Film editing, requires a laptop that is powerful enough to handle all the plugins, special effects and transitions. Here, we’ll look at the best laptops for Film Editing. Many programs exist that are commonly used for file editing. These include Adobe Premier Pro, Davinci Resolve, Vegas, just to name a few.
You need a laptop that can easily handle all these programs without having performance issues. Several factors have been taken into consideration when coming up with this list of best laptops for Film makers. Thee are performance, screen quality and size, battery life in addition to design and build quality.
First, lets talk about performance. All these editing software, are heavy on performance, especially if using several plugins and special effects. You don’t want to be in a situation where you get long hours of rendering time, in addition to unresponsiveness when editing. This is where an Intel Core i7/ Ryzen 7 comes in play. That is the minimum laptop processor listed here. With that, you are guaranteed good performance when using video editing programs.
The RAM, is an equally important specification for video editing laptops. With the right amount, you get performance boost, especially when handling large and complex films. Here, you’ll only get a minimum of 8GB RAM. This ensures that you can load video clips into your program faster and smoothly.
In recent time, a dedicated graphics card (GPU) has become increasingly important. A graphics card, either from Nvidia or AMD, helps in lightening the workload from the CPU. It reduces the rendering times, as more video editing programs start to use the GPU.
These days, an SSD has become crucial, in almost all laptops. It allows for faster opening of film editing programs, faster load times for video clips to the timeline in addition to some improvement in rendering times. Most people, have a mix of both SSD and HDD. This gives two advantages, speed and raw storage capacity.
The display quality, and size, is one of the most important features that film makers should take into consideration when buying a laptop. Speaking of the size, anywhere from 14 to 17 inches, is suitable for most people. However, this is highly subjective, so it will depend on your preference. The display quality, is however not negotiable.
You don’t want to be in a situation where the film you’ve edited looks different on most tvs and even in theaters. This is where color accuracy comes in play. The laptops listed here, have a high percentage of color accuracy, in addition to having high contrast ratio. When it comes to resolution, 1920 x 1080 is the minimum resolution.
Other important factors taken into consideration include battery life and build quality. All the laptops listed here, meet the minimum specifications, and re therefore suitable for film editing. You can find brand such as Microsoft Surface, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, MacBook, MSI, Gigabyte in addition to Razor Blade.
The Following are the Best Laptops for Film Editing (2021):
- Gigabyte AERO 17 Laptop i9
- Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-52-77P
- Dell G7 15.6 4K OLED Laptop
- Omen 15t Laptop Intel i9
- MSI GE76 Raider 10UG-232 Laptop-i7-RTX3070
- GIGABYTE AORUS 15G YC
- Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Laptop
- Apple MacBook Pro M1 Chip (13-inch, 8GB RAM, 512GB)
- Alienware m17 R3 Laptop RTX 2070 8GB
- Apple MacBook Pro M1 13-inch, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
- MSI 15 Inch Laptop- 2TB - RTX 3060
- Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-52-73L3
- Alienware m15 R4
- Razer Blade Pro 17 Laptop i7-RTX 3080
Gigabyte AERO 17 Laptop i9 |
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| CPU | Intel Core i9-10980HK |
| GPU | GeForce RTX 2080 Super MAX-Q |
| Display Size | 17.3 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 16GB |
| Storage Space | 1TB SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | USB, Ethernet, Audio Out |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 15.6 x 10.6 x 0.84 inches |
| Weight | 5.5 pounds |
| Pros | Performance, Display |
| Cons | |
Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-52-77P |
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| CPU | 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10750H 6-Core Processor |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER Graphics with Max-Q |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 32GB |
| Storage Space | 1TB SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | 1 - Thunderbolt 3 (Full USB 3.1 Type C) Port, 3 - USB 3.2 Gen 2 Ports (One with Power-off Charging), 1 - HDMI 2.0 Port with HDCP Support, 1 - Mini Display Port |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 14.11 x 10.04 x 0.7 inches |
| Weight | 10.52 pounds |
| Pros | Performance, Display Quality |
| Cons | Weight |
Dell G7 15.6 4K OLED Laptop |
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| CPU | Intel Core i7-10750H |
| GPU | NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070MQ |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) OLED |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Storage Space | 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | Standard SD card Slot, 2x USB 3.2, USB 3.2 Gen 1 with PowerShare, Thunderbolt 3 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, Mini Display Port, HDMI 2.0, RJ-45, Headset jack |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 14.1 x 10.5 x 0.72 inches |
| Weight | 3.7 pounds |
| Pros | Good performance, Quality Display |
| Cons | None |
Omen 15t Laptop Intel i9 |
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| CPU | Intel i9-10885H |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super Max-Q 8GB GDDR6 |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 4K AMOLED (3840x2160) |
| RAM | 32GB DDR4 |
| Storage Space | 512GB NVMe Solid State Drive + 1TB Hard Disk Drive |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | USB, Ethernet, HDMI, Audio |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 14.17 x 10.35 x 0.79 inches |
| Weight | 5.28 pounds |
| Pros | Performance, Design, Display Quality |
| Cons | None |
MSI GE76 Raider 10UG-232 Laptop-i7-RTX3070 |
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| CPU | Intel Core i7-10870H 2.2-5.0 GHz |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX3070 8GB GDDR6 |
| Display Size | 17. 3 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 32GB (16G*2) DDR4 3200MHz |
| Storage Space | 1TB NVMe SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | Killer LAN E3100 | Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210(2*2) | BT 5.2 |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 1.08 x 15.63 x 10.57 inches |
| Weight | 6.39 pounds |
| Pros | Performance, Display Quality |
| Cons | Quite Heavy |
GIGABYTE AORUS 15G YC |
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| CPU | 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10870H (2.2GHz - 5.0GHz) |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU 8 GB GDDR6 |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | FHD 1920x1080 |
| RAM | 32 GB RAM |
| Storage Space | 1 TB PCIe SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen1 (Type-C), 1 x Mini DisplayPort 1.4 | 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type-A), 1 x HDMI 2.1 |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 9.6 x 14 x 0.9 inches |
| Weight | 4.51 pounds |
| Pros | Premiu m design |
| Cons | |
Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 Laptop |
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| CPU | AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS processor |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q 6GB GDDR6 |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 16GB DDR4 |
| Storage Space | 1TB SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | USB, Ethernet, Audio |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 14.2 x 9.9 x 0.78 inches |
| Weight | 4.63 pounds |
| Pros | Performance, Display Quality |
| Cons | n/a |
Apple MacBook Pro M1 Chip (13-inch, 8GB RAM, 512GB) |
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| CPU | Apple M1 chip; 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores; 16-core Neural Engine |
| GPU | M1 8-core GPU |
| Display Size | 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology |
| Display Resolution | 2560-by-1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch |
| RAM | 8GB RAM |
| Storage Space | 512GB |
| Operating System | MacOS |
| Ports | Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports with support for: Charging, DisplayPort Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40 Gbps), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gbps) |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 13.41 x 11.97 x 0.61 inches |
| Weight | 3 Pounds |
| Pros | Performance, Battery Life |
| Cons | NA |
Alienware m17 R3 Laptop RTX 2070 8GB |
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| CPU | Intel Core i7-10750H |
| GPU | Nvidia Geforce RTX 2070 |
| Display Size | 17.3 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 16GB |
| Storage Space | 1TB SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | USB, Ethernet, Audio |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 15.74 x 11.59 x 0.89 inches |
| Weight | 5.51 pounds |
| Pros | Performance |
| Cons | |
Apple MacBook Pro M1 13-inch, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD |
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| CPU | Apple M1 chip; 8-core CPU with 4 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores; 16-core Neural Engine |
| GPU | M1 8-core GPU |
| Display Size | 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology |
| Display Resolution | 2560-by-1600 native resolution at 227 pixels per inch |
| RAM | 8GB RAM |
| Storage Space | 256GB |
| Operating System | MacOS |
| Ports | Two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports with support for: Charging, DisplayPort Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40 Gbps), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10 Gbps) |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 13.41 x 11.97 x 0.61 inches |
| Weight | 3 Pounds |
| Pros | Performance, Battery Life |
| Cons | NA |
MSI 15 Inch Laptop- 2TB - RTX 3060 |
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| CPU | Intel Core i7-10750H |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| RAM | 32GB RAM |
| Storage Space | 2TB NVMe SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | USB, Ethernet, HDMI, Headphone Jack |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 14.13 x 9.99 x 0.85 inches |
| Weight | 4.1 pounds |
| Pros | GPU, CPU, Design, Performance |
| Cons | NA |
Acer Predator Triton 500 PT515-52-73L3 |
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| CPU | 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10750H 6-Core Processor |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super Graphics with Max-Q |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 16GB |
| Storage Space | 512GB SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | 1 - Thunderbolt 3 (Full USB 3.1 Type C) Port, 3 - USB 3.2 Gen 2 Ports (One with Power-off Charging), 1 - HDMI 2.0 Port with HDCP Support, 1 - Mini Display Port |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 14.11 x 10.04 x 0.7 inches |
| Weight | 4.63 pounds |
| Pros | Performance, Display Quality |
| Cons | NA |
Alienware m15 R4 |
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| CPU | Intel Core i7-10870H (8-Core, 16MB Cache, up to 5.0GHz Max Turbo Frequency) |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 8GB GDDR6 |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 16GB |
| Storage Space | 1TB SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | USB, Ethernet, Audio |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 10.86 x 14.19 x 0.78 inches |
| Weight | 5.5 pounds |
| Pros | Performance |
| Cons | Weight |
Razer Blade Pro 17 Laptop i7-RTX 3080 |
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| CPU | Intel Core i7-10875H 8-Core |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 |
| Display Size | 17.3 inches |
| Display Resolution | 3840 x 2160 pixels |
| RAM | 16GB |
| Storage Space | 1TB SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Ports | USB, Ethernet, Audio, SD Card |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 10.23 x 15.55 x 0.78 inches |
| Weight | 6.06 pounds |
| Pros | Performance, Display Quality |
| Cons | Quite Heavy |