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If you don’t have time to read the article, then my top choice is the Microsoft Surface Pro 8, as it has a full OS and can easily run both Photoshop and Lightroom. This is the tablet I use when away from my desktop.

If you want a true tablet, then the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+ is your best bet as it offers a phenomenal screen at a much lower price than the comparable iPad Pro and Surface Pro.

With the rise of mobile photography and the ability to store your photos in the cloud, it has become less and less necessary to use a computer to edit your photos, when you can instead use a photo tablet.

It used to be the case that even the best tablets for photo editing in Lightroom and Photoshop lacked power and speed, but now in 2024, it’s worth asking whether you should still be using a laptop or tablet for photo editing, as the best graphics tablets for photo editing are as fast and powerful as a mid-to-high-end laptop, and can easily replace a laptop or desktop computer in your workflow.

This article will cover several examples of tablets and laptops to help you decide which is the best laptop or tablet for photo editing, for you. If you are interested in Android tablets specifically, then take a look at the best Android tablets article.

The Best Tablet for Photo Editing

To illustrate just how good the screen and functionality are on the Surface Pro 8, here’s a couple of images of how I use it:

The Best Android Tablet for Photo Editing

The Best iPad for Photo Editing

Can’t Decide? Compare the Top Photo Editing Tablets Below

Best Tablets for Photo Editing in Lightroom and Photoshop 2024: My Picks

This is the current top order of the best photo editing tablets specifically for Lightroom and Photoshop editing in 2024. More details, including the pros and cons of each photo editing tablet, follows below. Remember that you will also need a stylus for these tablets in order to make full use of them for photo editing.

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Best Tablets for Photographers

1. Microsoft Surface Pro 8 – As an all-round best tablet for pictures, with the power and functions of a laptop, the Surface Pro is the best tablet for photographers.
2. Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+ – Despite not being able to run a full version of Photoshop, the S8+ is excellent value for money, with higher specs than the iPad Pro .
3. Apple iPad Pro – This is a close runner up, and with an excellent screen, the iPad Pro is one of the best tablets for photography.
4. Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+
5. Apple iPad Air
6. Samsung Galaxy Tab S6
7. Samsung Galaxy Tab A8
8. Microsoft Surface Go 3
9. Samsung Galaxy Tab A
10. Huawei MateBook Signature Edition
11. Dragon Touch Max10

1. Microsoft Surface Pro 8

Best Tablet for Photoshop Editing

My Top Pick

The Microsoft Surface Pro must rank as one of the best all-round tablet and laptop combinations on the market. There is a full range of Surface Pros from the last few years, although currently, the best Microsoft Surface Pro for photo editing is the Microsoft Surface Pro 8, which for my money is probably the best computer for photo editing, and the one that I use personally when away from my desktop.

It’s lightweight, but has a high resolution screen with excellent color accuracy and more memory than the iPad Pro. It also has a full operating system, meaning regular versions of both Lightroom and Photoshop can be installed, along with many other helpful Windows-only programs.

An alternative best photo editing software for Windows 10 is Affinity Photo. Although the iPad Pro would be the best tablet for Affinity Photo, the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 can run a full, desktop-style version of this program.

These reasons put it above the iPads in my estimation, although if you do not use Windows, and instead spend most of your time on Apple products, you may wish to stick with the iPad Pro as it can take a lot of tweaking to get the best out of Windows devices, even though Windows 11 is actually very well setup out of the box.

Of course, you need to factor in the cost of buying a stylus at least, in order to get full control when using Photoshop, and you will most likely also want a type cover for keyboard shortcuts.

This adds to the already quite high cost, so the Surface Pro 8 is really only an option for those not budget limited, who want the absolute best tablet for photo editing, and who don’t want to have to decide between a tablet or laptop for photo editing.

Microsoft Surface Pro 8 Check Latest Price

2. Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+

Best Android Tablet for Photo Editing

Sitting between the 11-inch Galaxy Tab S8 and the massive 14.6-inch S8 Ultra, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+ is the latest iteration of Samsung’s premier line of Android tablets.

The S8+ shares a number of similar features to its cousin, the S7+, with that model possibly being better value for money, if it doesn’t have quite the same power as the S8+.

The screen is essentially the same – an AMOLED display operating at 120Hz and 2800 x 1752 pixel resolution, but this is no bad thing, as the S7+ was known for its fantastic display.

There is only a maximum of 256GB internal storage on the top end S8+, but this can be complemented with a micro SD card to top you up, and to store your photos longer term.

The S Pen is included, with even less lag than before, it being reduced from 9ms to 2.8ms, making photo editing essentially lag-free.

DeX mode is still available, turning the S8+ into something more like a standard Windows laptop, although you still can’t run a full version of Photoshop on it.

Although there is not a great deal of upgrades over the excellent S7+, if you do find the S8+ for a good deal, it’s definitely an incredibly strong tablet with a bright, beautiful display and lag-free pen that is perfect for photo editing.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S8+ Check Latest Price

3. Apple iPad Pro

Best iPad for Photo Editing

One of the strongest and best editing tablets for photographers is the Apple iPad Pro, the best iPad for Photoshop and Lightroom. It is available in an 11 inch model for a slightly reduced price, although if you are serious enough about photo editing to buy an iPad Pro, the small amount extra to purchase the 12.9 inch model would make more sense.

If you are not part of the Apple ecosystem, then the learning curve might put you off, as would the potential issues in connecting all your existing devices.

The specs sit around the same level as the Galaxy Tab S7+, although at a premium price around 50% more than the comparable Samsung model. The display refreshes at 120Hz, as with the S7+, and is at a similar DPI and color accuracy – you won’t have any problems viewing your photos in the best possible light, with the XDR display making this the best tablet for viewing photos.

As with any iPad, you get a fantastically usable machine, designed for those who don’t want to have to tweak endless settings to get the most out of their tablet. Of course, there is a significant additional outlay for the Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard, to turn this into a full featured photo editing tablet, but this is, in my opinion, worth it.

The new Magic Keyboard now suspends the tablet, meaning that it can be tilted to a range of angles, and the Pencil offers pressure sensitivity rivaling real pencils on paper.

Connectivity is generally poor, with only one USB-C port offered, and no option to add microSD cards, as you see on Android tablets. This means that the iPad Pro is not the best tablet for storing photos, unless you go for the 1TB model.

Nonetheless, the iPad Pro offers a premium experience with very little not to recommend it – and it now even supports Photoshop. The iPad Pro is also by far the best tablet for Affinity Photo, if you are a more high-end user, and I would consider it to be the best tablet for Adobe Photoshop, if you exclude the more computer-like tablets such as the Surface Pro series.

Apple iPad Pro Check Latest Price

4. Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+

Best Android Tablet for Photo Editing

As the best Samsung tablet for photographers, but also the best Android tablet for photographers, the Galaxy S7+ is an outstanding achievement for an Android tablet, coming close to toppling the iPad Pro and Surface Pro 8 from the top spot of photo tablets.

Using the Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 for photo editing is a joy – it comes in two flavors, the S7+ with a 12.4″ screen, or the standard S7, which is otherwise largely identical, but has only an 11″ screen.

The S7+ screen operates at 120Hz, and is an AMOLED displays (the S7 is an LCD display), with the S7+ offering a higher DPI than the iPad Pro (274 vs 265).

Although it’s possible to get both with up to 512GB of internal storage, you can add a microSD card with a capacity itself of up to 1TB, something sorely lacking in Apple’s iPads, and meaning that the issues of slow transfer speed over cloud storage for your photos can be largely eliminated, by keeping photos on the tablet itself.

Also unlike the iPads, the S7 series comes with an included stylus, meaning it is suitable for detailed editing in Lightroom straight out of the box. Of course, you are unable to access a full version of Photoshop currently, but with an equivalent to Photoshop for Galaxy tab in Photopea, you still have the ability to make powerful edits.

With the new DeX mode, the S7+ can be used as a pseudo-laptop, transforming into a Windows 10 simulacrum which makes using the tablet that much easier, though it should be noted that this is still below the performance of the Surface Pro 8 for standard laptop tasks.

Nonetheless, the Samsung Galaxy S7+ remains the best Android tablet for drawing thanks to the included stylus, and the best Samsung tablet for photo editing.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+ Check Latest Price

5. Apple iPad Air

Best Value iPad for Photo Editing

The iPad Air is a smaller, cheaper version of the iPad that still offers you the high-end experience and screen you would expect from Apple, and is the best tablet for photo editing on a budget.

This is about 2/3 the price of the iPad Pro, with most of the same features and a significant weight reduction, if you are willing to put up with a smaller screen.

If you are not already familiar with Apple’s operating system, iOS, you will need to spend some time learning how this works, and may want to stick to a tablet with an operating system with which you are already familiar, like Windows.

The iPad Air is generally a very good performer for Photoshop and Lightroom, particularly if you use the 5th generation model that supports the Apple Pencil 2.

It is a direct competitor to the Galaxy S8 (not the + model), as it has a similar screen size and specs. It is beaten by both the iPad Pro and Galaxy S8+, but is a more portable package, and a significantly lower price, and is therefore much more suited to those on a more limited budget.

This is my pick for best iPad for Lightroom, as if you are using Lightroom more than Photoshop, you are likely looking for something lighter and more portable, and are not too bothered about the absolute power of the device, although the new M1 chip certainly helps with speed.

Apple iPad Air Check Latest Price

6. Samsung Galaxy Tab S6

Samsung Tablet for Photo Editing

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 is one of the older Android tablets, and is now the model below the S7 in the pecking order, meaning that it can be had for a very reasonable price in the secondhand market.

For the money, you get a high resolution screen with very good color accuracy, and a light weight device that should be considered as a smaller version of the iPad Pro.

These two are very similar in specs, and if you are not already part of the Apple ecosystem and want a dedicated tablet, the S6 may well be a better option for you, particularly if the price of the S7+ is beyond your budget.

The main drawback to the S6 is the relatively small screen, at 10.5″, and an occasional problem that some users have reported, where the pen is found to be jittery and far less smooth than the iPad Pro.

Although when found at a price that is on a par to the S7 it is not very good value for money, it is still possible that you will be able to pick up a lightly used model from those that are upgrading. For the right price, the Tab S6 would make a strong photography tablet.

Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Check Latest Price

7. Samsung Galaxy Tab A8

Entry Level Photo Editing Tablet

As a recent addition to the budget lineup of Samsung Galaxy Tablets, the A8 offers much of what you would expect, with a lower resolution 10.5-inch screen, but relatively fast processor in a very cheap package.

The tablet weight is a little on the heavier side for a tablet of this screen size, but shouldn’t really be noticeably different from its predecessor in practice. Battery life remains about the same at 13 hours, with a upgrade in RAM from 2GB to 3 or 4GB in the highest capacity model, which should really help with any complex photo editing.

The Galaxy Tab A8 is still not an ideal tablet for photo editing in either Lightroom or Photoshop Express, but offers a very serviceable and decent experience if this is as far as you want to stretch your budget.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 Check Latest Price

8. Microsoft Surface Go 3

Best Value Tablet for Photoshop Editing

The Microsoft Surface Go 3 is a smaller, more budget-friendly version of the Surface Pro, and is the best budget tablet for photo editing. It is roughly comparable to the iPad Air, though it has lower specifications.

This is a good option if you are cost-limited, and already know how to use Windows. Bear in mind the operating system is a restricted version of Windows 10, making this a poor choice when compared to the Surface Pro, although you can switch it to Windows 10 Home for free, from the Windows Store once you have purchased the device.

Surprisingly, it beats the Surface Pro 7 in terms of color space, showing 107% of the sRGB gamut, in comparison to the Pro 7’s 97%. This hints at the high build quality of the Surface Go 3, which although limited by a Pentium Gold / M3 processor and only a max of 8GB of RAM, becomes a very usable photo editor tablet when paired with the type cover and Surface pen.

If you’re on a budget, you really don’t want to overlook this cheap tablet for photo editing.

Microsoft Surface Go 3 Check Latest Price

9. Samsung Galaxy Tab A

Best Value Android Tablet for Photo Editing

The Samsung Galaxy Tab A is one of the cheapest tablets from a well-known brand currently available, but still remains a good tablet for photo editing. It is marketed as more of a family tablet than a dedicated photo editing tablet, but the specs show that it is possible to use this tablet for Lightroom editing.

Bear in mind that you do get what you pay for, and the photo editing experience may be slower and less responsive than on the S6 or S7, and the screen is of a much lower resolution, but the Tab A is about 1/3 of the price of the more expensive Samsung models, so is much more suited to those on a budget.

Build quality is surprisingly solid for a device in this price range, with the chassis made from a mixture of metal and plastic, with a Gorilla glass covering. This obviously doesn’t match the single piece of aluminum of the iPads, but does make a remarkably hard wearing tablet.

Color accuracy is generally good, particularly for an LCD panel, although you may notice some tones having cyan or blue tints when they shouldn’t. This shouldn’t be much of an issue in real-world use, and is perfectly reasonable for the price of the tablet.

All in all, while it may not be quite the best tablet for Lightroom editing, which would go to the Tab S7+, the Tab A makes a good case to be a solid tablet to edit photos for those on a budget.

Samsung Galaxy Tab A Check Price of the Galaxy Tab A

10. Huawei MateBook Signature Edition

2 in 1 Tablet for Photo Editing

If you can look past the older styling and lower specs, the Huawei Matebook delivers a strong performance for a device that is designed to be used primarily as a tablet.

You can run Photoshop and Lightroom on it, as it runs Windows 10 Home, although the relatively small RAM and internal memory do mean that you are more limited in the size of photo files that you can easily edit. There will be some slowdown in performance with modern, large photo files.

This is ideally suited for those who don’t want to spend much over $500 on a tablet, and want one that is suitable for everyday tasks like emails and web browsing, in addition to photo editing.

Huawei Matebook Check Latest Price

11. Dragon Touch Max10

Budget Tablet for Photo Editing

Although the Dragon Touch Max10 is not much to write home about, it does work well as a budget tablet for basic photo editing. As with other generic brands of tablet, it is stuck on Android 9, which may make it problematic from a security and app update perspective, but it does have the performance to be used for photo editing.

The IPS display panel is pretty good, although a low resolution when compared to similar sized tablets. Color accuracy is not great, with colors looking pretty washed out. Still, for less than $150, and if you are willing to overlook its flaws, the Dragon Touch is a solid tablet.

Dragon Touch Check Latest Price

The Best Android Tablet for Photo Editing

With Android tablet photo editing, you are limited to using Lightroom only as the Android version of Photoshop is quote under-powered, putting these among the best tablets for photo editing Lightroom.

They do not currently have access to the full version of Photoshop (although you can use the browser-based alternative, Photopea). Lightroom is still a very powerful editing program, and you will likely not run into too many limitations unless you are a professional user.

You can compare all of the Android tablets for photo editing in the table below.

The Best Apple Tablet for Photo Editing

With the release of the best photo editing software for iPad, Photoshop, you are not just limited to photo editing apps like Lightroom, making iPads a very powerful alternative to using home computers.

iPads are also the only true tablets that can run Affinity Photo. In addition, iPads are known for having fantastic cameras, being widely considered the best tablets for taking pictures. The best tablet for photography and the best iPad photo editor remains the iPad Pro, which has the highest specs of any device reviewed here, for a true tablet.

You can compare all iPads for photo editing in the table below.

The Best Windows Tablet for Photo Editing

There are a number of Windows-based tablets that act more as small laptops than the tablets you may be used to. The extra power and full operating system of these devices makes them strong contenders to iPads, and to your home computer when it comes to the best tablets for Photoshop editing.

The cameras tend to be less strong than on iPads, so they are less suitable for direct photography, but for my money, the Windows devices are the best tablets for Photoshop currently available.

You can compare all Windows tablets for photo editing in the table below.

Key Features of the Best Tablet for Editing Photos

It’s not always obvious about what sets apart photography tablets, and particularly what features make for the best tablet for editing photos. It largely depends on the software you want to run on your tablet, and how comfortable you are with using tablets for editing photos or for drawing.

For example, if you are looking for the best tablet for Lightroom, then all makes of tablet would be suitable, whereas if you want the best tablet for Photoshop and photo editing, you would not be able to buy an Android tablet, as they currently cannot run Photoshop.

The key points that you should look out for when comparing tablets for editing photos are listed below, taken from my own experience. Feel free to use this list if you want to do any further research.

• Screen Size & Resolution – Bigger, higher resolution screens are easier to use
• Internal Memory – Although you can use the cloud for storage, you will want to keep files you are working on, on your tablet
• Screen Color Accuracy – The best devices for photo editing should ideally have high color depth and accuracy, as calibration is harder to complete yourself
• Operating System – It is generally better to choose an OS that you are already familiar with
• Battery Life – Tablets are designed to be mobile, so should be usable away from the wall plug
• Weight – If it’s too heavy, you’ll never take it anywhere
• Accessories – Is there a high quality stylus available?
• Value for Money – Does it do what you want, for a price you are willing to pay?

Screen Size and Resolution

The best tablet to edit photos should have a large, high resolution screen, with good color bit depth and color accuracy. The smallest, cheapest tablets, tend to have a screen size of about 10 inches and well under 2000 pixels in the longest dimension. This is usable, but noticeably small after a significant period of use.

The main issue with these smaller screens that operate at a lower resolution (approximately equal to Full HD (1920 x 1080)), is that they cannot display a photo taken with a modern camera in its full entirety to any level of detail.

If you have a photo that is 5000 pixels on the longest edge, then obviously it will have to be shrunk significantly to fit on a 1920 pixel 10″ screen, meaning that you will find it harder to view the image as a whole in a detailed way. You would be forced to zoom in to see the photo at 100%, and can then find that you have a lot of scrolling to see the entire image.

On a larger screen, like that of the Surface Pro 7, you get about 2700 pixels on 12.3 inches of real estate. This may not sound vastly larger, but in practice, a screen of this size and resolution makes a significantly more usable photography tablet, and makes the whole process of photo editing on a tablet much more enjoyable.

Screen Color Accuracy

Although color accuracy is much harder to pin down in numbers, since manufacturers use different terminology and tend to hide these figures as they are less relevant for regular tablet users, high color accuracy is a signifier of the best tablets for editing photos.

The number of colors available to a display is given in bit depth, so that 8 bit colors represents 256 possible colors for each pixel, 16 bit is 65536 colors, and so on. The higher the bit depth, the more shades of color are available to each pixel. Therefore, high bit depth is an integral part of color accuracy.

You may also see color accuracy displayed as a percentage of a particular color space. Common color spaces are sRGB, which is the standard computer monitor color space, and the larger Adobe RGB (1998) or NTSC color spaces.

For reference, I will give the best editing tablet color gamuts in a percentage of the sRGB color space, which itself contains about 33% of all the colors visible to the human eye. Obviously, the higher the sRGB percentage of a tablet, the more color accurate it is able to be.

Internal Memory

Bear in mind that the internal memory specified by a manufacturer does not take into account the space needed for the tablets operating system or any essential apps, so the available internal space will always be lower than that quoted in the sales literature. Generally, you should factor in 2GB or so for essential services (with Photoshop on iPad coming in at an additional 237MB), though this may be more for a full OS, like that seen on the Microsoft Surface Pro Series of devices.

Operating System

Ideally, you would stick to an OS that you already know, whether it’s Apple, Android or Windows. Learning a new OS is rarely worth the time for a single device, as it takes lots of practice to understand the quirks of an OS, and how to get the best out of it.

The exception to this is if you want to run certain photography editing tablet apps. See the section below on the best tablet photo editing apps for more, but in brief, the full version of Photoshop is not available on Android, but is available for all other operating systems reviewed here.

Battery Life & Weight

Beware of quoted battery lives from manufacturers, as they often test their devices in ideal conditions in order to get better figures. The battery life that I have given for each tablet for picture editing is based not only on my own experience, but collated from many other users, to get a fair picture.

Weights are often shown without type covers or a stylus, and do not include chargers. Make sure that you factor in an extra 20% or so of the quoted weight to get a fair idea of what you will need to carry.

Accessories

In order to have the best tablet for picture editing, you must get at least one accessory, a stylus. Without this, you will be stuck using your finger, which is fine for general app use, but not for the fine detailed control necessary to edit photos in Lightroom or Photoshop. Using a finger, rather than a stylus, for tablet editing is akin to using a mouse or your desktop for masking in Photoshop, rather than a drawing tablet.

Best Tablet Photo Editing App

You may already have a tablet for photo editing in mind, but how best to use it? Answer: you need to install a photo editing app.

There are a number of free and paid apps around, but by far the best tablet photo editing app is Lightroom by Adobe, closely followed by Adobe Photoshop for tablets (although this is not available on all tablets – see which tablets this is available on below).

Lightroom is available for all platforms, although you will need to pay a monthly subscription to make the most of it. Access to the Lightroom Mobile app is included as part of the photography plan, which gives you access to Lightroom and Photoshop on your PC. It’s also possible to use Photoshop on some tablets, as below.

For more advanced users, Affinity Photo is available for Windows 10 based tablets, and iPads, but is not available for Android tablets.

But with it’s ease of use and potential editing power, Adobe Lightroom is by far the best photo editing software for beginners.

Best Photo Editor App for Android

Lightroom on your tablet is about as powerful as Lightroom on your computer, with many of the same advanced editing functions. For the best tablet for photo editing in Lightroom, see the next section of this article.

The one weakness in Lightroom for tablets is the lack of support to blend layers, which remains a Photoshop-only option. Using the Lightroom cloud service, you can even sync photos, edits and libraries between your PC and your tablet.

Best photo editor app for Android: Adobe Lightroom for tablets, with Adobe Photoshop Express a close second.

You currently cannot use Photoshop on Android (although the less full-features Photoshop Express is availale), but there is an alternative: Photopea is the best free photo editing app for Android, and is a one-man built Photoshop alternative for Android tablets that runs entirely in your browser, and is perfect for editing photos on a tablet.

If you navigate to this site in Chrome, or whatever browser you use, you can open files saved on your tablet and perform most of the edits that are possible in Photoshop.

This doesn’t require you to upload photos to it, and doesn’t require an internet connection once it has loaded in the broswer. It’s maybe not quite as advanced as the real Photoshop, but is an excellent alternative photo editing Android app.

Best Photo Editing App for iPad

If you are thinking of using iPads, then you are in luck, as Adobe have now released the best photo editing software for Mac, Photoshop, for use on iPads.

This makes iPads now very strong contenders to completely replace PCs or other desktop computers due to their power and portability. The only weakness to using Photoshop and Lightroom on an iPad is accessing your photos.

As iPads do not allow you to insert memory cards, photos must be initially accessed from a network drive or other computer by WiFi. You may find the inconvenience of setting this up outweighs the usefulness of using an iPad.

Best photo editing app for iPad: Adobe Lightroom & Adobe Photoshop for tablets, with Affinity Photo a strong contender.

Best Photo Editing App for PC / Windows

Modern Windows based tablets are more like smaller form-factor laptops than the tablets of a few years ago. Therefore, they will run Lightroom and Photoshop as on your desktop or laptop computer, making these the best photo editing software for PC.

Best Photo Editing App for PC: Full desktop versions of Adobe Lightroom & Adobe Photoshop