How to Choose the Best Laptop for Video Editing

September 5, 2022September 5, 2022 by Nick Jones

Mobile video editing, especially if you are editing high-quality, 4k footage, can be quite challenging. But the good news is that in recent years, laptops have increased in power significantly, which has made video editing on the go more accessible and affordable.

Whether you’re editing videos as part of your job, a college course, or just as a hobby, it’s a good idea to know what to look for if you want a good laptop for using programs such as Premiere Pro and After Effects.

Think About Your Software

Before you choose the right laptop for you, it’s a good idea to consider the software that you mainly use for video editing, or the software that you want to start using, and choose your laptop with this in mind.

For example, if you mainly use Adobe After Effects for your video editing work, then these After Effects Workstation Laptop PCs are going to be a great place to start when it comes to finding a laptop you know is going to work well for you.

It’s important to make sure that the laptop you choose is suitable for the software programs that you’re going to be using on a regular basis.

Storage Options

If you are editing video, then you’ll need to find a computer that has enough storage space available. One of the main decisions you’ll be faced with in terms of storage is whether you’ll be using a hard disk drive or a solid state drive.

Ideally, for most video editing projects, fast SSD storage is the best option. Having this type of storage available will allow you to play back easily and smoothly when working with your video footage. Most laptops will use a hard disk drive and then have a smaller SSD for the main apps and operating system, so it’s worth bearing this in mind and finding one that uses an SSD for the entire system.

Monitor

Many laptop screens are calibrated for great everyday performance or even excellent gaming performance, but don’t have the correct colors for editing and producing video. If you spend a lot of time color correcting or white balancing your videos, then you will need to have a laptop with a display that is easy to calibrate for this.

Inner Components

Video editing programs use a lot of your CPU and RAM, rather than the GPU, so it’s worth focusing on these two components more. Ideally, you should go for the most powerful CPU that you can find for your budget.

When it comes to RAM, the more you have the better. Since video editing tasks tend to involve a lot of multitasking or you might be using different programs at the same time, at least 8GB of RAM is ideal. If you can, go for 16GB.

Video editing is a great skill to have these days, with businesses and individuals alike creating video content. Whether you want to work in the TV industry or are looking to get into content creation, it’s worth having the best laptop for video production.