out on that stunning 3.5K OLED display.

See our full Dell XPS 15 (9530) review. 

Best Budget Laptop for Photoshop

The Acer Swift Go 14 starts at $849, but the model we reviewed at $1,049 is an absolute steal and worth the extra $200. With both models, you’ll get 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage, but the $1,049 model we reviewed comes with a better Intel Core i7-13700H processor and a stunning 14-inch 2880 x 1800 OLED display — both fantastic features for Photoshop users. 

This laptop’s display is one of the most vibrant screens we’ve ever tested at Laptop Mag. Acer’s Swift Go 14 earned a score of 175.7% on the DCI-P3 color gamut, well above the category average of 107.5%. The laptop averaged 395 nits of brightness, also above the category average of 349 nits. The only place the Swift Go 14 faltered in terms of rich color was when we tried out the laptop’s True Black 500 HDR mode. It looked artificial, and the display is significantly better without this mode turned on. 

With such a brilliant, bright display, it’s no surprise that the battery life isn’t incredible. But listen, for the price and the gorgeous color accuracy, this budget laptop is a perfect option for Photoshop users. The Swift Go 14 lasted 8 hours and 5 minutes during our battery test, slightly below the category average of 8:13. 

See our full Acer Swift Go 14 review. 

Best Workstation Laptop for Photoshop

HP’s ZBook Fury 17 G8 can be incredibly expensive, but when you see everything that’s packed inside this workhorse, you’ll understand why. The base model starts at $2,118, and the unit we reviewed totaled $6,421 after everything was said and done. Our reviewer noted that it “was only missing a God Mode button somewhere on the keyboard.” 

With an Intel Xeon W-11955M CPU, a discrete Nvidia RTX A5000 GPU, 1TB of SSD storage, and 64GB of RAM, this laptop could effortlessly handle editing photos on Photoshop, streaming something on Netflix, and flipping through tons of Chrome tabs. That said, you could save a bit of money by decreasing the amount of storage to 512GB, the RAM to 16GB or 32GB, or opting for a slightly less powerful GPU from Nvidia. 

For Photoshop purposes, it’d be smart to stick with the top-tier 17-inch 4K BrightView LED touchscreen display. The ZBook Fury 17 G8 averaged 532 nits of brightness and delivered 161.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, high above the premium laptop average of 84.4%. At only 150 nits of brightness during our battery test, HP’s ZBook Fury 17 G8 lasted 7 hours and 10 minutes, lower than the premium laptop average of 10:23. 

See our full HP ZBook Fury 17 G8 review.

Best Laptop for Photoshop With a Discrete GPU

If you’re in search of a laptop with a stellar discrete GPU that can also run Photoshop like a boss, look no further than Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4. The laptop we reviewed was fully decked out, with an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU, Nvidia RTX 3060 GPU with 6GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage — all for $2,074. These specs work beautifully together to perform the most performance- and graphics-intensive tasks. 

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 is equipped with a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 display with a 16:10 aspect ratio that makes the screen taller than many of its competitors. This laptop may not have OLED display technology, but it’s plenty bright with 426 average nits, which is higher than the premium laptop average of 392 nits. Colors come through as vivid and rich, though the ThinkPad X1 Extreme’s Delta E score for color accuracy was 0.31, falling short of the premium laptop average score of 0.25 (the closer to zero, the better). Then, at 83.5%, the laptop’s DCI-P3 color gamut score was just shy of the premium laptop average of 83.9%.

The display on Lenovo’s ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 may not be as vibrant as some of the other picks on this list, but the internal specs more than make up for it. With a discrete GPU that can shoulder some of the graphics-intensive tasks within Photoshop, you’ll always have a speedy and smooth experience in the software. Plus, you can unwind at the end of the day with a major AAA game that runs just as smoothly as Photoshop. Just be sure to have a charger handy as this laptop only lasted 7 hours and 50 minutes, less than the premium laptop average of 10:26. 

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 4 (2023) review.

Best Samsung Laptop for Photoshop

Samsung has been on it with laptops over the past few years. In 2022, one of our favorite laptops was the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360, and this year, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra earns a spot on that faves list. It is a pretty pricey laptop, starting at $2,199 for the base model, which comes with an Intel Core i7 CPU with an RTX  4050 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. Our review unit had 1TB of storage for an extra $200, but we otherwise had the least expensive configuration you can get. 

Despite going hands-on with (almost) the base model, our tests on color depth and accuracy in this laptop’s 16-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display were pretty impressive. With a resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, we expected some beautiful results. 

The display produced 86.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which was lower than the premium laptop average (88.8%) but higher than the MacBook Pro 16 (83.7%). However, this test was performed at the laptop’s default setting, and you can adjust the display settings to increase vibrancy. With our Delta-E color accuracy test, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra performed swimmingly, with a low score of 0.15 (the closer to zero, the better). This color accuracy score was higher than both the premium laptop average (0.24) and the MacBook Pro 16’s score (0.21). 

At this point, it may sound like this laptop is without flaws, but with powerful specs, a discrete GPU, and a stunning display packed into a thin, light package, it’s no surprise that the battery life isn’t great. It’s not bad, but it’s not great. In our battery test, Samsung’s Galaxy Book 3 Ultra lasted for 8 hours and 48 minutes while utilizing the 120Hz adaptive refresh rate and 150 nits of brightness. Compared to the average premium laptop (9:55) and the MacBook Pro 16 (18:56), this is a lower-than-I’d-like battery life, but it’s still enough to last a full work day without a charge.

See our full Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra review.

Best Compact Laptop for Photoshop

The LG Gram 17 may not be compact in terms of screen size, but it’s one of the lightest laptops in its category. Despite its 3.2-pound weight, LG’s Gram 17 is equipped with a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1360P CPU, a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU with 4GB of VRAM, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage — all for about $2,000. 

Photoshop users will be delighted with the large, 17-inch display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels and a 144Hz variable refresh rate. There’s so much room to perfect your creations, and the laptop scored well in our DCI-P3 color test, brightness test, and Delta-E color accuracy test. It produced 115% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, higher than the premium laptop average of 90%. Then, it averaged 438 nits of brightness, again higher than the premium laptop average of 384 nits, but fell just shy of the category average (0.23) with a Delta-E score of 0.26 (the closer to zero, the better). 

LG’s Gram 17 packs powerful internal specs that give you a stutter-free Photoshop experience and a large, vibrant display that accurately shows off the colors you’re working with. It’s so incredibly light at 3.2 pounds that you’ll barely feel it in your bag. You won’t even have to add extra weight from the charger because this laptop has a stellar battery life. During our battery test, the LG Gram 17 lasted 12 hours and 2 minutes, longer than the premium laptop average of 10:14. 

See our full LG Gram 17 review.

Best MacBook for Photoshop

If you have an iPhone or other Apple devices, you may want your laptop to fit into the same ecosystem. Or, maybe you just like the sleek, cool-to-the-touch chassis of MacBooks. In either case, the best MacBook for Photoshop is the 2023 Pro 16-inch with an M2 Max CPU. 

The unit we reviewed works out to $5,299, but that high price is due to a huge 4TB SSD and an insane 96GB of RAM. This configuration would be fantastic for Photoshop, with seemingly never-ending space to store files and stutter-free performance. But for only $3,499, you could drop to 1TB of SSD storage and 32GB of RAM — still plenty for Adobe Shop. 

With either configuration, you’ll get that brilliant 12-core Apple M2 Max CPU mentioned earlier, as well as a 38-core Apple GPU with a 16-core Neural Engine and a gorgeous 16.2-inch 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display. Despite how colorful our review unit’s display appeared, it only earned a DCI-P3 score of 83.7%, lower than the premium laptop average at the time (88.1%). The laptop scored well on the brightness test, with an average of 447 nits, brighter than the category average of 391 nits. 

Buying the MacBook Pro 16-inch (2023) is a smart choice for Photoshop because of the beautiful, bright display and the powerfully smooth internal specs. However, there’s another crucial spec to consider: the battery life. MacBooks are known for having great battery life, which is a fantastic feature for those wanting to use Photoshop on the go. The 16-inch MacBook Pro lasted an amazing 18 hours and 56 minutes in our battery test, significantly longer than the premium laptop average of 10:02.  

See our full MacBook Pro 16-inch (M2 Max, 2023) review.

How To Choose a Laptop for Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop isn’t an incredibly demanding software, so you won’t necessarily need a high-end, expensive laptop to create your visual masterpieces. However, there are a few key specs to look out for. When choosing a laptop for Photoshop specifically, the display specs are perhaps the most important, followed by the laptop’s CPU and amount of RAM and storage. 

Working in Photoshop, color accuracy and a wide array of colors is important. That’s why Laptop Mag chose tested laptops with high color accuracy and a high percentage on the DCI-P3 color gamut for this list. The size of your display won’t matter as much as the resolution, brightness, and display technology. Modern OLED displays, in particular, are fantastic at displaying rich, deep blacks and bright, vivid colors. 

For a CPU, we’d recommend not buying anything less than an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 or equivalent. Then, a good laptop for Photoshop should have at least 16GB of RAM to run the software smoothly and at least 512GB of storage to store all your Photoshop creations when you’re done editing. 

If you also love to play video games, some of the best gaming laptops are equally great for Photoshop. Gaming laptops typically come with a discrete GPU, which is ideal for a graphics-intensive software like Photoshop, but it’s not necessary. You can save a bit of money buying a laptop with integrated graphics and still produce some amazing things in Photoshop. 

How We Test Laptops for Photoshop

Every laptop we test goes through countless lab tests before a review goes live. We look at how a laptop fairs in regards to its performance, battery life, speakers, heat management, and display. While each laptop on this list has gone through every test we could run on it, there are a few specific test results we paid close attention to when choosing the best laptops for Photoshop. 

When you work with Photoshop, it’s important that the colors you’re working with will accurately translate to other screens when your file is shared. To detect a laptop’s display brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter test. We also pay attention to each laptop’s Delta E score, showing how accurate a display’s colors are. 

Additionally, performance is important in a laptop running Adobe Photoshop. The Geekbench benchmark tests a laptop’s overall performance. To test a laptop’s GPU, the 3DMark benchmark determines how well a laptop can run graphic-intensive applications. Discrete graphics are ideal when selecting a laptop for Photoshop, but you might forgo a discrete GPU for a more budget-friendly laptop. 

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We’re not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming. 

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on. 

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it. 

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