8 Best Graphic Design Laptops

We evaluated the best graphic design laptops in the market for your reference. In the world of technology we are living now, we can get all the type of gadget that fit all our needs.

The market today offers vast range of computer and laptops with different specifications. It can be confusing sometimes for non-techie person when choosing the best laptop out there.

Don’t worry because we will also discuss the things to consider before getting your laptop for graphic design.

Check out the best budget monitors for photo editing.

Computer Laptop Features to Consider

Besides the design and aesthetics of the laptop, the most important aspect you must consider is the hardware of the computer.

Before we go through the best graphic design laptops, here are five hardware specifications you should take note of.

1. CPU or the Central Processing Unit

This is the brain of the computer. The two important things you need to check is the core and clock speed. Although dual-core models can process low-to-mid graphics process, It can be annoying when you are working with larger files.

Target quad-core or higher processor with clock speed over 2 GHz. Also having highly specialized video card or GPU will be wasted on older CPU models. By the way, we will talk about GPU in few minutes.

2. Memory or RAM

This is where your computer store your present workload as you use your computer. RAM is much faster that the Hard disk or SSD when it comes to processing.

RAM can go up from 4 – 32 GB and decent computer nowadays start with 4 GB of RAM. Photoshop is the most widely used software for graphic designers and although 2 GB is the minimum requirements as they mentioned, 8 GB is still recommended which makes more sense because you won’t stick to small files all the time.

The more RAM capacity, the better speed of processing. If 16 GB is in your budget range then it can help you sail much smoother, 32 GB and above is too much!

3. Storage Device

There are two types of storage available in the market, the classic HDD or hard disk drive, the one with spinning disk inside and the newer type which is the SSD or solid state drive.

Of course, SSD has better performance in terms of speed but more expensive. You can also find hybrid which comes with both types. It is ideal to put your design software in SSD for fast processing and use the HDD for archiving.

1 TB of HDD or 512 SSD is enough to cover all the files and software. You can always get an external storage when your laptop gets stuffed.

4. Video Card or Graphics Card or GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)

GPU handles the graphics side like 3D rendering, 4K video editing and animation. IT helps the CPU and RAM deal with other workload at the same time. The primary goal of GPU is to power on your monitor, get at least 2 GB but 4 GB is preferable when editing videos.

5. Screen Display

The more cleaner and crisp the pixels the better. Get a minimum of 15.6 inch display with high resolution of at least 1920×1080 pixels. But we recommend 4k (3840×2160) for tasks like photo and video editing.

Check out the 10 best Photoshop Laptops.

Top 8 Best Graphic Design Laptops

Now that you know about what to consider before getting your design laptop, let’s proceed to the list of our recommendation.

If money is does not hinder you from getting the right specification, the better laptop you can get.

The are tons of branded laptops out there but we suggest the list of the best laptop below for graphic design. Be sure to check it out and compare according to your needs.

1. Apple 15″ MacBook Pro

CPU: 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Turbo Boost up to 3.8 GHz
MEMORY: 16 GB 2133MHz LPDDR3
STORAGE: 512 GB SSD
DISPLAY: 15″ Retina
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M

2. Dell XPS 15 9560

CPU: 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad Core Processor 3.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad 
MEMORY: 16 GB DDR4
STORAGE: 512 GB PCIe SSD
DISPLAY: 15.6” 4K Ultra HD
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 4GB DDR5

3. Acer Aspire Nitro 5

CPU: Intel Quad Core i5-7300HQ 2.50 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.50 GHz
MEMORY: 16 GB DDR4
STORAGE: 256 GB SSD + 1TB 5400 RPM HDD
DISPLAY: 15.6” FHD
VIDEO: NVIDIA GTX 1050 with 4 GB VRAM

4. HP Spectre x360

CPU: 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8550U 1.8 GHz base frequency, up to 4 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology, 8 MB cache, 4 cores
MEMORY: 16 GB DDR4-2400 SDRAM
STORAGE: 512 GB SSD
DISPLAY: 15.6”
VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce MX150 2 GB

5. Acer Aspire V 15

CPU: Intel Core i7-6500U 2.50 GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 3.10 GHz
MEMORY: 8 GB DDR3L
STORAGE: 1TB Hard Drive
DISPLAY: 15.6” Full HD
VIDEO: None

6. Toshiba Laptop Tecra

CPU: Intel Core i7-7500U Dual-core Processor 2.7 GHz
MEMORY: 4 GB DDR4
STORAGE: 1TB Hard Drive
DISPLAY: 15.6″ UHD
VIDEO: Intel HD Graphics 620

7. Lenovo IdeaPad 330

CPU: 8th Gen Intel Quad-Core i5-8250U 1.6 GHz, Up to 3.4 GHz, 6M Cahce
MEMORY: 12 GB
STORAGE: 1TB SSD
DISPLAY: 17.3″
VIDEO: Intel UHD Graphics 620

8. HP Envy x360

CPU: AMD quad-core processing FX-9800P processor 2.7 GHz
MEMORY: 8 GB DDR4 SDRAM
STORAGE: 256 GB SSD
DISPLAY: 15.6″ diagonal Full HD IPS WLED-Backlit Multitouch-Enabled display (1920 x 1080)
VIDEO: AMD Radeon R7

I hope this article helps you get the best laptop for your design work. Please share this if you like this post. Leave a comment for any suggestion or recommendation about this article. Have a great day!