Do you need a powerful and reliable PC that can be easily transported in a backpack? Do you want to update your old laptop which can’t cope with the latest versions of programs for graphic design as Photoshop, Illustrator, Inkscape? Then this short list of 5 best laptops for graphic design will be useful to you.

Top 5 best laptops for graphic design

1. MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

2. Microsoft Surface Laptop 2

3. Dell XPS 15 9570 (2018)

4. LG Gram 14Z980

5. Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon (6th Gen)

How to choose the best laptop for graphic design?

When searching for the laptop for graphic design, you need to be guided by many aspects, ranging from a screen size to a hard drive’s parameters that will be inside the laptop.

Why not just buy a budget gaming laptop? For sure, its characteristics should be sufficient for any graphic design program.

However, I am sure that you would hardly want to walk with 8 pounds in a backpack, and I do not see any reason to overpay for features that you will not use. Look through these top 5 laptops for graphic design in 2019 that are inexpensive but efficient.

1. Dell XPS 15 9570

Price: $2330

Specs: 15.6” (3840 x 2160), 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti with 4GB, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD

Dell XPS 15 has ten different configurations for working with graphic design. It makes it an ideal option for gaming and digital drawing. This device has a 4K screen with Adobe RGB coverage, a 6-core processor and a rather large RAM. This laptop has SD card slot, 2 USB ports, an HDMI port and a headphone jack.

The processor of this laptop is weaker than, for example, Core i9. However, if working with images is your main activity, Dell XPS 15 is a good laptop for graphic design. 16 GB RAM will be absolutely enough to work in Photoshop, of course, if you are not going to deal with very large images.

2. MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Price: $2500

Specs: 15,4” (2880 x 1800), 2.6GHz 6‑core 8th‑generation Intel Core i7, Radeon Pro 555X with 4GB, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD

If you are looking for the best laptop for graphic design with a good screen, pay attention to this option. It does not have such a wide resolution as 4K, but it has other useful features.

For example, a laptop can transmit colors as accurately as possible. MacBook Pro supports DCI / P3 and reproduces decent sRGB color gamut. Besides, the model has a very convenient trackpad.

It should be noted that this laptop has several disadvantages, such as an imperfect keyboard and an insufficient number of ports for connecting additional devices. Moreover, MacBook Pro has a very high price and a fairly short battery life. Nevertheless, this is a high power laptop, thanks to its good processor and a large RAM.

3. Microsoft Surface Laptop 2

Price: $2500

Specs: 15” (3260 x 2160), 8th Gen. Intel Core i7, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD

Recently, hybrid laptops are gaining special popularity. They can be used both as a laptop and as a tablet. Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 is the most vivid representative of this category.

It is one of the most powerful laptops for graphic design. You can work with it as a huge tablet or use the Surface Pen stylus in the laptop mode. The device has an incredibly sharp 4K screen with 3240×2160 resolution. It also has a powerful Intel processor, a large RAM. The graphics processor and Nvidia GeForce turn it into the best choice of Window laptop for graphic design.

4. LG Gram 14Z980

Price: $1250

Specs: 14” (1920 x 1080), 8th Gen. Intel Core i7-8550U, Intel UHD Graphics 620, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD

LG Gram screen has a Full HD resolution. This is a low characteristic compared to competitors. However, it is absolutely enough to work with a 14-inch laptop. The screen of this device has good viewing angles and provides 100% coverage of the sRGB color space.

Despite the large size of the display, LG Gram weighs only 995 g. The developers were able to place two USB ports and a microSD slot on its thin case. It is worth noting that this laptop has less power than other good laptops for graphic design described above.

According to technical characteristics, LG Gram has a fairly long battery life, which is 17.5 hours. This laptop does not have a high speed. You will need to wait for some time to apply complex effects in Photoshop. This model is suitable for users who needs good mobility. By the way, many experts state that it is the best laptop for photo editing on a budget.

5. Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon (6th Gen)

Price: $1400

Specs: 14” (1920 x 1080), 8th Gen. Intel Core i5-8350U, Intel UHD Graphics 620, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD

It is one of the best models of the sixth generation, which has a nice 14-inch screen. It has good brightness and 99% Adobe RGB coverage. The uniformity of brightness is average. Regarding speed, it is also not very high, but it is quite enough to work in Photoshop or Illustrator, except for some difficult tasks.

If you are looking for a compact laptop with long battery life and good technical characteristics of the display, you should pay attention to this graphic design laptop.

If you are working mainly with video files, and laptop power is not enough for you, read more about the best computers for video editing.