Having a laptop with good performance is essential because video editing is a difficult operation that needs a lot of processing power, regardless of whether you’re a professional video editor working for a company or an amateur editing movies for social media. A powerful laptop will make editing video more fluid, play high-resolution videos without as many frame drops, and render videos more quickly, saving you valuable time. We’ve compiled a list of laptops appropriate for video editing to aid you in your purchase. Mobile workstations and gaming laptops are included in this list (yes, gaming laptops are just as good for video editing). However since Chromebooks often lack a dedicated GPU and the majority of video editing software is incompatible with Chrome OS, it won’t include any Chromebooks. Although the list is currently small, it will expand as we review new laptops.
16-inch Apple MacBook Pro
The Apple MacBook Pro 16 is the laptop we found to be the best for editing videos (2021). This 2021 model has a sophisticated appearance, a remarkably strong construction, and sufficient computing capacity to tackle even the most demanding jobs. It has a crisp Micro LED display that is fully sRGB and DCI P3 compliant, and it has excellent factory calibration. Depending on what you do, you can get a full day’s worth of use out of the battery, but if you’re doing strenuous video editing, you’ll probably just get a little over two hours. Three USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port, an SD card reader, and a high-output headphone jack for challenging headphones round out its impressive port lineup.
The smaller Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2021) is essentially the same laptop as the larger model, just more portable if portability is more important to you than screen size. The battery life and speakers are the two key changes; while still among the best on the market, the battery lasts a little bit less time and the speakers don’t sound as fantastic. Last but not least, as you may already be aware, Apple has introduced upgraded versions of the MacBook Pro 14 and 16 with its M2 Pro and M2 Max SoCs, which are said to be 20% quicker. It’s easiest to just buy the latest model since Apple no longer offers the M1 units for sale on their website. However, they typically only provide the base configuration. You may still find the M1 MacBook Pros through third-party retailers or online marketplaces.
Get the 17.3-inch MSI WS76 (2021), a model featuring Intel 11th Gen processors and NVIDIA discrete Graphics, if you run Windows. It runs admirably and can manage heavy workloads. The display’s factory calibration isn’t as good in the DCI P3 color space, so you might need to fine-tune it before performing any color work, making it less portable due to its bulk and weight.
ROG Zephyrus G14 by ASUS
Check out the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 if you don’t want to spend a lot of money on a high-end laptop like the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021). (2022). Indeed, because the hardware requirements are so close, gaming computers are great for video editing. This is especially true for the G14, which has a clear 16:10 QHD panel with complete DCI P3 coverage. Although its initial calibration is good, you might wish to adjust it before working with colors. It has an AMD Radeon RX 6700S or 6800S GPU, both of which offer the power to do video editing, and a potent 8-core AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU.
There are a few drawbacks to be aware of. First off, while under load, this laptop gets hot and noisy; if this bothers you, you may adjust the fan settings, but at the expense of some performance loss. Second, USB-C connectors only offer USB 3.2 Gen 2 data transfer rates, which are significantly slower than Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4. ASUS stated that USB4 functionality would be added in a future update, however no information has been provided to far. Finally, since this laptop only comes with 1TB of storage, you’ll need external drives to save all of your video content. Nonetheless, it’s still a great laptop for video editing and may serve as your gaming Computer even though it doesn’t feel as high-end as the Apple laptop we suggested above.
Legion 5 Gen 6 15 from Lenovo
The Lenovo Legion 5 Gen 6 15 is the greatest low-cost laptop for editing videos (2021). AMD Ryzen 5 5600H or Ryzen 7 5800H CPUs are available for configuring this gaming laptop, and you have a variety of GPU options, ranging from the affordable NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 to the potent NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070. It isn’t the most portable because it is bigger, but it seems well-built and blends nicely with most office décor because to its modest style. There are several connectors for your accessories and external monitors, and the keyboard feels roomy and comfy.
You can purchase a less expensive setup and upgrade it yourself later because the memory and storage are user-replaceable. The biggest drawback is that it’s only compatible with sRGB screens, so if you work in a broader color space, you’ll need an external monitor. Moreover, it lacks biometrics for rapid logins and has a very poor battery life of four hours for normal use and one hour for heavy workloads. Although the fans get quite loud, the performance is superb over time and neither the CPU nor GPU exhibit any throttling.
IdeaPad Gaming 3 from Lenovo
The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 is a good option if you need something affordable (2021). Both the AMD Ryzen 5 5600H and Ryzen 7 5800H CPUs, which are both powerful enough to do video editing, can be installed in this 15.6-inch laptop. NVIDIA offers a variety of dedicated GPU solutions, ranging from the GeForce GTX 1650 at the entry level to the RTX 3060 at the mid-range. Only 16GB of memory is available, but it is user-upgradable, so you can add more at a later time.
One more drawback is that only sRGB content is compatible with all of the display settings. You’ll need to carry the power adaptor if you want to work on the go because it also becomes hot and noisy when loaded and the battery life is less than an hour when conducting hard tasks. While an HDMI 2.0 port is provided, the USB-C port does not permit video output. Although it doesn’t feel very high-end, this laptop will work and is reasonably priced.
Conclusion
We have listed what we believe to be the top laptops for video editing in the suggestions above. We take into account the cost (a less expensive laptop wins over a more expensive one if the price difference isn’t significant), comments from visitors, and availability (no laptops that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).
Here is a list of all of our laptop reviews, arranged by price from low to high if you would rather make your own choice. The table only displays the results of the model we tested; for details on other variations, it is best to read the complete evaluation. Keep in mind that the majority of laptops come in a variety of configurations.
