It takes time to create a stunning video. From the first brainstorming session to scriptwriting, to actually filming – it's a lot of work. The last thing you want to do at the end of an edit session is to wait for your work to be rendered and ready to share with the world.
A speedy laptop for video editing is about more than just the latest processor. You'll also want a powerful GPU to speed up exporting, but often that means you'll give up some portability. Although, that's not always the case, as you'll see below.
The spec sheet of most video editing laptops reads a lot like a gaming laptop, with color-tuned displays, RTX 30-series GPUs, and cooling systems to ensure everything keeps running. But that's necessarily a bad thing. You'll save yourself some time, and when you're done working, you can open your favorite game and escape for a couple of hours.
These are the Best Laptops For Video Editing
- Gigabyte Aero 16
- Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M1 Max)
- HP ZBook Firefly
- Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
- Razer Blade 14
- MSI Creator Z17
- Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch
- Asus ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED
1. Gigabyte Aero 16
Best Laptop For Video Editing
Nothing beats powerful internals and a brilliant display for video editing on the go. The Gigabyte Aero 16 manages both plus a mid-range price point to boot, making it our favorite laptop for video editing. The 16-inch UHD+ display offers thin bezels and sharp visuals, so you won’t miss any details in your projects. Better still, the display totes a 4K Samsung AMOLED panel and VESA DisplayHDR 500 for vibrant colors, rich black levels, and insane brightness. It’s easy to get work done from anywhere with this computer. And, you never have to worry about your edits on this machine looking off elsewhere, as the display comes X-Rite Certified and Pantone Validated for color accuracy with a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut.
If you think the display has a lot to offer, you might be more impressed by what’s under the hood. There’s the latest 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H processor on top of 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. You are in for some speedy processing and multitasking with this machine. Though, if you want it to chug along even better, it can be kitted out with up to a wild 64GB of RAM. Plus, rendering work can be pushed onto the graphics processor, which is a solid RTX 3070 Ti. So, in addition to editing, you’ll be good to game on this machine as well. Possibly, most importantly, it comes in a delightfully portable form factor that weighs a manageable 5.07 pounds.
2. Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M1 Max)
Best MacBook For Video Editing
Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro is a machine of great power, reliability, and functionality. With its latest M1 Max processor, it’s the highest-performing MacBook you can get. This new M1 Max chip offers a combined CPU and GPU. And, by going with the M1 Max, you will be able to push this machine to the limit, as it doubles the number of GPU cores and memory bandwidth offered with the M1 Pro. It can handle a massive file load and work super fast. All of this is perfect for your video editing needs.
In addition to the excellent processor, the 16-inch MacBook Pro has a stunning Retina XDR display that provides vibrant colors and an excellent contrast ratio, so you can ensure all of your edits are looking exactly like you pictured. For anyone who lives inside Final Cut Pro X while on the go, this MacBook Pro really can handle everything you throw at it.
3. HP ZBook Firefly
Best 15-inch Laptop For Video Editing
If you’re looking for a perfectly powerful and compact workstation, the HP ZBook Firefly is that. It packs all the components you need for video editing into a form factor that's ready for your backpack. This machine comes with a decently sized 15.6” screen, but it is still super thin and light enough that you're not likely to find your back hurting from toting it around.
Inside, the HP ZBook Firefly comes packing a quad-core Intel i7-1165G7 processor alongside a professional-grade Nvidia Quadro T1000 graphics card. Those should be perfect for handling all your video editing needs along with the impressive 32GB RAM. The 1TB of SSD NVMe storage offered with this laptop should be more than enough for most. And, don’t worry about the display with its impressive 4K UHD, a peak brightness of 250 nits, and an anti-glare finish, it's up to all your video editing tasks.
4. Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
Best Laptop for 4K Video Editing
Editing 4K video takes a beast of a machine, but that's just what you get from the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5. This gaming laptop has the muscle you'll want. It pairs an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX octa-core processor with an Nvidia RTX 3070, giving you a bunch of powerful CPU cores and ample graphics power for hardware acceleration.
The system will be able to hold some large projects in memory with its 32GB of DDR4 memory, and you can load up projects quickly from the 1TB NVMe SSD inside. If the 15.6-inch display isn't going to cut it, you'll have an easy time setting this system up with an external monitor using its rear HDMI 2.1 port to support 4K or even 8K video output. But, when you're done editing for the day and want to game, you'll likely want to switch back to the built-in monitor because it has a blazing 360Hz refresh rate.
5. Razer Blade 14
Best Ultraportable Gaming Laptop for Video Editing
For a laptop that you can take just about anywhere and has loads of power to do a bit of everything, you want the Razer Blade 14. Yes, Razer is often associated with gaming, but anyone can appreciate this highly capable machine. An AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX octa-core processor, Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti GPU, and 16GB DDR5 RAM are all packed into this chic little machine. However, it still manages to weigh less than four pounds and measure just a bit over a half-inch thick. This means you not only get an insanely portable laptop but also one ready to take on whatever task you throw at it. So, you’ll really find little to no downtime while working on your latest edits.
The Razer Blade 14 offers a 14-inch QHD display that lets you do some editing on the go as well as gaming, thanks to its 165Hz refresh rate. And no, this isn’t the best display on our list, but it's still great and does offer a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut to ensure your edits never look off no matter where they’re viewed. You’ll also be good to connect this computer to a monitor or TV for more screen real estate, if you need it, thanks to the HDMI 2.1 output. Plus, two USB-A and two USB-C ports are available for tons of connectivity options.
6. MSI Creator Z17
Best High-End Video Editing Laptop
The MSI Creator Z17 may seem like a basic, run-of-the-mill laptop at first glance, but lurking inside is some serious muscle, which makes it the perfect high-end machine to handle all of your video work. It comes rocking the latest 12th Gen Intel Core i7-11800H processor and a 32GB RAM, and this gives it the power to keep up with even the biggest files and downloads. It’s a multitasking maven. And, thanks to the Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti graphics processor, there is a perfect amount of rendering speed for high-resolution editing. Those components will come in handy if you want to do a bit of gaming on the machine as well.
If you’re looking for a laptop with loads of screen space, the MSI Creator Z17 is the answer. You get a bright 17-inch IPS display built-in that offers a QHD+ resolution to let you see everything with high contrast and deep blacks from any angle. Plus, the 100% DCI-P3 color gamut and True Color Technology ensure your color edits are accurate no matter where they're viewed. And should you decide you need some more screen space for complex edits, the HDMI output will come in handy for connecting an external monitor. Overall, its larger display and impressive internals do make this one of the bulkier laptops on our list, but it still manages to be under 5.5 pounds and three-quarters of an inch thick. That means this laptop is still very much an on-the-go editing option.
7. Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch
Best Laptop for Final Cut
Apple's latest, the 14" Macbook Pro, does some incredible things, and if you plan on using it for video editing, it is exceptionally capable of running Final Cut. This machine runs apps with speed and efficiency to let you enjoy the best of its productivity and portability at the same time. Better still, applications built for ARM perform incredibly well, and the latest version of Final Cut happens to be one of them.
A large portion of this capability is thanks to the laptop packing Apple’s own M1 Pro chip with an octa-core processor and 14-core graphics processing. Now, that is some serious prowess for heavy workloads. Plus, the stunning Retina XDR display should help you edit the finest details in your projects with ease.
8. Asus ZenBook Pro Duo 15 OLED
Best Dual Screen Laptop For Video Editing
When you’re editing a video, there’s a lot to pay attention to. A laptop’s screen isn’t always going to provide enough real estate to keep all of your tools easily accessible, but Asus has a workaround. The Asus Zenbook Pro Duo 15 OLED boasts a primary 15.6-inch display and a secondary 14-inch tilting touchscreen display to improve your workflow. The main display utilizes an HDR-capable OLED panel with a UHD resolution, letting you get an incredible look at the footage you’re working on. Meanwhile, the secondary display maintains that same level of impressive sharpness while providing a handy home for extra tools or your video timeline. Now, it’s honestly hard to compete with an on-the-go option that offers two screens in one.
Of course, this video editing machine needs some might behind its impressive screens, but don’t worry, the Asus Zenbook Pro Duo 15 OLED brings it. This model comes kitted out with an Intel Core i9-11900H processor fed by 32GB of DDR4 memory. It’ll handle your biggest file downloads and task heavy apps like a champ. And, the dedicated Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card inside offers capable rendering speeds, making it ideal for high-res editing.
What to Look for in a laptop for video editing
In many ways, there's a significant overlap between a great video editing laptop and a gaming laptop. You want something that's powerful, while still being portable. Battery life is nice to have for everyday tasks, but when it comes to processing your latest shoot, you'll want to keep your laptop plugged in.
To help with processing, you'll want a laptop with a powerful GPU. Nvidia's latest RTX 30-series GPUs are now the norm. You're going to want a computer packing this graphics processor to get solid rendering speed and work done. Luckily, almost all of our picks come rocking a chip in this series.
When looking at processors in a laptop, Intel's 12th generation chips are becoming commonplace, and future proof your investment, but aren't a requirement. Intel's 11th generation processors are just as capable and will save you a little money when shopping. A quick way to identify which generation is being used in a build is to look at the numbers that follow the processor name. For example, an Intel Core i7-1165G7 denotes a 11th-generation Rocket Lake processor. Whereas an Intel Core i7-12700H represents a 12th generation Alder Lake processor.
It’s easy to get caught up in looking at flashy gaming laptops, most of which will do just fine as a video editing machine. But don’t limit yourself to a gaming machine, laptops like the Gigabyte Aero 16 or MSI Creator Z17 are proof that non-gaming laptops are just as powerful and versatile.
Jason Cipriani has covered technology full-time for the past 8 years. During that time he has freelanced for the likes of CNET, Fortune, Time, ZDNet, Macworld, Wired, and TechRadar.
