My editing laptop picks: 2018 edition

[Koopa Luath]

With the advent of quad-core mid-tier processors from Intel, 2018 may very well be the Year of the Editing Laptop. That said, here are my first five picks, one for each category, for best editing laptops according to reviews I checked out on Laptop Magazine:

Budget: Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming
Power user: Gigabyte Aero 15X
Professional: MSI GT75VR Titan Pro
Supercomputer: Dell Alienware 17
God-tier: Razer Blade Pro (and this one isn't likely to give up its top spot anytime soon, let alone in the next quarter)

All of the above picks are for Q1 2018, mind.

[Tylerdurden389]

Thanks!! Been saying to myself for the past few years that the only reason I still have a desktop (my TV has been my monitor for years now), was due to my love of video editing (and videogames to a smaller extent). If it's in my budget, I would love to not have to lug around my PC every time I move anymore.

**BTW, do you know about PCpartspicker.com? It's a great site for building your own rigs.

[Koopa Luath]

Laptops are only going to get more and more powerful from here on out. I'll be taking regular looks at Laptop Magazine to see if the laptop companies can come up with anything better than what I picked out for the first quarter of the year. And seeing that 1080p will continue to have a sizable customer base in the years to come despite the rise of Ultra HD, I will continue to consider 1080p editing performance as a base requirement for the "budget" category for a long time.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Had bad experience with laptops (overheating due to shit components, battery life), and even the highest tier lappy can be susceptible to problems due to the general design. I mean, they're good for someone who travels a lot or are at a collage dorm, but that's just my 2 cents.

I got this as an early xmas gift to me https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-Thinkcentr...centre+m82. Yes it's older and and a referb (the above listing is for a newer version by the same seller, as the one I got had a 2tb drive and Win 7 Pro). However, Lenovo is a reliable brand and price was really good since newer desktops with the same specs are around $700+ with Windows spyware 10, and i haven't had any issues with it so far considering that dog Acer laptop my ma paid $400 back in '11 started to have issues within a month and Acer wanted us to pay the fees so F'em!

[Koopa Luath]

I know, right? Personally, I swear by my Lenovo when doing heavy-duty stuff like editing and game design. Its 1060 may not be much, but it does have a Kaby Lake i7 processor that's a lot more powerful than that on my old Sony laptop.

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Generally, a strong CPU and a good ventilation setup of some sort is primary for video editing while GPU is secondary (Though some applications can make use of CPU & GPU processing combined, those aren't common and may strain both moreso than just one since the GPU also acts as the display). I would set on getting a highly rated machine (depending on budget) with a good processor and whatever decent level card will work. But if your going to be gaming with top tier titles at high settings, then a dedicated unit would be ideal. Another option is using PC parts picker to build your own with a list of parts, but in most cases the overall budget depending on what components you get and any extras you add on will end up being in about the same price range as a dedicated gaming PC, so it's up to you.

[Koopa Luath]

Which benchmarks should I use in making future picks? (The GPU is a concern because of Resolve, and AFAICT the CPU is the key component of other editing apps.)

[SpaceBlackKnight]

Look up reviews and find the best overall one that has the features you need and if it's compatible with your mobo.