Before you buy a laptop specifically for video editing, carefully evaluate its processing power, storage capacity and screen size. You should also think about the type of film you're editing (e.g., SSD vs external hard drive), as well as the software you'll be using. If all this jargon is confusing to you, don't worry - we've compiled a list of the best laptops for video editing available on the market today.
After months of rumors, the 14-inch MacBook is finally here with a long list of features to go along with its $2,899 price tag. The ultraportable reintroduces several important connectors while getting rid of the Touch Bar that wasn't very popular anyway. The new speaker system with spatial audio abilities and mini LED screen are both amazing. Even though it's still being tested, macOS Monterey works well and the laptop lasted more than 14 hours on a battery test.
In only 4 minutes and 51 seconds, the MacBook Pro transcoded a 4K film to 1080p in the HandBrake video test-- way faster than the 14:15 average. With a 14.2-inch display of 3024x1964p resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, this laptop's screen is one of Apple's finest yet. The company boasts 5.9 million pixel clarity and 254 pixels per inch (ppi).
The Surface Laptop 4 is just like its predecessor--one of the best laptops for video editing available on the market today. Its sleek, lightweight design and top-notch build quality make it a joy to use, while its huge, high-res PixelSense touchscreen is perfect for film editing in both 1080p and 4K.
Not only does it have some of the newest mobile tech from Intel and AMD, but this laptop can also handle any video editing app thrown its way. And since Windows 10 is installed, you can use all your favorite programs without a problem. The best part? It has an amazing battery life- one of the longest we've seen in laptops. So even though you probably won't want to edit movies on it while unplugged, at least you have that option now if need be.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is a powerful gaming laptop that doesn't sacrifice portability or battery life. This is made possible with the AMD Ryzen 9 processor, which uses the latest technology from AMD to deliver power without draining your battery in just a few hours. With the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU, this 14-inch laptop is quite powerful.
The Zephyrus G14 gaming laptop is incredibly powerful, yet still small and light enough to easily transport. It truly shines, however, in its extremely long battery life of 11 hours. Laptops with that kind of performance are seldom seen chasing after power cords all day long, making it a fantastic value at prices between $1,049 and $1,999
The Dell Alienware Area-51m is one of the best video editing machines available. It has an overclockable 9th Gen Core i9 desktop CPU and the newest RTX 2080 GPU, which gives it enough power to easily handle any task you throw at it. In our tests, it smashed the HandBrake test, converting a 4K movie to 1080p in less than 6 minutes - exactly what you need in a heavy-duty laptop. Plus, you get the machine's stunning look and an SSD with 1,272 MBps of speed, making it even more powerful and upgradeable.
The Dell G5 15 SE 2020 is a powerful yet inexpensive gaming laptop that can handle some significant video editing. Its name might not be exciting, but for less than $1,000 this computer offers a lot of capability compared to other more premium gaming laptops, particularly at 1080p.
The 2020 Dell G5 15 SE is a powerful video editing laptop that includes an all-AMD option with a Ryzen 5 4000-series CPU and Radeon RX 5600M GPU for graphics performance. With up to 16GB RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, it's one of the quickest laptops on our list - it finished our Handbrake video editing test faster than any other laptop. You can get the top specifications for $1,049, which also gets you a 144Hz refresh rate and vibrant display. The plastic body may not look luxurious, but it looks classy nonetheless.
And there you have it, the best laptops for video editing in 2021. Always remember that your needs may differ from someone else's, so after picking out the perfect laptop from our roundup, do some independent research to double-check that it meets all of your specific requirements.
