Graphic Design & Video Editing Laptops

Buying a laptop for design or video work

MacBook or Windows laptop?

Do you go for a Macbook or a Windows based laptop? Many creative professionals have traditionally preferred Macs due to their perceived superior colour accuracy, build quality and OS reliability. If you're brand agnostic however, Windows based laptops can run a wider set of applications and allow you to take advantage of multi-core Xeon CPUs for superior processing power. Consider the video editing or graphics software you need to use; most will run on both platforms but some won't (e.g. Final Cut Pro only works on Macs).

Processing power

Most video and graphics applications are designed to take advantage of the latest multi-core processor multithreading capabilities so it makes sense to dedicate a large part of your budget to a laptop with a powerful processor. As a minimum, look for a model with the latest Core i5 or AMD A8 or A0 series processor but also look at the processor's core count as entry level models tend to have just 2 cores and ideally you want 4 or more for serious work. Higher end models support up to 8 cores for fast image rendering.

RAM

As for the memory (or RAM) in the laptop, most models are now shipping with 8Gb of RAM installed as standard but the more RAM you can get, the better, especially if you typically run multiple apps or work with very big files. 16Gb of RAM is recommended but also look at the laptop's upgrade capabilities so you can potentially add more RAM in the future.

Graphics card

The type of graphics card (or GPU) you need will depend on the nature of the work you do but we'd recommend choosing a laptop with discrete graphics or in other words a dedicated graphics card rather than one with graphics built into the processor. Look for models advertising Nvidia GeForce GTX or RTX GPUs. There's a wide variety of models with different price points and capabilities. Designers working in 2D should opt for a mid-range graphics card. Anyone doing 3D modelling or requiring fast video encoding should select a more powerful graphics card such as NVIDIA’s latest 10 series of GeForce GPUs or AMD's R9 series of Radeon GPUs.

Storage

Laptops will come with either a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid state drive (SSD) included for file storage. HDD models are cheaper but SSDs provide much faster boot times, app load speeds and file read/write operations. The storage capacity is important too, you'll want enough space to install all your software and save project files locally but it's going to be more affordable to invest in external storage for housing the majority of your footage or large image files. As a guide, look for laptops with 500Gb or 1Tb of storage if possible.

Display resolution

The laptop's display features will be particularly important if you plan on carrying out advanced editing tasks such as colour correction and shading work. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the resolution, the better. Most laptop screens offer 1366x768 resolution which is fine for web surfing but nowhere near good enough for serious design or video editing work. Look for a minimum of 1920x1080. If the laptop comes with a high end graphics card, a 4K screen will provide 3840x2160 resolution - 4 times the pixel count of full HD displays but note there is a trade-off to the stunning visual clarity, 4K screens consume more power and will drain your battery more rapidly than lower resolution models.

Screen size

Another important display related characteristic is screen size. The bigger the screen the heavier/bulkier the laptop tends to be. Smaller screen models don't tend to feature the more powerful processors since there is less room in the chassis for the necessary cooling. Many video editing and graphics applications features a lot of menus, tools and palettes which can be difficult to see and use on a smaller, more cluttered screen. You will therefore typically be looking at laptops with 15" screens or above unless you plan to hook up to external monitors.

Colour accuracy

Your laptop's display colour capabilities will be determined by the number of colours its screen can display and how it calibrates the colour profile. Higher colour screens with wider viewing angles are great for artistic and precision work but are not well suited for fast moving video work where a fast screen refresh rate is more important. Most laptops are still using LCD technology in their screens but newer, OLED laptops are available with better contrast ratios.

Screen type

Pay attention to the finish the manufacturer applies to the screen. Most consumer laptops feature glossy coatings which allow more colour and brightness to permeate through the display but are difficult to use in certain lighting conditions (e.g. outdoors) without creating a lot of glare. Laptops with ant-glare or matte coatings may be a better option.

Power & portability

If you're planning to do a lot of work on the road battery life and portability will likely also be important considerations. Video editing consumes a lot of power so you may want to invest in a high capacity battery or purchase a spare to carry with you. Higher end laptops tend to be made using lighter, thinner metal rather than heavier, bulkier plastics but you'll typically pay a premium for these.

Connectivity

In terms of connectivity, you'll want to be able to transfer files across quickly and easily so look for laptops with a thunderbolt or USB-C ports. An SD slot will allow you to transfer clips and images via a memory case. Every laptop should come equipped with an audio jack so you can connect a pair of headphones for editing in noisy public places.