The best laptops for video editing

If you make your residing engaged on video content material, it’s price investing in a laptop computer that makes the job as simple as doable. The best video editing laptop computer can prevent invaluable time, it will possibly make your life simpler, and it will possibly make your work higher.

Folks who’re shopping for laptops for on a regular basis residence and work use usually look for elements like lengthy battery life, gentle weight, and a conveyable construct. But these elements are sometimes much less necessary for editors. Verge video professionals Owen Grove and Jasmine Lewis each really feel that processing energy — particularly, the facility to deal with resource-intensive packages each day — needs to be a very powerful consideration for the best video editing laptop computer. “People who are editing professionally should spend as much they can afford to on the highest processing power,” Owen says. “Performance will most often be the thing that saves you.” Owen additionally seems to be for an SD card slot, which he says is “pretty much a necessity on any laptop for me.”

Jasmine prefers to edit on a big, high-resolution show, which is each extra correct and simpler on the eyes when working with tons of little home windows and toggles. “Fast renders, big screen, nice colors, I think are my focus,” Jasmine says.

Should you purchase a gaming laptop computer for video editing since they usually include highly effective elements and enormous screens? You can, however the best video editing laptops will usually be devoted to that job. Part of that’s noise. The strongest gaming laptops available on the market are fairly loud when maxed out, which may be distracting in an workplace setting. “I’m used to stuff like Dell, Alienware, and MSI laptops whose fans are so loud that it’s actually bad for some editing scenarios,” says Owen, who just lately transformed from gaming PCs to an M1 Mac. Gaming laptops additionally have a tendency to return with shows tailor-made to gaming — excessive refresh charges, decrease resolutions, matte finishes, and decrease distinction — that aren’t optimized for video work.

That doesn’t imply you possibly can’t discover a devoted gaming laptop computer that may work for video editing (and I’ve included a pair on right here, in case that’s what you’re wanting for), however in the event you plan on doing much more video editing than you do gaming, your cash is probably going higher spent elsewhere.

With all of this in thoughts, the next are our picks for the best video editing laptops of 2023.

1. Apple MacE-book Pro 16 (2023)

The best video editing laptop computer

CPU: M2 Pro, M2 Max / GPU: M2 Pro, M2 Max / RAM: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 96GB / Storage: 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB / Display: 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR, 3456 x 2234, adaptive refresh as much as 120Hz / Dimensions: 14.01 x 9.77 x 0.66 inches / Weight: 4.7 kilos (M2 Pro), 4.8 kilos (M2 Max)

Though it’s removed from low cost, the 16-inch MacE-book Pro with M2 Pro or M2 Max is the best video editing laptop computer you should purchase. It checks all the containers that our video editors talked about: a beneficiant port choice with an SD slot, a big and beautiful display, and (comparatively) quiet followers. If you will get your arms on certainly one of these, you’ll need for little or no.

We presently advocate the (oft-discounted) M1 Pro and M1 Max fashions for basic use, however skilled video editors who want each ounce of velocity and efficiency they will get will see a tangible distinction in issues like render and export time with the newer chips. Not solely is the 2023 MacE-book Pro a high performer, but it surely’s additionally extremely environment friendly, with a few of the best battery life in at the moment’s laptop computer market. That signifies that if it’s essential to edit whilst you’re out and about, you’ll get much more time to a cost than you’ll out of most different video editing laptops. Our editors can normally go a day or two with out charging these units.

The MacE-book Pro can be simply as highly effective on battery as when it’s plugged into the wall — there aren’t any compromises to be made when editing on the go, not like just about each Windows laptop computer choice, which is slower when used on battery.

Should you select the M2 Pro or the extra highly effective however $200-ish costlier M2 Max? You will see quicker efficiency from the M2 Max, however the distinction is generally obvious in workloads that closely tax the GPU. While each skilled’s wants shall be completely different, Verge senior video producer Becca Farsace’s recommendation is that folk repeatedly doing demanding graphics duties — work involving 3D, animation, 8K content material, or longform 4K content material — will get their cash’s price out of the M2 Max. Others needs to be nice with the M2 Pro. You’ll probably eke a couple of further hours of battery from that chip as nicely.

2. Razer Blade 18

Our favourite gaming laptop computer for video editing

CPU: Intel Core i9-13980HX, Core i9-13950HX / GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 4060, RTX 4070, RTX 4080, RTX 4090 / RAM: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB / Storage: 1TB, 2TB / Display: 18-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz / Dimensions: 15.74 x 10.84 x 0.86 inches / Weight: 6.8 kilos

I mentioned above that I don’t usually advise shopping for a gaming laptop computer for video editing. But in the event you actually need to try this (maybe since you plan to do a variety of gaming in addition to editing), I like to recommend that you simply go for the Razer Blade 18.

Unlike lots of the high gaming laptops, the Blade 18 has an unobtrusive sufficient design that it shouldn’t be an enormous distraction to co-workers in your workplace and is transportable sufficient that bringing it to conferences, demonstrations, and such gained’t be a large ache. It has an SD slot, which is more durable to seek out on gaming laptops than it’s on devoted workstations.

And most significantly, it has one of many best screens you will get on a gaming laptop computer. The gigantic 18-inch measurement is a boon for frequent customers of packages with a number of home windows and tiny textual content — Premiere, DaVinci, After Effects, and the like. All Blade 18 fashions include a QHD Plus, 240Hz panel that’s probably as sharp and shiny as you’ll discover within the gaming area.

3. Asus Vivobook Pro 14 OLED

The best low cost video editing laptop computer

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H, Intel Core i7-12700H / GPU: Intel Iris Xe, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 / RAM: 16GB / Storage: 512GB, 1TB / Display: 14-inch OLED, 2880 x 1620, 90Hz / Dimensions: 12.5 x 8.8 x 0.74 inches / Weight: 3.31 kilos

If you’re wanting for a reliable, transportable video editing gadget however merchandise just like the MacE-book Pro and the ConceptD are out of your price range, you is likely to be the perfect buyer for certainly one of Asus’ Vivobook Pro fashions (like this OLED one). This gadget has one of many best screens you will get on a 14-inch laptop computer, incorporating OLED know-how, 2880 x 1800 decision and a 90Hz refresh price. It additionally has a creator-tailored port choice a lot better than you’ll discover on many ultraportable laptops (such because the — let’s be trustworthy — connectivity-starved MacE-book Air), together with a microSD reader, an HDMI 2.1 and a number of USB-A for exterior drives, 4K shows, and different peripherals.

Oh, there’s additionally an LED numpad within the touchpad. Numpads aren’t helpful for everybody, however they’re one thing it’s very unusual to see in any 14-inch gadget.

But essentially the most enticing factor about this gadget is the value. You can usually discover fashions on sale for under $1,300, particularly older fashions — making this a superb decide for novice editors or extra seasoned people searching for a conveyable secondary driver.

4. HP Zbook Studio G8

The best Windows laptop computer for video editing

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H, 12800H; Intel Core i9-12900H / GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, RTX A1000, RTX A2000 / RAM: 16GB, 32GB / Storage: 512GB, 1TB / Display: 15.6-inch, 2560 x 1600 / Dimensions: 13.94 x 9.24 x 0.7 inches / Weight: 3.81 kilos

The Zbook line isn’t enjoying round. The Studio G8 is a high-performing gadget with each an RGB keyboard and business-oriented privateness and safety features, together with TPM 2.0, bitlocker encryption, and HP Power On Authentication. If you already know what these issues are, this is likely to be a sensible choice for you. And whereas this was a prohibitively costly gadget when it first hit cabinets, its costs have reached a degree the place it’s an inexpensive product to advocate to a large swath {of professional} video editors who want company safety features for no matter cause (offered you’re okay with shopping for a product line that isn’t brand-new).

In addition to the flashy colours, the Zbook Studio has a beneficiant port choice, an OLED display choice, glorious audio system, and even Tile performance in case you lose the gadget. It’s acquired HP’s Omen gaming hub pre-installed for these hoping to shortly swap from work to play. We even acquired about 5 hours of battery life out of our take a look at unit, which isn’t too horrible as this class goes. Those searching for a daring, colourful gadget for their editing work ought to look no additional than the Zbook Studio G8.

5. MSI Creator Z16

A razor-thin video editing laptop computer

CPU: Intel Core i7-12700H / GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 / RAM: 16GB / Storage: 1TB / Display: 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 120Hz / Dimensions: 14.13 x 10.08 x 0.64 inches / Weight: 5.07 kilos

At simply over a half-inch thick, the Creator Z16 places portability first. It’s acquired a subdued (dare I say… MacE-book-esque?) design, and it weighs nicely beneath 5 kilos. It gained’t be an excessive amount of of a ache to hold round (no less than, not in comparison with many different workstations), and you should use it in conferences with out too many stares.

Equipped with a 120Hz QHD display, glorious audio system, and top-end chips from Nvidia and Intel inside, the Creator Z16 was as quick as virtually any Windows laptop computer we examined final 12 months in Premiere Pro exports. Just be ready for a little bit of fan noise — they have been working fairly onerous throughout our testing.