Graphic design is a demanding job and one that often requires more than just the best graphic design laptop itself. In fact, designers often rely on high-performing laptops that can handle long hours of demanding tasks and programs. If you’re a graphic designer looking for the best equipment for your graphic design career, you’re in luck. We have constructed this quick, comprehensive recommendations list when it comes to graphic design laptops. We’ve chosen them based on their processing power, memory capacity, video card capabilities, and more – all of which will help you get your work done faster. Most of these laptops have been recommended in our experience. Hopefully, it can help you find the best laptop for you.
What to Look at in Graphic Design Laptops?
Operating System
When choosing a laptop, the operating system first comes to mind. Of course, you’d want a laptop with an (OS) compatible with the programs you will use. Luckily, most programs are compatible with both Windows and macOS. It’s entirely up to your professional position to choose which ones will make it easier for your job.
Hard Drive
As designers, storage is probably your next utmost concern. With large PSD files and possibly video files, you’d need a fast rendering hard drive and lots and lots of storage. For laptops, it’s often advisable to have an SSD for a good mix of storage size and performance. A minimum of 512 GB SSD is recommended
RAM and Processor
In relation to fast performance, a minimum of 8 GB RAM and a Core i5 is necessary for a graphic design laptop to be able to perform the most basic of tasks. If you’ll be doing video editing or large graphic design tasks, going as high as 32 GB RAM and Core i9 won’t hurt. Also, try to look for at least quad-core laptops to help your laptop work with ease.
GPU
Mostly, GPUs are the concern of those designers who are looking to use their laptops for personal use as well. Choosing the right GPU depends entirely on your professional needs. But if it helps, having a dedicated graphics card is necessary
Battery Life
You’d be working long nights (but hopefully not too much, if work gets too tough, try hiring a professional design service) so you’d want a laptop with good battery life.
5 Best Graphic Design Laptops
Do note that this list is just a list of recommendations. There are still other laptops out there that can function well for graphic design. In our experience, these 5 laptops often do great with graphic design.
Dell XPS 15
Dell XPS 15 is one of the best laptops for graphic design. It has a 15.6-inch touchscreen display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. It comes with a 12th Gen Intel Core i5 processor (which can go as high as i9), up to 64GB RAM, and a 4TB SSD.
The laptop is powered by an Intel Iris Xe graphics card, which can be upgraded to NVIDIA if needed, and coupled with a 16GB GDDR6 VRAM that offers you amazing performance when editing videos or playing games on your computer. The battery life of this device lasts up to 8 hours if used for browsing purposes only but if you run demanding software like Adobe Photoshop then it may last for about 5 hours before recharging it again
Apple MacBook Pro 16
Of course, designers often go to Apple Brand laptops when it comes to graphic design. With a brand new M2 chip version this year, the Apple MacBook Pro 16 remains one of the best laptops for graphic design. Equipped with a powerful processor and an excellent display, it also has a great battery life and comes with a large amount of storage space. However, it’s very expensive, so you may want to consider other options if you’re looking for something more affordable.
HP Spectre x360
Sometimes, some graphic designers want a 2-in-1 laptop. The HP Spectre x360 is that 2-in-1 laptop that meets all the requirements of a graphic designer. The HP Spectre x360 comes with an Intel® Core™ i7- and 16GB DDR4 RAM. It also has an Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics card which makes it perform great as well Moreover, it has a 13.3″ FHD IPS Touch display that is great for watching videos, editing pictures, and playing games without any issue at all! For storage, you can get the HP Spectre x360 with up to 512GB SSD, which means that your files will be stored without issues.
Acer Predator Triton 500
Gaming laptops aren’t a bad option either. The Acer Predator Triton 500 is one of those powerful gaming laptops that can function as a graphic design laptop as well. With 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and 32GB DDR4 memory. The 2TB SSD allows you to store large files quickly, while the NVIDIA® GEFORCE® RTX 2080 SUPER™ GPU will let you play any game on the market at high settings without any lag or delay. This also means that graphic design tasks won’t be difficult on this laptop.
Razer Blade Pro 17
If you’re looking for a laptop that can handle all your graphic design needs, but you also don’t want to spend too much, the Razer Blade Pro 17 might be the perfect fit for you. It features an Intel Core i9 processor and 16 GB of RAM, which provides plenty of power for most creative professionals. Plus, it comes with a 1 TB SSD and GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card, which will help speed up your workflow when using software like Photoshop or Illustrator. Plus, this isn’t just any normal laptop: it’s also incredibly thin and lightweight at 4.4 pounds (3 pounds lighter than its predecessor).
Graphic Design Laptops in a nutshell
There are so many laptops for graphic design and all of them are great. Many of them have the best specs and will do the job, so it’s up to you to choose which one works best for your budget. If you’re looking for a laptop that’s not too expensive, there are plenty of options out there. But if you can afford it, these laptops above are some of the best choices.
When in doubt, our choice for the best laptop for graphic design is the Apple MacBook Pro 16. It’s incredibly fast, well-designed, and powerful enough to handle whatever you throw at it. The Dell XPS 15 comes in a close second place with its sleek design and amazing battery life. If you have extra cash to spend on your laptop then we recommend getting either the HP Spectre x360 or Razer Blade 17 as they can function well enough to become personal laptops as well.
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