MacBook Air for Photoshop

[Xowi]

I’m researching which would be a better purchase for a serious photoshop user, the MacBook Air 13 for price and weight or the MacBook Pro 13 for it’s muscle.

Interested to know if the MacBook Air is challenged with Photoshop.

 

[||\||]

Given the dual core processor, Macbook Air isn't really suitable for serious Photoshop work. One could get by with it (assuming 16GB RAM), but it is not optimal.

 

[Howard2k]

I use lightroom on my 2015 13” Pro, which is comparable to the current Air in terms of performance, with some give and take. I’m not doing heavy photo editing, but I do modest tweaks in Lightroom. I recently replaced my 10MP camera with a 24MP camera and was slightly worried how well this would work. It’s been fine, it‘s still very responsive. I have 8GB of RAM and that hasn’t been an issue either, but I would certainly consider 16. But then you’re into 13” Pro territory for pricing, comparing 256GB of each. The 8GB Quad Core Pro vs the 16GB Dual Core Air, they’re close in price, and of the two I’d take the Pro.

 

[Bending Pixels]

I'm running PS CC 2020 on a MBA with 16GB of RAM - works just fine. Is it as speedy as it might be on a 13" MBP with 16GB of RAM? Nope - but it still loads and edits with very little lag

 

[lambertjohn]

Given the dual core processor, Macbook Air isn't really suitable for serious Photoshop work. One could get by with it (assuming 16GB RAM), but it is not optimal.

I run Photoshop on my base, 2018 Air and it runs fine. In fact, it runs so well that it's hard to tell I'm running it on a little dual-core CPU. 8gb of RAM and 128 gb hard drive, FYI.

 

[martyjmclean]

Heavy Photoshop work on a MacBook Air will choke, heavy Affinity Photo work will be buttery. With laptops you can't upgrade, purchase what you'll need five years from now.

 

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I run Photoshop on my base, 2018 Air and it runs fine. In fact, it runs so well that it's hard to tell I'm running it on a little dual-core CPU. 8gb of RAM and 128 gb hard drive, FYI.

Sure, but you aren’t doing anything heavy.