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.
A large, beautiful screen and plenty of memory mean 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 how to choose the right model, scroll down to the bottom of this article to read our top buying tips. Alternatively, check out our picks for the best laptops for video editing below.
Ben is the Imaging Labs manager, responsible for all the testing on Digital Camera World and across the entire photography portfolio at Future. Whether he's in the lab testing the sharpness of new lenses, the resolution of the latest image sensors, the zoom range of monster bridge cameras or checking the performance of a laptop, Ben is our go-to guy for technical insight. He's a human encyclopedia of benchmarks when it comes to recommending the best buys.
The Quick List
The MacBook Pro 16 is an absolute beast of a laptop, it will tear through any video editing you can throw at it and still be ready for more.
The MacBook Pro 14 M3 is unbelievably quick, exporting huge image and video files in no time, while also being supremely portable.
This Windows laptop is tailor made for image and video editing, and it shows. Performance is stellar, and there are some handy ergonomic extras.
The Razer Blade 15 is special in that the range features an optional OLED display. With deep, inky blacks and punchy, vibrant colors, it looks incredible.
If you're always on the go and love a touchscreen tablet, then this 2-in-1 Microsoft Surface Pro 9 is perfect for the busy go-the-go creative.
If you want the portability of a laptop, but also want the biggest screen possible, this 17in laptop is our top recommendation.
Best laptops for video editing for 2024
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Best overall
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The MacBook Pro 16 is an absolute beast of a laptop - it will make light work of virtually any video editing project you have lined up, and all in a device that's incredibly slim and light considering the power that lies within. Of course all this doesn't come cheap, but you do get what you pay for.
During our testing we found the MacBook Pro 16 aced our benchmark tests, both processing and graphical, while also being incredibly slick to use in real-world scenarios. Even when exporting a 4K video while also opening RAW files in Photoshop, we were able to continue working as though nothing was happening - there's that much power in reserve.
Then factor the beautiful, color-accurate screen, stellar speaker quality, sharp webcams, and excellent keyboard and trackpad, and this is simply the best all-round package for a serious video editing laptop.
Read our full MacBook Pro 16 review
Best portable laptop
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The latest M3 edition of the venerable 14-inch MacBook Pro may not be a quantum leap ahead of previous M2 versions in raw speed, but it still represents an excellent all-rounder if portability is high on your requirements list. Not only did we find it fast in speed benchmarks during our review, it's also effortlessly snappy and quick in general use, even when you're exporting a video in the background.
The inclusion of an SD card slot and an HDMI port are both welcome, especially compared to previous MacBooks that lacked such I/O. With Thunderbolt 4 USB-C slots, it has all the ports a videographer will need. It also has super fast 6E Wi-Fi for uploading and downloading large files, as well as decent speakers and a good quality webcam. Apple has ditched the Touchbar for the M3 MacBook Pro 14, which some may miss, but otherwise we rate this as the best laptop for video editing if portability is paramount.
Read our full MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) review
Best PC laptop
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The ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED is designed with video editing firmly in mind. Not only do you get a touch screen and large trackpad for input, there's also the Asus Dial: a customisable rotating wheel between the keyboard and trackpad that can be used for all sorts of functions, including scrubbing through a timeline in Premiere Pro.
Our review sample was equipped with a blazing-fast 24-core Intel i9-13980HS CPU and 64GB of RAM, so it was no surprise that it aced our benchmark tests with ease. But while performance is first class, such power does dent battery life, which inevitably takes a huge hit if you're running processor-intensive workloads.
You'll also pay a hefty price for the ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED, and that's before you add any options, but considering just what a capable video editing machine this is, the price isn't unreasonable.
Read our Asus ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED review for more details.
Best budget laptop
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This certainly isn't the cheapest laptop you can buy, but a powerful machine is a must for video editing, ruling out really cheap and sluggish options for this guide. The Asus TUF A16 certainly isn't short on performance thanks to an 8-core AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor paired with 16GB RAM, yet it manages to be this powerful at a very fair price.
Teamed with this speed is an excellent 16-inch IPS display with a healthy 2560 x 1600 resolution and a mightily impressive 100% DCI-P3 color space coverage. The only shortcoming is that resolution, though certainly crisp, still isn't 4K. But you simply can't have it all at this price point.
During our time reviewing the TUF A16 we were able to test its battery life, which turned out to be surprisingly good for a laptop this powerful. Reckon on around 10 hours of light use and video playback, though this will nosedive if you plan on exporting 4K footage for hours on end.
Considering you could spend way, way more on a laptop to only get marginally more processing performance, we reckon the Asus TUF A16 is a bit of a bargain.
Read more: Asus TUF A16 full review
Best 2 in 1 laptop
5. Microsoft Surface Pro 9
Our expert review:
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The Surface Pro 9 is quite hard to define - it's not the most powerful candidate for video editing, but it is very handy when you're on the move, and for setting up quickly while on location. The signature feature here is that the display section can be detached from the keyboard to become a standalone touch-screen tablet.
But unlike a conventional tablet which is more like a scaled-up smartphone the Surface Pro 9 runs full-on Windows and is deceptively powerful for such a svelte device. While it won't outright win any speed benchmarks, we did find the Surface Pro 9 preformed reasonably well during out video editing tests. Just don't expect to be able to go about your everyday work while exporting a video in the background - there simply isn't the power in reserve for that kind of multitasking.
What you get here is a beautiful, well made device with a clever kickstand and hinge that still reigns supreme in the 2-in-1 laptop world. If you choose to buy the Surface Type Cover and Surface Slim Pen (which you really should), then the Surface Pro 9 is a real pleasure to use in the field.
Read our full Surface Pro 9 review
Best 17 inch laptop
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The Razer Blade 17 is primarily marketed as a gaming machine, but it's also got all the power you could want for video editing. What's more, that larger than average screen is just the ticket for a more comfortable editing display, with more room for displaying pallets and timelines.
All Razer Blade models are premium laptops, hence they command a premium price - around $4,000 or £4,000 at the time we reviewed our Blade 17 sample. That's undoubtedly a lot to pay for a laptop, but then you do get the kind of performance here that' few rival machines can match. The kind of performance we achieved was on par with a premium desktop PC, though when you start thrashing the Blade like that, battery life will plummet.
If you have the budget to get the best, the Razer Blade 17 should be high on your shortlist - it's a supremely capable video editing powerhouse.
Read our full Razer Blade 17 review for more details
More options
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Though the MacBook Air can still be had with Apple's M1 processor, we'd recommend spending a little more to get the more powerful M2 version for video editing. The base M2 chip packs an 8‑core CPU and 8‑core GPU, which can be upgraded to a 10-core GPU if graphics performance is important to you. There's 8GB RAM and 256GB of SSD storage as standard, but we'd definitely opt for at least 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage to get a smoother video editing experience.
Our 16GB test machine managed to perform even our most demanding processing requests without breaking into a sweat - amazing considering what a svelte machine the 13-inch MacBook Air is. And it does all this while staying both cool and quiet. As usual for modern MacBooks, display quality is first class, while the trackpad and keyboard are comfortable to use. A Magsafe power connector, two USB-C ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack are hardly the last work in versatile connectivity, however.
Naturally, a 13-inch screen size will feel restrictive for long video editing stints, but for occasional edits on the go, the budget-friendly MacBook Air M2 makes sense.
Read our full MacBook Air M2 full review.
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Many 2-in-1 laptops tend to be ultra-portable affairs, with correspondingly small screens of around 13 inches. But if you plan on doing longer video editing stints, a bigger display can really improve viewing comfort. The 16-inch MSI Summit E16 Flip Evo therefore makes a solid case for itself. That larger screen may not have the highest resolution - Full HD (1920 x 1080), but that's still more than crisp enough for a screen this size for editing, even if 4K playback isn't an option. 100 sRGB color coverage is also good news, though we measured DCI-P3 coverage at a more restricted 87%.
We found during our review that the 12-core Intel Core i7 processor is easily powerful enough to breeze through intensive video editing, though the 16GB of RAM in our test machine did limit the heaviest workloads. The lack of a dedicated graphics processor can have an impact on rendering speed in some editing apps, however.
But considering the very fair price of the Flip Evo, we reckon it's great value for a 2-in-1.
Read our full MSI Summit E16 Flip Evo review
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Want a video editing laptop and tablet in one? The Surface Laptop Studio could be the answer. Where most 'hybrid' laptops like this use a 360-degree hinge to achieve the transformation, the Surface Laptop Studio has a dual hinge. It can open up like a normal laptop, but a secondary hinge around the centre of the display lets you pull the screen forwards so the bottom locks in place magnetically just above touchpad. Or it can sit flat where the lid would usually be. This gets you the “fat tablet” style of a 360-degree hinge, without leaving the keyboard sitting awkwardly underneath.
Editing power comes from fairly potent 11th-gen Intel H-series processors, while big spenders have the option of Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti graphics for hardware video acceleration. Max out the option list and you can be rewarded with 32GB RAM and 2TB of SSD storage.
A great display, a clever cooling system, good stylus support and decent performance make this an unusually versatile laptop - one that can do things a MacBook Pro simply can’t. Just don't get too carried away with speccing this up, as the price can escalate far faster than any potential performance increase.
Read our full Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio full review.
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The Acer Predator Helios 300 packs a lot of video editing performance for a relatively affordable price. Available with Intel Core i7 power paired with up to 32GB of RAM, during our review we found it delivered performance that could rival some of the best laptops around. Factor the healthy amount of built-in storage (up to a 1TB SSD, or a SSD+hard drive combo) and you've got an ideal machine for storing hours of 4K footage.
Like some other gaming laptops, there’s a Turbo button you can hit to overclock performance for intense editing bouts, and there’s also granular control over the fan, so you can ramp it up or down depending on whether you need maximum performance, or a quiet editing environment.
How to choose the best laptops for video editing
Mac or PC?
MacBooks are favored by many photographers, and for a good reason. But don’t rule out comparably priced laptop PCs, which can offer more bang per buck, sometimes with better upgradability.
What screen size is best?
This is always going to be a compromise. The best video editing software, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, will often result in your screen being split into quadrants (a preview window, timeline, effects tab and a bin for footage). Working with software like this on a small laptop will get old pretty quickly, so we'd recommend opting for at least a 15 inch laptop. However, the larger the screen size, the more comfortable you'll find the editing process. Don't forget you can also get an extra video editing monitor to help out as well.
Which display technology?
Laptop screens used to be more eye-sore than eye-candy, with appalling contrast and viewing angles. Thankfully IPS LCD display tech fixes this and you shouldn’t settle for anything less. The latest crop of OLED displays offer even better contrast and color vibrancy. Regardless of screen tech, a laptop that boasts pre-calibration to ensure the best possible color accuracy is always beneficial for accurate video editing.
How fast should the central processor (CPU) be?
The heart of a laptop, two processor manufacturers dominate: Intel, and AMD. However, laptop processor model numbers are practically impossible to decipher. Just focus on the ‘base frequency’ (speed, measured in GHz), and number of processing cores (four, six, eight, and sometimes even more).
How much storage do I need?
An SSD (solid state drive) is a must in any new laptop. All our options in this buying guide include one, but don’t get stuck with a small capacity: 512GB is a bare minimum if you’re working with 4K video, while 1 terabyte (TB) or more is preferable. Thankfully, you can supplement a laptop's internal storage by connecting a separate, external hard drive.
Do I need to pay extra to get a fast graphics processor?
A dedicated graphics processor can be used to accelerate video encoding. There's no need to blow your budget on a top-end graphics card though - a mid-range model will do fine for video editing, while premium cards are left to hardcore gamers.
How we test the best laptops for video editing
When reviewing a laptop, we assess its internal hardware features, build quality, ergonomics, performance in a variety of usage scenarios, value for money, and its overall suitability for its target buyer. Although we'll evaluate a laptop with a typical user in mind, we will also pay particular attention to the perspective of photo and video enthusiasts, with special focus given to screen quality and color space coverage. Where possible, a monitor calibrator will be used to measure a laptop's display performance to assess whether it matches a manufacturer's claims, and software benchmarks like GeekBench are used to measure a laptop's processor and graphics card capabilities.
