We live in a world where you can easily edit a video on a smartphone, which is fine for amateurs. It's a whole different ball game for the pros. With so many choices at top of the range, choosing the best laptop for video editing is confusing to say the least. The decision is even more difficult for professionals as the quality of work they produce is closely linked to the success in the field.
With a rapid development of internet, entertainment and film industry, the final output expected is nothing less than extraordinary. You need to have the best tools along with the necessary skill set. For professional editors, choosing a good laptop for video editing directly impacts their livelihood.
For more than 50% of editors, it is a fast-paced job where you're expected to deliver at any given time, place or location. Naturally, you'd want to carry the best tools when you're on the go. Portability is a big factor. That's also the primary reason why buying a desktop computer (although not a bad option), does not serve the purpose. Purchasing a high-end laptop becomes mandatory here.
Speed and Storage
Speed and size of the hard drive is a tricky subject. Ideally, you need the best of both worlds, which is expensive. On a slower hard drive, it could take slightly longer to work between several softwares. Also, with multiple projects going on, you'd like to just dump the footage on the hard drive. Hence, the need for huge storage.
It's a balance that comes at a price. This becomes the most important factor when selecting a good laptop for video editing.
Pro tip:
If we talk about video editing, having a good SSD for your primary storage is crucial. Almost every other laptop that's available, runs a combo of a fast SSD and a slower (but big) hard drive. While it's not the best combination, it's still the most favoured one. SSD's are lot more safer and less prone to system failures. They are almost always more expensive, still worth it.
Good Processor
With the amount of varied work, opening multiple applications at the same time is almost a necessity. Video editing of a HD or 4k video is done best on a high-quality processor. A good processor can execute multiple tasks without any visible dip in performance.
Pro tip:
Try to at least get i5, although i7 is always recommended. In fact, i7 gets a clear thumbs up from a lot of professional video editors. It's designed for multimedia editing. Go for it if you're looking for the very best in performance.
Minimum Memory Requirements
While editing a video (or doing any other task), the temporary files are always stored in the random-access memory. You need clean and designated portions of RAM ( Random Access Memory) for smooth real-time playback. It's always advisable to have more space to accommodate these temporary files. While 8GB is a bare minimum, it's advised to stay trouble-free with 16 GB of RAM. Although, if you're facing budget constraints, it's easy to upgrade the RAM for most computers which is something that you can do at a later stage.
Resolution and Screen size
Generally, as the laptops get expensive, you'll get more pixels, which means better quality. Better resolution would help you see everything in detail, which in turn will help you a lot with a process like video editing.
Likewise, larger screens are always better, except when you take in account the portability factor. According to professional editors, a 17.3” screen becomes too bulky to carry around. Keep a healthy balance of size and convenience as per your requirement.
Pro tip:
While choosing the best laptop for video editing, a full HD or 1080p is an absolute minimum.
Graphics Card
The basic purpose of a graphics card is to convert the data to pixels on the screen. Naturally, a high-class graphics card, preferably from NVIDIA or AMD is recommended here. Although the performance of integrated graphics is also good. Intel processors (i5 and i7) are great examples which no longer need a dedicated GPU. They can handle almost everything thrown at them. Based on your project requirements, it is still recommended to install a good graphics card. It's always a good investment if you're looking for the best laptop for video editing.
Here are a few things to remember (often overlooked).
- You will need a laptop with extended battery life especially when the process of video editing is usually long with multiple sessions of 5 to 7 hours.
- If you leave the highly priced ones, the speaker quality on laptops leaves a lot to be desired. That's enough reason to invest in better quality headphones and additional speakers.
Conclusion
Laptops these days are powerful enough to handle even the extreme editing work. The amount of sophistication and personalization that you can achieve with easy to use software is astonishing. Whether it's film spicing, non-linear video editing or anything else, the best machines can make you a first class video editor. Even though some of these laptops are expensive, you'll still find great deals. List down your preferences. Then research the right product for you. Just keep a healthy balance between everything listed here. Don't overcommit to something at the cost of other. There's a variety out there and no matter what you buy today, it would most certainly be outdated in the near future. That's the nature of modern technology. Just wait for the right time and you can always upgrade. The one for you is already out there. You just have to find it.
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