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duckket313
Participant
December 20, 2025
Question

Best Laptop for Video and Photo Editing, Expert Advice to Choose

  • December 20, 2025
  • 1 reply
  • 1396 views

I am looking for the best laptop for video and photo editing as i recently started doing more freelance editing work and my current laptop keeps lagging during renders and crashes when i use heavy software like Premiere Pro and Photoshop. i have been experiencing slow performance, long export times, and overheating, which makes it really hard to stay productive. i went through reviews from trusted sources like RTINGS, Tom’s Hardware, and PCMag and after comparing many options these two kept coming up as the top choices:

 

15.6 IPS-FHD-Laptop, 32GB RAM 512GB SSD 6500Y (up to 3.4GHz), Multi-Ports Lightweight Computer for Student-Home WiFi 5 BT5.0

 

https://amzn.to/3MJx7JC

 

HP Stream 14" HD BrightView Laptop, Intel Processor N150, 16GB RAM, 416GB Storage (128GB eMMC + 288GB Docking Station Set), Intel UHD Graphics, 720p Camera, Wi-Fi, 1 Year Office 365, Win 11 S, Gold

 

https://amzn.to/3MOsrC8

 

however, i am having trouble deciding which one would be better for me and i would love to get your expert advice and hoping maybe some video editors, photographers, or creative professionals on this forum can also share their advice.
i usually work with 4K video files, do color grading, photo retouching, and multitask a lot, so performance, display quality, and reliability matter a lot for me. any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance

 

1 reply

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RjL190365
Legend
December 20, 2025

The first listed laptop should not even be considered at all at this point as it is of a very old CPU architecture with absolutely no AVX2 support whatsoever (in this case, the Pentium was derived from the Skylake (6th-Gen Intel Core) architecture but with AVX and AVX2 support permanently disabled during manufacture)-not to mention that its iGPU's OpenCL support is limited to version 1.2 (which in turn falls short of the new OpenCL 2.0 minimum that is required by version 25.6 onward). None of the currently available versions of Adobe Premiere, After Effects or Media Encoder will even install at all on that system.

 

As for the second, Adobe might install, but it would run poorly-almost as poorly as your current system. Hardware prices have risen significantly over the past year, such that you are now getting much less for your dollar than you did two or three years ago.

D
duckket313Author
Participant
December 21, 2025

I really appreciate the detailed technical explanation. That’s exactly why I posted here, because I wanted honest feedback from people who actually understand the hardware side of things. You’re absolutely right that on paper neither of these laptops is a perfect match for heavy, professional-level 4K editing, especially with how demanding newer versions of Adobe software have become.

At the same time, I think it’s also important to look at this from a real-world and budget perspective. Not everyone is running the latest Adobe versions with extremely heavy workflows all the time. A lot of freelance editors still rely on optimized settings, proxy files, or slightly older versions of Premiere and Photoshop to get their work done without constant issues.

Between the two options, the second laptop still seems like the more realistic and usable choice for someone in my situation. The newer Intel processor, higher RAM setup, extra storage, and overall better platform support make it feel more practical for everyday creative work compared to the first one. Even if it’s not a high-end editing machine, it looks like it could handle light to moderate video editing, photo retouching, and multitasking much more reliably.

I agree that hardware prices aren’t great right now, and ideally I’d invest in a more powerful system. But for freelancers who need something affordable and available right now, the second option feels like a reasonable middle ground rather than a long-term workstation.

I’d really appreciate hearing from other video editors or photographers here. Are you using proxy workflows for 4K projects, sticking to certain Adobe versions, or using other optimizations to work smoothly on mid-range laptops? Real-world experiences would be very helpful.

Peru Bob
Community Expert
Peru BobCommunity Expert
Community Expert
December 21, 2025

I have no laptop editing experience, but RjL190365 is an editing hardware expert, and I would take his advice.

The second laptop only has a 128GB internal drive.  That is going to be problematic.

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