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Digital video editing has long been associated with massive machines packed with the most expensive components on the marketplace, and with good reason. Dark and musty rooms crammed with tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment have been par for the class in the realm of high-end editing for decades. Nonetheless, that's been changing in recent years as laptops have go much more powerful. No longer are editors lashed to desks while working on a new project. Instead, they can really join the rest of the world, and edit on the go.

Gigantic towers aren't the only game in town anymore. Only what exactly should an editor wait for in a work laptop? The processor, RAM, storage, and display all play an of import function of the equation. Merely more than anything, you need to selection a laptop that fits your specific on-the-job needs. Your upkeep, your existing workflow, and the needs of co-workers or clients all come into play hither. It'southward impossible to recommend simply i laptop to fit every editor, so here is a selection of four laptops that offering a variety of features at different price points.

MacBook Pro

Apple MacBook Pro with Impact Bar

The MacBook Pro tin can make whatsoever video editor drool. Available in both 13-inch and 15-inch configurations, the Retina displays are superb. On the smaller model, the screen sports a 2560×1600 resolution (227 ppi), and the larger one jumps upwardly to 2880×1800 (220 ppi). Which ever y'all prefer, y'all tin edit in 1080p while the user interface of your editing suite stays on screen — incredible clarity packed into relatively modest screens.

The brandish isn't the merely impressive aspect of this laptop though. The highest-end fifteen-inch configuration ships with a 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, 2TB of flash storage, 16GB of LPDDR3 RAM, and a discrete AMD Radeon Pro 560 GPU with 4GB of GDDR5 all in a thin aluminum case that weighs just iv.02 pounds. Unfortunately, all of that power comes at a cost — a whopping $4,199 when you max it out.

It's worth mentioning that the most recent major revamp is a bit controversial. The summit row of the keyboard has been done abroad with in favor of a dynamic Impact Bar that's actually quite well-suited for scrubbing through footage. And the ports? Everything but the headphone jack has been removed in favor of four Thunderbolt three (USB-C) ports. On the upside, that'due south a ton of bandwidth for accessories to use. The downside? You'll need specialty cables for anything that doesn't have a USB-C port built-in.

Adobe'south Premiere Pro CC will work on both Windows and Os X, simply Apple's video editing products are only available for Os Ten. If yous want to use Final Cut Pro X, Motion, and Compressor, you'll need a Mac. Depending on your work surroundings, a MacBook Pro might be your only suitable option for portable editing.

  • Toll: $1,499 and up
  • Buy from Amazon

XPS 15 9560

Dell XPS 15

Non content to let Apple pig all of the spotlight, Dell has really stepped up its game. If you're looking for a loftier-res laptop with a slightly lower price point, the 15.6-inch Dell XPS fifteen is no slouch. For $2,099.99, the suped-upwardly configuration gets you an ultra Hard disk 3840×2160 display, a 2.80GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor, a 512GB solid-country drive, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a discrete Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU with 4GB of GDDR5.

This auto is fabricated out of high-end materials like machined aluminum, carbon fiber, and Corning Gorilla Glass, and so it can remain very sturdy despite only weighing about iv.5 pounds. And while this model only sports a unmarried Thunderbolt 3 port, it does have quite a few additional ports on offer. You'll besides find a USB three.0 port, an HDMI port, a headphone jack, and an SD card reader.

  • Price: $999 and upward
  • Buy from Dell

HP ZBook

HP ZBook 17 Workstation

Desire a total-fledged desktop replacement? Try out the ZBook 17 Workstation from HP. The top-tier selection has a huge 17.3-inch 1080p display, a 3.1GHz quad-core Intel Xeon E3-1535M v6 processor, a 512 GB solid-state drive, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and an Nvidia Quadro P4000 with 8GB of GDDR5 for $3,309. Keep in mind, this is a huge laptop not suited for heavy traveling. Information technology weighs in at about six.9 pounds, and has an enormous footprint, so don't expect to exist able to edit on a crowded flight.

Yet, this is an extremely powerful laptop for video editors, and HP doesn't skip on the ports. It has three USB iii.0 ports, ii Thunderbolt iii (USB-C) ports, an HDMI port, an ethernet port, and a headphone jack. Information technology likewise includes a built-in SD bill of fare reader, so your import and export options are numerous.

  • Price: $1,367 and upward
  • Purchase from HP

ThinkPad P70

ThinkPad P70 Mobile Workstation

Lenovo certainly isn't out of the game, and the P70 Workstation proves information technology. With the top-terminate configuration, it can get head-to-head with just about any other laptop. Coming in at over $4,300, you end up with a 17.3-inch ultra loftier definition (3840×2160) display, a 2.8GHz quad-core Intel Xeon Processor E3-1505M v5 CPU, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, a 512GB solid state bulldoze, and an Nvidia Quadro M5000M graphics card with 8GB of GDDR5. It does counterbalance over seven.5 pounds, so that does hamper portability quite a bit. Nonetheless, the performance and outstanding brandish are worth the boosted weight when deadlines are right around the corner.

And if you need lots of external storage or additional displays, you'll be well-covered with the P70. This model has 4 USB 3.0 ports, 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports, an HDMI 1.iv port, a Mini DisplayPort 1.2, an ethernet port, a connector for a dock, a headphone jack, a 34mm ExpressCard slot, and an SD card reader. What else could you possibly need?

  • Price: $i,890 and up
  • Buy from Amazon

The best of the best

Video editing is definitely resource intensive, but laptops have finally become flexible and powerful plenty to handle the task with ataraxy. Even though these machines are expensive when compared with the average laptop, you lot're getting a lot of bang for your buck. There will never be a single auto that fits everyone's needs perfectly, but with multifariousness like this, that's not so bad. And truth be told, nosotros'd exist more than happy to apply whatever of these machines to edit.

Now read: All-time Laptops for Photo Editing