What's a Good Laptop for Photoshop?

[Leslie Moak Murray]

Can amyone tell me what I should look for in a laptop to be able to use Photoshop? Mine is on its last legs, and I need a new one, and I'm not a computer person. I mean I'm the opposite of a computer person. I use PS mostly for art, but also I have a sideline as a stock photographer. I've had my current laptop for 5 years or so, and it's an HP Envy. I need a LOT of space and a big screen. It can't be a Mac. No time for a learning curve. This is what I have now:

..............

Thanks you guys! I mean thanks if you can help me, and if you can't help me then have a nice weekend!

[Dov Isaacs]

You mention a large screen and a LOT of space. Can we assume that a large screen is really a 17" screen? And by space do you mean internal memory or “disk” space. I also notice that you have had your current system for 5 years (or so).

One notebook computer that you might consider is the Lenovo ThinkPad P17. You can configure it to please, so to speak! It has a 17" screen that can be either 4K or standard HD; the 4K option provides for the full AdobeRGB gamut and is factory color calibrated. You can configure it with your choice a number of NVIDIA graphics/GPU cards. You can choose from a range of high-end Intel Core I7 or Intel Xeon processors and internal memory up to at least 128GB. For “disk” you can have either one to two M2 NVMe SSDs in various sizes up to 2TB each! These are not el'Cheapo computers, but my experience with this line of notebook computers (the comparable P70 and P73 models preceeding the P17) has been stellar, but they are heavy duty and with any reasonable care, will last at least the 5 years of your current notebook computer. If you don't need 17" but can do with a 15.6" screen, there is also the ThinkPad P15 models, similarly configurable. Note that these are not small, light notebook computers, but I've travelled the world (over 100,000 miles per year prior to the pandemic) with my ThinkPad P70, using it to run Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, etc. in addition to mundane “office” tasks.

[Leslie Moak Murray]

Yes, mine is 17" and it's so big and heavy it isn't very good for traveling really. I do have a 2nd big monitor, so I guess I could do with a smaller laptop and just use the monitor for viewing. Thank you for this great info!

[Ussnorway]

I have 2 Asus N580's and I'm very happy with them for travel needs

https://www.asus.com/Laptops/For-Home/VivoBook/VivoBook-Pro-15-N580/

key points: I7 chip, solid Gpu and 2 drives that are easy to swap out for upgrades... I like the touch screen version but thats me. these are a few years old now and you can pick them up in Australia for about $600-800 depending on what options you go for

p.s, don't get any laptop with a I9 chip

[Leslie Moak Murray]

Ah, I actually looked into Asus when I got this one. Perhaps I should revisit that. Thank you for the tip re the 19 chip, which I have no idea what that is so I'd never have known haha (what is it??)

[Ussnorway]

the best chip currently on the market is the Ryzen but thats a desktop and laptops normally have Intel chips [I stands for Intel] which comes in 4 basic flavors: I7 {your current system}, I3, I5 {buget} and I9 in best to worse order

yes there are Amd chips in laptops but Intel is fair more common... on paper a I9 looks great but in the real world it runs so hot that a laptop just can't vent the heat without throttling back your processing power which makes them noisy lemons