Laptop for graphic design

El best laptop for graphic design it should consist of a powerful and fast processor, high resolution, large RAM and an accurate color display. If you are a professional graphic designer and you are immersed in the search for a computer to develop your work that meets all your graphic design needs, then reading this article will be practical for you. There are so many options available that this can be overwhelming. But do not worry! We've put together a list below to help you find the best of the best in this competitive terrain.

The best laptops for graphic design

If you are looking for an the best laptop for graphic designBelow you have a list of the best options you can find.

For us, these are the 7 best laptop models for graphic design:

1. MacBook Pro
2. Dell XPS
3. Asus ZenBook Pro Duo
4. Microsoft Surface
5. MSI Modern
6. Huawei MateBook
7. Lenovo Yoga

If we have to answer the question of what is the best laptop for graphic design, our answer is clear: MacBook Pro.

We have not only been enjoying it for years, it is that anyone who has it and you ask is sure not to speak ill of it. It is expensive? It depends. The 13-inch model already has a lot of power and its price is contained, in addition, if it is going to be your work tool, it is sure to be an investment because you will save it in time and inconvenience that other models usually give.

Top 5 value for money in graphic design laptops reviewed

We have listed the best valued laptops on the internet by users who are in fact dedicated to digital design. Say that the budget is around € 1.000 to € 2.000 approximately, since it is about devices for professionals. If you can't spend that much, there are also good laptops for less than 1000 euros that you can use for graphic design.

asus zen book

The ZenBook, which Asus proudly calls "the beast" (and we agree with it), offers robust performance in terms of power, productivity and speed. With its large, high-quality display of 15.6 inches and the processor Core i5 this is just one of the best laptops for graphic design on the market for value for money.

The Asus ZenBook excels in every aspect of graphic design, making your work a smooth and productive experience. One of the characteristics that make this computer perfect for graphic design is that it has a Full HD IPS screen, offering brilliant colors and super-detailed, sharp images from all angles.

Surface 9 Laptop

It is a light weight laptop. The Surface Pro 9 is a combination of, on the one hand, a Core i7 processor and on the other, a discrete graphics card. IntelUHD. There are also more modest (and cheaper) configurations with an i5 or i7 processor like the one we recommend, since it performs very well and except for very heavy tasks, it will work very well for graphic design.

The laptop has a 13-inch anti-glare screen, which will be practical for graphic designers, as this allows you to enjoy the resolution 2736 × 1824 pixels Still in the bright sunlight

The Microsoft Surface 9 is silver in color, it has an aluminum surface that is very pleasant to the touch, Gives you fast 128-512GB expandable SSD storage, plus plenty of RAM, which achieves great performance, a powerful processor and a large screen.

Graphic designers will also benefit from the high battery life that the Surface 9 has. The notebook uses advanced technology to save energy, thus allowing you to work with media for longer periods of time.

With your graphics card IntelUHD, the Surface 9 is imposing for searching the web, streaming HD videos, and of course editing photos and videos.

Apple MacBook PRO laptop

In this comparison, an Apple product could not be missing. The Apple MacBook PRO can really stand up to any test a graphic designer puts it through. The Retina display is just amazing: The viewing angles are very wide and the screen brightness is excellent. It's like they built a laptop with graphic design in mind. The most powerful and recommended version for these jobs is the M3 MAX and 36 or 48 GB of unified memory, with which you will extract the maximum.

MacBook PRO's design, creativity and productivity have been taken to a new level. To make it a graphic design pc as thin as possible but with a long battery life, Apple has removed the optical disc.

The MacBook PRO is powerful, functional, fast, innovative and it does a great job of handling heavy multitasking. We are sure that you will not be disappointed.

However, this computer has some disadvantages that we have to tell you about. Once tested on Mac, it is difficult to abandon your operating system. Get ready for everything to go very smoothly, power for any task and an enviable autonomy.

In addition, this new version of the MacBook Pro comes with TouchBar, a touch bar that will provide you with direct access to widely used functions of the most used design programs such as Photoshop or InDesign. Without a doubt, this is a great laptop for graphic design and any other task that requires high performance.

Lenovo Yoga Duet 7

If there is a maximum representative of the post-pc era that many have been predicting for years, that is, without a doubt, the Lenovo Yoga, a hybrid computer that you can use as a laptop or transform into a tablet when it suits you best with just a gesture. It is therefore a highly versatile and flexible equipment, hence its name, Yoga.

This Lenovo Yoga offers us an extraordinary 13,9-inch Ultra HD Multi-Touch LED screen with 3840×2160 resolution, a true wonder with which you will be able to enjoy vivid and vibrant colors, great contrast and sharpness and, in short, an incredible image quality both to surf the net and to watch your favorite movies and series, write your class assignments, edit your photos, edit your own videos and everything else you can imagine. And it is that the Lenovo Yoga It is an enormously powerful convertible or laptop for graphic design.

It comes with Windows 10 as standard, which will allow you to enjoy all the advantages of a desktop operating system, while inside it houses a 5 GHZ Intel Core i2,5 processor with Intel UHD Graphics 620 graphics card, 8 GB of DDR4 RAM and 512 GB of storage on a disk of the SSD type. With all this, you will feel that your computer "flies" and you can work with several applications simultaneously without affecting performance.

In addition, it has two full-speed USB 3.0 ports to which you can connect other external devices such as cameras, mouse, external hard drive, pendrive; it also offers an HDMI connector, perfect for connecting to a monitor or home TV, as well as WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity.

With dimensions of 2 1,3 x 1,4 x 31 cm, a weight of 1,3 kilos and enough battery for the whole day, in the Lenovo Yoga 920 you have everything you need to work, study and have fun, with the advantage of having two devices in one.

Dell Inspiron 9315

It is a laptop that, due to the size of its screen, can be considered a large device. CV Dell Inspiron 15  It is a laptop that you should take into account. Use a processor 7th Gen Intel Core i13, 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD.  This makes it powerful in operation for a variety of tasks, not just graphic design. Your graph intel iris xe it's weaker than other laptops on the list, but the 15.6″ screen can make it the right choice if you need to see bigger graphics while you're working.

As with other products in the Dell Inspiron line, it has a careful aesthetic design and a commitment to providing a rich multimedia experience that is widely delivered, in part thanks to its speakers integrated. Missing one touch screen to have most of the functionality that you can expect from tablet services, and it also fits perfectly with the Metro UI of Windows 11.

Is a Mac the best laptop for graphic design?

Well this may be a matter of debate and the available software should be taken into account. For Windows, we will find practically all the software, while macOS has something less available. I explain this because it is likely that, if we use a Mac, we can find one for graphic design that is not available, while the most popular will always be for Windows.

Having explained the previous possibility, it must be made clear that it is only a possibility, but remote. The best applications for graphic design, like all of Adobe, are available for Mac, and macOS is an operating system that offers much better performance than Windows, whatever version of Microsoft's system we choose.

Whoever wrote these lines also uses Linux a lot, which will help explain that Linux, although it can offer even better performance than macOS, is not an option, at least if we depend on proprietary software such as Adobe's. . Linux has its free and open source software, but if the company we work for does not use that software, a computer with Linux does not work for us. And the same could be said of other systems, such as BSD.

Therefore, the best option is the one in which we can use the most popular graphic design software and do it. in the most efficient way and with the best performance, and without a doubt, the most balanced team is the Apple Mac so the apple laptops they are good candidates for everything related to the world of design and photography.

Brands with laptops for graphic design 

There is some especially notable brands as for the features that every graphic designer needs from a laptop. These firms are:

Lenovo

The Chinese manufacturer offers one of the best value for money, so you can get some premium features at a fairly reasonable price. Within the entire repertoire of models of this manufacturer you can search among the Yoga 2 in 1, for those who want to work with a touch screen and a pen.

For users looking for a team that is as balanced as possible, ThinkPads or IdeaPads may be the best alternatives. And if you are looking for maximum performance, then you can opt for the Legion. 

Asus

Asus has a multitude of fantastic models for all graphic designers for its hardware and quality. However, some of its convertibles and 2-in-1s can provide great comforts for professionals and amateurs in this guild. The Zenbook Pro Duo range, with double screen, stands out especially. 

HP

The American manufacturer also has a huge number of models to fit all needs and pockets. But for graphic design, the convertible or 2-in-1 models could stand out, such as the Envy x2, the Specter 360, Elitebook, etc.

Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),

Of course, in design this brand could not be missing. Their teams have one of the best work platforms, providing stability, robustness and security to maximize productivity.

In addition, there is a multitude of professional design software for macOS, and also digitizer or graphic tablets that can be used with it, even using the iPad as one of them.

On the other hand, both the Air and the Macbook and Macbook Pro they have an excellent display and graphics for this type of work. The downside is that they lack a touch screen ... 

Is a gaming laptop good for graphic design?

Un gaming laptop, as you will have verified by some model that I have mentioned in the previous section, it can be a good team for graphic design and video editing by having those characteristics that are also sought for this task enhanced, such as a good screen, a powerful graphics card, large memory capacity, and a processor that performs well. In other words, features that come like a glove to the software used for the design. 

On the other hand, not all are advantages of this type of equipment for use in design. Here you can evaluate the advantages and disadvantages: 

• Advantages: Powerful graphics hardware, large screen and quality for a better visual experience. 
• Disadvantages: they are more expensive, their consumption is higher, so mobility and autonomy will be affected, and they do not include touch screens for drawing. 

How to choose the best laptop for graphic designers

Before you buy a laptop for graphic design, or any other task, that's fine. know what size computer is most comfortable for you to do the job graphic design. While a laptop for graphic design of 15 inches a 17 inches may sound good on paper, it may not be the best option if you're going to use it on the go due to its size.

Likewise, a smaller graphic design laptop may not have the keyboard space you need if you plan to do a lot of typing. The best thing you could do is physically browse laptops before you buy one, in stores or using laptops that a friend already owns. And with this, you can better judge what size you need.

This may seem like a very simple step to take, but a graphic design laptop can be an investment that you'll use for a good three to four years before you consider getting a better, faster one. In fact, some laptops are large enough to use for very long periods of time. It is something that you want to be able to wear, work, and carry comfortably. That is why the thickness of the graphic design pc and the weight are also things that you should take into consideration.

The primary goal of laptop manufacturers is to produce increasingly thinner, even lighter laptops to market, so if you haven't used a laptop in a few years, you will be surprised to see how light they have become. the latest generations of notebooks. Some of the best computers for graphic design can weigh less than 2 kg, or even fall under 1500 grams. This makes buying a suitable laptop seem more a matter of comfort than functionality, and in part it may be. As long as meet minimum technical characteristics that we must establish, of course.

Graphic design is a job that requires hardware, and this requirement is given, in addition to the size of the files, by the requirements of the software that is used. Until not so long ago, programs for graphic design could only be installed and controlled on a powerful computer, which was generally a desktop. Lately, the availability of powerful processors and graphics cards for the mobile device had led to the emergence of powerful laptops on the market.

Called many of them computers gaming laptops, but graphic designers rarely use them due to their overweight and bulky nature. The best laptops for graphic design Not only do they have to be powerful, they also have to be versatile and lightweight. Those laptops must have the components more powerful that are currently available, but must also be light weight and easy to carry. These laptops are what this review is about, although there are many more.

Know your own field

Graphic design is not always something that you continuously develop in an office or any other fixed place. You may have to take your work with you while you are in the middle of a break, seeing family, or you just take it and bring it from your work environment so you can finish tasks at home or even at the client's office.

In light of this, you'll find yourself at a point where you need the power of a desktop computer, and the portability of a tablet, this is the place where the laptop takes play. Having your own definition of the best lightweight laptop could help you get the right computer. Laptop manufacturers have had the ability to advance and improve these products in many ways.

Fine designs, color schemes or weight reduction have made it increasingly common to see people working with laptops at their office tables. Combined with better cooling alternatives and an increasingly smaller size, thinner and faster hard drives, ultrathin notebooks have become really robust and stable devices for a multitude of tasks, including graphic design. In addition, they are increasingly being developed in such a way that they offer greater performance, which has become the perfect solution for any task that needs to be carried out with them.

Processor

The technology Hyper-Threading exists both in the Core i5 and the Core i7. Hyper-Threading Technology strengthens the performance of your graphic design computer during heavy work, which means if you control multiple uses at the same time, eg. ex. upload files to the cloud and work in Photoshop (or Sony Vega), thanks to Hyper-Threading Technology you get a better and faster performance of the pc for portable graphic design.

While the Core i5 can easily do multiple uses simultaneously without any interference, lag, or freezing, the Core i7 offers everything even faster and the experience is more powerful. The Core i7 is built for graphic design, and it does what your laptop demands to be able to perform well anytime and for any task.

Therefore, the Core i7 is one of the best CPUs available because it does an exceptional job in terms of speed, graphics, color accuracy, and overall performance. So if you are a professional graphic designer, the Core i7 will never disappoint you and becomes the most recommended processor of all for being one of the more powerful Although the Core i9 dethroned it and is now Intel's most powerful processor, perfect for those who are looking for a laptop for graphic design and are very demanding on performance.

Does the graphic design laptop come with an AMD processor? Do not worry. AMD is a processor manufacturer whose most popular range is the ryzen series. Currently, the California-based company offers several versions of its AMD Ryzen 3, AMD Ryzen 5, and AMD Ryzen 7, which are equivalent to Intel's i3, i5, and i7. The most discreet of the three is the Ryzen 3 but, unlike Intel's i3s, AMD's proposal will allow us to perform more tasks without the feeling that we are moving heavy equipment.

El AMD Ryzen 5 is available in 8 variants with between 4 and 6 cores and the highest of the range offers a 4.2GHz maximum clock speed. Initially, it offers more than enough performance to carry out design work, so this should be the choice if we want to work with some comfort and solvency without having to make a large outlay.

Moreover, AMD also offers the Ryzen 7, a processor that improves the performance of the Intel i7. They are a little faster than the Ryzen 5, with a maximum clock speed of up to 4.3GHz, but this is achieved with two more cores, which means that it manages the workload better and we can get our jobs done even faster. and fluid.

RAM memory: the most important feature

In case you are a hobbyist looking to buy a personal computer, just remember that the most critical feature in a decent portable personal computer is RAM.

Starting at the bottom at 8GB and from there upwards. The larger the RAM, the more tasks you will have the ability to perform at the same time without the computer experiencing slowdowns. Visual authors, similar to those of gamers, need a lot of RAM.

So, try taking a look at DDR4 2133 which is generally the same price as DDR3 1600 and has higher processing speed. Some of the best gaming laptops also come with them by default.

Graphic card

If you use your laptop for visual interpretation, you may have the need to use a less expensive video card than a gamer. If you dedicate yourself to visual interpretation, you should give more importance to the video card than to the RAM. The best in this field is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 3060. It has 6 GB of VRAM and 980 MHz. In case you are only looking for the best budget laptop, you should take a look at the AMD Radeon R9 295X2.

The power of the graphics card has a significant influence on rendering times and effects application, so if you are going to work with very large files, we strongly recommend that the design laptop you buy has a dedicated graphics and RAM memory that does not share with the system.

The large size of the screen

As a visual author you need space to work. Just in case you choose a tablet with a 13-inch screen, I recommend that you think twice before. Consider all computers 15 inch laptops or even the best 17 inch laptops. Although this, as we have already mentioned before, is based on tastes and needs. You must know the size you need and this is directly linked to the following point

If you also dedicate yourself to illustration, perhaps you value that the screen is tactile to avoid buying a graphic tablet although we do not recommend that you limit your purchase to this aspect since, except on rare occasions, the touch screen laptops they are considerably less powerful.

In addition, you should choose the maximum possible resolution, from FullHD onwards. This will add a higher pixel density so that the image is not distorted if you look at it closely. Note that it is a screen with good sharpness, color accuracy, refresh rate, and response time. 

HDD

Hard drives can be important in any computer, including those that are designed to design, forgive the redundancy. If we are going to use a laptop to design, we have to take into account that we will probably need a lot of space. If the important thing for us is the amount of storage and we do not want to spend excessively, we can consider a laptop with HDD disk, or what is the same, those of a lifetime. If we opt for an HDD disk, the capacity will be greater and the computer will maintain its price, but the speed will not be the highest.

On the other hand, there are SSD drives, which are "flash" memory disks with higher reading and writing speed. While we are doing our design work we will not notice any changes, but we will notice greater speed when we want to save / open or copy a heavy work. Of course, the laptops with SSD disk They are more expensive and their capacity is smaller, unless we make an extra expense. The minimum size of our disk will depend on the use of each person, but you can buy laptops with 128GB SSD disks without their price increasing too much.

Another option is to buy a laptop with hybrid disk, which means it has a small part in SSD and a larger part in HDD. In the SSD part, the operating system and the data that we use the most will be automatically saved, while in the HDD part everything else will be saved.

Our recommendation is that if you are going to buy a laptop for graphic design, have a minimum 256 GB SSD hard drive (although the recommended minimum would be 512GB) and then use a 1TB or 2TB external hard drive to store photos, videos, etc.

Touch screen

Having a touch screen on a laptop are almost all advantages, especially if we are designers. There may be a couple of problems, the clearest being the price. A touchscreen laptop you have to add extra hardware, which usually results in a higher price.

On the other hand, the possibility that we experience a bug when we are using a laptop with a touch screen cannot be ruled out because, although it should not be the case, desktop operating systems have been designed mainly to be used on computers without a touch screen although each time compatibility is higher.

Exceeding the above, a touch screen computer can be one of the best options for designers. To get started, we can use them with a Stylus, which will allow us to draw directly on the screen as if it were a graphics tablet.

On the other hand, we can also use these computers as if they were a tablet and there are design options that are easier to use if we can touch the screen directly than using the mouse or the touch panel. In fact, there are many designers, especially cartoonists, who are opting to use tablets to do many of their jobs.

When to consider transporting the laptop

In the last two years, laptops have become increasingly light and their batteries last longer between charges. They have been tried to be more versatile. Of course, just in case you do graphic design in an office or at home and you don't need to move your computer from there, portability is not very important to you, but you may go from here to there with your computer and here it is especially important weight and volume.

Image quality

Depending on the type of graphic design you do, image quality may be more crucial for you than it is for a gamer. IPS screens are the best that you can choose, although this will also depend on your budget and, if you want to spend a little less, you can go to an LED with FullHD.

We have presented you the characteristics to take into account when choosing your laptop for graphic design. We have also presented you with four models that we find the most interesting. But now it is only up to you to choose yours well and get the most out of it.

Another aspect of the screen that you should take into account when buying a laptop for graphic design is the color reproduction. On many occasions we receive comments from people who have bought a poor quality laptop and the colors they set for their designs are not reproduced in the same way on other screens or on printers, which is a serious problem.

Make sure you take a graphic design laptop from the ones we recommend in this list and this problem will be minimized to the maximum. Even so We always recommend that you spend a few minutes calibrating the screen of your new computer to avoid these types of problems.

Operating system

Attention Adobe users: Chrome OS is not supported by Adobe, which is the main reason that this Operating System is not used by graphic designers. Windows and Apple Mac OS, on the other hand, support Adobe, which means that these operating systems are preferred in one of the best laptops for graphic design. Anyway, hope is not lost with Chrome OS, since you can use for example Pixlr Touch Up (for photo retouching), Magisto and WeVideo (for video editing). So users who were looking at small laptops Chromebook these will not be the best option for designers. Although some forums They say that certain users have managed to use them, but what we wonder is if it is worth the work of installing it.

And the list of OS Chrome defects doesn't end with Adobe, it also has less space on the hard drive compared to Windows and Mac computers. For example, the HP Chromebook 14 have 16GB of local storage, plus an additional 15GB of storage. free cloud storage provided by Google. Although, you can also have access to 100GB of free cloud storage, even if after two years you pay for it. In contrast, the Windows Acer Aspire V3 graphic design pc has a 500GB hard drive, and an additional 15GB of OneDrive storage.

For occasional users and non-professional graphic designers on Chrome OS It will not cause problems for you, but if you are a professional designer, a Windows laptop or an Apple iOS is a must, especially considering the fact that you have to save tons of photos and videos on your hard drive.

Why choose a graphic design laptop over a desktop?

Here we have told you how to choose a laptop for graphic design. But before making this decision, you have had to choose between desktop and laptop. Here are some reasons why to choose the laptop:

• If you are always from here to there, a laptop is a very good option. Not only will you be able to take your work with you, regardless of the destination, but graphic design computers are getting better at energy storage and efficiency. This means that you will spend less time worrying about not having a price between destinations, and you will be able to spend more time than doing the actual work.
• Going Cordless can mean having more space available in your home or office. If you have a desktop computer right now, then you are already aware that the tower, monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other components all increase the space on your desk. If you've already struggled with needing more space, then a laptop offers a way to do graphic design tasks without requiring more real estate.
• As an all-in-one solution, laptops are pretty solid. As we've already mentioned, they have the keyboard, mouse, monitor, and everything else in one case that you can carry. Laptop monitors are expensive to replace, but they're also incredibly sharp when compared to desktop options. Some laptops also offer touchscreen functionality, making them a comfortable bridge between mobile tablets and more powerful computers. If you like to draw illustrations or have a graphics tablet integrated into your computer, you may be interested in a convertible laptop.

All top graphic design laptops have something to offer that sets them apart from desktop and tablet options, but some have stronger points than others. For example, your all-in-one solution may require a larger screen than other types of options.

Are there cheap graphic design laptops?

 

Yes, there are laptops for graphic design like the ones you have just above these lines but the truth is that you always have to make some concession for that reduction in the purchase price.

You must bear in mind that in a laptop to design, the most important thing is the screen, the RAM, the processor and the graphics.

If we have to buy a somewhat cheaper laptop, we can still bet on a lower capacity one, trusting to use an external hard drive later. That is, between a laptop with 512GB of SSD and 256GB, surely we can buy the second if it is notably cheaper since if there is little difference in price, it will not compensate. For example, in the case of Apple we speak of more than € 200 difference between the largest and smallest capacity.

Apps that you can use in these laptops for design

Photoshop

When it comes to programs for the image editionThe first application to come up in the conversation is Photoshop. So much so that in Spain we have invented a verb to refer to image editing: Chopear. Adobe's proposal allows us to carry out all kinds of retouching with all kinds of tools, including a timeline that we can use to create moving images.

And not. As much as it hurts some users, such as those who defend free software, Photoshop has no rival. It is not only what we can do with it, but its use is also more intuitive than other apps that can only aspire to follow in its wake will ever be.

Photoshop will allow us to carry out basic edits, such as adding filters, cropping images, adding texts or changing their size and format, and other more advanced ones, such as those that will help us erase an uninvited agent in the scene, blur, clone ... Everything you can imagine you can do in Photoshop, and the way to do it will be relatively simple.

InDesign

InDesign is an application whose purpose will be better understood by those of us who have worked in printers or related businesses. It serves to layout, which explained quickly and badly means that we can use InDesign to assemble texts in parts.

That is to say: just as Word is mainly designed for text editing, InDesign has tools that allow us to write, but also others with which we can move the text to another part that suits us better, images, graphics ... Basically it is a tool that is used to layout the text and / or image that will later be printed for a book or any catalog.

Illustration

Illustrator is a vector graphics editor. These graphics are made up of different objects with mathematical properties or attributes according to their position, shape or color.

We will do this in what they call "art workshop" or "work table", and it includes tools that will help us to move and edit the objects to get the graphic we were looking for.

AutoCAD

AutoCAD is a computer design app for 2D images or 3D modeling. Used to do tasks such as create a house layout plan.

In fact, blueprints are the very reason for AutoCAD. The only thing is that, over the years, more and more functions are added and plans can show more and more precise details with clearer images.

Lightroom

The direct translation of "lightroom" would be something like "light room." And it is that, just as Photoshop helps us to edit, Lightroom It will serve us to store the images and be able to see them in a fast and orderly manner.

So, basically, Lightroom is the photo library that Adobe offers us, one that will also allow us to make some edits, but very basic.

After Effects

After Effects is an app that is like a studio in which we can create or apply compositions, as well as make professional graphics that can be in motion or other special effects.

One of the strengths of After Effects is that it includes many third-party plugins that help lighten workloads. But, in short, we are facing software with which we can create movement-related effects.