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As a Graphic Designer some one of the tools you need to have is a good computer. More Graphic Designers are becoming mobile and are going to need a laptop to keep up with there work flows. The thing is not having a good laptop can actually slow down a designer’s workflow. That is why you need to make sure that you get a laptop with the right specs. This article will not only help give you the tools to pick out the right laptop for graphic design. It will also give you some of the best options in 2017 for the best laptop in graphic design for different price ranges.

What makes a good laptop for graphic design

There are only a few things that make a good laptop for graphic design. No matter whatever features or other things you are looking for in a laptop you need to look for 3 main things. Below are the main 3 things you should keep in mind when buying a laptop for graphic design.

1. The CPU of the laptop
2. How much RAM does the laptop have
3. Does it have fast storage

The main thing you need to look for when getting a laptop for graphic design is the CPU. Think of this as the brain of the computer. You need to have a fast CPU to make sure that you can handle the tasks you are wanting to throw at it. When looking for a laptop to use for graphic design you should get one with an Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen 5. These are the two options I would recommend for the base model for any laptop that is going to be used for graphic design. If you want to take it the next level or have a bigger budget you could go for a laptop with an Intel i7 or an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU. A laptop with any of the CPUs would be the best results for using it with graphic design programs.

The next most important thing in a laptop is how much RAM does it have. Think of RAM as the short term memory of the computer. Having more in your laptop will allow you to have more programs run and help you with more intensive tasks. The rule of thumb is when it comes for a laptop for graphic design is you should have around 8 GBs of RAM. This should be the minimum for any graphic designer’s laptop. You have a bigger budget or feel like you need more RAM you could have 16 GBs or even 32 GBs of RAM. This will make sure that your laptop will last longer or not need to be upgraded sooner.

The last important thing to look when getting a laptop is having fast storage. You can get away with having a laptop that has a mechanic hard drive. The thing is though it will call taste and will eventually start slowing down. When looking for a laptop to use for graphic design it should at least have a ssd. This will make sure that your laptop can be as fast as it can. Once you start working with a faster drive yourself never be able to go back. It is something designers do not think about when getting a laptop but the faster you can get your files the faster you can work.

There might be some other things that you are looking for a laptop but if you look for these you will have a great laptop. You need to make sure that you are not getting distracted by the marketing fluff when buying a laptop. You need to get something that is going to get the job done for you.

Best Laptops for Graphic Design

Let’s get down to why you are really here to find some of the best laptops for graphic design. Some of these will come to no surprise. Others might be a little weird to see on this list. Remember these laptops will be following the criteria talked about above. They will be broken down into a couple of categories to help you choose the best one.

1. Budget Laptop for Graphic Design
2. Mid Level Laptop for Graphic Design
3. Best Laptop for Graphic Design

Budget Laptops will be laptops that are priced around $300-$500. These will be some of the best laptops you can get to start you off or for someone who does not have a lot of money to send to begin with. These will still be great laptops for graphic design but might need some upgrades down the road to get the longest life out of them.

Mid Level Laptops will be laptops that are priced around $600-900. These laptops will great laptops for anyone wanting to do graphic design. These laptops will have a longer life with minimum upgrades.

Best Laptop for Graphic Design will be laptops that are priced $1000 and hire. These laptops are for those who do not want to waste any performance or do not want to upgrade their laptop. These will be some of the best laptops you could ever get for doing anything. These will also usually include a graphics card as well.

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Budget Laptops for Graphic Design

With buying a budget laptop you have to remember that something is going to take a hit. It might be one of the main components that are listed above or it could be build quality. No matter what it is most budget laptops can be upgraded. So if you have to get a laptop with less RAM, that is okay you can usually upgrade it down the road to keep up with your needs. Same goes for the hard drive if you need to get one with a mechanical drive you can upgrade down the road to a SSD. Taking that in mind here are some of the best budget laptops for Graphic Design.

2017 Acer Aspire 15.6-inch

This laptop might not be the flashiest laptop but for only going for around $400 it is a great price for what you are getting. You are getting a laptop with a decent amount of RAM in it and should last you awhile. Also yes this laptop does have a mechanical hard drive. That is not the end of the world. It is a 1TB hard drive which is a lot of space for even design files. You could swap it with a SSD down the road but you might want to keep what it currently has so you have plenty of space. It also has an i5 in it which is more than you are going to need as a designer.

Pros:

1. Has 6GBs of RAM which should be enough for awhile
2. Has 1TB of storage which will help with holding all of files for design work
3. Has an Intel i5 which will help with all your design needs
4. Should have good battery life
5. Has a good upgrade path

Cons:

1. Limited ports
2. Build quality may not be the best

 

HP 15-au087

This is a good option for someone is wanting a good budget laptop for Graphic Design but also wants a touch screen. Touch screens are not the best for graphic design yet. Unless it is something that has pen support like a Surface or Wacom device. Touch screens on laptops is more used best for scrolling down pages. The thing is that a touch screen can add a lot of price to a laptop. This is the same case. This laptop is around $500. If you are looking for an option with a touch screen though here you go. This laptop also has a good amount of RAM for the price. Similar to the Acer laptop you are getting a 1TB mechanical hard drive which is not the end of the world. You are also getting an i5 which will keep you going for a while as well.

Pros:

1. Has 8GBs of RAM which should be enough for awhile
2. Has 1TB of storage which will help with holding all of files for design work
3. Has an Intel i5 which will help with all your design needs
4. Has a touch Screen
5. Has good Port Selection

Cons:

1. Might not have the best battery life
2. Could have better build quality
3. Might be a bit out of some people’s budget

 

Dell Inspiron i5555 Premium Laptop

This is the cheapest laptop that is recommended for Graphic Design. There are a lot of things that have had to be cut to get a laptop just over $300. The main hit was the CPU. It is an AMD CPU which is not the worse thing in the world. It might just not have the ability to hold up to most of the tasks you might throw at it. It has a good amount of RAM to help you with all of your software. This laptop also has a 500GB hard drive which may not be the largest size or the fastest. The thing is that you could upgrade this down the road.

Pros:

1. Has 6GBs of RAM which should be enough for awhile
2. Has 500GB of storage which will help with holding all of files for design work and can be upgraded down the road

Cons:

1. Has an AMD A8-7410 CPU which might not be the best
2. Might not have great battery life
3. Might not have the best build quality
4. Not many ports

 

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Mid Level Laptop for Graphic Design

When it comes to getting a getting a mid level laptop for Graphic Design you can have more play room with having features you would like to have. You can also get a lot better specs for this price range. You can also get a laptop that might have some other things you are looking into. This might include better battery life, backlit keyboard, USB Type C, or a really great design. Here are some of the best options for mid level laptops for Graphic Design.

ASUS ZenBook UX330UA-AH54 13.3-inch

This laptop might not have the best name. The thing is though it is probably one of the best laptops for the price range you are getting a great laptop for $700. You are getting some wicked build quality. It is on the level of a Macbook it is so good. You are also getting everything that checks off the box in the list for a great laptop for Graphic Design. It has good amount of RAM but it is not upgradable. This laptop also comes with a SSD. It might not be the biggest but it will be one of the fastest out there. Also it comes with an i5 which will be great for your work load.

Pros:

1. Has 8GBs of RAM which should be enough for awhile
2. Has 256GB SSD which will be a lot faster than a hard drive
3. Has an Intel i5 which will help with all your design needs
4. Has a backlit keyboard which can come in handy
5. Hs great battery life
6. Great build quality
7. Has good port selection including USB Type C

Cons:

1. Does not have a good upgrade path

Dell Inspiron 15.6″ Gaming Laptop

A gaming laptop in this list? Well yea gaming laptops get a bad rap sometimes for looking weird or being too expensive. If you can find one though at a good price it can be a great laptop for Graphic Design. Most gaming laptops will not only have a better CPU but also include a dedicated graphics card. These may not help with using programs like Photoshop or Illustrator. It will help more if you are also doing video editing. This laptop is a great example of this. You get a great price for a laptop with great specs.

Pros:

1. Has 8GBs of RAM which should be enough for awhile
2. Has 256GB SSD which will be a lot faster than a hard drive
3. Has an Intel i5 which will help with all your design needs
4. Includes a GTX 1050 which will add more power to your computer
5. Good upgrade path

Cons:

1. Could have bad battery life
2. Has red and black which you might not like

 

ASUS F556UA-EB71 Notebook 15.6″

This is one of the cheapest out of this group. It is still a strong laptop and will be good for any graphic design use. It might not have some of the best specs or best design but it is still just as good as any laptop on this list. It has all the things that make a good laptop for graphic design except for one thing and that is fast storage. This laptop still has a 1TB hard drive. The thing is with that is you can replace it and still be under any of the prices of the other laptops listed in this category.

Pros:

1. Has 8GBs of RAM which should be enough for awhile
2. Has 1TB of storage which will help with holding all of files for design work
3. Has an Intel i5 which will help with all your design needs
4. Has good port selection including USB Type C
5. Good upgrade path

Cons:

1. Does not have the best battery life

 

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Best Laptop for Graphic Design

When price is not an option for a laptop for Graphic Design it comes down to what features you are really looking for. You could get something with really good build quality, the best color accurate screen, or having backlit keyboard you can change the color. When you are paying this much for laptops you can really not go wrong with any of them. It just comes down to preference or whichever brand you like more. Below is only a small selection of some of the best of the best laptops for Graphic Design. For these laptops there will be no pros and cons due to them being some of the best machines you can get.

Dell XPS9360-7336SLV 13.3″

The Dell XPS 13 is one of the best laptops on the market today. Is has some of the best build quality next to Apple and Razor. It also have a 14 inch screen in the body of a 13 inch laptop. It also have one of the best keyboards and trackpads on a Windows laptop. This is a great machine if you get it and you will not go wrong if you get it. There is only one thing wrong with this machine. To get the screen as big as they did they needed to move the webcam to the bottom of the screen.

 

Razor Blade 14”

The Razor Blade is the closest you will ever get to a Macbook built for windows. It is one of the best laptops ever made. Graphic Designers have started adopting it because of its aluminum build and similar feel to a Macbook. This laptop does not only have a backlit keyboard it has an RGB keyboard. There is only minor complaints about the laptop. The design is starting to show its age now.

 

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Apple Laptops for Graphic Design

This may seem weird to break out Apple laptops into their own group. The thing is though if you are already in the apple ecosystem you usually are not going to leave it. Also if you are in the market for a Macbook you usually are not going to care about a PC laptop. Nonetheless Macbooks will be broken out into the same 3 groups as all the other laptops.

1. Budget Macbook for Graphic Design
2. Mid Level Macbook for Graphic Design
3. Best Macbook for Graphic Design

Budget Macbook for Graphic Design: 13 inch MacBook Pro (2012)

Saying there is a budget Apple Macbook is really weird seeing how expensive Macbooks can be. In Apple ways there are budget versions of Macbooks. No I am not talking about the newer version of the Macbook. I am talking about an older version of the Macbook pro. These are still some great laptops for graphic design. Especially the 13 inch MacBook Pro 2012 version. Yes it might be old but if you are wanting to get into the Apple ecosystem and are not wanting to spend a lot of money this is a great option.

Pros:

1. This is probably the cheapest Macbook you could get that will help you do Graphic Design
2. Great build quality like all of Apple products
3. Still a really good laptop and will last you awhile
4. Has a lot of ports

Cons:

1. It is a smaller screen size and might bother some people
2. May not get the newest versions of MacOS later on down the road
3. Is a little short on RAM

 

Mid Level Macbook for Graphic Design: 13 inch Macbook Pro (2015)

Similar to the budget option for a Macbook for Graphic Design you will need to get an older version of a Macbook to save on some money. This option for a mid level Macbook will be newer and still give you a lot of performance. The 13 inch Macbook Pro 2015 is still a solid laptop and is something that can do a lot of good work for graphic designers.

Pros:

1. Not to expensive compared to a brand new Macbook
2. Great build quality like all of Apple products
3. Still one of the best laptops and will last you a lot longer than the budget option
4. Has a lot of ports

Cons:

1. It is a smaller screen size and might bother some people
2. May not get the newest versions of MacOS later on down the road

 

Best Macbook for Graphic Design: 15.4 inch Macbook Pro (2016)

This might be the best Macbook you can buy today. It might not be the best specs or laptop you can buy for the money. MacOS is so optimized for the hardware you would never know. Also if you are looking for a Macbook and do not want to compromise anywhere the 15.4 inch Macbook Pro with Touch Bar 2016 is the best of the best.

Pros:

1. Has some of the best specs that any Macbook ever has had
2. Some of the best build quality Apple has ever done in a laptop
3. Has USB Type C for Future use

Cons:

1. Only has USB Type C so you will need to get adapters
2. No upgrade path