It takes time to create a stunning video. From the first brainstorming session to scriptwriting, to actually filming – it's a lot of work. The last thing you want to do at the end of an edit session is to wait for your work to be rendered and ready to share with the world.
A speedy laptop for video editing is about more than just the latest processor. You'll also want a powerful GPU to speed up exporting, but often that means you'll give up some portability. Although, that's not always the case, as you'll see below.
The spec sheet of most video editing laptops reads a lot like a gaming laptop, with color-tuned displays, RTX 20-series GPUs, and cooling systems to ensure everything keeps running. But that's necessarily a bad thing. You'll save yourself some time, and when you're done working, you can open your favorite game and escape for a couple of hours.
Display: 15.6-inch UHD (3,840 x 2,160) OLED | CPU: Intel Core i7-10800H | GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060 (6GB GDDR6 VRAM) | RAM: 16GB DDR4 | Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD | Weight: 4.4 pounds | Size: 14” x 9.8” x 0.78”
Is there anything better than powerful internals and a brilliant display for video editing on the go? We don’t think so, and the Gigabyte Aero 15 provides both plus a mid-range price point to boot, making it our favorite laptop for video editing. The 15.6-inch UHD display offers sharp visuals, so you won’t miss any details in your video project. Better still, the display is using a 4K Samsung AMOLED panel for vibrant colors and rich black levels. You never have to worry about your edits on this machine looking off elsewhere, as the display comes X-Rite Certified and Pantone Validated for color accuracy with a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut.
If you think the display has a lot to offer, there is even more power under the hood. There’s an Intel Core i7-11800H with 16GB of RAM that can be kitted out to 64GB. You are in for some speedy processing and multitasking with this machine. Rendering work can be pushed onto the graphics processor, which is a really decent RTX 3060. This is all coming in a delightfully portable form factor that weighs a manageable 4.4 pounds
Display: 16.2-inch (3456 x 2234) Liquid Retina XDR | CPU: M1 Max | GPU: Integrated | RAM: up to 64GB | Storage: 1TB SSD | Weight: 4.7 pounds | Size: 14.01” x 9.77” x 0.66”
Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro is a machine of great power, reliability, and functionality. With its latest M1 Max processor, it’s the highest-performing MacBook you can get. This new M1 chip offers a combined CPU and GPU. And, by going with the M1 Max, you will be able to push this machine to the limit, as it doubles the number of GPU cores and memory bandwidth offered with the M1 Pro. It can handle a massive file load and work super fast. All of this is perfect for your video editing needs.
In addition to the excellent processor, the 16-inch MacBook Pro has a stunning Retina XDR display that provides vibrant colors and an excellent contrast ratio, so you can ensure all of your edits are looking exactly like you pictured. For anyone who lives inside Final Cut Pro X while on the go, this MacBook really can handle everything you throw at it.
Display: 15.6-inch UHD (3,840 x 2,160) | CPU: Intel Core i7-1165G7 | GPU: Quadro T1000 | RAM: 32GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD | Weight: 3.86 pounds | Size: 14.2" x 9.2" x 0.8"
If you’re looking for a perfectly powerful and compact workstation, the HP ZBook Firefly is that. It packs all the components you need for video editing into a form factor that's ready for your backpack. This machine comes with a decently sized 15.6” screen, but it is still super thin and light enough that you're not likely to find your back hurting from toting it around.
Inside, the HP ZBook Firefly comes packing a quad-core Intel i7-1165G7 processor alongside a professional-grade Nvidia Quadro T1000 graphics card. Those should be perfect for handling all your video editing needs along with the impressive 32GB RAM. The 1TB of SSD NVMe storage offered with this laptop should be more than enough for most. And, don’t worry about the display with its impressive 4K UHD, a peak brightness of 250 nits, and an anti-glare finish, it's up to all your video editing tasks.
Display: 15.6" FHD (1,920 x 1,080) 360Hz | CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (8GB GDDR6 VRAM) | RAM: 32GB DDR4 (3,200MHz) | Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD | Weight: 5.39 pounds | Size: 14.02" x 10.73" x 0.75"
Editing 4K video takes a beast of a machine, but that's just what you get from the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5. This gaming laptop has the muscle you'll want. It pairs an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX octa-core processor with an Nvidia RTX 3070, giving you a bunch of powerful CPU cores and ample graphics power for hardware acceleration.
The system will be able to hold some large projects in memory with its 32GB of DDR4 memory, and you can load up projects quickly from the 1TB NVMe SSD inside. If the 15.6-inch display isn't going to cut it, you'll have an easy time setting this system up with an external monitor using its rear HDMI 2.1 port to support 4K or even 8K video output. But, when you're done editing for the day and want to game, you'll likely want to switch back to the built-in monitor because it has a blazing 360Hz refresh rate.
Display: 15.6" FHD (1920x1080) 144Hz | CPU: Intel Core i7-11375H | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (6GB GDDR6 VRAM) | RAM: 16GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD | Weight: 3.73 pounds | Size: 14.1" x 9.76" x 0.63"
For an ultraportable laptop that can do just a little bit of everything well, you'll want the MSI Stealth 15M. MSI has packed an Intel Core i7-11375H processor and Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics processor into a chic little laptop that weighs less than four pounds and measures just a bit over a half-inch thick. That definitely ticks the boxes for portability and performance.
Those are tight confines for the powerful internals though, so MSI has built-in ports on each side and two out the rear to allow plenty of air to flow through the system and keep it cool. The laptop offers a 15.6-inch, Full HD display that'll let you do some editing on the go as well as gaming thanks to its 144Hz refresh rate. And, with a Wi-Fi 6 connection, you can enjoy fast Internet speeds without having to depend on an Ethernet connection.
Display: 16-inch 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160) HDR OLED display | CPU: Intel Core i7-11800H | GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3060 (6GB GDDR6 VRAM) | RAM: 32GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD | Weight: 5.29 pounds | Size: 14.25 x 10.39 x 0.78 inches
The Asus ProArt StudioBook 16 may seem like a basic run-of-the-mill laptop at first glance, but lurking inside is some serious muscle, which makes it the perfect high-end machine to handle all of your video work. The Intel Core i7-11800H processor and 32GB RAM give this laptop the power to keep up even with the biggest files and downloads. And, thanks to the Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics processor, there is a perfect amount of rendering speed for high-resolution editing.
Though the Asus ProArt StudioBook 16 comes loaded with the ports you'd need to connect to an external display, you won’t need to use them. There is a bright 16-inch display built-in that offers 4K HDR resolution to let you see everything with high contrast and deep blacks. Better still, it comes color calibrated to cover 100% of the Adobe RGB color space and is Pantone Validated for color accuracy. You should have little worry about your color edits looking off when not viewed on this machine. For added convenience, a new and intuitive ASUS dial has been added to the keyboard that gives you precise control over parameters in various creative apps to make editing a bit easier.
Display: 14.2" (3024x1964) Liquid Retina XDR| CPU: Apple M1 Pro | GPU: Integrated | RAM: 16GB Unified memory | Storage: 512GB SSD | Weight: 3.5 pounds | Size: 12.31" x 8.71 inches" x 0.61"
Apple's latest, the 14" Macbook Pro, does some incredible things, and if you plan on using it for video editing, it is exceptionally capable of running Final Cut. This machine runs apps with speed and efficiency to let you enjoy the best of its productivity and portability at the same time. Better still, applications built for ARM perform incredibly well, and the latest version of Final Cut happens to be one of them.
A large portion of this capability is thanks to the laptop packing Apple’s own M1 Pro chip with an octa-core processor and 14-core graphics processing. Now, that is some serious prowess for heavy workloads. Plus, the stunning Retina XDR display should help you edit the finest details in your projects with ease.
Display: 15.6-inch UHD (3,840 x 2,160) OLED Touch, 14-inch (3,840 x 1,100) IPS-level touch | CPU: Intel Core i9-10980HK | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 | RAM: 32GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD | Weight: 5.16 pounds | Size: 14.17” x 9.81” x 0.85”
When you’re editing a video, there’s a lot to pay attention to. A laptop’s screen isn’t always going to provide enough real estate to keep all of your tools easily accessible, but Asus has a workaround. The Asus Zenbook Pro Duo 15 OLED boasts a primary 15.6-inch display and a secondary 14-inch display underneath. The main display uses an HDR-capable OLED panel with a UHD resolution, letting you get an incredible look at the footage you’re working on. Meanwhile, the secondary display maintains that level of sharpness while providing a handy home for extra tools or your video timeline.
Of course, a video editing machine needs some might behind those screens, and this laptop has it. This model comes kitted out with an Intel Core i9-10980HK fed by 32GB of DDR4 memory. And anywhere your work can be accelerated by a dedicated graphics card, you’ll find the Nvidia RTX 3070 inside this rig plenty capable.
In many ways, there's a significant overlap between a great video editing laptop and a gaming laptop. You want something that's powerful, while still being portable. Battery life is nice to have for everyday tasks, but when it comes to processing your latest shoot, you'll want to keep your laptop plugged in.
To help with processing, you'll want a laptop with a powerful GPU. Nvidia's latest RTX 20-series GPUs leverage Nvidia's Max-Q design that trades a slight decrease in performance for a smaller overall size, and in turn, allowing for a light and portable laptop (just look at the Razer Stealth). But don't get caught up on with having to have the latest 20-series GPU – unless you're dealing with 8K video, you should be able to get by just fine with something like the GTX 1650.
When looking at processors in a laptop, Intel's 10th generation chips are becoming commonplace, and future proof your investment, but aren't a requirement. Intel's 9th generation processors are just as capable and will save you a little money when shopping. A quick way to identify which generation is being used in a build is to look at the numbers that follow the processor name. For example, an Intel Core i7-1065G7 denotes a 10th generation Ice Lake processor. Whereas an Intel Core i7-9750H represents a 9th generation Coffee Lake processor.
It’s easy to get caught up in looking at flashy gaming laptops, most of which will do just fine as a video editing machine. But don’t limit yourself to a gaming machine, laptops like the ZBook Studio G7 or Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro are proof that non-gaming laptops are just as powerful and versatile.
Jason Cipriani has covered technology full-time for the past 8 years. During that time he has freelanced for the likes of CNET, Fortune, Time, ZDNet, Macworld, Wired, and TechRadar.
Continue reading...
A speedy laptop for video editing is about more than just the latest processor. You'll also want a powerful GPU to speed up exporting, but often that means you'll give up some portability. Although, that's not always the case, as you'll see below.
The spec sheet of most video editing laptops reads a lot like a gaming laptop, with color-tuned displays, RTX 20-series GPUs, and cooling systems to ensure everything keeps running. But that's necessarily a bad thing. You'll save yourself some time, and when you're done working, you can open your favorite game and escape for a couple of hours.
These are the Best Laptops For Video Editing
- Gigabyte Aero 15
- Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M1 Max)
- HP ZBook Firefly
- Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
- MSI Stealth 15M
- Asus ProArt StudioBook 16
- Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch
- Asus ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED UX582
1. Gigabyte Aero 15
Best Laptop For Video Editing
Display: 15.6-inch UHD (3,840 x 2,160) OLED | CPU: Intel Core i7-10800H | GPU: Nvidia RTX 3060 (6GB GDDR6 VRAM) | RAM: 16GB DDR4 | Storage: 512GB NVMe SSD | Weight: 4.4 pounds | Size: 14” x 9.8” x 0.78”
Is there anything better than powerful internals and a brilliant display for video editing on the go? We don’t think so, and the Gigabyte Aero 15 provides both plus a mid-range price point to boot, making it our favorite laptop for video editing. The 15.6-inch UHD display offers sharp visuals, so you won’t miss any details in your video project. Better still, the display is using a 4K Samsung AMOLED panel for vibrant colors and rich black levels. You never have to worry about your edits on this machine looking off elsewhere, as the display comes X-Rite Certified and Pantone Validated for color accuracy with a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut.
If you think the display has a lot to offer, there is even more power under the hood. There’s an Intel Core i7-11800H with 16GB of RAM that can be kitted out to 64GB. You are in for some speedy processing and multitasking with this machine. Rendering work can be pushed onto the graphics processor, which is a really decent RTX 3060. This is all coming in a delightfully portable form factor that weighs a manageable 4.4 pounds
2. Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M1 Max)
Best MacBook For Video Editing
Display: 16.2-inch (3456 x 2234) Liquid Retina XDR | CPU: M1 Max | GPU: Integrated | RAM: up to 64GB | Storage: 1TB SSD | Weight: 4.7 pounds | Size: 14.01” x 9.77” x 0.66”
Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro is a machine of great power, reliability, and functionality. With its latest M1 Max processor, it’s the highest-performing MacBook you can get. This new M1 chip offers a combined CPU and GPU. And, by going with the M1 Max, you will be able to push this machine to the limit, as it doubles the number of GPU cores and memory bandwidth offered with the M1 Pro. It can handle a massive file load and work super fast. All of this is perfect for your video editing needs.
In addition to the excellent processor, the 16-inch MacBook Pro has a stunning Retina XDR display that provides vibrant colors and an excellent contrast ratio, so you can ensure all of your edits are looking exactly like you pictured. For anyone who lives inside Final Cut Pro X while on the go, this MacBook really can handle everything you throw at it.
3. HP ZBook Firefly
Best 15-inch Laptop For Video Editing
Display: 15.6-inch UHD (3,840 x 2,160) | CPU: Intel Core i7-1165G7 | GPU: Quadro T1000 | RAM: 32GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD | Weight: 3.86 pounds | Size: 14.2" x 9.2" x 0.8"
If you’re looking for a perfectly powerful and compact workstation, the HP ZBook Firefly is that. It packs all the components you need for video editing into a form factor that's ready for your backpack. This machine comes with a decently sized 15.6” screen, but it is still super thin and light enough that you're not likely to find your back hurting from toting it around.
Inside, the HP ZBook Firefly comes packing a quad-core Intel i7-1165G7 processor alongside a professional-grade Nvidia Quadro T1000 graphics card. Those should be perfect for handling all your video editing needs along with the impressive 32GB RAM. The 1TB of SSD NVMe storage offered with this laptop should be more than enough for most. And, don’t worry about the display with its impressive 4K UHD, a peak brightness of 250 nits, and an anti-glare finish, it's up to all your video editing tasks.
4. Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
Best Laptop for 4K Video Editing
Display: 15.6" FHD (1,920 x 1,080) 360Hz | CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (8GB GDDR6 VRAM) | RAM: 32GB DDR4 (3,200MHz) | Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD | Weight: 5.39 pounds | Size: 14.02" x 10.73" x 0.75"
Editing 4K video takes a beast of a machine, but that's just what you get from the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5. This gaming laptop has the muscle you'll want. It pairs an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX octa-core processor with an Nvidia RTX 3070, giving you a bunch of powerful CPU cores and ample graphics power for hardware acceleration.
The system will be able to hold some large projects in memory with its 32GB of DDR4 memory, and you can load up projects quickly from the 1TB NVMe SSD inside. If the 15.6-inch display isn't going to cut it, you'll have an easy time setting this system up with an external monitor using its rear HDMI 2.1 port to support 4K or even 8K video output. But, when you're done editing for the day and want to game, you'll likely want to switch back to the built-in monitor because it has a blazing 360Hz refresh rate.
5. MSI Stealth 15M
Best Ultraportable Gaming Laptop for Video Editing
Display: 15.6" FHD (1920x1080) 144Hz | CPU: Intel Core i7-11375H | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 (6GB GDDR6 VRAM) | RAM: 16GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD | Weight: 3.73 pounds | Size: 14.1" x 9.76" x 0.63"
For an ultraportable laptop that can do just a little bit of everything well, you'll want the MSI Stealth 15M. MSI has packed an Intel Core i7-11375H processor and Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics processor into a chic little laptop that weighs less than four pounds and measures just a bit over a half-inch thick. That definitely ticks the boxes for portability and performance.
Those are tight confines for the powerful internals though, so MSI has built-in ports on each side and two out the rear to allow plenty of air to flow through the system and keep it cool. The laptop offers a 15.6-inch, Full HD display that'll let you do some editing on the go as well as gaming thanks to its 144Hz refresh rate. And, with a Wi-Fi 6 connection, you can enjoy fast Internet speeds without having to depend on an Ethernet connection.
6. Asus ProArt StudioBook 16
Best High-End Video Editing Laptop
Display: 16-inch 4K UHD (3,840 x 2,160) HDR OLED display | CPU: Intel Core i7-11800H | GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3060 (6GB GDDR6 VRAM) | RAM: 32GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD | Weight: 5.29 pounds | Size: 14.25 x 10.39 x 0.78 inches
The Asus ProArt StudioBook 16 may seem like a basic run-of-the-mill laptop at first glance, but lurking inside is some serious muscle, which makes it the perfect high-end machine to handle all of your video work. The Intel Core i7-11800H processor and 32GB RAM give this laptop the power to keep up even with the biggest files and downloads. And, thanks to the Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics processor, there is a perfect amount of rendering speed for high-resolution editing.
Though the Asus ProArt StudioBook 16 comes loaded with the ports you'd need to connect to an external display, you won’t need to use them. There is a bright 16-inch display built-in that offers 4K HDR resolution to let you see everything with high contrast and deep blacks. Better still, it comes color calibrated to cover 100% of the Adobe RGB color space and is Pantone Validated for color accuracy. You should have little worry about your color edits looking off when not viewed on this machine. For added convenience, a new and intuitive ASUS dial has been added to the keyboard that gives you precise control over parameters in various creative apps to make editing a bit easier.
7. Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch
Best Laptop for Final Cut
Display: 14.2" (3024x1964) Liquid Retina XDR| CPU: Apple M1 Pro | GPU: Integrated | RAM: 16GB Unified memory | Storage: 512GB SSD | Weight: 3.5 pounds | Size: 12.31" x 8.71 inches" x 0.61"
Apple's latest, the 14" Macbook Pro, does some incredible things, and if you plan on using it for video editing, it is exceptionally capable of running Final Cut. This machine runs apps with speed and efficiency to let you enjoy the best of its productivity and portability at the same time. Better still, applications built for ARM perform incredibly well, and the latest version of Final Cut happens to be one of them.
A large portion of this capability is thanks to the laptop packing Apple’s own M1 Pro chip with an octa-core processor and 14-core graphics processing. Now, that is some serious prowess for heavy workloads. Plus, the stunning Retina XDR display should help you edit the finest details in your projects with ease.
8. Asus ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED UX582
Best Dual Screen Laptop For Video Editing
Display: 15.6-inch UHD (3,840 x 2,160) OLED Touch, 14-inch (3,840 x 1,100) IPS-level touch | CPU: Intel Core i9-10980HK | GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 | RAM: 32GB DDR4 | Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD | Weight: 5.16 pounds | Size: 14.17” x 9.81” x 0.85”
When you’re editing a video, there’s a lot to pay attention to. A laptop’s screen isn’t always going to provide enough real estate to keep all of your tools easily accessible, but Asus has a workaround. The Asus Zenbook Pro Duo 15 OLED boasts a primary 15.6-inch display and a secondary 14-inch display underneath. The main display uses an HDR-capable OLED panel with a UHD resolution, letting you get an incredible look at the footage you’re working on. Meanwhile, the secondary display maintains that level of sharpness while providing a handy home for extra tools or your video timeline.
Of course, a video editing machine needs some might behind those screens, and this laptop has it. This model comes kitted out with an Intel Core i9-10980HK fed by 32GB of DDR4 memory. And anywhere your work can be accelerated by a dedicated graphics card, you’ll find the Nvidia RTX 3070 inside this rig plenty capable.
What to Look for in a laptop for video editing
In many ways, there's a significant overlap between a great video editing laptop and a gaming laptop. You want something that's powerful, while still being portable. Battery life is nice to have for everyday tasks, but when it comes to processing your latest shoot, you'll want to keep your laptop plugged in.
To help with processing, you'll want a laptop with a powerful GPU. Nvidia's latest RTX 20-series GPUs leverage Nvidia's Max-Q design that trades a slight decrease in performance for a smaller overall size, and in turn, allowing for a light and portable laptop (just look at the Razer Stealth). But don't get caught up on with having to have the latest 20-series GPU – unless you're dealing with 8K video, you should be able to get by just fine with something like the GTX 1650.
When looking at processors in a laptop, Intel's 10th generation chips are becoming commonplace, and future proof your investment, but aren't a requirement. Intel's 9th generation processors are just as capable and will save you a little money when shopping. A quick way to identify which generation is being used in a build is to look at the numbers that follow the processor name. For example, an Intel Core i7-1065G7 denotes a 10th generation Ice Lake processor. Whereas an Intel Core i7-9750H represents a 9th generation Coffee Lake processor.
It’s easy to get caught up in looking at flashy gaming laptops, most of which will do just fine as a video editing machine. But don’t limit yourself to a gaming machine, laptops like the ZBook Studio G7 or Asus ProArt StudioBook Pro are proof that non-gaming laptops are just as powerful and versatile.
Jason Cipriani has covered technology full-time for the past 8 years. During that time he has freelanced for the likes of CNET, Fortune, Time, ZDNet, Macworld, Wired, and TechRadar.
Continue reading...
