A video professional need laptop that offer smooth video editing experience to them. This means you need a video editing laptop that offers excellent storage, fast memory, discrete graphics card and fast processor. We will discuss each of these criterias in detail after we list the best laptops for video professionals. It is interesting to note that gaming laptops double as excellent video editing laptops. Perhaps that is the reason why we have some high end gaming laptops on this list.
MSI PL62 7RC-001 [asa]B0721DVQ4Q/asa]
The MSI PL62 is affordable and has just about everything a laptop for video professionals should have. This includes the latest 7th generation quad core i7 processor and Nvidia’s latest entry level MX150 graphics card with 2GB of VRAM. There is plenty of storage space and 8GB RAM which is enough for video professionals.
* Display: 15.6" Full HD eDP IPS-Level 1920×1080 | Operating System: Windows 10
* Processor: Intel Core i7-7700HQ (2.8-3.8GHz)
* Graphics Card: NVIDIA’s GTX MX150 2G GDDR5
* RAM: 8GB DDR4 2400MHz | Hard Drive: 1TB (SATA) 5400rpm
* Special features: Cooler Boost 4 | Steel Series Keyboard | Nahimic Audio Enhancer
HP Pavilion 15 [asa]B01N1YOLIG[/asa]
The HP Pavilion 15 is an affordable, budget laptop for video professionals. It has large 15” multi touch display so you can do all kinds of stuff using your fingers. Windows 10 works amazingly well with the touchscreen. This laptop is made for multimedia creators in mind. You get the latest quad core i5 processor, 12GB RAM and Nvidia GTX GeForce 1050 graphics card that lets you crunch videos like butter.
* Processor: 7th generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-7300HQ Processor, Quad-Core, 2.5GHz up to 3.5GHz; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, 12GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, Windows 10
* Battery life: Up to 10 hours and 30 minutes (mixed usage); Keep going without worrying about recharging.
ASUS ROG STRIX GL503VD [asa]B0753MSN75[/asa]
The Asus ROG is a gaming laptop but works equally well as a laptop for video professionals. It has quad core, top of the line i7 processor, Nvidia 1050 4GB graphics card that lets you work on even on 4k videos with ease. It has dual fan thermal design that keeps it run cool even under heavy loads. The keyboard has amazing feel and there are four zones of lighting control for the keys. The screen outputs extremely accurate colors making it ideal for photo and video editing.
* 7th-generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ quad-core 2.8GHz (Turbo to 3.8GHz) with discrete GeForce GTX 1050 4GB graphics, 15.6” IPS-Type FHD Display, 16GB DDR4, 1TB FireCuda SSHD, RGB Keyboard
Lenovo Legion Y520 [asa]B06WVMJ713[/asa]
Lenovo Legion Y520 is affordable and packs right specifications for doing video editing. IT runs Windows 10 Signature edition which means there is no crapware onboard. You can clean windows installation. It has i5 quad core processor and Nvidia 1050Ti GPU. Pair that with a speedy 256GB PCIe SSD and you have a lightning fast computer in your hands.
* 7th generation Intel Core Processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Graphics and hybrid storage, 15.6" Gaming Laptop Computer, 8GB DDR4 DRAM / 256GB PCIe SSD / Windows 10 Signature Image, 2 x 2W Harman speakers with Dolby Audio premium to deliver customized Audio for all content
When you are looking for a laptop for video editing, then there is got to be a dedicated graphics card. Most of the modern video editing applications leverage the graphics card for doing the encoding and decoding of the video. They are also important for handling 4k video. However, you just cannot use any graphics card but there is no need to get the top tier GPU like GTX 1080Ti. Even by getting something low or mid tier GPU like 1050Ti or 1060 would do. AMD RX 550 or higher series is equally good too but it is hard to find laptops with those graphics cards.
So yes, the graphics card plays an important part when choosing a laptop or video professionals. However, that is not the only thing you should look out for. There are some other aspects too.
For instance, the processor needs to be powerful and must have atleast four (quad) cores. While the encoding/decoding is done sorely by the GPU, all the rest of the work is handled by the processor and that is why you need a quad core i5 or i7 processor onboard for having decent experience.
Same goes for RAM. When editing high resolution videos, there are chances that you may run out of RAM. You would not want this to happen as that can throttle your PC’s performance by a long shot.
You ought to have atleast 8GB RAM onboard for best video editing experience.