The best laptops for video editing mean that you'll never have to twiddle your thumbs waiting for a project to finish rendering again. But, with so many laptop variations out there, which ones are the best for your video editing needs? We've rounded up a selection of choices that include potent processor power, plenty of RAM memory and good quality, high-res screens. These important features are essential for choosing the best laptops for video editing, but be warned that the high performance you need won't come cheap.
Working with high resolution footage is both power- and memory-intensive, so you'll need to make sure that your machine is up to the task. While it might be tempting to opt for one of the best budget laptops instead, you'll likely find that this just won't be able to properly accommodate your needs – and you'll just find yourself wishing you'd plumped for one of these superior models anyway.
A large, beautiful screen and plenty of memory means that the best laptops for video editing tend to be larger than average. If you tend to work in one set place, then this shouldn't be an issue for you. However, if you're constantly on-the-go, you might want to opt for a scaled-down laptop. Just be aware that the power, battery life and viewing ergonomics will be severely compromised as the body of the laptop gets smaller.
If you're unsure on how to choose the right model for you, scroll down to the bottom of this article to read our top tips. Alternatively, check out our picks for best laptops for video editing in 2022 below.
• See also: Best monitors for MacBook Pro
The Razer Blade 15 is special in that it features an optional OLED display rather than a traditional LCD. With deep, inky blacks and punchy, vibrant colors, it looks incredible, and with its 4K resolution equating to a pixel density of 282 ppi, it's super-sharp – perfect for editing your UHD content on.
With a hugely fast Nvidia GeForce graphics card under the hood, it’s up to the task when it comes to even the most demanding projects, and when you consider how many ports this thing has – three USB-A ports, two Thunderbolt/USB-C, one HDMI 2.1 port, and a headphone jack - it’s versatile too. If you opt for the base version, you even get an Ethernet port for fast, wired internet, while the Advanced models trades this for a useful SD card reader instead.
The Razer Blade 15 comes with a 512GB or 1TB SSD for storage, and the Advanced model can even be optioned with a 2TB SSD. A lightweight sub-2.2kg design and sleek finish set the Blade apart externally.
See also: the best Ultrabooks
We still love the original [13-inch] M1 MacBook, but with a maximum 16GB RAM, it could never quite topple the older Intel-powered MacBook Pro to be a truly futureproofed video-editing powerhouse. Not any more! Apple has addressed these concerns, big time.
The latest 2021 MacBook Pro not only smashes any RAM limitations courtesy of its new M1 Max chip, which can be had with 64GB RAM, it also comes with a 16-inch screen size, which is noticeably more comfortable for long editing sessions than a 13-inch panel. This incredible Liquid Retina XDR display boasts an insane 1,600-nit peak brightness, making HDR content come alive, and it can display a high DCI-P3 color space coverage for accurate video editing. The 16-inch MacBook Pro is also available with an M1 Pro chip [rather than M1 Max] if you want to save some cash, though RAM capacity is restricted to 16GB or 32GB, and its speed is lower.
Despite all this power, the supreme efficiency of the M1 chip architecture, combined with a large 100-watt-hour battery, means battery life is up to an incredible 21 hours.
The 2021 16-inch MacBook Pro is far from cheap no matter how you spec one, but your money is buying one of the most technically advanced laptops on the market right now. The smaller MacBook Pro 14-inch [2021] is a less expensive alternative.
• See more Mac options in our Best Macbook for photo editing
Right now, the new MacBook M1 Pro and M1 Max are the MacBook's stealing all the limelight. Said to be 70% faster than the original M1, the M1 Pro is available with up to 32GB RAM, while the top-tier M1 Max can be specced with a whopping 64GB RAM - addressing our reservation with the 2020 13-inch MacBook Pro M1 which can only be equipped with a maximum 16GB RAM.
But until we can fully review an M1 Pro or M1 Max, the older 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro just hangs on as our top pick for the best MacBook for serious video work. It can be specced with anything up to a 9th generation, octa-core Intel Core i9 processor, a whopping 64GB of RAM and Radeon Pro 5500M graphics. But even an entry-level 16-inch MacBook Pro should keep you going whether you’re working through large edits or complex After Effects projects.
The MacBook’s context sensitivity is what really sets it apart though. For example, the Touch Bar, a touch-sensitive horizontal screen above the keyboard, changes depending on what app you’re using. In Premiere Pro, for example, it presents quick options to scrub through footage, showcase keyboards and more.
Meanwhile, the laptop’s trackpad vibrates when interacting with different elements in different apps – it gives you haptic feedback, for example, when one clip you’re dragging snaps to another in video-editing apps. Combined with up to an 8TB SSD and a gorgeous, sharp display, it’s no wonder so many love it.
We love the portability of an ultra-compact laptop, but for longer video editing sessions, squinting at a small screen can soon become a real pain. By contrast, the HP Envy 17 with its larger than average 17-inch screen gives you appreciably more display real estate for video previews and timelines, as well as multi-tasking.
The Envy 17 is available in several different spec configurations, but we recon the '17-ch0020na' version makes the most sense for serious video editing, and it's also well priced for the power it offers.
The screen itself isn't just quantity over quality - far from it. The IPS LCD panel boasts a 4K [3840 x 2160] resolution, 400-nit max brightness, and it's capable of displaying 100% of the Adobe RGB color space - that's a remarkable achievement for a laptop display.
The extra screen size means there's more space in front for a full-size keyboard, and you even get a proper SD card reader built in - a real rarity on today's laptops.
Even 4K edits should be handled with ease thanks to the latest 11th-gen quad-core Intel Core i7 processors teamed with a very healthy 32GB RAM. A single Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Type-C port ensures blazing-fast connectivity with external devices, plus there are 3 USB Type-A ports for easy backward compatibility with older peripherals.
See also: Best 17-inch laptops
The Dell XPS 15 is the 4K OLED-screened laptop to go for if you're not into gaming. While it uses a similarly specced display to the Razer Blade 15, which is also in this roundup, its design and feature set are better suited to video editing.
For starters, it has an SD card slot, and up to Intel Core i9 power, not to mention up to a huge 64GB RAM – and with up to 2TB solid state storage it’s also an ideal machine to have when ingesting gigabytes of 4K content.
While its Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card isn’t going to stack up against some of the top-tier competition, thanks to Thunderbolt 4 connectivity you can supplement it with an external, desktop GPU for more demanding projects – and for quick edits on the fly, it'll be more than up to the task.
If you’ve got a lot of cash to invest, the Acer ConceptD line is a series of laptops and desktops that have been fine-tuned for designers and editors. Specifically, the ConceptD 7-series laptop has gaming laptop power without any of the gaudy casing or attention-grabbing RGB lighting. It’s also quiet, staying cool without loud fans whirring/roaring away.
Ideal for color grading, the Acer ConceptD 7’s 4K UHD display covers 100% of the Adobe RGB gamut - a hugely impressive feat few other monitor screens can match. The display is also Pantone validated, with a color accuracy of Delta E