The Best Notebooks for Photo and Video Editing

The Intel Core i9-14900HX installed in the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 offers very powerful and unthrottled performance, which is paired with a fully extended GeForce RTX 4090 with 16 GB VRAM. The huge 18-inch QHD panel with mini-LED technology should also offer enough space.

The brightness of 934 cd/m² is impressive, as is the color space coverage of 90% AdobeRGB and 100% DCI-P3. The factory calibration also looks very good with a DeltaE of 1.52. Asus also offers the option of deactivating local dimming to achieve more accurate colors. The PCIe 4.0 SSD offers an unthrottled 7,100 MB/s and the speakers are also quite impressive. In addition, the 2TB SSD can be supplemented by another one in the second M.2 slot.

The huge Strix Scar 18 (2024) doesn't have to make any compromises when it comes to multimedia performance. The performance and the mini LED display are impressive across the board.

Flat, but not quite light at 3 kg. 17.3-inch with 4K mini LED display and powerful hardware, but this is not the end of the line and not quite 400 cd/m² is available for outdoor use.

At the time of writing, Asus offers the ROG Strix Scar 18 (2024) for around $3,000 on their webshop. Alternatively, users can purchase the laptop via Amazon.

The subjective picture impression is still excellent, as the colors are vivid, the contrast is good and there is no grainy picture impression despite the matte panel. However, the price has risen significantly compared to its predecessor due to the more powerful hardware.

Even in the factory settings, the color deviations are within the limits and we could not detect any color cast. After our calibration, the display quality could still be improved. The AdobeRGB color space is covered by 71 percent.

Though the new Legion Pro 7 is not yet available in the US, Interested buyers are advised to regularly check directly via Lenovo (where applicable) or via an authorized reseller for availability. Alternatively, users can find its predecessor SKU for around $2,400 on Amazon.

The 20 mm thin HP Omen Transcend 16 relies on a brute Intel Core i9-14900HX, which, however, throttles down after a rather short time. It also has a 392 cd/m² bright, reflective QHD OLED panel with 240 Hz, 97% Adobe RGB and 100% DCI-P3. The Delta-E values are < 2 ex works, so that nothing stands in the way of professional video or photo editing.

There is also a fast PCIe 4.0 SSD that does not suffer from any throttling and an RTX 4070 with 130W TGP and 8 GB VRAM. An RTX 4080, which is also fit for 8K video processing with 12 GB VRAM, works significantly faster, but HP only offers the RTX 4070.

Apple MacBook Pro 14 (Late 2023) with M3 Max chip including 16 CPU cores and a full 40 GPU cores is outwardly identical to its predecessor, as is the built-in display, which is slightly brighter at 600 cd/m². However, a maximum of 128 GB RAM is now available instead of 96 GB RAM in the M2 Max. The multi-core CPU performance also increases by a whopping 50% and the battery life even increases by 1.5 hours to over 15 hours of surfing.

Lenovo Legion 9 is the only laptop in the Legion series that is equipped with a mini LED display. As a result, the contrast value is very good, the brightness reaches almost 700 cd/m² and 97% of the display P3 color space is covered. The Delta-E value for the colors is 2.56 ex works, but could be slightly lower for professional use. Calibration achieved no further improvement.

However, we miss a function for switching off multi-zone dimming, which would be necessary for color-accurate tasks. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with the brute performance of the installed Core i9-13980HX and the RTX 4090 can also unfold its full potential.

In principle, Lenovo's Legion 9 offers everything that is important for a Creator notebook: brute CPU and GPU performance as well as an accurate and high-quality display. However, there is no option to deactivate the 1,536 dimming zones for true-color work.

Lenovo is now shipping Legion 9i 16 starting at $3,150, a RTX 4090-powered variant costs around $3,800.

With the stylish Blade 16 2024, Razer offers an exciting update: a 240 Hz, factory-calibrated OLED display, while last year's mini-LED panel remains available as an option.

The OLED panel is reflective, offers a QHD resolution, a measured 420 cd/m² and rapid pixel response times, which are, however, more interesting for gaming. It also delivers a perfect black level. The panel with mini LEDs is significantly brighter at 730 cd/m² in SDR mode and 1,100 cd/m² in HDR mode and offers a higher 4K+ resolution at 120 Hz and 240 Hz in FHD+ mode.

Both panels cover over 90 percent of the AdobeRGB color space, while the OLED display offers several color profiles: DCI-P3, Adobe RGB, Rec. 709 and sRGB. There is also the option to adjust the color mode individually and a native color mode is also included. The mini LED panel in the 2023 model still lacked the option to switch off the dimming zones in order to achieve more accurate colors, but Razer has responded to the criticism and provided the function for the current model. Color samples are also offered.

The Razer Blade 14 (2024) also receives a rather minor update, similar to the Blade 16. Apart from the new AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS, there are hardly any changes to the overall system, while a GeForce RTX 4070 with 140-watt TGP is still used.

The matte, small 14-inch QHD display uses a fast 240 Hz and completely covers the DCI-P3 color space, while 85% of the AdobeRGB color space can be displayed. We measured a solid 466 cd/m² in terms of brightness. The grayscale and colors are pre-calibrated against the DCI-P3 color space, with Delta E 1.6 and Delta E 2.23. The pixel response times are also very fast - important for gaming on the side.

The advantage of the Blade 14 is that despite its compact dimensions including its 18 mm thin design - even if it is no lightweight at 1.87 kg - it combines powerful hardware with very good performance and also has two SO-DIMMs. However, only one M.2-2280 slot is available.

With a stylish and compact unibody chassis, fast and accurate QHD display, decent speakers and very good performance, the Razer Blade 14 (2024) is a recommended mobile workstation for creative professionals.

On average, the RTX 4070 in the new Blade is 10% faster and there is now WiFi 7 as well as an integrated Ryzen AI, although this is still limited. OLED or Mini-LED are not available in the small Blade, nor is an RTX 4080 or RTX 4090. Overall, the performance, especially with the processor, is only slightly higher than its predecessor, so we can still recommend the 2023 model if you can find it cheaper on offer.

The Razer Blade 14 (2024) is customizable on Razer's website, alternatively users can order the laptop via Amazon.

The Legion Pro 5 from Lenovo is more budget-friendly than the Legion Pro 7 in 3rd place and also than most of the other laptops in our best list, but it still manages 10th place. It is the only laptop in our list that “only” covers the sRGB color space, which is close to Rec709, which is one of the most important for video editing. For professional photo editing, you should invest in the better display option with 100% DCI-P3 and 240 Hz.

The 165 Hz QHD display we tested, on the other hand, only offers a brightness of 366 cd/m², which is too dark outdoors in direct sunlight. The Pro 5 is equipped with a fast Intel Core i9-14900HX and comes with a maximum GeForce RTX 4070 including 140-watt TGP. The Legion Pro 5 has made it ahead of the thinner Legion 7i precisely because of its very good performance.

The direct predecessor of the Legion 9 (2024) is already in 6th place in our top list. Both have the 3.2K mini LED display with a brightness of around 660 cd/m² or 1,200 cd/m² in HDR mode in common.