If you’re older than about 24, then you probably won’t be surprised to learn that the image above is often hailed as the most viewed photograph in the world.

That’s right, the minimalist image – taken by former National Geographic photographer Charles O’Rear’s – is likely to slap anyone born around the millennium with a backhand of nostalgia so great, that pulling a shiny Charizard, watching an episode of Daria or listening to Black Hole Sun couldn’t compare.

And in the month of January 2026, the image we’ve come to know as Bliss (originally Bucolic Green Hills) has reached its 30th birthday. The iconic shot served as the Microsoft XP operating system’s default wallpaper from 2001 to 2007, and is estimated to have been seen by a billion people (or billions, depending on who you ask).

As such, it’s often regarded as the most viewed photograph of all time. It’s certainly up there with the Apollo 11 images, the shot of Marilyn Monroe standing over the subway grate, and V-J Day in Times Square.

But where most of the world’s most famous photos are about capturing a historic moment in time, Bliss bucks the trend in that it’s a minimalist image of a rather unremarkable landscape.

And yet, I think it’s precisely this simplicity that is part of the image’s enduring charm. It was captured in California’s Sonoma County and yet, devoid of context, it could feasibly be any green hill across the globe. As such, it’s instantly relatable – and it boasts near-technical perfection, too.

It fits neatly within the rule of thirds, while the soft patches of light and shadow accentuate the curvature of the rolling hills, and the bright-white cirrus clouds pop against the deep-blue sky.

Bliss is so perfect that you’d be forgiven for thinking it heavily edited or even a render. But what is perhaps most surprising is that it’s an analog image, captured using a Mamiya RZ67 medium format camera and a roll of Fujifilm Velvia. Some have questioned whether Bliss was edited, but O’Rear and indeed UCR Arts maintain otherwise.

It was also an impromptu capture. O’Rear took the photograph en route to visit his girlfriend. And while Bliss is more iconic, he also photographed another Windows XP wallpaper called Red Moon Desert – which I personally think is an even better image!

According to Windows Wallpaper Wiki, the image was initially available through O’Rear’s co-owned stock-image library Westlight, with Bill Gates’ Corbis purchasing Westlight in 1998. In 2000, Microsoft bought the full rights to ‘Bliss’ for an undisclosed six-figure sum.

Today, the location has been replanted as vineyards, but we’ll always have the rolling green hills and vibrant blue sky immortalized by Charles O’Rear. Arguably, the most viewed photograph of all time.

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Want more inspiring photos? His color photos made him famous – but these early black-and-white images prove that Martin Parr was always a master. For more Noughties nostalgia: I found an old compact camera in the closet. When I powered it on, I started crying. And here's the latest camera news.

If you're shopping for a new computer, you've probably seen retailers shouting about their "Copilot+" laptops, which come with dedicated Copilot keys.

For the uninitiated, Copilot is Microsoft's AI assistant, which the company is currently cramming into practically everything they make: Windows, Edge, Office apps and even Bing search. You can chat with it, ask it to summarize documents, generate images or help write your emails. And while you don't actually need a Copilot+ laptop to use it, it will run faster and more efficiently on one.

Before you shell out hard-earned cash, though, let's take a step back.

Remember the Metaverse? That virtual world, which was supposed to change everything about how we work and socialize? Companies poured billions into it, and now... crickets. Well, I'm already getting the same vibes from Copilot.

The main problem: it isn't actually very good at its job yet.

Frequent mistakes

One IT executive in this Gartner Peer Discussion put it bluntly: Copilot is "frustrating to use, makes frequent mistakes" and doesn't really deliver the seamless integration across Microsoft's products that it should. Ouch.

I've played with it myself, and while it occasionally does something impressive, more often than not it delivers information that sounds plausible but is flat-out wrong. Not exactly confidence-inspiring when you're trying to get work done.

Plus, even its fans can only point to basic use cases. In the aforementioned discussion, people praised it for "summarizing Teams chats," "creating initial PowerPoint drafts," and "drafting SMART goals". Handy? Sure. Revolutionary? Not even close.

Especially considering the most useful features are locked behind subscriptions, costing up to $20/month for individuals or $30/month per user for businesses.

What's telling is that even Microsoft seems to be cooling on its AI investments. Reports suggest they've cancelled plans for significant data center expansions; a sign they're not seeing the AI demand they expected. Across industries, AI adoption rates have slowed dramatically according to recent studies.

Is there a killer app?

Just to be clear, I'm not anti-AI. There are genuinely useful AI tools out there. But paying a premium for a Copilot+ computer right now feels like buying a 3D TV in 2012; a technology searching for a purpose that might never arrive.

Microsoft is admittedly working hard to change that, recently launching Copilot Vision, which it hopes will become the killer app for Copilot. It will be launched in stages, but the basic idea is the AI assistant can "see" what you're doing on your screen and provide intuitive, visual guidance.

It argues that an AI that can show you how to perform complex tasks within software, without breaking your workflow to search online or decipher confusing menus, could be a productivity revolution. I'm not so sure.

Personally, I'd rather just use software that was intuitive to start with, and didn't have any confusing menus in the first place. I'm also not keen on having a chatbot literally record every single thing I do on my laptop.

In conclusion, if you're seeking out the best laptops right now, I'd advise you focus instead on what matters: a good screen, fast enough performance for your needs, decent battery life, and build quality that won't fall apart in a year. Sure, if there's a Copilot+ key on there, that's not necessarily a bad thing. But I wouldn't be paying extra for it.

Tablets sit in a strange place these days and have lost the explosive growth they saw in their early days. But this hasn’t stopped computer manufacturers from producing ultra-portable and lightweight hybrid tablets and laptops with Microsoft leading the way with its Surface line.

The Asus ProArt PZ13 is a direct competitor aimed at creatives on the go, offering a fantastic OLED screen alongside AI-powered processing. It’s undoubtedly a powerful device considering its impressively svelte and lightweight design, but it offers nowhere near the power of the Asus ProArt PX13 and the Asus ProArt P16.

That said, it is a Copilot+ PC for creatives who need a small and lightweight device for photo and video editing on the go. The PZ13 offers the form and function of a tablet alongside the convenience of a laptop with the processing power required for general editing tasks.

The small screen and lack of compatibility with some creative software such as Adobe Lightroom Classic are frustrating, although Lightroom CC and Photoshop are compatible, do reduce its useability. But to be fair you can get most of the tasks you need completed with the PZ13.

I love small and portable devices, including cameras, for obvious reasons. In most cases, you do have to make a handful of concessions because, with a smaller size, limitations of one kind or another are inevitable. The PZ13 makes up for this with a comfortable-to-use detachable keyboard and the Asus Pen that allows you to use it as a pen display/graphics tablet.

Asus ProArt PZ13: Specifications

Asus ProArt PZ13: Price

The Asus ProArt PZ13 is available to buy now, and although the marketing says up to 16GB of RAM and up to 1TB of storage, this is the standard spec available at the time of writing. A lower spec in these regards would be debilitating for creatives so it would be surprising if lower-end models are released.

The PZ13 costs $1100 / £1200 and is also a whisker less expensive than the Surface Pro, Copilot+ PC (11th Edition), which is the closest Surface model available and direct competitor. This suggests the PZ13 is well priced when you consider that the Surface is the 2-in-1 market leader. Plus, the build quality and overall performance of the PZ13 that’s on offer, which we’ll cover in more detail later, can’t be faulted.

Asus ProArt PZ13: Design & Handling

I have to confess that I’ve always had a soft spot for 2-in-1 laptops/tablets, mostly down to their compact size and lightweight which make them the most capable balance between these two types of devices. I also have to admit that I don’t own one, simply because I prefer the processing power available with more traditional laptops, at the expense of portability in comparative terms.

The PX13’s footprint is similar to a sheet of A4 paper and is 0.35in / 90mm thick with a weight of just 0.85kg / 1.87 lbs. It’s undoubtedly small and portable, but the build quality like all of the ProArt range oozes quality. Asus claims it can perform in extreme environments up to 70°C and as low as -30°C, and has been tested against all sorts of situations most people wouldn’t subject a device to.

It’s also rated against water and dust ingress to IP52, so with all this in mind you should be able to use the PZ13 pretty much anywhere and in most weather conditions. The weak point would have to be the screen in the case of a drop, but the included detachable keyboard and rear stand that act as a case might provide some protection here.

The Asus Pen can be stowed in the rear part of the case, which doesn’t magnetically latch onto the PZ13 quite as well as you’d hope when in stand mode, but it works. The Asus Pen works well in place of a mouse and comes into its own for photo and illustration software where the PZ13 is transformed into a pen display. In tablet mode, you have no physical keyboard, but if the keyboard is attached you can lay the screen and the keyboard flat to use keyboard shortcuts or use the rear stand.

The keyboard itself is comfortable to use, but not so much so that you’d want to use it all day for typing, just like any keyboard of this type. The size of the keys is good, although the Shift and Control keys are small like the other ProArt laptops. There’s also backlighting, which is a great feature for typing in low-light or dark environments.

The main downside to the PZ13 is the lack of ports, which to be fair is unsurprising given the small size of the device. What you do get are two USB 4.0 Gen 3 Type-C that support power delivery and display, alongside an SD card reader. Yes, you read that correctly, the PZ13 has an SD rather than a microSD card slot. You even get a microSD adaptor in the box.

This means that you’ll have to use a USB hub if you need to attach any USB-A devices, or a USB-C hub if you need to attach more than two USB devices or more than one if you’re charging or running from power. This isn’t out of the ordinary for this type of 2-in-1 and is essentially what you sign up for when you purchase one.

There are front and rear-facing cameras with the front 5MP /1440p camera aimed at video streaming / video calls and Windows Hello face recognition. Image quality is fine for these purposes but not great for taking photos, as you might expect. The rear camera is 13MP and can capture video in 4K. Quality is much better as you’d expect, but JPEG processing is heavy on both, especially in low-light situations.

Asus ProArt PZ13: Performance

For general tasks such as web browsing, typing, and watching movies, the PZ13 sails through these and the ability to use it in tablet mode makes the latter a clutter-free experience. When it comes to editing photos and videos, it has the power required but with only 16GB RAM and no discreet GPU, it’s not going to blow you away. It’s capable, but certainly not commanding in this respect.

Capable is good though, don’t get me wrong, and the Snapdragon X Plus X1P 42 100 Processor with AI capabilities does a stellar job in most situations. Using Photoshop and Lightroom CC, since Lightroom Classic is incompatible, I was able to do everything I needed to in terms of photo editing but more intensive processing tasks require patience. For example, applying Super Resolution in Adobe Camera Raw, where file size is quadrupled, took a whopping three minutes and 34 seconds.

The overall size of the PZ13 means that it’s not a device I’d want to use all day every day as my main computer, but on the go, it can get the job done. Running Davinci Resolve 19 (Windows ARM 64 version), The PZ13 was able to run the software, which is optimized for this type of device, although it’s much slower than a more powerful laptop. Outputting a 10-minute 4K video at best quality settings took 43 minutes, which is a long time.

The PZ13 was also tested with Geekbench and Cinebench, although the latter was unable to perform tests because the Snapdragon X Plus CPU doesn’t have AVX2 instruction support. For Geekbench, however, it scored 2369 for single core, 11218 for multi-core, and 9598 for graphics. It’s middle of the road, but not a bad score when you consider just how small and thin the PZ13 is, and how tightly packed the components are.

The 3K (2880 x 1800) 13.3-inch OLED touchscreen is small yet sufficient for a device of this type, but the on-screen image is fantastic. Asus claims it can display 100% of the P3 color space, and when calibrated using a Spyder XPro it was displaying 97% P3, 95% Adobe RGB 1998, and 99% sRGB, which is good enough for color-critical work. And as an end note, the sound quality is absolutely fine but not as good as the ProArt P16.

Asus ProArt PZ13: Verdict

The Asus ProArt PZ13 is never going to be your everyday computer if you’re a creative, simply because it lacks the processing power that’s currently available in higher-spec machines. More intensive tasks require time and patience because processing times certainly aren’t short, but what you might call standard laptop tasks are fine.

The thing with this device is that it’s not designed to be a main computer; it’s small, lightweight, and highly portable which brings with it compromises in terms of processing capabilities. But for general photo editing tasks in Photoshop and Lightroom CC, it performs adequately and the Asus Pen allows it to be used as a pen display for more precise editing.

Alternatives

TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has unveiled its new AI text-to-video generator in China in the form of a new app called Jimeng AI.

In direct competition with Sora, from Microsoft-backed OpenAI, Jimeng AI enables users to generate short-form videos through text prompts – similar to the generative AI technology made popular by Sora after its release in February. 

Jimeng AI offers a monthly subscription to the app for $9.65 (approximately £7.57 / AU$14.68), or $92.00 annually (£72.20 / AU$139.96), enabling users to create 168 AI videos per month. The technology has been developed by ByteDance-owned Faceu Technology and is available on both Android and the Apple App Store for Chinese users.

Similar to its rivals, Jimeng AI uses text prompts to make short videos that supposedly match the description given by the user. Jimeng means "dream" in Chinese, and could be used for a range of content from entertainment and marketing to education. 

Examples of the technology from its website range from the beautiful to the downright bizarre, including tropical moonlight woodlands and Renaissance cats in gold silk dresses. The written prompts are in Chinese, which is a feature only available on a limited number of AI video-making tools. 

Jimeng promises that with a single prompt "you can also make creative changes to existing pictures, customize the image features of characters or subjects, and achieve background replacement, style association, style preservation, posture preservation and other operations to meet the creative needs of various scenes."

Jimeng AI is the latest in a flurry of recent AI technologies in China. Kuaishou is one of China's largest video services, and it released its Kling AI word-prompted model to a global audience in late July. Its beta version is available to everyone worldwide, requiring only an email address. 

Also introduced last month was Ying, from Chinese AI start-up Zhupi AI, quickly followed by the Vidu app, launched by another start-up Shengshu. If TikTok's success is anything to go by, though, ByteDance's take on AI video may become the most popular of them all. 

Take a look at our guide to the best AI image generators and, if you prefer to do things the old-fashioned way, check out the best video editing software.

It's Super Bowl commercial time again, and this year's promo from Microsoft pushes its mission to get its AI efforts off the ground – although all while setting up a worrying vision of the future of creativity.

Microsoft, despite its foresight to invest heavily in the early days of ChatGPT, has seen its own separate efforts to integrate AI tech into its products not exactly go to plan. Since launching its revamped AI-powered Bing, it has seen its share of the market grow a miserly half a percentage point, while ChatGPT manages to attract over a hundred million active users a month. Google's more hesitant rollout of Bard (potentially now called Gemini) hasn't hurt its market share with over ninety percent of search.

In an effort to actually get people to use its AI tools, Microsoft is ditching the often punchline Bing branding for its AI tools and moving everything into a shiny new service called CoPilot - which is what its new Super Bowl spot is here to promote.

The ad serves up several people hoping to achieve their dreams - the only issue, they don't have the skills to actually make it a reality. Do they go out and find a crack team of paid professionals to help? No, of course they don't – in perhaps a worryingly accurate vision of the future, Microsoft's CoPilot AI does it all for them.

We see a budding movie writer create a storyboard using generative AI. AI "designs" a logo for a new business. And a wannabe video game developer, but one that didn't think to learn how to code themselves, has CoPilot build a video game for them. 

Perhaps more concerning is Microsoft's suggestion of using CoPilot to help you get a degree - when AI has been heavily linked with the incorrect information and plagiarism that is currently plaguing schools and universities.

But what message does this commercial send to the millions of people who work in the creative industries that Microsoft is basically suggesting we will no longer need? Thanks for your service (and your scraped AI training data), we'll take it from here. 

All these tasks highlighted in Microsoft's ad are ones that would have taken one or several paid persons to complete - people with skill and training for that unique purpose. And with fewer properly skilled people checking AI’s working, then it's only going to introduce more errors.

As someone who works a few different creative jobs (photography, web design, journalism) it's hard not to see commercials like this and get a little knot of panic form in my stomach about the future – my future – as I see not just how easily replaceable I am, but also how fast this future seems to be coming.

Okay, it's not really Microsoft's responsibility alone to prevent or solve the global socio-economic issues that AI is about to introduce. But with great power comes great responsibility - if there is some impetus to at least try to regulate AI for the benefit of society, then maybe we can avert the worst effects on the creative industries.

These days you can easily find yourself faced with a case of copyright infringement if you use text-to-image generators such as DALL•E 3 or Midjourney to create images. An innocent prompt could output a very familiar-looking face and, if you go ahead and use it, you could be breaking copyright laws. 

Gary Marcus, founder and CEO of Geometric Intelligence is somewhat of an AI expert. His column, Marcus on AI is dedicated to dissecting and discussing the controversies, advantages and advances in AI. He recently embarked on an experiment with Reid Southen, a concept artist, illustrator and designer who has worked on The Matrix, Transformers, The Hunger Games and Marvel films. 

In a mission to prove how easily image-to-text generators can "accidentally" recreate recognizable characters created by other artists, the pair fed Midjourney a series of prompts such as "videogame hedgehog" and "animated toys". On both occasions, DALL•E output four very familiar-looking images of the characters from Sonic the Hedgehog and Toy Story. On neither occasion did Marcus specify these characters but, due to how image generators scour the internet for information, they yield infringing artwork. 

It’s not just an issue for image makers, either; The New York Times recently filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, accusing the companies of wrongfully using newspaper articles without permission to train their AI chatbots. Founded in 1851, The New York Times is one of the oldest newspapers still published. And despite the decline in sales of physical copies, the outlet still invests massive amounts of money in well-researched journalism and reporting for both print and online. 

The New York Times filed the lawsuit at a Manhattan federal court, making it the first major US media organization to go up against ChatGPT. Not only is the company looking for compensation for damages, it also wants to ensure that writers are protected in the future by banning chatbots from being trained on its data. 

In response to the lawsuit, OpenAI released a statement acknowledging the concerns and emphasizing its commitment to addressing them. "We take these legal challenges seriously and are actively reviewing our information-sourcing practices to ensure compliance with all relevant laws and regulations."

Legal experts suggest that OpenAI's case may hinge on whether the organization can demonstrate that its information-sourcing methods comply with copyright laws and privacy regulations. If OpenAI is found to be in violation, it could face significant financial penalties and reputational damage.

The outcome of these legal battles may have broader implications for the field of artificial intelligence, particularly in terms of how organizations source and use data from the internet. As the lawsuits unfold, the tech community will be closely watching to see how OpenAI navigates these legal challenges and whether it prompts changes in industry practices related to information sourcing for AI models.

Technology from the best AI image generators is becoming more and more coming in the best photo editing software. Good thing, or bad thing?

AI in one way or another is now a staple in our everyday lives, whether it's asking our virtual assistants for directions, unlocking our phones with facial recognition, or generating new artwork - it has changed the way we live our lives, and after thirty years of being untouched, changed the Microsoft keyboard. 

Microsoft has announced the addition of an AI button named the 'Copilot Key', that will allow users to make commands via Microsft's AI companion - Copilot. The change will be made to all new Windows 11 PCs and start the 'significant shift' toward AI being integrated into all aspects of new Microsoft technology - aiming to both simplify and amplify user experience in the modern age!

• Check out our helpful guide on the best photo-editing laptops

Microsoft states, "We are energized by the stories that have been shared on how Copilot has inspired and empowered people across the last year – and we know our work is never done in our relentless pursuit to continue to innovate on behalf of our customers."

Microsoft has continued to develop Copilot through 2023, integrating it into its Bing search engine and Microsoft 365 where it can be used as a powerful productivity tool, offering assistance in writing documents, email organization, and much more.

Moving forward, a touch of a button and a conversational command will unlock creative options on your Windows PC. Some of the ways Microsoft has advertised the use of Copilot can be seen in the promotional video and advertising images. Microsoft states "Whether it’s turning your ideas into songs, creating beautiful images, and adjusting your PC settings...get started with Copilot today".

Where the Copilot Key may play a significant role for photographers, is with image generation and editing. Commands such as 'remove background' and 'adjust brightness' make small fixes easier. The Luminar AI app can also aid in AI editing and enhancement, such as changing the sky in an image. Copilot will make this much easier to incorporate into the everyday workflow. 

It's not the first time an assistant button has been added to a laptop device. Apple's virtual assistant Siri, had a button included on the touch bar of the Apple MacBook Pro, however, was not given its own established key and certainly not across all new Apple models.

The new Copilot Key is the first since the introduction of the Windows key over 30 years ago. This shows how much AI has had an effect on tech and gives an insight into the importance Microsoft places on it moving forward.

More Windows 11 PCs will be announced during CES 2024 from Microsoft's 'ecosystem partners', and they will all harbor the Copilot Key, including the Surface devices. Availability will start later this month and more information can be found on the Microsoft website.

You may be interested in our guides for the best Dell laptops, the best HP laptops, and the best Lenovo laptops, as future Windows 11 iterations are set to include the new Copilot key. 

Amazon is one of the most powerful companies in the world. The trillion-dollar conglomerate has its fingers in e-commerce, advertising, streaming and more recently surveillance. Since the launch of Alexa devices, Ring doorbells and the Neighbor app, Amazon has eyes and ears everywhere and in doing so has created one of the largest public surveillance rings in the world. 

It’s kind of scary when you think about how much influence Amazon has on the world. What started as a humble book-selling platform from the garage of Jeff Bezos’ rental apartment (thanks to a big investment from his parents) is now one of the most valuable brands in the world alongside Apple, Microsoft and Walmart. But giving civilians access to CCTV that can be shared amongst communities and accessed by law enforcement has created even more of a divide between race and class in more affluent, primarily white areas in the States. 

• Check out the best spy cameras perfect for recording people secretly

Society has willingly bought into Amazon’s easy way of living. At first, people invested in Ring Video Doorbells as a means to protect their homes from potential thieves but now anyone who looks even slightly suspicious (even if they have no bad intention) can be watched. Without realizing we have signed ourselves up to be monitored at home and in our local neighborhoods by installing such devices. Whether you're taking the bins out, having a conversation around one of Amazon's always-on listening devices or dropping a package around to a neighbor, there is a chance you've been caught on camera. 

When Ring Doorbells were launched in 2014 (long before they were acquired by Amazon) they turned a familiar device on its head – suddenly you could receive an alert from your phone when someone was at the door and be able to see who it was. In 2016, a live-view feature that lets you see and speak to visitors from anywhere in the world and as Ring doorbells have advanced – so has the level of surveillance we have at our hands. Ring was acquired by Amazon in 2018 and since then we've seen the launch of the Peephole Cam, a feature called Pre-Roll which shows 4 seconds of footage captured before the motion sensor is triggered and in 2023 the first battery-powered HD doorbell was launched making them even more accessible. 

Footage recorded by Ring Doorbells is supposed to remain private but there have been incidences when Amazon has landed itself in trouble with the law for handing over footage to local authorities.  In 2018, Ring launched the Neighbors app which enables users to get real-time, hyper-local updates about what's going on in their neighborhood. People can anonymously share videos they deem suspicious and anyone who has crime alerts set to on will be notified as they occur making law enforcers privy to footage that would otherwise need a warrant to view. 

According to the Sentencing Project, African Americans are imprisoned at 3.5x the rate of non-Hispanic white people. In 2016, black Americans made up 27% of prisoners (double their share of the population) and black people are 3.7x more likely to be arrested for the possession of marijuana than white people. Now while these statistics may not seem to have anything to do with Amazon’s surveillance, how Ring Doorbells and the Neighbor app are used is hurting individuals from minorities. 

Affluent white communities, especially in the US, are known to invest not only in Ring doorbells but in Ring’s external floodlight cameras and internal security cameras. This is largely due to the fact they can a) afford to and b) believe they have property and valuables that will be better protected by enhanced security measures. For those who use home surveillance devices to keep an eye on who is at the door and whether the delivery man correctly delivered a parcel – these devices are pretty innocent. But one neighborhood in L.A. has started using these devices as a way of alerting neighbors of 'suspicious behavior' – and often those reported are Black or Hispanic. 

Ring doorbells are now thought to be the largest civilian surveillance in the US. According to Business Wire roughly 36% of homes in the US have smart video doorbells – of which 40% are ring doorbells. Ring doorbells are making it almost impossible to do anything without being recorded – whether that's taking the bins out, delivering food to a neighbor or getting into your car. Even at home, people are being monitored much more closely.

In 2018, Ring started brokering partnerships with local police departments in the US and as of November 2023 over 2023 are part of the programme. This controversial move raises concern for three main reasons. It takes ownership away from homeowners, it has the potential to put people who are already discriminated against by the police force at even more risk of persecution and could mislead police officers as to how to spend their time – especially if something takes place in an area of personal interest. 

Devices such as Ring doorbells may be designed to keep us safe but they also keep us on constant alert. They make us wary of everyone and instead of craning our necks over neighbors' fences like you might've done in the 'good old days', you can sneakily watch what people are up to from the comfort of your home. Ring doorbells have proved they are useful - especially when it comes to proving a package wasn't delivered safely or carefully but there is a much darker side to this all-singing, all-dancing doorbells. 

I'm sure people buy them with the genuine intention of deterring criminals, but at what point do we start assuming everyone who doesn't look the same as us or "who doesn't belong in the area" might be up to no good? There is very little evidence to show that Ring doorbells or other types of CCTV prevent crime. The only 'study', showing a 55% reduction in burglaries over a six-month period, is more of a promotional event. The sample pool was so small it's hard to be sure how accurate the results are. 

Until there are more thorough, independent studies into the effectiveness of Ring doorbells, it's worth considering the implications of getting one fitted. It might enable you to keep an eye on who comes to your door when out and about but at the cost of your own and your neighbor's privacy. We're already monitored the moment we step into the supermarket, a restaurant, or even the gas station, should we be monitored in our neighborhoods too?

You’d be forgiven for searching for the PNY EliteX-PRO and being a little confused. PNY’s naming system for its SSDs is slightly hard to follow, with it currently offering the PNY Elite, PNY Pro Elite V2, and this – the PNY EliteX-PRO. 

These similarly named devices are mostly separated by their different specs for their USB connections, however, they are not separated much by their prices, with there only being a $15 difference between the Pro Elite V2 and EliteX-PRO at the time of writing. 

The PNY EliteX-PRO is both the newest and the fastest of the drives, with a USB-C 3.2 Gen 2x2 connection. Coming in four capacities, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, and 4TB, the 500GB model offers max read speeds of 1500MB/s and write speeds of 900MB/s. The 1TB can reach 1500MB/s read and 1400MB/s write, and the 2TB and 4TBtops out at 1600MB/s read and 1500MB/s write.

However, there is a question of whether your machine can take advantage of this, with many laptops and desktops coming with just the standard 3.2 Gen 2, and not the newer 2x2 spec, so many users might not be able to feel the benefits over a slower drive.

But where EliteX-PRO comes up aces is on price. If you have the optimal connection then the PNY EliteX-PRO might well be a very tempting proposition as it undercuts the competition, with other drives from rivals with similar headline speeds mostly much more expensive. But even if you can’t get the top speeds from your USB connection then it is still worth considering the EliteX-PRO as it matches slower drives for price, making this a great value option that might become more useful if you upgrade your other hardware.

PNY EliteX-PRO: Design & Handling

The PNY EliteX-PRO is a very non-descript portable SSD, the small square drive looks very minimal with a gunmetal grey metallic finish and rounded sides, branding is also kept at a minimum with the product name printed on one side, and regulatory information at the base. The EliteX-PRO is not going to stand out, but I don’t mind that, with drives like SanDisk’s Extreme range being very shouty in their design, this drive is sleek and professional looking, and would look good in a studio or directly attached to a camera.

The drive is very light too, when I first picked it up it felt almost hollow, and it sounds a little that way too, like the shell is too big for the components inside. Again, if you want to use this for direct camera recording, having a light and compact drive makes carrying, balancing, or fitting to a rig much easier.

The drive has a USB-C connector and comes with two cables, one for USB-C to USB-C and the other for USB-C to USB-A. These cables are both very short at only 19cm (~7in), and the cables also don’t have a lot of flex in them which meant I couldn’t position the SSD around my laptop and other peripherals very easily. 

PNY EliteX-PRO: Performance

I should start by saying that I do not have a Gen 2 2x2 USB-C connection on my laptop, but I do have an actual laptop many photographers and videographers use in their everyday lives – the MacBook Air (M2). So while the benchmarks might not be as high as they could be, this is realistically what a lot of people can expect from the drive.

I am testing the 500GB version which has a quoted maximum read speed of 1500MB/s, and write speed of 900MB/s. Using the drive straight out of the box, the drive's performance is good, although I could not get near the advertised speeds when transferring files from my MacBook SSD to the EliteX-PRO. Transferring 16.68GB made up of around 775 JPEG and RAW images took 31.36 seconds, which works out as 531.89 MB/s. 

Using benchmarking was kinder. Using BlackMagic’s Disk Speed Test, I got read speeds of 848.1MB/s and a write speed of 772.5MB/s. 

When I reformatted the drive from ExFAT, which is how the drive arrives, to Mac OS Extended, this same transfer as above took only 19.62 seconds for a speed of 850.15MB/s, which is a significant improvement. However, if you use multiple operating systems then this won’t be a viable solution for you.

PNY EliteX-PRO: Final Verdict

The PNY EliteX-PRO SSD stands out as a remarkably compact and lightweight solid-state drive, that would suit direct-from-camera recording, or as a drive to edit directly from. The EliteX-PRO has an unassuming exterior, with a smart minimalistic look. The EliteX-PRO is also priced affordably, this drive manages to undercut a significant portion of the market for USB-C Gen 2 2x2 drives, making it a compelling choice for those looking for high-speed, reliable storage solutions without breaking the bank.

When it comes to performance, the PNY EliteX-PRO SSD offers commendable speeds, especially when used with Gen 2 devices, which many photographers and videographers will be working with day-to-day. While the EliteX-PRO SSD may not always achieve its advertised peak speeds, it consistently delivers performance that is on par with or even surpasses many of its competitors within the same price range.

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If you're looking for a less fruity iPad Pro - one that's more about Windows than iOS - then Robo & Kala's stunning 2-in-1 might be the alternative you've been looking for. It's powered with an ARM processor - the same energy-efficient tech that Apple Silicon is built with, gifting it silent operation and great battery life. The keyboard and pen attachments are magnetic – more in common with the iPad Pro. Oh, and the body is an elegant CNC unibody style. Then again, it has two USB-C ports, lets you upgrade the storage, and runs a full desktop operating system. Now that's a bit different!

Actually, the OS gives it a bit more in common with the Microsoft Surface, which is also available in energy-efficient ARM-based form with detachable keyboard but, like this device, runs Windows 11. We were very impressed with that, which seems to have wiped away the early concerns about running Windows on ARM which have lingered online but should now be consigned to the bin of history. 

Robo & Kala haven't been around long, but they seem determined to use this modern tech to break traditional boundaries, perhaps making a name for themselves as they shatter Apple's tablet-OS-for-tablets approach. We'll explore whether that's a good idea as we go (spoiler – it probably is), but we also need to know if the Robo & Kala 2–in–1, or Robo&kala as they write it on the case, is the right choice. It'd also be nice if they'd given it an actual name, but you can't have everything. Let's see how close we do get...

Specifications

Processor: Snapdragon 8cx Gen3 chip with 8 cores (4 + 4 efficiency)
Ports: 2x USB-C 3.2 (DP)
RAM: 16GB
SSD: 512GB
Screen: 12.6-inch 
Resolution: 2560 x 1600 px (16:10 OLED) 98% DCI-P3
Battery: 'up to' 20 hours / 41.4Wh
Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Cameras: 13 megapixel rear (4K video), 5MP front (1080P), 1MP infrared face unlock
Dimensions: 7.3mm 
Weight: Tablet only: 690g

Key Features

This is a true 2-in-1 laptop and tablet running Windows 11 on ARM. It's desktop mode works with a color-matched keyboard and trackpad attachment (which, at least at first, is being bundled free via Amazon) and a kickstand. That kickstand can also be used alone, with strong hinges and a good range of movement.

Two USB-C ports allow for charging via the included 65W charger at the same time as connecting to a peripheral, while the optional pencil and keyboard need only magnets to be attached (and don't even need to be attached) making the OLED display very useful around the home and office. There are also front and back cameras for full tablet duties, and face unlock. Oh, and being a proper computer the USB-C ports are DisplayPort, so you can just plug into a monitor and start using it too.

Build and handling

Our device arrived in a few separate boxes; the keyboard, tablet, a lovely case, and a pen. These reflect the alternate bundles on offer, and perhaps we were lucky to get the whole set, but one thing that was apparent from the packaging was the height of Robo&kala's aspiration. White boxes, simple clean design, film wraps, need I say more?

Unlike the iPad, though, this tablet can stand up on its own thanks to the kickstand which allows the device to be positioned at a laptop-like angle all the way around to an angled notepad. That goes well with the pencil which works straight out of the box and is clearly inspired by the Apple Pencil 2 – no bad thing. 

The chassis is a rich green aluminium color and I simply cannot understate how good it looks (though it is a fingerprint magnet, so keep a cloth nearby!) The edges reveal drilled-hole speakers in the gorgeous metallic green build. These come around the 12.6-inch AMOLED display and its thin bezel, and the kickstand closes flat against the back with a hinge at either end. Admittedly the stand edge is so thin because it is metal right to the edge, so there is a risk of scratching, but it seems OK.

Aside from acting as a laptop, tablet, or notebook, the device offers an extra trick via a 'separation mode' in which the keyboard's Bluetooth keeps it working remotely from the tablet. Imagine being able to plug into a display system but take the keyboard to the meeting table? It's a great idea, and very handy, though it'd be better if the keyboard didn't disconnect to save battery so readily and then take a few seconds to relink.

Display

The OLED screen's 600-nit brightness is a noticeable strength of the device and colors are rich and easily seen in normal light. The resolution is such that Windows displays natively at 200%, which means it looks phenomenal compared to the grainy pixelation on a typical monitor. The rounded corners also look good, though they do hide a few pixels.

When using the very Apple-like pencil, the point of interaction seems to follow reasonably smoothly, and the 4,096 pressure levels can be used in different ways via Windows Pen setup. Similarly, the screen seems to detect fingers naturally and the small bezel or sensible error rejection means that using it handheld becomes second nature quickly.

Camera

As with most tablets, you won't be holding a phone replacement in your hand (even the iPad Pro has one fewer camera than the iPhone Pro), but the main camera certainly has the ability to capture usable images in adequate light or to perform other duties like scanning QR codes.

The cameras are both flat against the shell of the device which makes it slip easily into the case and makes them easy to wipe clean (and, to be fair, easy to get finger grease on the selfie/conferencing camera).

Admittedly the face unlock feature does like to be looking straight at you, and blinks agressively at you with a red LED which can be a little annoying. Occasionally I accidentally lifted the tablet from the keyboard in the process of unlocking, but it is all resolved in a moment, and you don't have to use it after all.

Performance

In benchmark testing the Robo & Kala wouldn't be expected to perform faster than high-end computers, but in real-world use the machine blasts through day-to-day tasks like web browsing, file management and the like. Even when we try more demanding tools like Photoshop it works.

Given the size of the machine, that is actually a little difficult to get your head around. The idea that this can be a 'proper' computer is almost incomprehensible. The fact it's doing so – and looking so good doing it – in a world Apple seem to want customers to fork out for a phone, laptop, AND a tablet ought to be a real worry for team Cupertino!

Putting it into numbers it's also apparent that, compared to the Surface Pro 9 or a Dell XPS 13 with an Intel processor, that there is little in it, especially in the multi-core tests.

It's also worth pointing out that even though Robo & Kala's battery claim of 20 hours is wildly over the top it's still possible to get around half that which is excellent. This is where the ARM chip's efficiency outlasts ordinary laptops and this difference is significantly more noticeable than benchmarks for many. 

Robo & Kala for photographers

Of course the built-in cameras aren't really the most exciting aspect of the device for serious photographers – what is more interesting is the chance to take control of your favorite software in as many ways as possible. In that regard a lightweight tablet with a bright screen, a pressure-sensitive pen and a long battery life are appealing, before you even throw in the prospect of a full grown-up operating system and the software choice that brings with it.

I tried Photoshop – real Photoshop, which works on ARM – and it seemed reasonably snappy to me, though I could perceive a hint of a lag which I simply don't on a MacBook. This was especially true with the pencil, but it is still handy, and the button can be used to switch from, say, draw and erase.

In contrast to the world of Apple, it has to be said that Windows on ARM still has a few little pauses. On a fanless machine with silent file storage, they can be somewhat disconcerting, but the trade-off is that you have access to a full file system – you can plug in external storage, copy files over and do with them what you will. The screen's resolution is also well-suited to camera remote control apps.

It's also true that a good number of my Adobe apps weren't available in ARM-friendly form; no Premiere Pro, for example. 

Overall verdict

Looking gorgeous and so sensibly priced, with so much to be said for it in terms of flexibility it's hard to imagine why this shouldn't make it to everyone's shortlist. Perhaps only video editors – who can get Final Cut on the iPad Pro might want to skip this.

Admittedly we encountered a few little glitches that aren't part of the tablet experience for Apple loyalists, but in those instances, we were doing things beyond iOS's abilities anyway.

Similarly there area couple of things the pricier Surface Pro has which would be nice here, not least the rather nice dual-magnet keyboard. Typing on the Robo & Kala is still pretty easy as the keys have about 1.3mm travel, but the keys are resolutely level with the surface. The trackpad is fine, too, though perhaps slightly uneven (easier to press at the bottom). Other devices also offer cellular data connections which would be a nice option to have even if, to be honest, you're usually better off using your phone's hotspot.

Mostly, though, the Robo & Kala just feels like a premium product. It feels good in the hand, the kickstand is tough (but not too tough), the backlighting on the keypad doesn't leak round the keys and they're good to type on. Neither laptop mode nor tablet feel like a compromise, and Windows seems well able to handle both.

When weighed against the investment, this is the best Windows on ARM device out there but, more than that, this should be a real fright for Apple too. It is a powerful, adaptable portable computing device that still manages to feel premium in nearly all the right places without being wallet-busting. It serves to elevate my view of Windows as a platform.

This isn't the only device that should have the iPad quaking in its boots – check our review of the Lenovo Tab Extreme as well as our guides to the best iPad alternatives, the best Android tablets, and the best iPads.

It's a double celebration for DxO as it releases updated versions of the Nik Sharpener and HDR Efex plug-ins, the last two to be modernised from the days when the Nik Collection was owned by Google.

DxO acquired the Nik Collection from Google in 2017, just when it looked as if one of the best photo editing software suites might be lost for ever, and has spent the last six years re-authoring "millions" of lines of code, much of it undocumented, to make it fully compatible with modern hardware and systems, including Windows, MacOS and Apple Silicon, which is now used for many of the best MacBooks for photo editing, for example. The update also adds support for the best 4K monitors and beyond as high-DPI monitors become the norm.

Nik Sharpener is a two-part tool which offers a 'presharpener' for general detail enhancement and an 'output sharpener' to optimise sharpening for specific print sizes and output devices. This is actually an important technical process that's often overlooked but is key to the best print quality.

Nik Sharpener now has the latest interface design shared by the other Nik Collection plug-ins, with a "clearer, cleaner" look and the option of using DxO's local adjustments via sliders attached to control points in the traditional manner or via sliders in the sidebar.

The same update has been applied to Nik HDR Efex, another older Nik plug-in that was due some attention. HDR Efex can merge separate bracketed exposures into high dynamic range images, and it can also apply its HDR effects to single images too.

Both plug-ins get DxO's latest Control Line local adjustment tool, which works rather like a gradient mask but with an eyedropper to select the tones to be affected by the adjustment.

There are some workflow improvements for Photoshop users too, so that it's now possible to turn an image into a Photoshop Smart Object even after you've started editing it, and the ability to apply any of your last 15 Nik Collection edits with a single click.

Also, the Nik Collection now automatically detects Affinity Photo during the installation, so that you can easily launch the Nik plug-ins from this program too.

For existing Nik Collection 6 owners it's an easy decision, as Nik Collection 6.3 is a free update. Otherwise, it costs $149 / £135 (about AU$229) for new users and $79 / £69 (about AU$121) for owners upgrading from Nik Collection versions 4 or 5.

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3D depth-sensing cameras (also called Time of Flight cameras) are pivotal in the advancement of AI, with applications ranging from motion control sensing, to self-driving cars, to object avoidance in drones. Now Orbbec, an industry leader dedicated to 3D vision systems, has announced a trio of new 3D camera products developed in partnership with Microsoft.

What is a Time of Flight camera?

First is the Femto Bolt, a compact RGB-D camera with HDR capability for RGB and advanced sync trigger support. Depth compute is performed on host computer via the camera's USB-C connection which provides power and transfers data. The Femto Bolt is expected to be available in October.

The second camera in Orbbec's new range is the Femto Mega. Announced in January and currently in production, it is the industry’s highest resolution smart camera. It uses a built-in NVidia Jetson Nano to run its advanced depth vision algorithms to convert raw data to precise depth images, thereby eliminating the need for a separate computer. It also adds Power over Ethernet (PoE) connectivity for both data and power, making the camera ideally suited in environments where the camera has to be placed away from the processing computer, or in multi-camera setups.

Finally, there’s the Femto Mega I. Currently shipping, this ruggedized intelligent 3D camera boasts an IP65 ingress protection rating, making it suitable for use in industrial settings like warehouses, manufacturing, and other harsh environments.

All three cameras use a 1 megapixel depth camera, based on Microsoft’s iTOF technology used in Azure Kinect Dev Kit and Hololens 2. This enables a wide field of view and high accuracy across a broad range. Also incorporated into each Femto device is a high-performance 4K RGB camera, and a 6DOF IMU for orientation. A sync control hub enables easy connection for multi-camera and multi-sensor networks. The camera's software development kit enables easy setup and registration, while the application programming interface allows integration with various applications.

More information can be found at the Orbbec website.

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With the best laptop webcam built into your computer, you can enjoy great image quality, silky smooth performance and innovative features. And with remote work and virtual meetings as commonplace as ever, for many webcam quality is an essential consideration when choosing a new laptop.

Of course, you don't just buy a laptop for its in-built webcam: you want it to do all sorts of other things too. That's why we test all aspects of the best laptops, to make sure they deliver on all fronts.

In this article we've listed the best laptops that feature great webcams as well as fast performance, great picture quality, and more besides. However, if you'd prefer to stick with your current laptop, then you could alternatively connect a separate exterior webcam (or even mirrorless camera) to your PC, and perhaps use a ring light or other illumination device too.

Our top picks

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Best webcam laptops 

The best laptop webcam overall

The HP Dragonfly G4 is a lot of laptop, and you’ll need to want the entire package to justify its asking price, but you do get one of the best built-in laptop webcams on the market if you do decide to go for it.

The days of low-res webcams are thankfully behind us, but the G4 takes it a step further than 1080p with a 5MP webcam built into the bezel around its 3:2 ratio touchscreen that’s capable of giving a 1440p picture.

The enhanced detail of the camera is great to have, and though it’s not the highest resolution on the market, it also benefits from HP’s excellent software, which allows it to detect and frame the speaker, smooth their appearance, and blur out the background.

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The best Apple laptop webcam

Our reviewer found a lot to love about the latest MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024). The screen is stunning, and the new M4 chip absolutely blows old Intel chip-equipped MacBooks out of the water. Plus when it comes to the webcam, it boasts a high quality 1080p camera.

Overall, this is a hugely powerful laptop, although may be overkill for some many, especially if you're not doing a lot of resource-intensive tasks like photo or video editing. So if you want a 1080p webcam, you may prefer to save a little money and opt for the previous 2023 M3 MacBook Pro, or even the latest M4 iMac.

See our full MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) review

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The best 2-in-1 laptop webcam

A Windows 11 tablet rather than a laptop - the keyboard case is sold separately - the Surface Go 4 is underpowered in its Pentium incarnation unless all you’re doing with it is surfing the web. Luckily, there are upgrades to the CPU, RAM and storage available that turn it from a touchscreen triviality into a seriously useful machine - though you’ll pay for the privilege.

That goes for the webcam too. It’s a 5MP model that’s perfect for 1080p video calls and selfies, and as it’s a tablet there's another 8MP camera on the back too. You also get Windows Hello functionality, where the Surface Go is unlocked using facial recognition.

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The best Chromebook webcam

Chromebooks – laptops that run the lightweight ChromeOS from Google – tend to have lesser specifications than Windows laptops, as all they’re going to be asked to do is run web apps through the Chrome browser. This doesn’t mean they’re any less capable, as there are full office suites and image editing apps available for them, but they’re not expected to work as hard.

This model from HP has a spec that a budget Windows laptop would be envious of, and its 1080p webcam means your video calls should be clear and sharp.

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The best laptop webcam for gamers

The Razer Blade series are all gaming laptops, but having those powerful CPU and GPU chips also makes them better for doing other things, like intensive image or video editing. The 1080p camera found at the top of the Blade 16’s screen should provide excellent image quality, plus it enables Windows Hello functionality. Naturally with so much performance on tap, you'll pay a high price to get your hands on a Blade 16 (and that's before you get tempted by the options list!). But if you want a Windows laptop that'll stay as future-proofed as possible, it may just be a worthwhile investment.

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The best laptop webcam for business meetings

Lenovo’s ThinkPad line - gained with the company bought out IBM’s laptop line - are business-oriented machines with a reputation for having everything you need to be an executive on the move, and that goes for the webcam too.

The display on the X1 Carbon is sharp and bright, and that’s mirrored by the 1080p camera that pierces the screen’s bezel. It’s a Windows Hello compatible model, so you can unlock your laptop with just your face, and while it may not be the cheapest laptop out there it has a very serious specification to match its serious status, easily performing all day in video conferences and office work.

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FAQs

How to choose the best laptop webcams

When choosing a laptop webcam, there are several key factors to consider. First, resolution: look for at least 1080p full HD resolution, as this will provide sharp, detailed video suitable for professional video calls and streaming. Low-light performance is important if you frequently have video calls in dimly lit rooms. Also, consider privacy features like camera shutters or kill switches to disable the webcam when not in use for security. Finally, prioritize laptops with high-quality microphones if you need excellent audio capture.

How we test the best laptop webcams

We put each webcam model through rigorous real-world testing to thoroughly evaluate its performance. We make video calls and participate in virtual conferences using each webcam to assess video and audio quality in real meeting environments. We stream live video using the webcams to judge their suitability for applications like game streaming. We record video of ourselves with the webcams under different scenarios to critically analyze footage quality. We don't just focus on video: audio quality from the webcam's built-in microphones is also carefully evaluated during testing for clarity and noise cancellation.

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First introduced in 2017, after Microsoft successfully managed to turn around its Surface Pro lineup of hybrid devices into a critical and commercial success, it introduced the more traditional Surface Laptop line, showing that it wasn’t just Apple that could make smart-looking devices.

The Surface Laptop was made to show off Microsoft’s Windows 10 S operating system, made for lower-powered machines. Windows 10 S never took off and was quickly shelved, but the product line lives on, and Windows 10S has since contributed to Microsoft's excellent return to form with Windows 11.

The Surface Laptop range differs from the rest of the Surface lineup by offering the most traditional laptop design with a fixed clamshell lid and a comfortable typing experience. This is a departure from Microsoft's more experimental devices such as the detachable hybrid Surface Pro line or the unusual fold-down screen of the Surface Laptop Studio.

The Surface Laptop lineup is now in its 5th generation, with each upgrade not revolutionizing what came before, but instead offering incremental upgrades to keep up with some of the latest developments in technology and processors. After offering a mixed bag of Intel and AMD processors on the previous two generations of Surface Laptops, this year's models are an all-Intel affair. 

With the Surface Pro 4 still being widely available at the time of writing, are the new changes just a little too incremental or is the Surface Pro 5 worth the upgrade?

Specifications

Processor: 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1255U
Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
RAM: 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB LPDDR5x
SSD: 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB
Screen: 15” PixelSense touch display, 2496x1664 (201 PPI), 3:2, Individually color-calibrated display, Dolby Vision IQ support
Ports: 1 x USB-C with USB 4.0/Thunderbolt 4, 1 x USB-A 3.1, 3.5mm headphone jack, 1 x Surface Connect port
Connections: WiFi 6 802.11ax compatible, Bluetooth Wireless 5.1 technology
Battery: Up to 17 hours of typical device usage
Video/Audio: Windows Hello Face Authentication camera, 720p HD front-facing camera, Omnisonic Speakers with Dolby Atmos 4, Dual far-field Studio microphones
Size (LxWxH): 340 x 244 x 14.7 mm
Weight: 1,560 g

Key Features

The Surface Laptop 5 is available with either a 13.5-inch Pixelsense touch screen or a 15-inch Pixelsense touchscreen, the latter of which is the model we are reviewing here. The 15-inch screen is probably the better choice for photo and video editors who may need to fit more on their screen for faster multitasking. Both model's screens however are color calibrated and offer the same 201 PPI.

The Surface Laptop 5 screen is powered by Dolby Vision IQ, which claims an ultra-wide and ultra-vivid color palette, as well as sharper contrast and richer detail. For sound, the Surface Laptop 5 contains Microsoft's OmniSonic speakers, which are tuned with Dolby Atmos 4 technology for a more immersive sound experience. On the front, there is a 720p webcam and a Windows Hello face login array.

The Surface Laptops are powered by 12th-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processors built on the Intel Evo platform. Both models can be configured to an Intel i7-1255U processor that should be good enough for multitasking and productivity as well as some light photo and video editing.

The Surface Laptop 5 has a single Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port, which is capable of being one port for charging, connecting a 4K monitor, and transferring large files quickly. The Laptop 5 also has a single USB-A 3.2 port, as well as a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a proprietary Surface Connector for charging the laptop or connecting up Microsoft's Surface Dock hub.

Microsoft clams up to 17 hours of battery life on the Surface Laptop 5, although expect this will vary quite wildly depending on what you use your laptop for, with common photo editing software, such as Adobe Lightroom, being a big battery drain.

The 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 5 has a choice of an Alcantara fabric keyboard in platinum or is available in a metal finish in black, sage, or sandstone colors. The  15-inch model is available in platinum metal or black metal. The model we are testing in his review is the 15-inch platinum metal coloured Surface Laptop 5.

Build & Handling

As always with Microsoft, the build of the Surface Laptop 5 is excellent. Microsoft's laptops come at a slight premium cost and this is clearly shown in their premium design aesthetic and Microsoft's attention to detail. The Surface Laptop is a fantastic-looking device and is a laptop you would be happy to be seen using. The all-metal chassis feels strong and sturdy, and you could confidently throw this into a bag knowing that it will survive trips to school or the office, or a busy day on set.

The keyboard is exceptionally comfortable to type on. The keys are a good size with good separation and have great key travel, I found myself easily gliding through typing out large chunks of text (including parts of this review). The trackpad is also very large, finally a worthy rival to Apple's incredible laptop trackpads. This larger trackpad makes it so much easier to use multitasking gestures, as well as editing software where you might use large strokes or multiple fingers.

The screen is bright and sharp, with a fantastic natural color balance, looking at images on the Surface Laptop 5, they look accurate and true to life, this is an excellent screen for photo editing or any other color-critical work. Microsoft has stuck with quite significant bezels on the Laptop 5, which are starting to look very dated against the competition, with the latest from Dell and Samsung offering a much better screen-to-body ratio. When the rest of the design is so sharp, this really sticks out as lazy or cost costing.

It's great to see this generation of Surface Laptop 5 including a Thunderbolt 4 USB-C port as this makes connecting to external 4K monitors or connecting external drives a much faster experience. However, the other selection of ports is falling behind for a modern laptop. Including a USB-A port offers good backward compatibility, but with most devices using USB-C nowadays, and dongles aplenty, it is about time that Microsoft replaces this port with a second Thunderbolt-enabled USB-C port. 

Microsoft Surface connector also has its pros and cons, being magnetized is very useful for quickly attaching and detaching, and won't pull your laptop off the table if you trip on it (although USB-C chargers are unlikely to either). However, on the Surface Laptop 5, I feel this could be space that would be better served by another USB-C port, especially as there are no other ports on the right-hand side of the laptop apart from the surface connect, which makes plugging unmovable peripherals sometimes difficult.

Performance

You can see some benchmarks for the Surface Laptop 5 below. We have compared it to Microsoft's Surface Pro 9, and the Apple MacBook Air, as these represent two premium alternatives that rival the Laptop 5. Both Surface devices use slightly different Intel i7 processors with integrated Intel Xe graphics, while the MacBook uses Apple's integrated CPU/GPU, the Apple M2, none have a dedicated graphics card.

The Surface Laptop 5 in these specs is quite disappointing, falling behind both the Surface Pro and far behind Apple's latest MacBook Air in all categories. The Surface Laptop 5 is very thin and light, but then so are these other two devices, with both managing to squeeze out more performance.

However, benchmarks are different from real-world use, and the Surface Laptop 5 doesn't feel underpowered when completing day-to-day tasks. Navigating through the operating system and opening apps is quick and responsive. In my tests of everyday functionality, I could open and switch between scores of tabs in Chrome, as well as streaming, downloading, and uploading which didn't cause any noticeable slowdown. The Surface Laptop also handled copying in large amounts of pictures and text into Word and working with large datasets in Excel without issue. The Surface Laptop 5 is a fantastic productivity device.

When it comes to photo editing, there were a few more hiccups with the Surface Laptop 5, when editing in Lightroom everything is just a little bit slower than with other laptops in this category. The Surface Laptop 5 didn't fail at any task, it can apply batch edits, gradients, and batch export it doesn't grind to a complete halt, but you can feel the processor strain.

Lacking any dedicated graphics card, it is not really expected to be a video editors laptop, although Apple's M2 silicon is showing what can be done with integrated graphics at around the same cost. When editing videos on Adobe Premiere, there were numerous freezes when trying to scrub through videos and exporting projects. In less resource intense video editor apps, it had an easier time, but with a much more limited scope for editing. The Surface Laptop 5 is fine for very casual video editors, but if you frequently need to edit videos, go for a machine with dedicated graphics such as the Surface Laptop Studio.

Microsoft's recent updates to Windows 11 have made a huge impact on how nice it is to use the Surface Pro 9. The latest version of the Microsoft operating system is much more attractive with updated textures, icons, and graphics. It has taken a long time, but I feel the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 finally has an operating system that befits its beautiful hardware.

The speakers on the Surface Laptop 5 come with a lot of registered trademarks, but Microsoft's Omnisonic technology with Dolby Atmos 4 doesn't add up to a winning sound experience. The speakers are acceptable but lack any considerable bass, and while the volume can get loud, the audio still sounds small. Especially with the 15-inch version of the Surface Laptop, Microsoft had space to do better.

Verdict

Microsoft's Surface Laptop 5 is a fantastic option for anyone design-conscious, who wants a traditional clamshell design Windows laptop that is oozing with style. With a big, sharp, and colorful screen, a fantastic keyboard, and a large trackpad, the Surface Laptop 5 is a joy to use. Although a design overhaul wouldn't go amiss, with its chunky bezels needing reducing and a couple more ports squeezed in.

The Surface Laptop 5 performs very well at productivity tasks, easily handling Office apps for work or school, intensive web browsing, and video streaming, and photographers can be confident in performing light photo editing in Lightroom or Photoshop. When it comes to video, the Surface Laptop struggles and keen filmmakers might want to look at options with a dedicated graphics card or an Apple logo.

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The first Microsoft Surface device wasn't a runaway success, in fact, Microsoft had to take a billion-dollar write-down on unsold products, but it did introduce us to the idea of it the detachable laptop and tablet hybrid for the first time. 

It took a few further attempts for Microsoft to finally make a version of the Surface Pro that was worth buying, but with each iteration, they have slowly improved on every aspect of the surface Pro until we have got to where we are today - The Surface Pro 9.

After Microsoft showed how it was done, every Windows computer manufacturer now has a Surface Pro imitator, with a huge variety of the best 2-in-1 laptops available. You could argue even Apple is getting in on the action by maneuvering its iPad Pro to be more and more aimed at a hybrid productivity device rather than a dedicated tablet.

There are a couple of different Surface Pro 9 models. The one we are looking at today is based on Intel's processors. Microsoft also makes a Surface Pro 9 with 5G that is built on an ARM-based processor developed between Microsoft and Qualcomm, called the Microsoft SQ3, which we will cover in a separate review.

With so much fresh competition in the detachable and 2-in-1 space, have Microsoft managed to stay ahead of the game that they started, and is the Surface Pro 9 the best detachable hybrid you can currently buy?

Specifications

Processor: 12th gen Intel iCore i5 or i7
Graphics: Intel Iris Xe graphics
RAM: 8GB, 16 GB, 32 GB (LPDDR5)
SSD: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB
Screen: 13-inch pixel sense flow display, adaptive color, 10-point multitouch, Dolby Vision IQ
Resolution: 2880 x 1920, 267 PPI, 120hz dynamic refresh rate
Battery: up to 15.5 hours
Cameras: front facing 1080p full HD, rear camera 10MP 4K video
Sound: 2w stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos, dual far-field studio microphones
Connections: 2x USB-C with thunderbolt 4, Surface Connection port, Type Cover port
Network: Wi-Fi 6E 802.11ax, Bluetooth 5.1
Size: 287 x 209 x 9.3 mm
Weight: 879g, without Type Cover or Surface Slim Pen

Key Features

The Surface Pro 9 has a 13-inch Pixel Sense touch screen that is compatible with Surface Pens including the latest Surface Slim Pen 2. The screen has a pixel resolution of 2,880x1,920 with a density of 267PPI, support for Dolby Vision IQ, and supports a dynamic refresh rate of 120 Hz for smoother movement when scrolling and in graphical content. There is also adaptive color management, which will adapt the colors on the screen based on the ambient light of the room to decrease eye strain in dim environments. The screen also has Corning Gorilla Glass 5 for added scratch protection.

One of the best things about the Surface range is its screen aspect ratio of 3:2, which makes it perfect for viewing documents on word processing software such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. 3:2 is also the default ratio for photos from many digital cameras which makes it perfect for editing.

The Surface Pro 9 comes with a 12th-generation Intel core i5 or i7 processor, and Intel's Iris Xe graphics. The Intel Surface is also configurable with 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB of RAM and hard drive sizes from 256GB up to 1 TB.

Whilst the Surface Pro 9 is offered in optional configurations starting with an i5 processor and 8GB of RAM, and this might be tempting as it is the cheapest option. If you plan to use this device heavily, especially for photo and video editing, it will struggle. An Intel i7 and 16 GB of RAM are the minimum recommendations for this machine for a good editing experience.

Microsoft rate the battery of the Surface Pro 9 for up to 15.5 hours of typical device usage, which includes internet browsing and watching videos saved on your hard drive, but don't expect to reach that if you include streaming or any photo or video editing.

The Surface Pro 9 has a Windows Hello face authentication camera on the front which can log you into your computer with just your face, it is capable of 1080p full HD video for high-quality video calls and is paired with dual far-field studio microphones and two stereo speakers which are tuned with Dolby atmos. The Surface Pro 9 also has a rear-facing 10-megapixel autofocus camera which is capable of up to 4K video. 

For connectivity, the Surface Pro 9 has the latest Wi-Fi 6E speeds enabling it to connect to the fastest possible Wi-Fi, although this does require a 6E compatible Wi-Fi router. The surface Pro 9 also has the latest in Bluetooth technology with Bluetooth 5.1.

Build & Handling

Microsoft hasn't changed the design of the Surface Pro much in the last few years, although, if it ain't broke don't fix it, with the Surface Pro devices being some of the nicest looking and best-designed devices around. The latest iteration has slightly more rounded sides but otherwise follows the same design pattern as the previous surface devices. 

The main feature of the design is still its kickstand and hinge on the back of the device. This is something that Microsoft nailed quite early with the Surface and has not been replicated by any other manufacturer anywhere near as well. The hinge is strong and stable and allows you to position the tablet anywhere from almost upright for typing to flat on the table for a slightly raised drawing position.

The port selection on the Surface Pro 9 is still very disappointing. There are only two USB-C ports, although they do support Thunderbolt 4. They are both located on one side and there is a proprietary surface charger connector on the other, this charger connection can't be used for anything else (unless you use a Surface Dock). As a device that would be perfect for content creators on the go, two ports just really aren't enough, it would be fantastic to see Microsoft retire the Surface Connect port in exchange for another USB-C, and add an SD card slot to the Surface Pro line.

Behind the kickstand, there is a small removable cover with a very clever magnetic hatch that hides the Surface Pro 9 hard drive. This hard drive is completely user replaceable so could make for quickly upgrading or swapping between different work or personal laptop setups, and is a really nice touch from Microsoft in a world where upgrading most hardware parts in consumer devices is nearly impossible.

The bezels on the left and right (in landscape) on the Surface Pro 9 are very small, while at the top of the bottom (again, landscape) they still remain larger, this is to house the webcam at the top and at the bottom for the surface keyboard to rest. This looks totally fine when the keyboard is attached, but when it's used as a tablet the screen symmetry is slightly off which spoils the overall design somewhat.

Speaking of the surface keyboard, which, for whatever reason is still an optional accessory, I am using the Alcantara fabric keyboard which just feels exceptionally nice to hold. The keyboard is incredibly slim but still manages to have a really good level of key travel on the full-size keyboard, the stability of the keyboard when typing won't suit heavy typers as it does still have a little flex and wobble, but it is a great keyboard for on the move. The trackpad is okay, if a little small, it also requires quite firm presses which aren't always easy when you are not using the device on a firm surface.

In the Surface Type Cover, there is a small notch for the latest variation of the Surface Slim Pen (again, an optional purchase). This is where the pen sits when not in use which also wirelessly charges the pen, which is an exceptionally clever design. Although this does mean that you cannot own the Surface Slim Pen without owning the Surface Type Cover, or buying another pen charging accessory.

Performance

You can see some benchmarks for the Surface Pro's Intel i7 processor and Iris Xe graphics below. This is a very slim and compact device so it is not expected to be a benchmark champion, however, it performs admirably against similar devices, beating the Dell XPS 13 detachable in multi-core and OpenCL graphics tasks. The Surface Pro 9 also manages to hold its own against the entry-level M2 processor in Apple's MacBook Air, showing Apple isn't as far ahead as it would have you believe.

In practice, the Surface Pro 9 flies through tasks such as web browsing, streaming, downloading and uploading files, and office tasks like word processing. When it comes to more intensive tasks like photo editing, the Surface Pro 9 handles Lightroom and Photoshop well. 

It isn't the fastest device to do heavy photo editing work on, but at the same time it didn't struggle too much and I managed to edit and export a large batch of photos in Lightroom in good time, although large exports did slow down the Surface and prevent much else being done at the same time. 

This won't be a suitable replacement for any computer doing large volumes of image editing, but it is the perfect companion for editing as you travel.

The Surface Pro 9 did struggle more with video editing but managed to do okay. There were a few slowdowns and freezes when trying to scrub quickly through videos on Adobe Premiere and when exporting the finished project, it rendered the rest of the computer unusable until it finished. This is very normal for computers that don't have dedicated graphics cards, and not surprising for this light and compact hybrid.

Microsoft's recent updates to Windows 11 have made a huge impact on how nice it is to use the Surface Pro 9. The latest version of the Microsoft operating system is much more attractive with updated textures, icons, and graphics. It has taken a long time, but I feel the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 finally has an operating system that befits its beautiful hardware.

The touch screen is fast and accurate, when writing with the optional Surface Slim Pen, the tracking and inking were some of the best I have used. Windows 11 is much better for touch than the previous version, however, it is still a desktop operating system first, and I found a lot of the icons and gestures for touch are still a little too small and fiddly, and I often went back to the trackpad.

The speakers in the Surface Pro 9 are very good, although don't expect anything too special as they are still tablet speakers. They offer a good range of sound with clear vocals in songs, the bass is lacking but overall this is a good system to watch videos on the go, but it won't be replacing your home cinema.

Verdict

The Surface Pro 9 is still a device that is hard to pin into any category. If you're looking for a heavy-use laptop, or an uncomplicated tablet, this isn't for you. This is not the best device for either, but it currently is the device that does both of these things the best.

A very well-built and beautiful device with a kickstand and hinge that still reigns supreme in the 2-in-1 world. If you choose to buy the Surface Type Cover and Surface Slim Pen (which you really should) then this is a fantastic productivity device for on the move.

The surface Pro 9 is deceptively powerful from its compact form factor. Not struggling to get through any productivity tasks thrown at it and even managing to handle a good amount of photo and video editing with aplomb. 

• The best photo-editing laptops 
• The best 2-in-1 laptops
• The best laptop docking stations
• The best laptops for video editing

If you're a keen photo or video editor you will know that having a great mouse for video editing will help you tremendously, and the MX Master 3S from Logitech has been designed to take the stress out of photo and video editing by designing a mouse that is fully customizable to help you edit your way to success with your next project.

The appeal of the Logitech MX Master 3S, besides it being a wonderful wireless mouse, is the fact that Logitech has worked with Adobe Creative Cloud to give you a mouse whose buttons can act as a shortcut for multiple tools. 

For example, its handy thumb scroll can be used for brush sizes in Photoshop or scrubbing through a massive timeline in Abobe Premiere in fact, there are several layouts to choose from in the Logitech Options+ software that allows you to make this mouse not just a cursor, but become a vital tool in the likes photo editing software, Zoom calls, and even Microsoft Word - with much more!

Logitech MX Master 3S: Specifications

DPI:  up to 8,000 DPI
Customization: 7 fully customizable buttons (program dependent)
Wireless:  Yes, 10-meter operating distance (can also be used plugged in)
Interface: USB 3.0
Colors: White or black
Weight: 141g
Dimensions (W x D x H): 14.4 x 6.6 x 18.4mm
Operating system: Windows 10 onwards / Mac OS X 10.15 onwards, ChromeOS6, Ipad OS 14 or later, Android 8.0 or later.

Logitech MX Master 3S Key features

The Key feature of the MX Master 3S is its ability to be able to connect to practically any device, so if you have a Mac or PC this will work flawlessly however, the clever part is that the MX Master 3S can remember up to three different devices, all running different operating systems, so if you a heavy video editor using a PC all day, but also love to do a bit of video editing on your iPad, you can keep using the MX Master 3S across devices with the same keybindings so your workflow is never slowed down.

While being a wireless mouse with a built-in non-removable battery the MX Master 3S offers two way on connectivity for those with either a desktop computer or laptop with USB ports - or via a dongle. If you're a Mac user in the box you are provided with a wireless receiver called Logi Bolt, this simple receiver offers a totally plug-in and play service to anyone using Mac or PC.

For those that are traveling light and picking up an iPad for photo or video editing, or even going with the best android tablet the MX Master 3S also offers Bluetooth connectivity making sure you never miss out on that ultimate form of productivity. 

Logitech MX Master 3S Build & Handling

Material

The Logitech MX Master 3S is built from a mixture of hard plastic and recycled plastic, depending on the color option you choose. Black offers 27% post-consumer recycled material, while the option will give you 22% recycled plastic within its construction. Both the thumb and scroll wheel are made from metal, as is the base giving an overall premium feel to this rather light mouse.

Durability

While we can't initially say the Black variant will stay in tip-top condition we can, however, say that the white colorway stays clean in even the most stressed situations. With its solid construction and great battery life, we were not reaching out for the USB Type C charging cable before the end of the day, in fact, having used this mouse since it arrived for testing the unit is still showing 45% battery without being fully charged on arrival. 

If you're someone that likes to chuck a mouse into your bag along with other accessories we are confident that the Logitech MX Master 3S will hold out with the untidiest of packers, while the white model may pick up scratches due to its bright nature, we're positive the Black colorway will hold up very well in this situation.

Size

While there are other wireless mice on the market that offer wireless functionality at half the footprint of the MX Master 3S, some even offered by Logitech, they are only signed for one this  - to be a standard mouse to get most people by. The MX Master 3S really is designed for creatives of all kinds and due to its customizability it tends to be on the larger side of the spectrum, this size. 

However, isn't of putting and the mouse feels great in the hand for long periods of use without any RSI flareups. It will seem large to many but you soon get used to the size, the weight is also very light at just 141g making this a featherweight in comparison to smaller footprint alternatives.

Logitech MX Master 3S Performance

The Logitech MX Master 3S is designed to help content creators perform at their very best day in, and day out. Thanks to its 7 customizable buttons, helpful pre-installed shortcuts for all Abode Creative cloud applications, with the ability to make your own for various devices from its 3-option memory the MX Master 3S really is a multi-tool designed to help creatives get the job done.

While the Logitech Options+ software is a great tool to get the mouse up and running for most applications and users, those who really like to deep dive into DPI settings can really customize this mouse however they like, even to the way in which they hold a button and move the mouse - this is an amazing feature however, it doesn't offer a completely customizable approach when compared to the 6 other buttons you can customizable to your own preferences. The thumb rest button that offers unique gesture control can only be used in supported applications, and not in a way that appears overly useful.

Logitech MX Master 3S Verdict

If you're a photographer or filmmaker who spends a vast amount of time editing on your PC, Mac, or even iPad or tablet then you can really take advantage of the customizable features the Logitech MX Master 3S offers.

Its performance is industry-leading and its construction makes it a solid option for anyone looking for a mouse to take with them on the go or have at their workstation. While Logitech is using up to 27% recycled consumer plastics within the build of this MX Master 3S, it would be good to see those numbers increased with the next edition. 

We enjoyed making custom button profiles for Adobe Creative Cloud applications such as Photoshop, where many will find the pre-installed shortcuts fitting to their workflow seamlessly.  Cost is a big factor in the times we live in and while paying $100 / £119.99 / AU $169.95 for a mouse might sound a little steep, it is worth every penny when you consider how much time you will save in the editing suite of your choice when using its custom profiles - quite frankly its the best mouse we have ever used!

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Logitech C310 webcam review
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The best photo-editing laptops won't just be the perfect tool for photographers needing to do some photo editing. A machine with a fast processor, plenty of RAM, and a large storage drive will give you a computer ideal for home-working too. And the addition of a quality screen with consistent color and contrast will not only bring images to life, but can also help reduce eye strain and fatigue.

So which are the best? The latest MacBook models are still a force to be reckoned with, but don't ignore the latest crop of Windows laptops. The market is fierce right now, producing some excellent all-rounders like the Asus ProArt P16 and Microsoft Surface Laptop 5.

To help you make the right choice, our experts have reviewed and tested thousands of laptops. And in the article below, we present the very best laptops for photo editing on the market today.

The Quick List

The best photo-editing laptops

Most powerful laptop for photo editing

The MacBook Pro equipped with Apple's M5 Max chip is quite simply the most powerful laptop you can buy today. That makes it a good option if you edit a lot of large image files, and especially if you also do a lot of video editing.

Performance-wise, the M5 Max chip delivers impressive results in photo editing applications. However, you do pay a premium for this performance, so if you don't need a massive amount of power, you may be better off with one of the cheaper laptops featured below.

It's not just about power, though. Another top feature of the latest MacBook Pro is the optional nano-texture display. This could be a revelation for anyone who edits photos in a variety of lighting conditions; virtually eliminating glare while maintaining high color accuracy. Meanwhile the peak HDR brightness of 1,600 nits ensure your photos look spectacular.

Another plus point is the MacBook Pro's 17-hour battery life, which means you can edit all day without hunting for a power outlet. We're also big fans of the 12MP Center Stage webcam, which will make your remote client meetings more professional. Finally, the inclusion of an SD card slot, three Thunderbolt 5 ports, and the ability to drive multiple external displays makes this a versatile mobile editing station for photographers.

The MacBook Pro M5 Max is also available as a 16-inch model. That'll give you a more comfortable editing workspace, but the price you pay goes up significantly. We'd prefer to spend the difference on one of the best monitors for MacBook Pros, which you can use as a large second screen when editing at home.

See our full Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M5 Max) review

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Best photo editing laptop for most people

The Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 is probably the best laptop currently on the market for most people, who don't need the huge amount of performance offered by the MacBook Pro.

That makes it a superb choice for any photographer, videographer, or creative who wants a larger gorgeous screen, combined with enough power to comfortably run the latest editing software, and all wrapped up in a lightweight package that can easily slip into a backpack.

There are more powerful Apple options for really demanding editing situations, but for most people, the M4 chip inside the 'Air 15 will provide more than enough oomph to edit comfortably. Best of all, Apple recently upgraded the base RAM from 16GB to 32GB, without increasing the price.

The lack of abundant ports, and the absence of an SD card slot, holds this laptop back from being the ultimate laptop for content creators though. So the MacBook Pro is a slightly better all-rounder, if you're happy to pay more and carry more bulk.

Read our full MacBook Air 15-inch M3 (2024) review

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Best Windows photo editing laptop

Portable power like this is ideal for anyone shooting photos or videos in the field. The ProArt P16 has everything you need in one package, including enough storage to empty your memory cards.

In our comprehensive testing, the P16 performed incredibly well in Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Davinci Resolve. We also noted that the 24 addressable CPU threads of this laptop allow parallel tasks in Lightroom, such as exporting and generating smart previews, are given an extra speed boost.

However, all this power comes at a price, with the laptop, especially at higher spec models troubling most bank balances. Although as a laptop that’s versatile, portable, powerful, and with the Dial and touchscreen, it ranks as one of the best laptops for photo and video editing right now.

Read our full Asus ProArt P16 H7606WX review

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Best budget laptop

A laptop that can handle serious photo editing will never be really cheap, but we reckon the Asus TUF A16 strikes a great balance of offering fast performance at an accessible price. Firepower comes from a potent 8-core AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor, teamed with 16GB of RAM.

Screen specs haven't been skimped on, either. There's an excellent 16-inch IPS display with a healthy 2560 x 1600 resolution, plus it covers a hugely impressive 100% of the demanding DCI-P3 color space. That resolution may be lower than 4K, but it's already more than sharp enough to give you a super-crisp viewing experience.

During our time reviewing the TUF A16 we found it to also have a surprisingly good battery life for a laptop this powerful. Expect around 10 hours of light use and video playback, though inevitably if you work those 8 CPU cores hard, you'll need to plug in much sooner.

If you're after a laptop that gives you maximum bang per buck, the Asus TUF A16 is just that: exceptional value for money.

Read more: Asus TUF A16 full review

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Best for photo editing on the move

The latest MacBook Air (above) is already a great choice if you want a thin and light laptop for photo editing on the go. However, you'll pay a premium for that Apple logo, and not everyone is familiar with macOS. Fortunately there are plenty of Windows laptops that are just as travel-friendly and cost less, with the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Aura being one of the best.

It's based around a modern Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor - a CPU that's been designed for AI workflows, and which provides ample speed while running cool and preseving battery power. It's not going to break any speed records, but we found it to easily cope with some heavy-duty image editing in Photoshop, while still managing almost 22 hours of continuous video playback on a single charge. Screen quality is also excellent, with incredible color accuracy and impressive color space coverage.

You will have to make some compromises to have such a svelte machine, however. There are only two USB-C ports, and one of those will be used by the power cord when you need to recharge. Graphical processing is handled by the CPU, so this is no gaming powerhouse.

Read our full Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Aura review for more details

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Best MacBook alternative for photo editing

Microsoft's Surface Laptop 5 is a fantastic option for anyone design-conscious, who wants a traditional clamshell design Windows laptop that is oozing with style.

With a big, sharp, and colorful screen, a fantastic keyboard, and a large trackpad, the Surface Laptop 5 is a joy to use. Although a design overhaul wouldn't go amiss, with its chunky bezels needing reducing and a couple more ports squeezed in.

The Surface Laptop 5 performs very well at productivity tasks, easily handling Office apps for work or school, intensive web browsing, and video streaming, and photographers can be confident in performing light photo editing in Lightroom or Photoshop.

When it comes to video, the Surface Laptop struggles and keen filmmakers might want to look at options with a dedicated graphics card - or that sport an Apple logo.

Read our full Surface Laptop 5 review

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The Acer Predator Helios 300 represents an awful lot of laptop for a relatively affordable price. Despite its accessible cost, we found during our testing that you still get respectable photo-editing performance, courtesy of Intel Core i7 power paired with up to 32GB of RAM. In fact, there's enough speed here to rival laptops costing much, much more. Factor the healthy amount of built-in storage (up to a 1TB SSD, or a SSD+hard drive combo) and you can store thousands of high-res raw files without running out of space.

The Predator Helios 300 is marketed as a gaming laptop, so there are extras like a Turbo button that'll give you an overclocked boost for intense editing bouts, plus there’s custom control over the cooling fan, so you can balance cooling performance with fan noise. Granted, they're not essential features for photo editing, but this laptop is great value regardless.

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How to choose the best photo-editing laptop

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How we test the best photo-editing laptops

When reviewing a laptop, we assess its internal hardware features, build quality, ergonomics, performance in a variety of usage scenarios, value for money, and its overall suitability for its target buyer. Although we'll evaluate a laptop with a typical user in mind, we will also pay particular attention to the perspective of photo and video enthusiasts, with special focus given to screen quality and color space coverage. Where possible, a monitor calibrator will be used to measure a laptop's display performance to assess whether it matches a manufacturer's claims, and software benchmarks like Geekbench and Cinebench are used to measure a laptop's processor and graphics card capabilities.

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Compare prices

I think the best tablets for photo editing have come a long way over the past few years. Sure, the devices on my list aren’t going to replace the best photo-editing laptops outright, but if you’re a hobbyist photographer who wants a simple editing solution or a professional who requires an ultra-portable device to ferry projects between on-location shoots and your desktop computer, then the best tablet for photo editing might just be the solution.

Flagship tablets such as the iPad Pro M4 and Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra boast the processing grunt of a decent computer, and plenty of internal storage to boot. Rest assured, the best tablets for photo editing boast the hardware needed to edit high-resolution photos and video; the only caveat is the software. Unfortunately, iPadOS and Android both throttle their respective tablets when it comes to available applications.

You still won’t find a full-fat desktop version of Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom Classic on the App Store or Google Play. And if that’s a dealbreaker for you, then you might want to take a look at the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 or later models. Microsoft’s tablet and laptop hybrids run Windows 11, meaning you can install the desktop versions of Lightroom Classic, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro.

But for those who don’t want to rely on a tablet for all of their image-editing needs or casual photographers who simply want to make a few editing adjustments and get their images on Instagram ASAP, there are plenty of top-notch budget options in the crowded tablet market. With Apple having just launched the iPad Air M3 and iPad (2025), you can pick up the iPad Air M1 and iPad (2022) relatively cheaply. And if you’re after flagship specs but want to make every dime count, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra is hardly a compromise over the incremental update that is the S10 Ultra.

And if you’re intent on going as cheap as possible, without sacrificing quality, then the Amazon Fire Max 11 is hard to beat. Read on to find out each tablet’s specs, a more detailed explanation of its features, and who I’d recommend it for.

Best tablet for photo editing in 2026

The best tablet for photo editing overall

The iPad Pro M4 is Apple’s flagship tablet and hands-down my top pick for the best tablet for photo editing, thanks to its unrivalled combination of screen quality, connectivity, available software, and raw power. But the best product overall isn’t necessarily the best choice for you. If you’re not using huge image files, working with multiple layers, or editing video, then the iPad Pro M4 could be considered overkill. And if you’re working on a budget, then Apple’s most expensive iPad might be difficult to justify. For everyone else, the iPad Pro M4 is an easy sell.

The stunning display is so detailed that even my run-of-the-mill photos look incredible. The iPad Pro M4 can reach 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness when using HDR apps – much higher than any other tablet on this list – and as somebody who likes to edit in cafés, on trains, and outside, brightness is a big factor.

Heck, this device can even hit 1,600 nits of HDR brightness in small areas, while highly localized dimming of the backlight means dark areas look more realistically dark, or truly black, which is rare on OLED screens. Crucially, colors are highly accurate too, and for precision editing, the tablet supports the Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C) and has a 120Hz refresh rate.

The tablet is built around Apple’s M4 chip, but while it’s the most powerful processor in any tablet, it’s arguably too good. I was hard-pressed to find any software that could tax it, after all, it’s the same chip that features in Apple’s baseline MacBook Pros. You can even give your iPad Pro M4 a power boost by upgrading the standard 8GB of RAM to 16GB and adding an extra CPU core, by upgrading the storage to 1TB or 2TB. And this is the only tablet that goes up to 2TB of fast internal storage, too. More RAM means better performance, especially when using multiple editing layers, but honestly, the vanilla version of the iPad Pro M4 is powerful enough for me.

Other mod cons include a USB-C port that doubles as a Thunderbolt port for incredibly fast transfer. Sure, I’m still waiting for a desktop version of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classic to be released on iPad and iPadOS simply isn’t as suited to multitasking and batch editing as macOS, but if you’re looking for power and portability, then the iPad Pro M4 is king.

Read the full Apple iPad Pro (M4) review

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The best Windows tablet for photo editing

The Microsoft Surface Pro 9’s ability to run desktop Adobe applications makes it the only tablet on this list that you could use exclusively and still enjoy the functionality of a dedicated laptop or desktop. And I think that’s a huge plus point for the right photographer. The Surface Pro 9 is getting a little long in the tooth nowadays – if you want the latest tech, check out the Surface Pro 11 – but max one out with 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and a 12th-gen Intel Core i7, and you’ve still got a capable machine.

Up to 16 hours of battery life is mighty impressive – beating Apple and Android’s flagship offerings – and it also has two Thunderbolt 4 ports so you can connect to your camera and storage at the same time. The screen is impressive in terms of its colour accuracy, and its resolution of 2880 x 1920 is pleasingly crisp. It's not as bright and lacks the deep contrast that the mini-LED backlight of the iPad Pro M4 or the OLED panel of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra tablet can deliver, but in terms of general quality compared to most laptop screens, it's great.

There's a 10MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p HD and 4K video, plus a 5MP front-facing camera with 1080p full HD video, though neither is anything to write home about. The Surface Pen stylus is also available for precision editing, and the screen is 120Hz, so it feels very responsive to use. For anyone who needs a machine that's zero-compromise when it comes to software, this is the one.

Read the full Microsoft Surface Pro 9 review

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The best Android tablet for photo editing

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra is Samsung’s flagship tablet and while it hasn’t reinvented the wheel, so to speak, it offers up arguably the most compelling set of upgrades since the ‘Ultra’ line up debuted with the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra back in 2022. The boost in power, courtesy of the Mediatek Dimensity 9400+ CPU and Immortalis-G925 GPU, came as little surprise, but the slimline profile, weight relief and increased display brightness combine to deliver a meaty upgrade package.

And indeed, the first thing I noticed about the S11 Ultra is how thin and lightweight it is. On paper, the difference between the previous iteration’s 5.4mm thickness and the current generation’s 5.1mm doesn’t seem like much, but you certainly notice that 0.3mm difference in the hand. The S11 Ultra also weighs in at 692g/695g to the S10 Ultra’s 718/723g (Wi-Fi/5G), providing an all-around lighter experience, too.

Perhaps the S11 Ultra’s best quality-of-life upgrade is its super-bright screen. You get a gorgeous 1000-nit AMOLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, with a peak HDR brightness of 1600 nits. Very impressive for a tablet with such a large display.

Read the full Samsung Galaxy Tab S11 Ultra hands-on review

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The best value iPad for photo editing

The iPad Air M1 might be a couple of generations old, but it’s still a good choice for photographers on a budget. This 10.9-inch tablet’s M1 chip is still mighty capable for most applications. It’s light at 461g and thin at 6.1mm, and with its 11-inch screen, it'll hardly take up any room in your bag. I find my 12.9-inch iPad Pro a little too hefty for rigorous handheld use, but the 11-inch Air is just the right balance of size and weight.

The Apple M1 processor is still incredibly capable as far as tablets go, and even with 8GB of RAM, I still find image editing to be plenty snappy. Sure, high-res multi-layer projects and 4K edits are where the newer M chips excel, but the M1 was a humongous jump in iPad processing power back in 2021, and it shows.

However, there are clear downsides. The screen is very colour accurate, but it's less bright and lacks contrast compared to all the tablets above, and it's 60Hz instead of 120Hz. The tablet also only comes with 64GB or 256GB of storage, which certainly limits how many files you can keep on it. The USB-C port is good for connecting to storage (though it's not Thunderbolt, like the iPad Pro), but there's no other way to expand it.

The built-in cameras are solid-quality, too, so it's still a very strong machine for the price, as long as you won't miss the mod cons you'll have to give up to get there.

Read the full iPad Air (2022) review

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The best value Android tablet for photo editing

Let’s address the elephant in the room first; Samsung has ditched Qualcomm in favor of MediaTek to supply the S10 Ultra’s CPU. But while MediaTek is known as the more budget-friendly brand, the Dimensity 9300 edges the S9 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in most instances. And that’s a familiar story across almost the entirety of the S10 Ultra’s flagship specialist – it edges the S9 Ultra…

If you already own the Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 Ultra, you may opt to pass on the upgrade. But if you’re looking for a new tablet and you want the very best Android has to offer, look no further. Beyond the extra processing grunt, the Galaxy S10 is ever so slightly thinner and lighter, but that 14.6-inch OLED screen is still too big for the daily commute as far as I’m concerned. On the other hand, it is a sight to behold. I’d plump for my 12.9-inch iPad Pro because of its portability, but when I’m using it at home, I’d be lying if I didn’t want for more screen real estate.

And while the iPad Pro M4 has a more lusciously specced screen, the size increase of the Samsung may well be worth it, depending on where and how much you intend to use your tablet device. What I do really love about the S10’s display is its anti-reflective coating – absent on the S9 – a boon for anyone editing out and about.

The big problem here for those wanting a tablet to take on the lion’s share of their editing workflow is Android’s apps. If you want Affinity Photo and/or the best portable version of Photoshop, you’ll need an iPadOS device (although Adobe Photoshop for Android is supposedly coming later in the year). If you can get by using Photoshop Express or Lightroom, this tablet will have no problem handling everything you throw at it.

Read the full Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra review

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The best cheap tablet for photo editing

The Amazon Fire Max 11 is the largest and most powerful of Amazon's suite of tablets, making it the most suitable for photo editing – it offers a good-sized screen with decent resolution, and there's support for an optional (inexpensive) stylus.

Yes, the screen is less accurate than the pre-calibrated iPad screens, but it's fairly bright and looks good overall, so as long as you're not doing pro work on it, the quality should suffice. Unlike iPads, though, this has a microSD card slot for expanding the storage with up to an additional 1TB, so it offers all the capacity I could want.

It's lighter than some of the mid-range competition, too – not by much, but every little helps when you're trying to keep your kit feeling portable. Amazon also promises that its toughened glass is three times stronger than the cheaper iPad's glass, but I haven't tested that. And I'm not sure I want to!

The potential fundamental flaw with this tablet is the software. Fire OS is based on Android, but it lacks the Google Play Store, offering an Amazon equivalent instead that's lighter on apps. There certainly are photo apps here, but if you want to have complex apps with capacity for more complex work, I'd look elsewhere. But if I were concerned by cost – it’s regularly discounted on Amazon – and only required a tablet for some light edits, I’d happily consider the Fire Max 11.

Read the full Amazon Fire Max 11 review

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The best affordable iPad for photo editing

Okay, here’s the deal. Apple has finally upgraded the iPad (2022) here with the iPad (2025), but it’s a bit of an incremental update. The big difference is an upgrade from the former’s A14 Bionic chip to the A16, up to 512GB of storage and 6GB of RAM (up from 256GB and 4GB of RAM), and a 0.1-inch increase in screen size. The display is virtually identical, and the camera is pretty much the same, too.

So, until the Digital Camera World review is released, it’s worth taking a look at the iPad (2022) review to work out whether you’d be better off opting for a more powerful iPad or if Apple’s entry-level option is for you. And if you’re intent on picking up the cheapest iPad available, the iPad (2022) is still being sold new for a slight reduction on the 2025 offering.

Honestly, I'd probably opt for the iPad (2025) at this point as it'll presumably be supported with iPadOS updates longer into the future. And although I was a little disappointed with the upgrades, the iPad (2022) is still a decent little tablet. The screen is colour-accurate out of the box, which is obviously great, though its non-laminated design means it's more prone to reflections, and it's significantly less bright than most newer tablets. Note that both the iPad (2022) and iPad (2025) work with the Apple Pencil 1st gen or the Apple Pencil USB-C, but not the Apple Pencil 2 or Apple Pencil Pro.

Entry-level iPads don’t boast the M chips of their more expensive brethren so this tablet isn't as powerful as the iPad Air M1 and would get smoked by the iPad Pro M4 in terms of raw chip speed. But you can still run the App Store versions of Photoshop, Lightroom, Affinity Photo and so on, which really puts iPadOS above Android. Sure, the A14 isn’t designed for the complex, multi-layered editing of huge images, but that's what the latest Air and Pro models are for. As with all iPads, it's a shame there's no microSD card slot for easily expanding the storage, but at least the USB-C port means you can connect external drives or your camera.

Read the full Apple iPad (10th Gen, 2022) review

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The best premium tablet for photo editing

The OnePlus Pad 3 is a great choice for Android users because it boasts a gorgeous 13.2-inch screen and plenty of power. That 3.5K screen is the first thing you’ll notice. It has a slick 144 Hz refresh rate and is an absolute pleasure to use and work with.

At the heart of the OnePlus Pad 3 is the premium Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. This octa-core chipset is designed to provide a 45% CPU and 40% GPU performance increase, and it certainly proved itself on test, handling photo editing, video editing, and gaming. And while the base model (used on test) has 12GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, you can opt for 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, should you require.

The camera on this model is pretty standard fare, with an 8-MP front and 13-MP rear camera, with the rear camera able to capture 4K / 30p video. And while most people will no doubt be listening to audio via headphones, kudos to OnePlus for including a surprisingly competent set of speakers for a tablet.

Just know that the keyboard and stylus (optional extras) will really start to push the price up. But if you’re looking for an Android machine to churn through some edits and you don’t mind OnePlus’s proprietary OxygenOS, this competitively priced, premium tablet has both the oomph and the screen to please on-the-go editors.

Read the full OnePlus 3 Pad review

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The best tablet for retouching

I think the best tablet overall for retouching is the iPad Pro M4. But with the 13-inch model starting at $1,299 / £1,299 – and that’s without an Apple Pencil – the XP-Pen Magic Drawing Pad is a tantalizing alternative for anyone who doesn’t require flagship tech. Not only is this tablet less than half the price of the iPad Pro, but it comes with a stylus, which doesn’t require charging.

The matte, textured screen provides a fantastic drawing experience, but at the expense of a little sharpness. This does mean that I can only recommend this tablet for photo editing if you’re specifically looking to add a stylus to your workflow, something I find particularly useful when retouching skin. It’s also a good choice for any photographers who also want to engage in a little digital illustration in their spare time.

If you don’t think you’ll get much use out of the stylus, then I’d opt for a tablet with a better screen and CPU. The Mediatek MT8771 gets the job done for lighter edits, but I wouldn’t want to rely on it for bigger layer-based jobs or video. And as always, an Android tablet will require you to make sure that you’re happy with the available apps before purchase.

But at the end of the day, it’s affordability that makes this tablet a great choice for the right photographer. It’s cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 FE – although this is more powerful and also comes with a stylus – and iPad Air M3. Ultimately, the XP-Pen Magic Drawing Pad won’t be for everyone, but it does fill a niche within the market.

Read the full XP-Pen Magic Drawing Pad review

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FAQs

How to choose the best tablet for photo editing

Just because a tablet has some impressive numbers and a slick design, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's the best tablet for photo editing. There are a few features that you'll want to keep an eye out for, including the size of the screen and its resolution. You'll also want to make sure that the quality of the screen and its color accuracy is assured.

Processing grunt might be at the forefront of your mind when selecting the best tablet for photo editing, but screen size, resolution, and color accuracy are just as high on my list. iPads are known for their excellent-quality displays and DCI-P3 colour gamut support, but Samsung’s flagship tablets also boast top-tier screens, as does Microsoft’s Surface Pro range.

OLED displays offer richer contrast than most LCD screens, making them a tempting choice for photographers who want to view a greater dynamic range. However, some are still prone to burn-in over time. That said, OLED tablets can still be very worthwhile, just make sure you research how prone your choice is to burn-in and set your device to lock quickly when idle.

Photographers who edit on the fly will need to prioritise battery life, as well as weight and size. And don’t forget to check that the pouch on your favorite camera bag is big enough to accommodate your new tablet!

Storage is another significant factor, especially if you’ll be using your tablet as an editing workhorse. More is more when it comes to iPad storage, since you cannot upgrade an iPad’s internal storage, although USB-C devices can accommodate an external hard drive. Most other tablets feature expandable internal storage via microSD cards, but they will have a limit, so make sure you check this before committing.

For more recommendations, see guides to the best drawing tablets for photo editing and our roundup of the best Wacom tablets. Or, if you'd prefer to work on a desktop instead, check out our roundup of the best photo-editing laptops.

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How we test the best tablets for photo editing

My team of writers has extensive experience testing tablets, including not just the new models you find here, but previous versions stretching back over a decade as well, so we know exactly what we're looking for.

To test tablets for photo editing, my team and I put them through their paces in a variety of ways. The screen is central to all this, of course – we'll view photos we know well on them to see if we're satisfied with the colour reproduction, dynamic range, and detail levels. We'll use them indoors and outside to see how they handle reflections.

We test their performance at different levels of photo-editing complexity, seeing how they handle light edits compared to more complex image editing with large files – we're looking for whether changes happen in real-time, or whether there's any lag in the process. With more complex apps, we're looking at how many layers or what kind of size the files can be before we hit a RAM limit or performance slows.

To test battery life, we'll use streaming video as a standard way to test how long tablets can last compared to other tablets. But we'll also use them in more standard, real-world situations, such as for web browsing and, of course, editing photos. We'll also test how good their built-in cameras are, taking shots in various lighting situations using the front and rear cameras.

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DxO PhotoLab 6 is the latest version of a program designed for high-end RAW processing and lens corrections with a strong emphasis on technical accuracy in both color and detail rendition.

It’s basically a combined photo browser, raw processor and editing tool that can take you from a folder full of raw files straight from your camera to edited, corrected and enhanced images tuned just how you want them with a set of very powerful overall adjustment tools, and local adjustments, which mean you may not need any other photo editor –  though you can launch other programs from within PhotoLab if you need to.

PhotoLab 6 is a fully non-destructive photo editor. It works on raw files seamlessly with no ‘processing’ or ‘developing phase. It can also work on JPEG and TIFF images, though you get most benefit with raw files. All your adjustments can be changed, removed or added to in the future, and you can also create ‘virtual copies’ to try out different adjustments without having to physically duplicate your original files.

It's certainly one of the best photo editing software applications there is right now for desktop users, and its hardware requirements aren't especially demanding so the best photo editing laptops won't have any trouble running it. 

System requirements

Mac
OS: macOS 11.6 (Big Sur) or higher (macOS 12.0 (Monterey) recommended)
CPU: Any (Intel Core Processor with 6 cores or higher, or Apple Silicon recommended
RAM: 8 GBRAM (16GB recommended)
Disk space: 4GB (6GB recommended)
Graphics (recommended): AMD Radeon Pro 580X or better for Intel Macs 

PC
OS: Microsoft Windows 10 version 20H2 or higher (64-bit, and still supported by Microsoft)
CPU: Any CPU supporting SSE 4.1 (Intel Core processor with 6+ cores or better, or AMD Ryzen recommended)
RAM: 8GB (16GB recommended)
Disk space: 4GB (6GB recommended)
Graphics (recommended): NVIDIA RTX 2060, AMD Radeon RX 6600 or better with latest drivers 

Key features

PhotoLab 6 is primarily a high-end raw processing and editing program, but some steady evolution through successive versions means that its turned into something more.

One of the key new features in PhotoLab 6 is the ability to ‘nest’ Projects in the PhotoLibrary window in a hierarchical folder system. Previously, you could only have a simple linear list of Projects.

Projects are DxO’s term for Albums. Before, they were useful perhaps for short term tasks but little more, but the new ability to organize and structure Projects means that overnight the PhotoLibrary module has changed from being a simple Adobe Bridge style folder browser into a proper organizing/cataloguing tool. This is boosted by support for additional EXIF and IPTC data tags. It’s not quite in the same league as Lightroom, say, but it may be all that most photographers need.

Another new feature is DeepPRIME XD processing – the ‘XD’ stands for ‘eXtreme Detail’. It’s an evolution of DxO’s already highly impressive DeepPRIME noise reduction for high ISO images, and DxO has found a way to recover even more detail from high-ISO images with almost no visible noise. It honestly is spectacularly good. The only downside is that it’s processor intensive, so you cannot see the effect ‘live’ over the whole image, only a small preview window, and you have to Export an image, as a TIFF or a JPEG, say, to apply the process. 

In our version, too, it looks as if Fujifilm X-Trans raw files don’t yet have DeepPRIME XD support – but it’s only recently that PhotoLab has introduced X-Trans support in the first place, so Fujifilm users should still be reasonably happy.

DxO has also introduced new, upgraded Retouch tool. A key feature of this is that you can now rotate, scale or transform your clone ‘source, so that if you need to replace a window in a building, say, and the only source you can use is a smaller one nearby, you can now manipulate it to fit the dimensions of the window you want to replace.

PhotoLab 6 has a new, wider working color space too – an indication that DxO takes color management very seriously. It offers ‘soft proofing’ for different output devices too.

So what is PhotoLab 6? You could look at it two ways – as a massively more powerful Adobe Bridge/Adobe Camera Raw replacement, or as a Lightroom alternative with better tools, better output and no tedious import process. 

Design and interface

PhotoLab 6 has two windows. The first, the PhotoLibrary window, is where you browse and organize your images. You can view them as thumbnails or as larger previews. What you see is a full directory tree of the folders on your computer, and you can use this to move images around as required or organize them into Projects. This is basically DxO’s word ‘for ‘albums’. They are a way of collecting images together without moving them on your computer. 

If you double-click on an image it opens in the Customize window, which is where you do the serious editing work. A vertical toolbar on the right side of the screen shows all the available tools panels. There are quite a few, but they have been arranged in tabs which are loosely themed as exposure, color and detail adjustments, for example. There’s even a search field at the top to help you quickly find a panel you already known the name of.

Along the top of the window is a set of tools for cropping, perspective correction, zooming and panning, adding a local adjustment and more.

It looks technical, but it’s all logically arranged and, as with most software, you’ll find yourself using a handful of tools more than any others and you’ll quickly work out where these are. Better still, given DxO’s automatic lens corrections, tonal optimizations and preset looks, you might find that many of your images don’t need any further manual adjustments anyway.

Like all non-destructive editors, PhotoLab stores all the adjustments you make but does not apply them directly to your original images. Your adjustments are only visible within PhotoLab. You have to use the Export feature to generate TIFF or JPEG images ready for sharing or editing in other software.

Quality of results

PhotoLab 6 really is the best, or at least one of the best programs out there for raw processing quality. Its lens corrections are applied automatically as the images are first viewed and the previews are generated, so you rarely have to get involved in that at all – except to download new profiles when prompted. 

We’re used to software correcting lens distortion, vignetting and chromatic aberration automatically, but PhotoLab 6 goes further in correcting edge softness too – the difference in quality, especially at the frame edges, is clear to see. The more ‘average’ your camera and lenses, the bigger the improvement.

The DeepPRIME XD processing is pretty spectacular. It can smooth out, sharpen up and restore detail to high-ISO images so successfully that you’re left checking the image EXIF data to make sure there’s been no mistake – it will change your mind about what you think your camera is capable of.

PhotoLab 6’s local adjustment tools deserve a mention too. It doesn’t offer. the AI-powered subject masking now appearing in other software, but its auto-masking control point adjustments are just as effective and very controllable too.

DxO is keen to dovetail its software with photographers' existing workflows where possible, so rather than pitching PhotoLab 6 as a Lightroom alternative, it's also made it work as a Lightroom add-on. If you decide you need a hike in quality from PhotoLab's own lens corrections and noise control, you can send your raw original. from Lightroom to PhotoLab, process it with DxO's tools, then have it round-tripped back to Lightroom.

Verdict

PhotoLab 6 can get technical, and it’s not really a quick-fix tool for Instagram posts. What it is, however, is a very powerful, very precise and very effective photo editor that delivers results every bit as good as the best of its rivals, and often a clear step above.

PhotoLab 6 Elite, the version we’d recommend, is at the upper end of the price spectrum, and you’ll need to shell out more again if you want DxO’s FilmPack 6 or ViewPoint 4 add-ons. So be it. This is software designed for quality, not cost-saving.

Read more:

• Best desktop computers for photo editing
• Best monitors for photographers
• Best monitor calibration tools
• Best portable hard drives

To celebrate 10 years of its Surface products, Microsoft has launched a trio of new Surface computers: Surface Pro 9, Surface Laptop 5 and Surface Studio 2+

Surface Pro 9

The Surface Pro is arguably the most innovative product in Microsoft's extensive Surface product line-up. Where other 2-in-1 laptops can often be little more than a laptop with a screen that can hinge back through 360 degrees to form a thick 'tablet', Surface Pro has always been designed to more closely resemble a tablet form factor. The device can then be converted into a genuine laptop alternative with the addition of a slim keyboard attachment, while a multi-angle kickstand props up the display.

The Surface Pro 9 is outwardly similar to its predecessors, with premium aluminium casing and a choice of color finishes. The 13-inch PixelSense display is available with a 120Hz refresh rate, along with an under-screen HD camera and Omnisonic speakers. Microsoft's custom G6 chip is said to improve pen input fidelity with tactile signals, which combined with the new Ink Focus in Microsoft OneNote, or the upcoming GoodNotes app, using the pen input should feel more like using a conventional pen on paper. Power comes from either 12th-gen Intel Core processors, or the more mobile-orientated Microsoft SQ 3 powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon.

Intel-based Surface Pro 9s are verified as Intel Evo laptops, meaning they conform to strict criteria that ensures smooth, powerful performance while also maintaining all-day battery life. Performance is touted as being increased by 50% over the Surface Pro 8, with the addition of Thunderbolt 4 enabling faster data transfer speeds, as well as the option to attach an external graphics card.

Surface Pro 9 laptops equipped with the Microsoft SQ 3 processor get fast 5G connectivity, an even longer battery life - up to 19 hours - as well as new AI features made possible by an all-new Neural Processing Unit (NPU). Capable of more than 15 trillion calculations per second, the NPU in Surface Pro 9 is said to "drive new experiences with Windows Studio effects".

Surface Laptop 5

Where Surface Pro 9 is a Windows PC-based tablet that can convert to a laptop, the Surface Laptop 5 is simply that - a traditional laptop - albeit a thin, light and ultra-efficient one. Like the latest Surface Pro, Surface Laptop 5 utilizes Intel 12th-gen processors, giving the same 50% speed boost, Intel Evo certification, and the addition of Thunderbolt 4 connectivity for the first time.

Two display sizes are available: 13.5 inch, and 15 inch, with both boasting Dolby Vision IQ for enhanced image quality, while the speaker setup now gets Dolby Atmos 3D for a more immersive soundstage. The front-facing HD camera and Studio Microphones are capable of adjusting camera exposure to any lighting conditions, while the anodized aluminium exterior is complemented by new color options.

Surface Studio 2+

It's been four whole years since the Surface Studio 2 was revealed, so its replacement is long overdue. One reason why development has been slow is the Surface Studio has very little competition, as it's unlike pretty much any other desktop computer. Its centerpiece is a beautiful and expansive 28-inch 3:2 display with not only touch sensitivity, but also pen input, which helped make the Surface Studio a dream machine for graphic artists.

The display is mounted on a 'Zero Gravity Hinge' that allows it to be positioned at any angle from vertical, right down to near-horizontal for an almost lay-flat drawing mode. The base of the hinge houses the computing components, and its here where Surface Studio 2+ differs most from the old 'Studio 2. An updated Intel Core i7 H Series processor delivers up to 50% faster CPU performance, while the inclusion of GeForce RTX 3060 discrete graphics is said to double the graphics performance. The display, cameras, Studio Mics and ports are also improved, and you now get Thunderbolt 4 as standard.

As well as the three new Surface computers, Microsoft is also improving Windows 11 so you can access iPhone photos and videos right from the Windows photo app thanks to a new iCloud for Windows app (available November). Microsoft has also announced that Apple Music and the Apple TV app will launch on Windows next year.

Furthermore, Microsoft is set to launch a new graphic design app as part of its Microsoft 365 package. 'Microsoft Designer' is an AI-driven app that utilises DALL∙E 2 intelligence to harness the power of cloud-based AI, along with your own content and ideas, to automatically generate a variety of unique images and designs. The technology is also set to be incorporated into Microsoft Bing search and the Edge web browser.

Read more:

• Best Chromebooks
• Best MacBooks
• Best laptops for photographers
• Best laptops for video editing
• Best student laptops
• Best desktop computers
• Best ultrabooks
• Best 2-in1 laptops

With the best webcam for home working, you'll be able to give yourself a professional glow-up.Whether you're using Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Skype, you'll present a higher quality picture to others on your calls, not to mention sounding better too.

While the best 4K webcams will give you the best image quality, this may not be necessary for home-working, where you're mostly going to be using the camera for calls. As such, while we have included some high-end 4K cameras on our list, we've also added plenty of budget-friendly options, all of which will almost certainly have better resolution than the one built into your laptop. They'll also make it easier to position your camera, to show you and your home office in the best light.

If you really don't have much cash to spare, try our list of the best budget webcams. We also have a guide to the best conference room webcams if you're regularly running video calls with multiple participants in the same location, and a roundup of the best Mac webcams for committed Apple users.

Our top picks

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The best webcams for the home office

The best webcam overall

The Razer Kiyo Pro is our pick as the best webcam for home working overall. It offers Full HD at 60 frames per second, which means the video quality this webcam will provide is much better than an internal laptop cam. If you're willing to turn down the frame rate to a still-high 30fps, you can also get HDR. The field-of-view ranges from 80 to 103 degrees, and autofocus is on the menu too.

Our reviewer found the image quality from the Kiyo Pro was excellent, once tweaked to his preferred look. Using this webcam, rather than the inbuilt one in his laptop, meant Zoom and Teams meetings felt like they'd been treated to a major upgrade.

All in all, this is a premium camera that will help home workers look their best in meetings, conferences, interviews and more. However, it's pretty expensive, and so if you're low on funds, you may prefer one of the more affordable webcams on our list below. Alternatively, if you need 4K then our top pick is at number 4 on our list. For more details, read our full Razer Kiyo Pro review.

See also: Best Mac webcams

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The best budget webcam

Short of money? The Logitech Brio 100 isn't as highly specced as the first webcam on our list. But it is a lot cheaper, and will still improve markedly on your laptop's internal webcam.

Our reviewer was immediately impressed with the Brio 100’s image quality. He found it handled tricky exposure really well, while sitting at a desk with a window behind him, and there was very little graininess in moderate lighting conditions.

Its Full HD video footage is sharp and accurate, with good color balance, and the universal monitor mount is nicely versatile. Audio quality is also acceptable, and while we would have like to see a detachable USB cable, for this price you'll be getting everything most people need out of a webcam. For more details, see our full Logitech Brio 100 review.

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Best webcam for laptops

Even though a huge plurality of workers use laptops, relatively few webcams are designed for them specifically. The Opal Tadpole is an attempt to plug this niche, an ultra-thin webcam that barely weighs anything, and can simply be clipped to the top of your screen to replace your laptop's built-in camera. Its plug-and-play operation makes it easy for anyone to use, and the video quality it puts out in Full HD is perfectly acceptable. Sure, it's not 4K, but realistically very few home workers are going to care.

In testing, we found that the Opal Tadpole performed well. It's not like very pore and follicle on your face is rendered in pixel-perfect detail, but do you honestly want to be? It separates the computer user from the background well enough, its on-board mic delivers decent quality while canceling out background noise. It's not flashy, but it's well priced and gets the job done.

See our full Opal Tadpole review for more.

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The best 4K webcam

If you want the ultimate in picture quality, you'll want a 4K webcam, and here's the one we recommend right now for home working. Boasting a large, 1/2.8-inch Sony Starvis CMOS sensor with an 8.2-megapixel resolution, F2.7 aperture and HDR, this webcam offers superb video quality.

Thanks to the large sensor and high resolution, our reviewer found the video quality to be absolutely superb. In fact, when viewed from the other end of a video call, is wasnn’t too far behind that of a DSLR hooked up to a PC. Bear in mind, though, that you'll need a fast and stable internet connection to make the most of the 4K resolution on video calls. For more details, see our full Dell UltraSharp Webcam review.

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The best 4K webcam with advanced features

If you want 4K resolution, here's another great webcam for home working. Aside from the super-high picture quality, it also comes with clever AI that allows it to track a subject without the camera needing to move.

Looking like a tiny GoPro, it boasts USB-C connectivity and is compatible with both Windows and Mac, with a companion app allowing to operate its more advanced features, such as a Video Preview window from which you can record to-camera pieces. In our tests, the 1/2-inch Sony sensor and f/1.8 aperture camera coped well with imperfect lighting, and at least away from the edges of the frame the image was very sharp. For more details, read our Obsbot Meet 2 webcam review.

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The best 4K webcam for audio

The Logitech Brio Ultra HD Pro can record in Ultra HD 4K resolution, and stream in 1080p Full HD at 60 frames per second. The lens has different angles of view (65, 78 and 90 degrees), ensuring everything stays in frame and can be tweaked to suit your office layout. And with 5x digital zoom, you can crop a 4K image to 1080p with minimal image quality degradation.

There's also a 90fps option at 720p resolution if you want the ultimate super-smooth video, and the camera can record HDR (High Dynamic Range) video for improved contrast. Two omni-directional microphones and a PC monitor clip complete this brilliant webcam package. All that might be overkill for many users, but if you're looking for high quality picture and audio quality, this is what you need.

Overall, our tester was won over by the Brio's excellent HDR, smooth frame rate, ease-of-use and good audio quality. For more info, read our full Logitech Brio Ultra HD Pro review.

The Logitech Brio Ultra HD Pro can record in Ultra HD 4K resolution, and stream in 1080p Full HD at 60 frames per second. The lens has different angles of view (65, 78 and 90 degrees), ensuring everything stays in frame and can be tweaked to suit your office layout. And with 5x digital zoom, you can crop a 4K image to 1080p with minimal image quality degradation.

There's also a 90fps option at 720p resolution if you want the ultimate super-smooth video, and the camera can record HDR (High Dynamic Range) video for improved contrast. Two omni-directional microphones and a PC monitor clip complete this brilliant webcam package. All that might be overkill for many users, but if you're looking for high quality picture and audio quality, this is what you need.

Overall, our tester was won over by the Brio's excellent HDR, smooth frame rate, ease-of-use and good audio quality. For more info, read our full Logitech Brio Ultra HD Pro review.

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The best cheap webcam

The Logitech HD C310 is even cheaper than our number 2 budget pick. What you're sacrificing here is Full HD, but it's 720p resolution still looks nicer than most in-built webcams.

It's a beautifully simple webcam to set up, even if you've never used an external webcam before. The microphone is good , too, with built-in proprietary noise-reducing technology for cleaner audio and an overall better experience for anyone fortunate enough to be on the other end of your broadcast.

Seamlessly integrating with any mainstream video-conferencing software, this is a cost-effective choice for anyone looking for the best webcam at a low price. For more details, read our full Logitech C310 webcam review.

See also Best Logitech webcams.

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The best cheap Windows webcam

If you're watching the pennies, then the Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 offers a cheaper alternative to the Logitech C310, featured above. In fact, at the time of writing, it's the cheapest webcam we can recommend today (as long as you have a Windows computer to use it with).

Like the former, you still get 720p resolution, a noise-reducing microphone, and TrueColor technology. The main things you're compromising on are the lack of autofocus, a narrower viewing angle, a less powerful (4MP) sensor, and a more limited digital zoom (4x). But given the current price differential, you may well find that acceptable. For more details, see our Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 review.

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How to choose the best webcam

Here are some key factors to think about when choosing the best webcam.

• Resolution. While a resolution of 720p is basic high definition, if your laptop is a cheaper or older model you may well be surprised at the jump in quality. In any case, 720p is Standard HD, while 1080p is Full HD, and beyond that you're getting into 4K territory (see Best 4K webcams). While it might seem like a no-brainer that more resolution is better, in practice, you may find that your internet connection struggles to broadcast a 4K or even Full HD image without stuttering. Ideally, a webcam with multiple resolution options is the best buy.

• Audio is probably even more important than video when it comes to conferencing. If you find you are tinny and difficult to understand when talking into your laptop, it's worth knowing that most webcams have a better microphone to help improve sound recording. Some will even offer stereo, allowing your voice to come through nice and clearly, with background noise filtered out.

• Do check compatibility with your laptop - as not all have the same connection sockets. And if you are an Apple user, do check our guide to the best Mac webcams.

• Controlling your background, as well as how your head is framed, is key to setting a good impression at home. This means that being able to angle/position the camera is really useful, as is the option to zoom in and out.

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How we test webcams

We test the best webcams by putting each model through its paces, carrying out tasks such as video calls, conference sessions, streaming video and making recordings of ourselves. Image quality is a cornerstone of our testing process, and so we pay attention to what the picture looks like in practice, and don't just rely on the specs on paper, such as resolution and frame-rate. We look at color and clarity under varying lighting conditions, including natural and artificial light, bright and dark, as well as scrutinising sound quality.

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As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. The Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 lives by this mantra more than almost any other consumer technology product – and it has done so for over a decade.

The LifeCam HD-3000 webcam arrived way back in 2010, just three years after the first iPhone generation, and at the time its compact size and 720p HD resolution were no doubt considered cutting-edge. Now, 12 years later, this is a circa-$20 webcam that doesn’t wow us, but still gets the job done commendably.

Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 specifications

Resolution: 720p HD

Field of view: 68.5 degrees

Frame rate: 30fps

Digital zoom: 4x

Inbuilt microphone: Yes

Autofocus: No

Privacy cover: No

Connection: USB-A

Key features

There’s not a great deal to say here, as the 720p resolution, compact size and adjustable monitor mount are all fairly unremarkable. But for $20 / £20 that’s all you really want, isn’t it?

We really like the LifeCam’s compact size, and it truly is a plug-and-play device, with no software, drivers or setup required at all. It even plugs straight into a Mac and starts working right away with video conferencing apps like Zoom and Skype.

Build and handling

We were at first a bit confused by the flexible rubber stand of the LifeCam, but after a few minutes we realized it makes perfect sense. The stand still grips to the top of almost any monitor like those of all other webcams. But it can also act as a foot, so the webcam can be sat on a desk or shelf too.

Furthermore, the stand offers left/right panning adjustment, which is something we very rarely see from any other webcams. Usually, it’s a case of turning your monitor to get the right angle, but here you just turn the camera itself.

There isn’t any vertical adjustment as such, but the rubber mount is flexible enough to allow for some up/down movement while still gripping securely onto your monitor.

Microsoft hasn’t fitted the LifeCam with a privacy shutter, which is fair enough given the compact size and very low price. Those who have privacy concerns about a webcam staring at them can always move it away from their monitor when not on a video call. 

The camera comes with a 1.5m USB-A cable that is hard-wired into its rear. This should be long enough for most users, but it’s worth bearing in mind that a longer cable cannot be connected instead, due to it being permanently attached.

Performance

It is important to understand the technical limitations of this webcam before expecting too much of it. If you don’t care for Full HD, HDR and precisely-controlled whit balance, then this webcam will fit your needs just fine. The 720p resolution is still HD, and is arguably all you really need, since the video seen by your audience is always compressed by whichever video conferencing app you use.

A 1080p Full HD webcam will always look better, and a 4K webcam gives you the ability to zoom in without dipping below Full HD. But if you only need a webcam to briefly log into a once-weekly meeting, or to have the occasional catch-up with a far-flung relative, then the LifeCam is perfectly acceptable.

All of that said, we were actually pleasantly surprised by the performance of the LifeCam. Our face was correctly exposed despite a bright window behind us, with the webcam’s automatic light compensation doing its job well.

Microsoft’s own LifeCam software can be used to make adjustments to the brightness and digital zoom, while Mac users can tweak these parameters using a free app like Webcam Settings. The integrated microphone is perfectly acceptable, but buyers might want to use their own USB microphone if audio quality is more important to them than video.

Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000: Verdict

If you are on a limited budget, or only need a webcam for a few minutes’ video calling each week, the Microsoft LifeCam HD-3000 is a decent option. Yes, it’s seriously old in consumer technology terms, but it still does the job and is very easy to use. It is also compact, with a stand that actually offers more adjustability than those of some webcams costing five or ten times the price.

There are no bells and whistles, but that is entirely the point. Simply plug the webcam into your computer, attach it to the top of the monitor, and join a call with higher video quality than what your laptop is probably capable of.

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The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is part of the most venerable line of tablet-laptop hybrids. This is a brand new design in the family, and is arguably the best fit of all for camera users who want a computer for their home or studio rather than to take out and about every day. 

We say “camera users” rather simply photographers because the higher-end Microsoft Surface Laptop Studios have fairly punchy GPUs. These should appeal to videographers who want to speed up their workflow. 

However, as with every Surface product, design is king. 

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is perhaps the slickest touchscreen laptop specifically aimed at designers and those in other creative fields. This world-class design does not come for free, and some disconnect between price and performance is required. And while great, the 14.4-inch 3:2 aspect display does not quite match that of the latest top-end MacBook Pro and iPad Pro 12.9 lines in important areas. 

Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio: Specification

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is more powerful than the other laptops in this series because it uses Intel’s H series processors. Big spenders have the option of an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti graphics card too. 

These Intel processors differ from the kind used in the average slim and light laptop in the juice, the power, they are able to draw. H-series chipsets are typically much better at sustained heavy workloads as a result. At this level, power is not limited so much by the size of your power brick, more the laptop’s ability to shift heat generated by the internals. 

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is a performance machine, but sits a good few rungs below a high-end gaming laptop or workstation. Microsoft has deliberately struck a balance between power and how pleasant the thing is to use each day. 

There’s no such cap on the RAM and storage, though. While base models have a humble 256GB SSD and 16GB RAM, the highest-end specs have 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD storage. As is the case in other Microsoft Surface lines, these upgrades can seem painfully expensive when stacked up against the raw cost of the components. It’s one of the big issues for potential Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio buyers.  

Surface Laptop Studio: key features

Aside from having significantly more power on tap than the relatively approachable Surface Pro 8, the key draws of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio relate to its hinge design, its display and stylus support.

The easiest way to make a hybrid laptop is to give it a 360-degree hinge. Microsoft is far too much of a hybrid veteran to opt for something so ordinary. The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio has a dual hinge. It can open up like a normal laptop, but a secondary hinge around the centre of the display lets you pull the screen forwards so the bottom locks in place magnetically just above touchpad. Or it can sit flat where the lid would usually be. 

This gets you the “fat tablet” style of a 360-degree hinge, without leaving the keyboard sitting awkwardly underneath. The entire laptop is designed around this style, and one of the most important elements is something you might not consider: cooling. 

Long in/out air grilles sit on each side of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio in an alcove, making them almost impossible to accidentally block. It may sound boring, but it’s big. Blocking the bottom of the laptop does not impede performance. 

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio’s display/hinge style also allows for a webcam far better than that of the average laptop, at any price. Its speakers are excellent too: loud, beefy and with a wide sound field. While there are holes to pick in Laptop Studio as a workstation-like laptop for professionals, it simply exudes a sense of quality that goes well beyond what you can appreciate on a spec sheet. 

We’ll cover some of these holes in the performance section, but the connections will be an instant turn-off for some. The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio has two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports. There’s no card slot and no USB-A sockets, which your older peripherals will almost certainly use. 

Microsoft’s answer is a USB-C dock. But “pro” laptop of this size should really fit in more connections. Great USB-C docks do not come cheap either. 

Surface Laptop Studio: build & handling

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio concept lives and dies by the quality of its hinge. It is no great surprise that Microsoft has largely nailed this part. The hinge’s articulation is smooth and confident, with zero of the bulkiness seen in comparable ranges like the still very good Acer ConceptD series. 

And this wouldn’t be a true Surface computer without almost excessive use of magnesium alloy. The entire casing uses this metal, which is light and strong but does not have the same cool metallic feel as the aluminum used in Apple’s MacBooks. You can’t fail to notice it if your current computer has an aluminum shell, but it still feels expensive and there’s zero noticeable flex to the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio’s casing. 

This focus on rigidity, and the decision not to rely on ultra-low-voltage processors, is likely why the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is not super-light. It weighs 1.8kg. We’d class that as fine to move around occasionally, but not ideal if you want a laptop to carry around in a bag every day. 

You should also take on board what the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio hinge system is not designed to do. It does not hold the display in mid-air, and does not lock in place at the ideal, slightly sloped, angle for comfortable stylus use. The screen sits near-upright in its pulled-forwards position, so if you like to edit photos or do design work with a stylus, you’ll probably use it with the display fully flat. 

Acer’s ConceptD hinge system may be less elegant but it is arguably more functionally versatile, as it is able to hold the screen confidently in more positions. 

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio keyboard and trackpad are both great. Key travel is slightly shallow but the key quality and actuation feedback are excellent. The touchpad is a smooth pane of textured glass and, unlike other members of the Surface family, it uses a haptic motor for the clicker rather than a mechanical system.

Click feel is less substantial than Microsoft’s best but the haptics allow for a consistent response across the entire surface. 

Performance & benchmark results

Before we get into any criticism of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio’s performance, let’s set the context. All versions of the laptop have enough power for most photographers. 

We have the model with an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM, a 1TB SSD and an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti graphics card. This is a higher-end model. For editing images in Photoshop, the base Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio with no separate graphics card will perform perfectly well. 

These lower-end versions are probably the best buys, as you get all the benefits of Microsoft’s great design, without having to offset them against the off-putting costs ladled on by Microsoft’s pricey spec upgrades. Companies like Acer, Lenovo and Asus typically price their upgrades very fairly, even generously. Microsoft and Apple attempt to leverage the unique properties of their computer designs, and high-end versions can be intimidatingly expensive. 

As such, the Surface Laptop Studio is business as usual for Microsoft. However, in this laptop in particular there is a slight clash between how the Surface Laptop Studio is marketed, and the components it uses. 

We reviewed the version with the Core i7-11370H processor here. It’s a quad-core chipset, with eight threads, where the popular i7-11800H has eight cores. At the time of review we are even starting to see Intel 12th Gen laptops, which have up to 14 cores. 

For a workstation style laptop the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is not actually that powerful. Camera users who shoot and edit a lot of video can make good use of these additional cores, seen in other laptops, to bring down rendering times. 

You’ll see the same situation play out in the top-end versions with discrete graphics cards. The high-end “consumer” Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio has an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti, a card used in entry-level gaming laptops.

Paying perhaps $2,000/£2,000 for a workstation laptop that has far from the best available, or even the latest, hardware may well sting. Our Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio scores 4547 in PC Mark 10, far off the ~7700 achieved by the Razer Blade 15 and its Intel i7-12800H processor. Geekbench scores are even further separated, ranging from 4548-5300 in test runs, where the latest high-powered 12th Gen i7 can achieve upwards of 12000. 

It is a reminder the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is as much a lifestyle laptop as a workstation. In return you get a lovely quiet cooling system that continues to generate little noise after significant periods of stress. But that may not cut it for some of you. 

There are even similar compromises in the display. We have loved using the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio and think that, to the naked eye, this screen looks excellent. Its 500-nit maximum brightness is a good 25% higher than that of a top-quality LCD competitor, for example. 

However, it “only” fulfils 89% of the DCI color gamut, a way behind the 99% coverage of the latest MacBook Pros. Apple’s miniLED MacBook screens also have far higher maximum brightness, with peaks of up to 1600 nits — wonderful stuff for mastering HDR video. 

Few people necessarily need full DCI P3 color coverage or true HDR-grade brightness. We wouldn’t have been able to tell the color limitations here without using a colorimeter tool. But as with the solid but far from class-leading raw performance, these are aspects pro users out there should take into account. 

Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio: Verdict

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is a slick hybrid laptop, and the most powerful in the series to date. It shows off a new style of hinge that should appeal to photographers and designers.

A great display, a clever cooling system, good stylus support and more performance driven processors than those seen in other Surface laptops lead to an unusually versatile computer  — one that can do things a MacBook Pro simply can’t. 

However, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio gets more difficult to love the further you head into its top-end specs thanks to pricey upgrades and a fairly low ceiling on its performance for what is sold as — to some at least — a pro-grade workstation.  

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Microsoft has announced several big updates to its Surface line-up, namely the new Surface Pro 8, Surface Laptop Studio, and Surface Duo 2. The new Surface laptops looks set to become some of the best laptops for photographers, while the Surface Duo 2 phone could finally give Microsoft a spot on our best camera phone list.

Surface Pro 8

The Surface Pro 8 is the latest iteration of Microsoft's 2-in-1 detachable tablet computer, where computer takes the form of a tablet which can be attached to a clip-on keyboard to transform into a more conventional laptop. However, unlike a tablet, the Surface Pro 8 runs full-on PC hardware, like Intel's latest 11th-gen Core i5 and i7 processors, enabling Thunderbolt 4 connectivity via two USB Type-C ports (Type-A devices will now require an adapter to plug in). Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 are also supported, while a good old 3.5mm audio port completes the connectivity options.

Microsoft has also boosted the Surface Pro 8's display specs. The new 13" PixelSense Flow screen is larger than the 12.3" display on the 'Pro 7, and resolution has been upped to 2880 x 1920 for a 267ppi pixel density. The display also gets a silky-smooth 120Hz refresh rate, though it can run at lower framerates to optimise battery life if needed. Dolby Vision support helps with display HDR content, and the screen is touch-sensitive for touch or stylus input, as it's compatible with Microsoft's new Surface Slim Pen 2. Microsoft has also equipped the Surface Pro 8 with a 5MP front-facing camera capable of recording 1080p video, plus there's a 4K-capable 10MP rear-facing camera.

Expect to pay $1,099 for a base quad core Intel Core i5 machine equipped with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, and up to $2,599 for a Core i7 Surface Pro 8 packing 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD.

Surface Laptop Studio

Microsoft has also unveiled a brand new Surface product: Surface Laptop Studio. Positioned to replace the Surface Book, Surface Laptop Studio is another 2-in-1 tablet/laptop convertible, but one that more closely resembles a high-end laptop, albeit one with a unique party piece. Taking inspiration from the existing Microsoft Surface Studio desktop computer, the Surface Laptop Studio's screen is mounted to the rest of the laptop via a clever 'Dynamic Woven Hinge' which allows it to fold down and over the keyboard and touch pad to resemble an almost flat drawing surface.

Alternatively, you can set the screen to cover only the keyboard, with the touch pad still visible, in what Microsoft refers to as 'Stage Mode'.

The screen itself is a 14.4" PixelSense Flow Display with a 2400 x 1600 resolution, and like the Surface Pro 8, it features a 120Hz refresh rate and Dolby Vision support. Thunderbolt 4 ports are also present, as is the option to spec a powerful GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card for video editing. Go for the $1,599 base config and you'll have to make do with Intel Iris Xe graphics and a Core i5 quad-core processor, whereas $2,099 will buy you a more powerful Core i7 CPU along with a larger 512GB SSD for storage.

Surface Duo 2

Not content with releasing new laptop offerings, Microsoft has also revealed the successor to its Surface Duo camera phone. Surface Duo 2 retains the dual-screen folding design of the original Duo, but packs a faster - and 5G capable - Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 system-on-chip.

One major drawback with the first Surface Duo was its single rear facing camera - hardly befitting of a flagship device. Microsoft has now addressed this, as the Surface Duo 2 sports a triple camera array consisting of 12MP f/1.7 27mm-equivalent wide-angle camera with OIS, a 16MP f/2.2 13mm-equiv. ultra-wide camera, and a 12MP f/2.4 51mm-equiv telephoto module, also with OIS.

But the centrepiece of the Surface Duo 2 is of course its dual AMOLED PixelSense Fusion Displays, which when unfolded give an 8.3-inch display and a combined resolution of 2688 x 1892 pixels, equating to 401 PPI. Microsoft has also made the display exceptionally color-accurate, and claims it can cover 100% of the sRGB and DCI-P3 color spaces. A 90Hz refresh rate and huge 800-nit max brightness complete the headline display specs.

Naturally, all this tech doesn't come cheap though. The surface Duo 2 starts at $1,500, and for that you only get 128GB storage. 256GB and 512GB versions are available, for $1,600 and $1,800 respectively. That makes the Surface Duo 2 around $400 more expensive than an iPhone 13 Pro Max with equivalent storage capacity.

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Many camera phone manufacturers have been eyeing up under-display camera technology recently, seeing it as a perfect solution to the unsightly camera notch. It seems that Microsoft is now joining the party, after a recently published patent shows an under-display camera with four sensors and color filters. 

Filed in October 2020 with the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) and published on 14 May, 2021, the 40-page patent detailed four under-display camera sensors, each with its own color filter. Despite having seen patents for under-display cameras from other companies, including Xiaomi and Samsung, this is the first time we've seen a design like this before.

• Read more: Best camera phone

This is because Microsoft has designed what they call a 'logo camera', which will display a true-to-color logo when the camera is turned off. The Microsoft logo will come as standard, but the individual user can choose from an icon menu to personalize their screen. When the user activates the front-facing camera, the logo will disappear and the shutter will be activated. 

By choosing multiple camera sensors, Microsoft is able to use thinner camera modules, enabling it to keep the camera phone as slim as possible. This patent was uncovered by LetsGoDigital, which says, "to achieve a high camera resolution, the pixel density of the screen is increased. Each sensor and lens is configured to be optimized for particular colors". 

The previously mentioned color filters will help improve camera performance in low light. However, LetsGoDigital warns that the color conversion could be sensitive to noise. It seems that Google is looking to overcome this potential problem with AI technology that will learn the difference between obscured and non-obscured light in images so that it can correct light loss and diffraction.

There's no official information on whether Microsoft will be incorporating this 'logo camera' technology in any upcoming devices. However, with a new Microsoft Surface Duo 2 expected in September and other Surface products on the way, we'll be keeping a keen eye out for this new under-display technology…

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We spotted this awesome deal from Best Buy on Black Friday - but it is back again and is an ideal choice for those studying remotely, or working at home! Now you can own a Microsoft Surface Pro 7 for just $699! It usually sells for $959 – so you save a huge $260 on a next-generation laptop!

The Surface Pro 7 features a 12.3-inch touch screen, Intel Core i3, 4GB memory, 128GB SSD. And it comes with a black cover and is the Platinum finish.

The Surface Pro 7 adapts to the way you work; it's a laptop but also a tablet. And with a laptop-class Intel Core processor, and all-day battery, it's a powerhouse of a hybrid laptop.

And if you'd rather find your own laptop, but you're not quite sure what to look for, this check out our handy guide to the best laptops for photo-editing.

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Until November 2nd, you can save $200 on selected 13.5" Surface Laptops. Eligible models include Sandstone, Black, Cobalt Blue and Platinum colors, and depending on the color you choose, nearly every spec configuration can be had with the $200 discount. The only model not included in the deal is the entry-level $999.99 model, but we reckon its 128GB SSD storage is just too restrictive for long-term use.

Our top bang-per-buck choice would be the 13.5" Intel Core i7 Surface Laptop 3 with 16GB RAM and a 256GB SSD. Usually this option would be $1,599.99, but with the $200 discount, it could be yours for a very tempting $1,399.99.

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Why Surface Laptop 3? With its vibrant 13.5" 2256 x 1504 PixelSense display, your get a stunning screen to show off your images and videos, while the latest 10th-gen quad-core Intel Core i5 and i7 processors combined speed and exceptional power efficiency. 8GB or 16GB of RAM is available, though you'll really need to go for 16GB to stay reasonably futureproofed. Storage options include SSDs in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and 1TB capacities. But the arguably the biggest appeal with the Surface Laptop is its portability. At just 14.5mm thick and 1.29kg, it's Microsoft's answer to the MacBook Air, and is just as portable. If you're after a super thin and light Windows laptop with up to 11.5 hours battery life, now's the time to buy a Surface Laptop 3.

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Is it a camera phone? A tablet? Or a throwback to the ugliest word ever coined – a phablet? It seems Microsoft doesn't even know what the Microsoft Surface Duo is, as any internal communications describing the Surface Duo don't call it a phone – despite the fact that it can make phone calls and send texts. This upcoming product was announced back in October 2019, but specs have recently been leaked that start to reveal what this phone-not-phone might be able to do. 

The Microsoft Surface Duo will be running an Android system, rather than the expected Windows 10. This is an unusual move from the company that has proved controversial with some Microsoft fans. The Surface Duo design is similar to that of a folding phone, but rather than being made out of one flexible screen, this product has two screens that fold together on a hinge.

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The Microsoft Surface Duo will have a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC, but unfortunately it won't be able to support 5G. According to tech site Windows Central, this is apparently due to an issue with the Snapdragon 855 processor that would require an internal redesign. The Surface Duo is expected to have 6GB of RAM and between 64 and 256GB of internal storage.

The dual screens on the Microsoft Surface Duo are both 5.6" displays with 1800x1350 resolution with 401 pixels per inch. The screens are connected by a 360-degree hinge, rather than other foldable phones such as the Samsung Galaxy Fold that are made out of one single screen. 

Any camera phone photography enthusiasts might unfortunately be left disappointed with the Microsoft Surface Duo's camera offering, as there is only a single front-facing 11MP camera on one screen (although it can be wrapped around the back to be used as rear camera too. 

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No, it's not April 1st: Microsoft and Sony really are partnering on new smart camera technology. Just when you thought 2020 couldn't get any crazier.

The decades-long arch rivals, which are currently duking it out with Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 (and have previously gone to war over technology formats such as Sony's Blu-ray versus Microsoft's HD-DVD), have set aside their differences to make an AI-powered camera solution.

The partnership will see Microsoft's Azure cloud AI technology embedded on Sony's new intelligent vision sensor IMX500, which according to Sony will "extract useful information out of images in smart cameras and other devices." 

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In addition, Sony will also develop a smart camera-driven app powered by Microsoft's tech, which will "expand the range and capability of video analytics opportunities for enterprise customers." 

So what does all this mean, and how will it benefit you? Well, as noted, the technology is aimed at enterprise use; however, as with all AI and cloud technology, it will invariably trickle down to everyday life. 

Essentially, the new technology is designed to localize cloud-based AI and processing; rather than a camera capturing an image to the sensor, then shunting it to the processor where it us sent to the cloud to be processed, the IMX500 sensor does all that locally and offline.

Thanks to Microsoft Azure, the new stacked sensor structure has an AI engine combined with data memory built into it. This means that AI recognition can be processed on the capture device, without needing an online connection – eliminating privacy leaks, network traffic issues, and reducing power and cost consumption. 

Sony claims that, by putting cloud processing and image analysis onto the sensor itself, "the sensor doesn't just capture light, it captures the meaning and information from the light in front of it." 

For businesses, that means improved video analytics that do things like read the behavior of customers in stores. For consumers, it could result in things like smart cameras in your car that adjust the environment based on the driver or passengers.

So, what's next – an Xbox and PlayStation collaboration? Probably not, but hey – apparently Hell has already frozen over, and 2020 is already the craziest year ever, so never say never. 

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Microsoft has announced the new Surface Book 3, the latest in its line of tablet-laptop hybrids – and the company is pulling no punches, shouting that the newest Surface is "our most powerful laptop ever".

The announcement for Surface Book 3 comes just days after Apple revealed its latest 13-inch MacBook Pro, and it is clear that Microsoft is gunning for the pole position held by its rival in both the 13- and 15-inch categories. 

Microsoft promises that the new Surface is designed with professionals in mind to deliver "desktop-level performance from anywhere", specifically citing Adobe workflows, positioning this as the best tablet for photographers. 

Indeed, the Surface Book 3 can deliver double the performance of the Surface Book 2, with 10th Generation Intel Core i5 / i7 processors and either Nvidia GeForce GTX (which has the horsepower to play Xbox Game Pass titles in 1080p at 60 frames per second) or Quadro RTX GPUs, along with 32GB of RAM and Microsoft's fastest ever SSDs with up to 2TB capacity.

Better yet, Microsoft claims up to 17.5 hours of battery life for the 15-inch model, with 15.5 hours for the 13.5-inch – though we're sure that intensive Photoshop and Lightroom use will take a big chunk out of that. 

In terms of the physical specs, the 13.5-inch Surface Book 3 measures 312 mm x 232 mm x 13-23 mm and weighs 1,534g (including keyboard) for the i5 version, with the i7 coming in at 312 mm x 232 mm x 15-23 mm and 1,642 g. The 15-inch model, meanwhile, measures 343 mm x 251 mm x 15-23 mm and weighs in at 1,905g.

Both Surface Book 3s feature a 3:2 PixelSense Display with 1600:1 contrast ratio and 10-point multi-touch G5, the smaller model having 3000 x 2000 resolution (267 PPI) and the larger 3240 x 2160, (260 PPI). All versions have a 5MP front-facing camera and 8MP primary autofocus camera, each capable of 1080p video.

The Microsoft Surface Book 3 13-inch starts at $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,649 and will be available 21 May, while the 15-inch model starts at $2,299 / £2,199 / AU$3,699 and availability commences 05 June.

Pre-order the Microsoft Surface Book 3

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With many of us having been stuck in lockdown for weeks now, you might find that your used and abused laptop is starting to give up the ghost. Whether you urgently need a new computer, or you're just looking for a solid upgrade, you might want to check out this great deal on the Microsoft Touchscreen Surface Laptop 2.

This 13.5 inch touchscreen laptop has an Intel Core i7-8650U 1.9GHz processor, 16GB of RAM, an in-built 512GB Solid State Drive and runs Windows 10. The original price of this Microsoft Touchscreen Surface Laptop 2 was $2,199, but thanks to a $500 discount you can now pick it up for only $1,699!

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With 14.5 hours of battery life, the Surface Laptop 2 gives you plenty of time to do all of your work – with enough juice left over for Netflix. The touchscreen is perfect for establishing a fast workflow, while the Windows 10 Home gives you familiar features such as password-free Windows Hello sign-in and Cortana intelligent assistant.

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Microsoft is officially back in the smartphone business – and not only that, it has jumped aboard the foldable camera phone bandwagon by announcing the Microsoft Surface Duo. 

Unveiled at a press event in New York, the Microsoft Surface Duo will feature an Android operating system – as is only sensible, though still somewhat surprising given Microsoft's persistent attempts to make Windows Mobile OS a thing. 

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"This product brings together the absolute best of Microsoft, and we're partnering with Google to bring the absolute best of Android in one product," said Microsoft Product Chief, Panos Panay (thanks, CNet). "This is industry pushing technology."

Interestingly, Microsoft distinctly considers the Duo to be part of the Surface family – which is to say that it isn't strictly a smartphone. "Make no mistake, this product is a Surface," Panay noted. 

And the Duo isn't strictly a folding device, either – not in the sense that the Samsung Galaxy Fold is, anyway. Where folding phones such as the Galaxy feature a single, seamless screen (the cause of Samsung's many miseries), the Surface Duo features separate dual screens, albeit in close proximity. 

Given that the Samsung has yet to pass any sustained durability tests (having spectacularly failed to last longer than a day without the screen breaking in its first go-around), we suspect that Microsoft made the right call. 

Very little else is known about the Microsoft Surface Duo, though we do know that it features a single rear (selfie) camera – there appears to be no front facing primary camera at all. 

Microsoft's presentation goes to great lengths to showcase the two screens being used independently, rather than as a single seamless tablet screen. It depicted one screen as a display and the other as a keyboard, for inputting text, or as a virtual joypad for playing Xbox games. Stylus input on one screen was also shown.

In this sense, Microsoft seems to be pitching the Duo's functionality as similar to the Nintendo DS. It seems to consider the two screens serving separate purposes, rather than combining to form a single larger display. It will be interesting to see whether this, or Samsung's approach, sees greater success when it launches in holiday 2020.

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Adobe has announced the release of the latest version of its iconic editing software Photoshop. 

The update includes better support for Microsoft Windows devices, together with a new Subject Select mode powered by Adobe’s intelligent AI software, Adobe Sensei.

There’s plenty to get through, so let’s take a look at what’s new in the latest version.

Select Subject

Already teased and much anticipated, the new Select Subject option is powered by Adobe Sensei and promises to greatly expedite the process of subject selection.

Using advanced machine learning, the Select Subject option allows users to automatically select prominent subjects in an image with a single click. The selection can be finely adjusted with other tools if needed, but the glimpses we’ve had are indication enough that it works well – and the fact that it’s powered by intelligent machine-learning technology means that with use it’ll only get better and better. 

Windows High-Density Monitor Support

The Windows 10 Creator’s Edition of Photoshop also offers support for Microsoft’s high-density monitors, which means the interface will look crisp and sharp no matter how dense your monitor’s resolution is.

The new version is also designed to scale well across different devices, meaning that the software is tailored to suit whatever resolution of screen it’s working with, whether it’s a smaller laptop or enormous 8K desktop monitor.

Other changes

A few more updates have been added across the board:

A decontamination slider has been added to Select and Mask for improved control. This feature is already available in Refine Edge.

Improved SVG (scalable vector graphics) compatibility with Adobe XD – a tool for artists and designers.

Better compatibility with Microsoft Dial, the new accessory for Surface.

Fixes for customer-reported bugs. Full list here

Adobe Photoshop 19.1 availability

Existing customers can get their hands on the update now by updating their Creative Cloud software. If you’re new to Photoshop, head here to get started.