Best PCs for Adobe Creative Cloud in 2020
If you're a creator relying on Adobe's suite of products, these are the PCs to get.
by Richard DevineSource: Windows Central
Best PCs for Adobe Creative Cloud Windows Central 2020
If you're a creator of any kind, you're probably using Adobe Creative Cloud. Love Adobe or not, programs like Photoshop, Lightroom and Premiere Pro have become industry standards for photography, digital art, and video production. There's also no one single type of PC that best suits Creative Cloud since the nature of the work creators using it will vary. Nevertheless, these are some of our favorite machines to help you turn your creativity up a notch.
- Best All-in-One: HP ENVY 32 All-in-One
- Best Laptop: Dell XPS 15
- Best 2-in-1: Surface Book 3
- Best Desktop: Dell XPS Tower 8930 Special Edition
- Ultimate Laptop: Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition
Best All-in-One: HP Envy 32
Source: Daniel Rubino/Windows Central
Sometimes with an all-in-one PC, you have to compromise, but with the HP Envy 32, you genuinely do not. Its size helps a little, but you can have pretty much everything you could ever want from a PC all in this single unit.
That includes a full-fat 65W Intel Core i7 CPU, not the slimmed-down versions you often find inside an all-in-one or a laptop, and its paired with either NVIDIA GTX or RTX dedicated graphics. You might not be buying one of these as a gaming rig, but you bet it can tear up the latest titles.
The Envy 32 also boasts a massive 32-inch display, with both 4K resolution and HDR and a neat anti-reflective finish, which makes it so much nicer to sit in front of for long periods.
Pros:
- 32-inch 4K anti-reflective HDR display.
- GTX or RTX graphics.
- 65-watt Core i7 CPU.
- Pop-up Windows Hello 5MP camera.
- Display input/output.
Cons:
- No Wi-Fi 6.
- Display limited to 60 Hz.
- SSD is just OK.
Best All-in-One
HP ENVY 32 All-in-One
Real CPU, powerful GPU, and 4K
HP's ENVY 32 AIO sets the bar for AIO PCs in 2020. It blows away the Apple iMac 27, and it can act as your TV, computer for work, and a gaming rig.
Best laptop: Dell XPS 15
Source: Windows Central
Photographers and videographers need to see what they're working with. In that case, the gorgeous 4K display on the Dell XPS 15 just makes sense. Though the 1080p version is still pretty good. But the XPS 15 is an easy recommendation for a laptop buyer who wants style and performance.
The latest model now comes with Intel's 10th Gen H-Series Core i5 and i7 processors, which combined with an NVIDIA GTX 1650 Ti GPU with 4GB of VRAM produces a laptop that can handle some serious design and editing work. The battery is also pretty massive given the size of the laptop for all-day life.
The XPS 15 also now has a redesigned 16:10 display with almost no bezels at all, while still being wrapped up inside a beautifully designed and expertly constructed chassis. There's even an element of upgradeability, and while there's no official pen support, this still makes one incredible, highly portable editing machine.
Pros:
- Optional 4K display
- Dedicated NVIDIA graphics.
- 10th Gen H-Series Intel processors.
- Thunderbolt 3
Cons:
- No official pen support
- Can get expensive
Best Laptop
Dell XPS 15
Latest and greatest 15-inch laptop
Dell's iconic XPS 15 received a spec bump for 2020 with a new option for NVIDIA GTX 1650 Ti graphics and a new 10th Gen Intel H-Series processor paired with a pretty sizeable battery.
Best 2-in-1: Microsoft Surface Book 3
Source: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central
The Surface Book 3 is the ultimate 2-in-1 laptop with its detachable "clipboard" and full digital pen support. Its modular design — the keyboard and touchpad can be removed entirely — does not hinder its performance. In fact, it enhances it, bringing additional battery life and graphics power to the mix.
This is the closest you'll get to true desktop performance from a 13- or a 15-inch laptop. Choose a 10th Gen Intel Core i5 or i7 processor, and now there's a dedicated NVIDIA 1660 Ti GPU, which provides stunning performance and makes it a perfect companion to heavy editing sessions. If you need even more power, there's also an NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 option thrown in with true workstation graphics.
The 13.5-inch or 15-inch touchscreen with beautiful 3000 x 2000 resolution works in tandem with the included Surface Pen, and you can add the Surface Dial for additional functionality. The premium build and high performance come at a price, but in its third iteration, the Surface Book remains a genuinely unique laptop.
Pros:
- Stunning display
- Dedicated NVIDIA graphics
- Touch and pen support
- Use as tablet or laptop
Cons:
- Expensive
Best 2-in-1
Surface Book 3
Power on the go
The refreshed Surface Book 3 for 2020 gets new Intel 10th Gen processors, more powerful GTX or Quadro RTX graphics, as well as much better Wi-Fi, SSD, and RAM options making this one powerful 2-in-1 convertible PC.
Best Desktop: Dell XPS Tower 8930 Special Edition
Source: Dell
Dell's XPS Tower 8930 Special Edition is easy to recommend thanks to a ton of configuration options and a stylish exterior. On the front are USB-C, three USB-A, and 3.5mm audio ports that are easy to reach for common accessories. You also get an optical drive and a heap of ports on the rear to connect pretty much everything you could want.
The entry model includes a 9th Gen Intel Core i5-9400 processor (CPU), 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD) coupled with a 1TB hard-disk drive (HDD). For extra performance for editing or even a spot of gaming, an NVIDIA GTX 1650 dedicated graphics card (GPU) with 4GB of VRAM is on offer.
You can really accelerate the hardware inside, though, and you can opt for a 9th Gen Intel Core i9-9900K CPU, 64GB of DDR4 RAM, up to 4TB of storage, and a beefy NVIDIA RTX 2080 Super GPU with 8GB of VRAM if you so wish. This box looks like it belongs in an office, but it's capable of scorching performance, and even if you get one of the lower-tier configurations, it's a simple task to upgrade the internals down the road.
Pros:
- Plenty of spec options
- Good port selection
- Amazing performance potential
- Easy upgradeability
Cons:
- Quite high starting price
Best Desktop
Dell XPS Tower 8930 Special Edition
Great for most people
With a wide variety of hardware options and easy upgrades, the XPS Tower 8930 Special Edition should be a good fit.
Ultimate Laptop: Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition
Source: Windows Central
If there's a god-tier laptop out there right now for creators, this is it. The regular Razer Blade 15 is exceptional, but this Studio Edition, developed to meet strict guidelines set by NVIDIA, is absolutely mindblowing.
It keeps the 9th Gen Intel Core i7 six-core processor from the previous generation gaming version of the Blade 15, but pairs it with a monstrous Quadro RTX 5000 16GB GPU. This is one of the most powerful laptop GPUs on the planet for creators and yet remains quiet during most operations.
The Blade 15 Studio also boasts 32GB of RAM, a 1TB PCIe SSD, and out front an absolutely stunning 4K OLED touch display. It's the kind of display that makes anything you look at after-feel really underwhelming; it's that good, and perfect for those interested in color accuracy with its DCI-P3 calibration. The Studio Edition is also optimized to work with Creative Cloud for the absolute best performance.
Pros:
- 4K OLED display
- RTX Quadro graphics
- 32GB of RAM
- Thunderbolt 3
Cons:
- High price
- Average battery life
Ultimate Laptop
Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition
All the power you need
Between the killer hardware specs and the stunning 4K display, the Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition is an out-of-this-world choice for photo and video editing, as well as any other creative task and complex professional applications.
The bottom line
Adobe Creative Cloud runs well on a wide range of Windows 10 PCs, but if you're specifically looking for something with it in mind then you're obviously going to want something that will really get the most from it. Generally, that means looking towards the higher end of the market where the more powerful hardware lies.
If you're shopping for a desktop machine, though, the superb HP Envy 32 is a beast of a machine for all purposes, with high-end hardware inside and a high-end design on the outside, it's truly a pleasure to spend the day in front of. Likewise, if you're looking for a capable laptop to take with you, the Dell XPS 15 is a fine choice to make.
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