BestMacBookiMore2019
Unless you store big data, of course you don't store a much in a macbook Air. #preference for Adobe products like photoshop and lightrooms use System memory If your mac offers 1.good RAM with 2. Decent CPU (dual or quad)then go for it. Jan 30, 2019 - The best laptops for photo editing can rival traditional desktop. If you're after the latest and greatest laptop from Apple, then this year's 13-inch.
You'd be hard-pressed to find any website that does as much deep-dive research into everything about Apple's Mac notebook lineup than iMore. We run every model, ever version through their paces (and then some) to determine which is the best MacBook for the average person and which one is perfect for the pros. Our best overall pick is the MacBook Air. With Touch ID, a retina display, and sleek and slim design, this is the one to beat.
Best Overall: MacBook Air
With a major update in 2018, the MacBook Air now has a faster processor, Touch ID, a Retina display, and is still thin enough to fit into a manila envelope.
The Retina display specs are 2560 x 1600 at 227ppi with an sRBG color gamut, and the bezels are slim, providing as much screen landscape as possible on a 13-inch Mac laptop.
Though you don't get the much-loved MagSafe charging port, you do get, in its place, two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports along with the 3.5mm headphone jack. That means 40Gbps high-speed data transfer so you can move photos, videos, and huge documents between hard drives or other computers lickety-split.
The MacBook Air also now supports Touch ID for biometric security. Not only do you use it to unlock your MacBook Air, but also to pay for things online that use Apple Pay (it's such a time saver).
Pros:
- Retina display
- High-speed data transfer
- Touch ID
- Affordable
- 12-hour battery life
Cons:
- Only two Thunderbolt 3 ports
- previous-generation processor (8th-gen)
Best Overall
MacBook Air
The perfect Mac laptop for most people.
The MacBook Air has the perfect balance of features and affordability. As the lowest-price Retina display Mac in the laptop lineup, you're getting a hard-working computer without paying the premium price of the rest of the MacBook lineup.
Best value: 13-inch MacBook Pro (two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
The lower-priced 13-inch MacBook Pro is feature-rich without being too much computer for the average person's needs. It's got the highest-quality Retina display with 3DPI wide-color gamut, two high-speed Thunderbolt 3 ports for 40Gbps data transfer, and an ultra-fast processor chip. If you don't need more than two Thunderbolt 3 ports, support for heavy graphics, or daily lengthy video rendering, the smaller MacBook Pro has the best feature-to-price ratio, making it the best value of the MacBook lineup.
Pros:
- Portable
- Ultra-fast storage
- High-speed data transfer
- Retina Display
Best value
13-inch MacBook Pro (two Thunderbolt 3 ports)
The biggest bang for your buck.
When it comes to portability, the 13-inch MacBook Pro is just right. It's got the power of a top-of-the-line computer in a lightweight body you can take anywhere.
Best for pros: 15-inch MacBook Pro
For the pro on the go, there's the 15-inch MacBook Pro. This workhorse of a laptop can support up to 8 cores of Intel's latest Coffee Lake refresh processor chip with turbo boosts of up to 5.0GHz and SSD read speeds of up to 3.2Gbps. It's got four Thunderbolt 3 ports, the most in the entire Mac laptop line, and can be spec'd out to as much as 32GB of memory and a 4TB SSD hard drive with Radeon Pro Vega 20 graphics with 4GB of HBM2 memory. It's fast. It's powerful. It'll sing for you while it renders your videos (not literally).
Pros:
- Latest Intel processor (9th-gen)
- Improved keyboard
- Advanced GPU
- Up to 8 cores
- Touch ID
- Retina display
- True Tone
Best for pros
15-inch MacBook Pro
A pro laptop for the pro user.
If you need the most power and the best performance with the option of mobility and are willing to pay the premium price, the 2019 15-inch MacBook Pro is your pick.
Best for Versatility: 13-inch MacBook Pro (4 Thunderbolt 3 ports)
The four Thunderbolt 3 port 13-inch MacBook Pro starts about $500 higher than the two Thunderbolt 3 port model, but those extra ports may be the most important thing you'll need. It's got the highest-quality Retina display with 3DPI wide-color gamut, four high-speed Thunderbolt 3 ports for 40Gbps data transfer, and an ultra-fast processor chip. If you're going to be plugging in more than two peripherals that need Thunderbolt 3's fast data transfer capabilities, you're going to want to spend the extra money on those extra ports.
Pros:
- Portable
- Ultra-fast storage
- High-speed data transfer
- Retina Display
Best for Versatility
13-inch MacBook Pro (four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
Versatility at a lower price.
When it comes to versatility, the 13-inch MacBook Pro with four Thunderbolt 3 ports offers more flexibility for your dollar. You get high-speed data transfer from all four ports.
Bottom line
Because the MacBook Air has everything most people need for daily computer use tied up nicely in a small package, and because it supports Touch ID for biometric security and Apple Pay, it's our pick for the best MacBook in 2019. The fact that it's also the least-expensive Retina Display MacBook is just icing on the cake.
Of course, if you're looking for something with more power, but don't need the fastest, most powerful processor and graphics, the 13-inch MacBook Pro without Touch Bar has the most specs for its price, making it our pick for the best value.
Credits — The team that worked on this guide
Lory Gil is iMore's managing editor and has extensive knowledge of the MacBook lineup. Though she doesn't own every single MacBook ever, she's got a pretty decent-sized pile building up.
Rene Ritchie is iMore's resident Apple analyst and has studied every aspect of every MacBook. He puts his MacBooks through their paces and knows exactly what each one's limits are.
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Take your MacBook Air everywhere!Don't carry around your new MacBook Air bare! Get a case!
If you're looking to carry around you're new MacBook Air with something that will protect it when you're on the move, here are our favorite options.
I'm desperate for a new laptop that will keep up with my photo's.
The camera I use is a Nikon D3100.
I'm looking at the MacBook Air, 13inch, 128GB.
The camera I use is a Nikon D3100.
I'm looking at the MacBook Air, 13inch, 128GB.
I will not be editing videos, just photographs, on Apperture, and maybe photoshop elements.
Would this be suitable? If not, what laptop would you suggest?
Yes it would be suitable. The Mac's OS X recognises the D3100 and the Air will run the software without any problems.
You may want to consider an external wireless networked drive at some point to store a large/growing photo collection…
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/network/networkstorage/
And if you are feeling very ambitious the Air can drive two Thunderbolt displays…
It will do the job. Get a nice external Thunderbolt drive to hold your pictures.
Yes, but the hard drive size is pathetic.
You will probably need an external hard drive for storage.
Yes Your on right track. I would be suitable for you even i'm using the same system.