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Christie Barclay
Participant
February 15, 2026
Question

Opinion on suggested laptop to run Premiere, Photoshop, and After Effects.

  • February 15, 2026
  • 4 replies
  • 114 views

I am finally getting to upgrade to a laptop that would work better with Premiere and Photoshop -possibly After Effects. My IT dept. hasn’t been much help other than look at Lenovo. I just got an email for what I think is a deal - $2,058 for the Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 Intel (16") with RTX™ 5080 - Ultra 9 275HX Processor, NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 5080, GPU 16GB GDDR7, Memoriy: 32 GB DDR5-6400MT/s (CSODIMM)(2 x 16 GB), Storage: 1 TB SSD.  I could really use feedback on the use of this laptop - or other recommendations. Thanks.

    4 replies

    Warren Heaton
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    March 3, 2026


    That Lenovo should perform very well while plugged in for long format 1080p and short format 2160p.  The Thunderbolt 4 port is ideal for high-speed external storage.  When unplugged, performance may drop a little bit.  Something I’ve noticed with my HP zBook Pro when connected to a Thunderbolt display and getting power from the display instead of the power adapter is that video previews in After Effects never play back in realtime (I need to connect the power adapter as well).

    I would go with any Apple Silicon based MacBook Pro with as much RAM and Flash storage and as new and high end processor as fits your $2,058 budget.  Set 16GB/1TB as the minimum specification.

    Legend
    February 20, 2026

    The laptop that you’re considering is a good transportable choice for video editing. However, the total amount of installed RAM may be a little skimpy for serious 4k workflows.

    Community Expert
    February 16, 2026

    “Legion” is Lenovo’s name for a gaming computer.  I have one that is a few years old with an i7 CPU, 16GB RAM, an Nvidia GPU and a 1TB SSD.  Yours has upgraded CPU, RAM and GPU.   Before this one, I used an ASUS gaming laptop (until I dropped it).   “Gamers” are cheaper than graphics workstations with about the same components.  The screens may not match the ones used in “pro” editing consoles.  Gamers come with NVIDA “gaming” drivers.  Changing to “studio” drivers is easy to do at the NVIDIA website.   I shoot consumer grade 4K/60, H.264 videos.  My gamer Legion laptop has no issue with video or photo editing.  It runs well with Premiere Premiere Elements, Photoshop, Lightroom, Lightroom Classic and that other NLE from the camera company.  I don’t use After Effects much, but that’s good too.   It is not uncommon for me to have Premiere and Lightroom open at the same time.  You should have no problem with the computer you are looking at.

    John T Smith
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    February 15, 2026

    I haven’t checked recently, but there MAY be some laptop discussion here

    https://www.pugetsystems.com/solutions/video-editing-workstations/adobe-premiere-pro/hardware-recommendations/