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As a real estate photographer, you might need to retouch your photos after shooting. Photo editing applications tend to consume lots of computer resources, and the best laptop for photo editing under $1000 features a fast processor and high RAM that can handle image processing without lag.
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The best laptop for photo editing under $1000 has a powerful graphics card that can render images on the screen with good color accuracy. The following laptops run on the latest operating systems and can support the latest versions of editing programs.
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Best Overall
Brand:
Apple 2020 MacBook Air
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Best Laptop With Large SSD Storage
Brand:
Acer Swift 3
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Best Laptop for Multitasking
Brand:
Lenovo Flex 5
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Screen Size:
13.3 Inches
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Screen Size:
14 Inches
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Screen Size:
14 Inches
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Hard Disk Size:
256 GB
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Hard Disk Size:
512 GB
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Hard Disk Size:
256 GB
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4.8
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4.4
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4.4
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The Apple 2020 MacBook Air is a powerful laptop that features the Apple M1 processor chip, which is a custom processor designed by Apple on a 5 nm process with eight CPU cores.
This chip outperforms many AMD and Intel processors, including some of the powerful Core i9 models, making this laptop have the best processing speed on my list. As a result, photo editing software can handle large files and perform complex actions without lag, increasing productivity.
The M1 chip is also more power efficient than other processors, giving this laptop an excellent battery life of up to 18 hours. Unlike the other laptops on this list, this laptop features a retina display, which has a high pixel density, wider color gamut, and better contrast ratio.
This ensures a more accurate representation of images, allowing you to make finer adjustments with better color accuracy.
However, the laptop has a small 13.3-inch display, which can lead to eye fatigue and strain, especially when editing for extended periods, and you might need to squint or lean in closer to see the fine details.
If you want to install Lightroom on your laptop and go around shooting real estate photos tethered, then you need a portable laptop such as the Acer Swift 3. Typically, this laptop weighs 2.65 pounds, which is the second most lightweight on my list after the Microsoft Surface Go 3.
Another feature that makes this laptop ideal for shooting tethered is the large storage capacity of 512GB. Keeping in mind that a RAW image has a file size of around 20 to 40MB, it means this laptop can store over 10,000 RAW images.
This laptop uses an SSD hard drive, which is much faster than traditional hard drives in terms of read and write speeds, allowing you to save the RAW images without buffering, even when shooting using the burst mode.
Unlike the Lenovo Flex 5, this laptop comes with Windows 10 Home operating system, which does not support the latest DirectStorage API. This limits applications such as Lightroom from directly accessing the graphics card and SSD for faster data processing.
The Lenovo Flex 5 features a Full High Definition display of 1920×1080 pixels which reproduces crisp and clear images with better color accuracy. This makes it easier to detect and correct color differences, adjust brightness, and manipulate image tones.
Like the Acer Swift 3, this laptop features an HDMI port that connects an external monitor with a higher resolution and color gamut, such as a 4K monitor, allowing you to make precise photo adjustments.
However, this laptop does not come with an optical drive, which means you can't import videos or files from CDs or DVDs or even export after editing.
The laptop is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 5500u processor, which has a higher core count and offers better multi-core performance than the Intel Core i5 processor of the Asus VivoBook S14.
This allows you to run several photo editings applications, such as Lightroom and Photoshop, simultaneously without lag. However, the laptop lacks Thunderbolt 3 ports, which limits its ability to connect to high-speed external storage devices.
If you want a laptop that offers a more immersive and comfortable working experience with minimal eye fatigue and strain, the HP Pavilion might be the best choice. Typically, this laptop features a display of 15.6 inches, the largest on my list.
This provides you with a better workspace for managing multiple windows and panels of a photo editing application and makes it easier to switch between programs and multitask.
Generally, photo editing software such as Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Capture One requires significant resources to run smoothly, especially when working with RAW files or 4K videos.
Fortunately, this laptop features 16GB RAM, which allows it to handle complex photo editing tasks such as processing RAW files and generating previews without slowing down.
Like the Asus VivoBook S14, this laptop also features 512GB SSD storage, which is large enough to store a large collection of photos. The downside is the 3.86-pound weight which tends to limit its portability.
Also, the laptop doesn't have a backlit keyboard, which can be a disadvantage when editing your photos in dimly lit places.
If you're planning to use a laptop to edit and store your photos, then consider getting an Asus VivoBook S14.
Apart from the 512GB SSD storage that this laptop offers, it also features Thunderbolt 3 technology via USB Type-C, which offers up to 40 Gbps data transfer speed, approximately four times faster than USB 3.1.
This allows you to quickly transfer photos to external hard drives for long-term storage after editing. The downside is the display which is not as bright and limits visibility in bright lighting, and you might end up misjudging the true image colors.
However, unlike the HP Pavilion, this laptop comes with a backlit keyboard that is well visible even in low-light conditions, allowing you to use the shortcut keys with the lights switched off and at the same time get a more clear view of the monitor.
Running photo editing software requires a high amount of system resources, especially if dealing with large image files. On the downside, this laptop comes with a smaller 8GB RAM and a slower Windows 10 operating system, making its overall speed slower compared to the Lenovo Flex 5.
If you want to edit your real estate photos on the go, the Microsoft Surface Go 3 might be the best laptop, thanks to its compact and lightweight design.
This laptop comes with physical dimensions of 7.98 x 10.82 x 1.89 inches, a smaller screen size of 10.51 inches, and a weight of 1.2 pounds, making it the most portable laptop on this list.
However, the small screen size comes with a downside as it can cause eye strain when trying to focus on fine details, resulting in fatigue, headaches, and vision-related problems, making it challenging to work for extended periods.
The good thing is that the monitor is a touchscreen, which allows you to navigate your photo editing software with your fingertips, giving you more control over brushing and adjustments.
Although this laptop comes with the Windows 11 operating system, which has higher speed and better performance than Windows 10, the Intel Pentium processor makes it have the slowest speed on my list.
Additionally, the 128GB storage is relatively small, especially if you will be working with a large collection of RAW images.
Laptops come in a wide range of specifications, from storage size and RAM to processor, and it can be challenging to choose a laptop that meets your photo editing requirements. The features below explain how the different laptop specs affect its performance and overall usability.
Additionally, the table below highlights a number of the most crucial features to consider when choosing a photo editing laptop.
| Laptop | Display Size | CPU | RAM | Avg Battery Life |
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| Acer Swift 3 | 14 Inches | AMD Ryzen 7 4700u | 8GB | 5 Hours |
| Lenovo Flex 5 | 14 Inches | AMD Ryzen 5 5500u | 16GB | 12 Hours |
| Apple 2020 MacBook Air | 13.3 Inches | Apple M1 chip | 8GB | 18 Hours |
| HP Pavilion | 15.6 Inches | Intel Core i7 | 16GB | 7.45 Hours |
| Asus VivoBook S14 | 14 Inches | Intel Core i5 | 8GB | 10 Hours |
| Microsoft Surface Go 3 | 10.5 Inches | Intel Pentium | 8GB | 11 Hours |
Your laptop storage component store s photos, photo-editing applications, and the operating system. Usually, the storage capacity is measured in GB or TB, where 1TB equals 1000GB and 1GB equals 1000MB.
It can be a hard disk drive (HDD), which uses spinning disks to read and write data, or a solid-state drive (SSD), which uses flash memory. SSDs are much faster than HDDs because they have no moving parts, making data access and retrieval faster.
If you are working with lots of unprocessed photos, it's advisable to get a laptop with a large SSD storage size, such as the Asus VivoBook S14, as it allows you to import, process, and transfer images faster.
A processor, also known as the central processing unit (CPU), is the component that performs calculations, controls input and output operations, and manages the flow of data in the laptop.
A faster processor can perform more calculations and handle more data in a shorter amount of time, resulting in faster overall performance of the laptop.
There are different types of processors, the common ones being the Intel lineup of Core i3, i5, i7, and i9, the AMD processors, and Apple processors.
Apple processors are custom-designed for MacBooks, which makes them offer excellent performance, outperforming most AMD and Intel-based laptops. As a result, if you are importing and processing a large collection of RAW photos using an editor like Lightroom, get an Apple laptop such as the Apple 2020 MacBook Air.
RAM is a type of computer memory that stores data that is currently being used by the computer's operating system and software applications. When you launch a photo manipulation program, its data is loaded into the RAM, where the processor can access it quickly to carry out instructions.
Although the size of RAM in a laptop is measured in GB, just like a hard drive, its storage is typically smaller than an SSD and ranges from 4GB to 32 GB. Since the RAM stores the data the processor needs, it affects how fast the laptop can perform tasks such as opening programs or running memory-intensive applications.
Generally, a laptop with more RAM, such as the Lenovo Flex 5, can store more data in the volatile memory, which ensures the processor can access data faster. This results in minimal lag, allowing you to quickly and smoothly switch between photo manipulation programs or between tabs and windows.
Laptop displays serve as primary outputs that allow you to view the content and interact with the computer. These displays come in various sizes, resolutions, and technologies, such as LCD, LED, OLED, and Retina. Display sizes generally fall between 11 to 17 inches, with 14 inches and 15.6 inches being the most common.
Regarding resolution, most entry-level laptops have a resolution of 1366 x 768, while high-end laptops feature a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080. Generally, laptops with larger screens and full HD resolution, such as the HP Pavilion, offer better picture quality and sharpness that allows you to see the image details more clearly.
Regarding screen design technology, retina displays like the one in the Apple 2020 MacBook Air are known for high pixel density such that the human eye cannot distinguish individual pixels at a typical viewing distance. This makes them great when editing high-resolution photos.
If you want to edit your photos on the go, a laptop with a good battery will give you more flexibility and convenience. Most laptops use lithium-ion batteries that are rechargeable and designed to provide a certain number of charge and discharge cycles before their performance begins to deteriorate.
Battery life is the amount of time the battery can power the laptop without recharging, and it is usually measured in hours. The capacity of a battery is measured in milliampere hours (mAh) or watt-hours (Wh), and the higher the capacity, the longer the battery is expected to last.
However, in laptops, the battery performance can vary depending on the power efficiency of the processor. For instance, the power-efficient processor of the Apple 2020 MacBook Air gives it a long battery life of up to 18 hours.
An operating system (OS) is a software system that manages computer hardware and software resources, acting as an intermediary between computer programs and the hardware. Typically, the OS provides you with an interface to interact with the laptop and run photo editing applications.
The common operating systems are Windows for Windows PC and MacOS for MacBooks. These systems are available in varying versions, with most laptops coming with an OS version that can allow them to perform optimally. For instance, a laptop that runs on Windows 11 might not perform well when using Windows 10.
It's advisable to go for a laptop that features the latest operating system, such as the Microsoft Surface Go 3. However, keeping in mind that the OS also affects the usability of the program, avoid going for a laptop using an OS that you are not familiar with.
The portability of a laptop simply depends on its size and weight. Since the size is about the physical dimensions, laptops with larger screen sizes, such as the HP Pavilion, tend to be larger and bulkier compared to sleek laptops with smaller screens, such as the Microsoft Surface Go 3.
However, slim laptops might not have many connection ports and optical drives, and you might need to make a trade-off between portability and these additional ports and features. If you are editing your real estate photos from a dedicated office, simply go for a bulkier laptop that has as many ports.
Graphics refer to the visual processing capability of the laptop's hardware to produce and display images on the screen. Usually, this is done by the graphics card, also known as the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU).
When you are performing a graphics-intensive task, such as previewing your photos in Lightroom, the CPU sends data to the GPU, which then processes the data, recreates an image, and renders it on the laptop display.
Usually, a laptop with a good integrated graphics card, such as the Acer Swift 3, provides better color accuracy. This ensures that the colors in the final edited image are true to life and consistent across different devices and mediums.
Technically, photo editing cannot damage a laptop battery. However, it can draw lots of power and cause the battery to drain faster than normal or overwork the processor, which in turn produces heat that causes the internal components of the battery to deteriorate, reducing its overall capacity and lifespan.
Yes, you can use a gaming laptop for photo editing. Generally, gaming requires a good GPU to render the graphics, a powerful processor, SSD storage, and high RAM to prevent lag. These are also the specs you need for photo editing, making a gaming laptop a good choice.
A 4K monitor for photo editing might not be necessary since a good quality 1080p or 1440p monitor with good color accuracy can handle HD images and allow you to zoom without resolution issues. However, a reliable 4K monitor can be great for fine-tuning as it can provide you with more detail and color accuracy.
The best laptop for photo editing under $1000 features a large SSD storage that allows you to store thousands of RAW photos as well as import and process them faster. The above laptops come with 1920 x 1080 resolution, allowing you to work with high-resolution photos.
