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If you are a creative or graphic designer and you are looking for a new laptop it might be difficult to choose the best one and which laptop suits better for your graphic design ideas and budget, that is why I made this list with the 12 best laptops you can find right now for graphic design and help you choose the best one for you!
MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) (Best Laptop for Graphic Design Overall)
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 (Best Windows Laptop for Graphic Design)
MacBook Air (M2, 2023) (Best Lightweight Laptop)
Dell XPS 17 (Best Value Laptop for Graphic Design)
HP Victus 15 (Best Budget Laptop For Graphic Designers)
ASUS Zenbook Duo Dual 14” (Best Dual Screen Laptop)
Microsoft Surface Pro 2-in-1 (2024) (Best Laptop and Drawing Tablet Combined)
Lenovo Legion Pro 7 Gaming Laptop – (Best for Gaming and Graphic Design)
Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 (2023) (Best Mid-Range Laptop For Graphic Designers)
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If you are a professional graphic designer looking for a new laptop and want to know the best laptop for graphic design, here are the Top 3 best laptops you can find right now in the market.
Best Windows Laptop For Graphic Design
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2
CPU: Intel Core i7 or i9 Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 RAM: Up to 64GB Screen: 14.4-inch PixelSense Flow, 2400 x 1600 Storage: Up to 2TB SSD Battery Life: Up to 19 hours
Best Laptop For Graphic Design
MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024)
CPU: M4 Pro Chip Graphics: Integrated 40-core GPU RAM: Up to 128GB Screen: 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR, 3456 x 2234 Storage: Up to 8TB SSD Battery Life: Up to 22 hours
Best Budget Laptop For Graphic Design
HP Victus 15
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 RAM: Up to 16GB Screen: 15.6-inch Full HD, 144Hz refresh rate Storage: Up to 512GB SSD Battery Life: Up to 8 hours
Specs: CPU: M4 Pro Chip Graphics: Integrated 40-core GPU RAM: Up to 128GB Screen: 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR, 3456 x 2234 Storage: Up to 8TB SSD Battery Life: Up to 22 hours
The MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) takes the crown as one of the best laptops for graphic design, equipped with Apple’s new M4 Pro chip, this laptop offers an incredible blend of power and efficiency as the M4 Pro CPU is built to handle intense workloads, so whether you’re editing large files in Adobe Photoshop or working on 4K video content, it can tackle it all without breaking a sweat. Plus, the 16-inch Retina XDR display is an absolute dream for designers; the color accuracy and brightness levels are unparalleled, making sure that what you see on the screen matches what you’ll get in print or digital formats.
What I love most about the MacBook Pro M4 Pro is its appeal to designers who crave both performance and reliability. This laptop is ideal for professional designers who work in color-sensitive fields like branding or product design, where accuracy is key. It’s also great for those who dabble in 3D rendering or video editing thanks to its powerful GPU performance. And, with Apple’s focus on optimizing both hardware and software, the battery life is impressive — you can work on creative projects for hours without needing to plug in.
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Specs: CPU: Intel Core i7 or i9 Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 RAM: Up to 64GB Screen: 14.4-inch PixelSense Flow, 2400 x 1600 Storage: Up to 2TB SSD Battery Life: Up to 19 hours
The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 is a fantastic option for graphic designers who prefer working in a Windows environment. Microsoft designed this laptop with creatives in mind, offering a unique hinge mechanism that allows you to switch between three different modes: laptop, stage, and studio.
In studio mode, the laptop lies flat like a tablet, which is perfect for designers who like to sketch or edit directly on the touchscreen. Powered by the latest Intel i7 or i9 processors and NVIDIA RTX 4060 GPU, it’s a solid performer for design tasks, whether you’re working on Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, or even some light 3D rendering.
What makes the Surface Laptop Studio 2 a standout is its versatility combined with power being ideal for designers who frequently move between different design applications or need a device that can adapt to various working styles. If you’re an illustrator, concept artist, or anyone who works on digital painting, the Surface Pen compatibility and the laptop’s flexible form make it incredibly intuitive to use. With a beautiful 14.4-inch PixelSense display and color accuracy, this is one of the best Windows laptops for graphic designers looking for a robust, multipurpose device.
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Specs: CPU: Apple M2 Graphics: Integrated 10-core GPU RAM: Up to 24GB Screen: 15.3-inch Liquid Retina (2880 x 1864) Storage: Up to 2TB SSD Battery Life: Up to 18 hours
For graphic designers who prioritize portability without compromising on performance, the Apple 2023 MacBook Air (M2) is a fantastic choice. Apple’s latest iteration of the MacBook Air, powered by the new M2 chip, brings incredible performance improvements and power efficiency, making it perfect for design tasks on the go.
Despite its slim profile, the M2 MacBook Air can handle graphic design software like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and even some light video editing without breaking a sweat. Plus, its stunning 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display offers crisp, vibrant colors and excellent brightness, ensuring your designs look their best on-screen.
This laptop is ideal for freelance designers, students, or anyone who needs a lightweight yet powerful machine that can easily slip into a backpack, and with its long battery life and efficient performance, you can confidently work all day without worrying about finding a power outlet. For designers who are always on the move, this MacBook Air is a great blend of power, portability, and affordability in Apple’s lineup.
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Specs: CPU: 11th Generation Intel Core i9-11980HK Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6 RAM: Up to 64GB DDR4-3200MHz Screen: 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR Display Storage: Up to 8TB
If you are a graphic designer who likes to work with a high-end big-screen everywhere you should consider buying Dell XPS 17 as this laptop offers you an incredible 17-inch UHD+ Screen with HDR being a great tool for designers and creatives to take care of every detail of your work.
Despite the big screen, Dell XPS 17 has a thin and light design being really easy to carry it everywhere, another great feature of this laptop for graphic design is the power of it, having 11th generation Intel Core processors, up to 64GB Ram and Nvidia RTX GeForce 3060 graphics perfect for most intensive graphic design projects and 3D design.
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Specs: CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 RAM: Up to 16GB Screen: 15.6-inch Full HD, 144Hz refresh rate Storage: Up to 512GB SSD Battery Life: Up to 8 hours
The HP Victus 15 is a fantastic budget-friendly choice for graphic designers who need a solid, reliable laptop without stretching their budget as this model is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 5 7535HS processor and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics, is capable of handling essential graphic design tasks, especially if you’re working on less resource-intensive software or smaller projects.
The 15.6-inch Full HD display with a 144Hz refresh rate is a great feature at this price point, offering smooth visuals and a good level of color accuracy, though it may lack the vibrancy seen in higher-end screens.
This laptop is ideal for freelance designers, students, or entry-level creatives who want a functional and affordable machine for tasks like photo editing, vector work, and even light 3D modeling. While it may not have the raw power of higher-end laptops, it performs admirably for basic to intermediate design work. Given its price, the HP Victus 15 offers impressive value.
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Specs: CPU: Intel Core i7 or i9 Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce MX450 RAM: Up to 32GB Screen: 14-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) + ScreenPad Plus Storage: Up to 1TB SSD Battery Life: Up to 17 hours
If you’re someone who loves multitasking and frequently juggles different apps, the ASUS Zenbook Duo 14 might be the perfect laptop for you as it stands out with its dual-screen setup: a primary 14-inch Full HD display, and a secondary ScreenPad Plus, which is a smaller touchscreen located above the keyboard. The dual-screen design is fantastic for creative professionals who use multiple software simultaneously; you can have your main design on the primary screen while keeping tools, color palettes, or references on the ScreenPad.
And when talking about specs, this laptop is equipped with an Intel Core i7 or i9 processor and NVIDIA GeForce MX450 graphics, having plenty of power to keep up with demanding design software, being a great choice for video editors, animators, and UX/UI designers who require constant access to multiple panels and tools.
While it may not be as high-powered as some other options on this list, the innovative dual-screen experience more than makes up for it by significantly improving workflow efficiency. Plus, ASUS has included a custom cooling system to handle heavier workloads, making it surprisingly efficient for a dual-screen laptop.
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Specs: CPU: Snapdragon X Elite (12 Core) RAM: Up to 32GB Screen: 13-inch PixelSense touchscreen Storage: Up to 1TB SSD Battery Life: Up to 10 hours
The Microsoft Surface Pro 2-in-1 (2024) is a top pick for graphic designers who value versatility, as it combines the portability of a tablet with the power of a laptop. This model is equipped with a Snapdragon X Elite (12 Core) processor with integrated graphics, providing solid performance for graphic design software like Adobe Creative Suite and other creative applications.
The 13-inch PixelSense touchscreen display is another highlight, offering excellent color accuracy and a high resolution that makes it ideal for illustration, digital painting, and detailed design work.
This device is especially suited for designers who enjoy drawing directly on the screen, thanks to its compatibility with the Surface Slim Pen 2 (sold separately). With its lightweight build and detachable keyboard, the Surface Pro is perfect for creatives who need a flexible device for both desk work and on-the-go sketching. It’s a reliable companion for illustrators, digital artists, and anyone who wants the convenience of switching seamlessly between laptop and tablet modes.
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Specs: CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 RAM: Up to 32GB DDR5 Screen: 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600), 240Hz refresh rate, 100% sRGB Storage: Up to 1TB SSD Battery Life: Up to 8 hours
The Lenovo Legion Pro 7 is a powerhouse designed to meet the needs of both avid gamers and graphic designers. Equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 graphics, this laptop delivers top-tier performance, ideal for handling high-resolution graphic design tasks and 3D rendering as well as the latest games. With up to 32GB of DDR5 RAM, the Legion Pro 7 ensures seamless multitasking, whether you’re switching between Photoshop, Illustrator, and Blender, or running demanding games.
The 16-inch WQXGA (2560 x 1600) display with a 240Hz refresh rate and 100% sRGB color accuracy is a dream for designers who need clarity and precision in color. This laptop is perfect for graphic designers who also enjoy gaming, or professionals who need a versatile machine capable of handling everything from design work to intensive rendering tasks and thanks to its advanced cooling system keeps it running smoothly during intensive sessions, making it a reliable and powerful option for anyone who needs both graphic design capability and gaming performance.
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Specs: CPU: Intel Core i7 Graphics: Intel Iris Xe RAM: Up to 16GB Screen: 16-inch 2.5K Storage: Up to 1TB SSD Battery Life: Up to 12 hours
The Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 is an excellent mid-range option for graphic designers who want a balance of power and affordability. With its Intel Core i7 processor and Intel Iris Xe graphics, this laptop can handle most design tasks with ease. The 16-inch 2.5K display with a 100% sRGB color gamut offers good color accuracy, making it suitable for digital art, photo editing, and general design work.
This laptop is perfect for designers who need a reliable and capable machine without splurging on premium features. The Yoga 7i’s versatile design, with a 360-degree hinge, makes it easy to switch between laptop and tablet mode. It’s a solid choice for designers who need flexibility and performance at a reasonable price.
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Having a good laptop is a crucial tool for graphic designers that are traveling or moving around as it’s important to have a great performance and that the laptop is easy to take with you everywhere, I hope this list helped you choose the best laptop for your preferences and budget and now you can work only focusing on your design ideas.
When choosing a laptop for graphic design the first thing you should consider is the operating system you want to work with, for example, if you are familiarized with Apple computers or tablets you should go for a laptop with macOS like the MacBook Pro, another OS is Windows from Microsoft and Google’s Chrome OS that usually is used by more budget-friendly laptops.
CPU is the most important part of any computer and it’s also important to take a look at the CPU when choosing a laptop for graphic design as it’s the brain of your laptop and any computer, having a powerful CPU will help designers to run complex software fasters and better.
RAM is also another crucial element to invest in as a graphic designer for your laptop, as it will let you run graphic design software like photoshop or illustrator smoother and simultaneous, the minimum amount you should use as a graphic designer is 8GB but the optimal amount for professional designers is 16GB, so consider to buying a laptop with high amount of RAM to be able to work smoothly in your design projects.
Storage in laptops is the amount of capacity it has, there are two types of hard drives you can find in laptops HDD (Hard Disk) or SSD (solid-state), the first ones have more capacity and they are much cheaper, but SSD on the other side are lighter, faster and much more durable, but they are more expensive than HDD. The optimal hard drive in a laptop for graphic designers is SSD as it will give you more speed when you are working on your design projects.
For graphic designers is important to have a laptop with good color accuracy that will provide you with rich and vibrant colors to take care of every detail of your project, regarding the size 15-inch laptops are optimal for designers but if you have more space you can go for bigger screen laptops.
The main reason to invest in a good laptop for graphic designers is to be able to take it everywhere and work from home, in the park, coffee shop, or your favorite place, that is why is important to buy a laptop with good battery life, this will provide plenty of time to work on your projects without the necessity to charge it.
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Yes, actually MacBooks are considered the best laptops for graphic designers being the most popular option for designers and creatives due to the great build quality and powerful performance giving you a great tool for your design projects.
If you want to invest in the best laptop for graphic design you definitely should buy the MacBook Pro 16”
The best laptop for graphic designers is the Apple MacBook Pro for macOS users, and for those designers who prefer to work with Windows, the best one is the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4.
Yes, Asus laptops are good for graphic design work, on this list, you can find the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 which is the best gaming laptop you can use for graphic design offering you a great performance for design and games.
Yes, you definitely need a dedicated graphics card to run graphic design software like photoshop and work on them smoother, but if you want to work in 3D design or more intensive design works you should invest on buying a good graphics card to support it.
Both OS are good for graphic design, it all depends on the hardware you will use and Windows and Mac laptops have booth powerful options for graphic design, to choose between both OS it’s also important to consider your preferences, if you already use macOS devices like iPad or iMac definitely going for an Apple laptop will be the best for you to integrate a workflow with other Apple devices.
The best MacBook for graphic design is the MacBook Pro as it’s the most popular among creatives and designers thanks to its power, design, and quality, and the best option is the MacBook Pro 16”, other great MacBooks are the MacBook Pro 13” if you want to save some money and the MacBook Air which is the best value laptop that will offer you great performance for design projects.
The short answer is yes, as the SSD disks will offer better performance, more speed, and better build quality really important for graphic designers, regarding the disk space for graphic design at a minimum you should buy a laptop with at least 512GB SSD to manage large files.
To work as a graphic designer with a laptop you should at least buy one with a Four or eight-core processor with good clock speed to be able to perform graphic design tasks and 3D rendering with an optimal speed and performance.
Yes, you can use a laptop to work on graphic design, for example, if you are going to work mostly with 2D images you can buy a mid-range laptop or a good budget-friendly laptop, but if you want to make more complicated tasks such as 3D design you definitely should invest on a high-end laptop with powerful specs to carry on these tasks.
The minimum amount of RAM you need for a graphic design laptop is 8GB, but the optimal amount will be 16GB to perform all graphic design software smoothly and easily, and 32GB would be the best option for more complicated tasks and large graphic design projects.
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Having a good laptop is a crucial tool for graphic designers that are traveling or moving around as it’s important to have a great performance and that the laptop is easy to take with you everywhere, I hope this list helped you choose the best laptop for your preferences and budget and now you can work only focusing on your design ideas.
If you found this post useful you might like to read these posts about Graphic Design Inspiration.
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