In this video we’re checking out the five best laptops for graphic design that you can buy right now. I made this list based on my personal opinion and hours of research and I’ve listed them based on display and color accuracy, price, ease of use and more. I’ve included options for every type of consumer. Whether you’re looking for a touch screen, an extra-long battery life or professional grade hardware with a vibrant display I’ll have the product for you.
The fifth product on our list is the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3. This is our best entry-level laptop for graphic design. Graphic design laptops are pretty expensive by nature. If you want one you can expect to need to invest in good quality equipment. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 will fit the needs of both students or graphic designers on a relatively low budget all things considered.
You get a sharp display and the ability to draw using the touch screen starting at about 1 000. You can choose to go with either an Intel or AMD processor, both of which will make the laptop speedy and able to run photoshop and illustrator through the day with minimal lag even on the lower end models. You can stay productive.
The Surface 3 can be bought with either 8 gigabytes of ram or 16 gigabytes if your design projects are more resource intensive. And you can get up to one terabyte of SSD storage. The battery life lasts between eight and eleven and a half hours depending on your workload or if you’re doing a lot of multitasking. If you need to give your battery a boost the Surface 3’s fast charging ability will help you top up on power.
The PixelSense screen is bright and has a beautiful display with a resolution of 2496 by 1664 on the 15-inch model. I like that you can use the surface pen to draw directly on the screen and I think it will help you get your design work done faster and make each project more enjoyable. With Windows 10 you can also install all the creative cloud apps and other programs easily.
You’ll find the compact design of the casing to be very sleek and modern. With a solid build, excellent and responsive keyboard, the service 3 measures 13.4 by 9.6 by 0.57 inches and weighs only 3.4 pounds. I think you’ll love how light and portable it is allowing you to work on your projects wherever you are.
In terms of ports, you get a USB type c, USB type A, a three-and-a-half-millimeter headphone jack and a surface connect port for use with other Microsoft accessories. For a graphic design student or designers on a budget the Microsoft Surface 3 is a great laptop that will let you get all your work done with ease and precision and the PixelSense touchscreen will help to increase your productivity.
The fourth product on our list is the MacBook Pro M1 13-inch. This is our best MacBook for graphic design for the money. Built with Apple’s custom M1 chip, the MacBook Pro M1 13-inch boasts impressive performance, a stunning display and the longest lasting battery in a MacBook yet.
At about 1200 you’ll be able to work on highly detailed resource intense projects with ease. The M1 chip powering this laptop means that you get a big advantage in performance with an integrated eight core CPU, eight core GPU and 16 core neural engine for advanced machine learning.
The display is powered by the most advanced graphics processor Apple is built to date, being able to handle videos of 4k and even 8k. With a GPU that powerful I think you’ll love just how easily this laptop will handle all your design projects and keep you working smoothly while you multitask.
You’ll get up to 11 times faster machine learning performance helping you achieve a variety of tasks including video analysis and image processing letting you work with lots of layers and keeping render times at a minimum.
Everyday tasks like web browsing and viewing multiple photos are made faster and I especially like that the MacBook wakes instantly from sleep allowing you to jump back into a project whenever inspiration strikes.
Performance is sustained by active cooling so thermal efficiency is maintained throughout use. I think the battery life is another standout feature providing up to 20 hours. The display is true tone technology making the white balance automatically adjust to match the color temperature of the light around you. This will keep you working even as ambient light changes and allow you to work seamlessly on the go. It also keeps your eyes from getting fatigued.
On top of that the retina display gives images an incredible level of detail and realism delivering brighter whites and deeper blacks while p3 wide color gives your work even more vibrant greens and reds than standard RGB displays can.
The MacBook Pro M1 13-inch provides a fantastic amount of both performance and battery life for the price. It’s a great value for any level of graphic design experience you have, and your projects will have the vibrant colors they deserve.
The third product on our list is the Dell XPS 15. This is our best windows laptop for graphic design. The Dell XPS 15 is a light powerful laptop that can handle even the most intense graphic design work. For about twenty-two hundred dollars you’ll get the most refined laptop Dell is produced with a great keyboard and standard setting 16 to 10 display. You can see more of what you’re working on.
With a 10th generation intel processor and discrete NVidia graphics card this high performance compact four-pound laptop is ready to handle all your projects. And everything will look amazing on the infinity edge display with almost no bezel bringing the screen down to the chassis. You’ll love the display as it provides 921 000 more pixels on the ultra-HD plus screen. Perfect for your graphic design projects.
The display also utilizes Dolby vision delivering colors that are up to 40 times brighter and blacks that are up to 10 times darker so your designs will have an expanded range of colors. The keyboard is well designed and responsive, and the larger touchpad gives you more control over cursor movements. Perfect for executing the finest details in your designs. The keyboard is also equipped with a backlight so you can work into the night without issue.
I really like that the display remains easy on your eyes with eyesafe technology that reduces harmful blue light while maintaining vivid color. EyeIsafe technology manages the light energy by selectively reducing the blue light and dispersing it across the light spectrum, so your eyes remain safe even during long work sessions.
The GeForce GTX 1650 TI GPU has great graphics performance, and the dedicated GPU power supply can run all your creative apps. I think you’ll also see the benefits of the thermal redesign with the dual fan separated to disperse heat and there’s even a hidden exhaust venting in the hinge. The Dell XPS 15 gives graphic designers plenty of screen real estate to work with in a tall vibrant display and comes with a large comfortable touchpad making the best windows laptop for graphic design.
The second product on our list is the MacBook Pro 16-inch. This is our best overall laptop for graphic design. Retailing for about 2 400 the MacBook Pro 16-inch boasts powerful performance with a larger screen than its predecessors while maintaining a sleek lightweight design.
With an Intel Core I7 processor and AMD Radeon Pro 5300m GPU the MacBook Pro provides great performance across the board to power all your graphic design work. It’s great at multitasking and the AMD GPU has the power to work with high resolution footage and 3d design programs which is performance I think you’ll want for any project.
Like the MacBook Pro M1 13-inch the 16-inch pro comes with retina display and true tone technology making all your work look its best giving you greater color accuracy. And you’ll get the auto adjusting white balance of the screen to match your lighting.
The display also runs on the p3 color gamut which not only makes the display vibrant but allows for more accurate colors which I think is essential for graphic design work.
The touch bar along the top of the keyboard includes easy access to a variety of functions to suit what you’re working on. Which I think is convenient to have at your fingertips. There’s also built-in touch id so you can easily unlock your mac with the touch of a fingerprint reader knowing that all your work is safe. It comes with an improved keyboard that feels better to use and is not as shallow as its predecessor and matches the high quality of the durable sturdy build of the rest of the MacBook Pro. You’ll find the backlit keys are responsive and tactile providing improved performance.
For laptop this powerful I think the 11 plus hours of battery life is amazing and is easily enough for a full day of work without worrying about running out of juice. The MacBook Pro 16-inch will give you all the power you want from a MacBook with a larger sharper display and a battery life that’s not sacrificed even while running professional grade software making it the best overall graphic design laptop.
The first product on our list is the MacBook Pro 16-inch. This is our best top of the line laptop for graphic design. The MacBook Pro 16-inch is designed with creative professionals in mind capable of handling demanding tasks and comes with a sharp display that’s perfect for graphic designers. Looking for a full workstation that can be taken on the go for around three thousand dollars.
The 3840×2160 15.6-inch display of the concept d7 gives you a stunning detailed display. The pantone validated 4k IPS display ensures faithful color reproduction. It’s developed specifically for photographers and 2d and 3d graphic designers and you’ll love the degree to which you can fine-tune images with precision and the accuracy.
Powering the laptop is an Intel Core I7 processor and NVidia GeForce RTX 2060 with hardware tested and certified by the independent software vendors to give you the performance as stated for professional engineers, architects, 3d animators and more.
It features a classic slim look, and the build is solid sporting a durable metal chassis that still manages to stay light. Weighing only 2.2 pounds the battery lasts about 6 hours which is a little less than other laptops on the list. I think it’s an acceptable concession for the power of this workstation.
You also get a great selection of ports with all the essentials minimizing the need for adapters including one USBC three, USB 3.1 type A, an HDMI three-and-a-half-millimeter headset jack and an ethernet port.
The keyboard keys are large enough to type accurately and I really like the warm glow of the backlight which makes the keys easier to see than keyboards with traditional white backlight. The optimized thermal system is designed with a custom engineered aeroblade 3d fan reducing noise even when the CPU is running at full capacity so you can focus on your work.
The Acer Concept D7 is the best splurge laptop for graphic design with a host of professional grade features from the display to the processor to the cooling system. It’s great for any professional whether a veteran or up-and-coming graphic design artist.
