While few of the best laptops for graphic design come cheap, they do make for excellent and highly capable machines. However, shopping for them can be a minefield; that’s where our expert testing and review process comes in.
If you’re running the best graphic design software, you’ll need ample power and an excellent display to render your creative works, and that’s exactly what we look for when we test laptops for graphic design. We’ve tested every model included in this guide ourselves, running extensive benchmark tests, cross-referencing specs like the battery life and screen brightness against the manufacturer’s claims and completing projects to see how well each device stacks up. For full information on our process check out our guide to how we test laptops.
Many of the devices we’ve included below are professional-grade, so if you’re looking for something a tad more affordable make sure to check out our guide to the best student laptops for other options. We’ve also got a guide to the best laptops for video editing, as well as the best video editing software, if you’re ready to try something new.
Quick list
1. MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 (2023)
This lightning-fast, mega-powerful laptop has the hot new Apple M3 chips, boasting a big, vibrant screen and a whopping 22 hours of battery life to see you through all your graphic design needs. It’s also got a wide range of ports, including an HDMI slot and an SD card reader.
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2. ASUS ProArt Studiobook OLED (H7604)
Packed with high-end components designed to tackle all manner of demanding creative tasks without going into meltdown, this laptop has a bright and sharp OLED display with touchscreen functionality that hits 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. Plus, it even has a built-in dial.
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3. Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2
The newly updated Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 has the same super-sharp 3:2 screen with support for MPP styluses. Its ergonomic design grants a range of viewing angles, and we were impressed by its battery life. It’s a little bulky, but does offer the latest Intel 13th Gen CPUs and Nvidia RTX 40 and Ada graphics. It’s not cheap, but it’s arguably worth it.
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It may not have a large display, but this 14-inch parcel comes loaded still very powerful – our testing put its performance close to that of a 14-inch MacBook Pro M2 Pro. This portable powerhouse is comfortable to use, feels well-built, and exudes quality.
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5. MacBook Air (M2, 2022)
Thanks to the M2 chip, this laptop packs a superb combination of power and efficiency; in fact, it’s so efficient that it doesn’t even need a fan. It’ll only get a little fired up under very high workloads. Beyond this, we love its beautiful display, Touch ID button, and fantastic metal construction.
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When is comes to slick physical design, Dell’s XPS machines are right up there with Apple’s MacBook Pros. In fact, the latest XPS is arguably slicker with its ultra-slim bezels and optional OLED panel. The performance is monstrous, too, thanks to Intel 13th Gen CPUs and the latest Nvidia graphics.
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Best laptop for graphic design overall
We’ve picked the MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 (2023) for the overall best laptop for graphic design because it’s one of the most powerful laptops on the market right now. With the brilliant new 3nm M3 Pro and M3 Max chips, it’s faster than ever and has a big, bright screen that delivers an impressive 1,600 nits when you’re consuming HDR content. For context, the average is around 500 nits.
Apple calls the screen a Liquid Retina XDR display, and it uses mini-LED tech so the colours are intense and vivid. There’s also a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio – perfect for design work.
If you’re often working on the move, the incredible 22 hours of battery life will be more than enough. If, on the other hand, portability is your aim, then the 14-inch MacBook Pro might be your best bet (see our MacBook Pro 14-inch (M2) review for more). What’s more, the newest MacBook Pro retains a smattering of beloved ports, such as the HDMI slot and an SD card reader.
Read our review of the previous-gen MacBook Pro 16-inch (M2, 2023) to find out more about why we rate this laptop so very highly.
Best Windows laptop for graphic design
Asus has managed something quite remarkable with its ProArt Studiobook OLED (H7604) laptop. It has crammed the device with a plethora of high-end components that are perfect for all manner of demanding creative tasks, yet the device manages to stay cool and composed almost at all times. If you want to be able to run your heavy workloads without worrying that your laptop is going to melt, ASUS’s device will be very attractive. In fact, as our reviewer said, “the machine is powerful enough to deserve a place in any workplace that has the need for creative software”.
Its OLED display is bright and sharp packs in touchscreen functionality and hits 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut, so it should be able to handle colour-accurate work with ease. Plus, there’s a built-in dial that sits above the trackpad, and this can be customised and change its role depending on which app you’re running. You can use it to scrub through a timeline, for example, or tweak brush sizes in your image editor of choice. With all that going for it, the ProArt Studiobook OLED is the laptop to go for if you’re not a fan of Apple’s MacBooks. And maybe even if you are.
Read our full Asus ProArt Studiobook OLED review.
Best laptop for drawing
If you need a drawing screen when you’re designing, this could be the ideal choice. Boasting a sharp 3:2 screen with a 120Hz refresh rate and support for your choice of MPP stylus, and an ergonomic design that’s specifically great for drawing – giving you far more potential angles for the screen than a simple L-shaped laptop – this is an excellent choice for graphic designers, digital artists or pen-based photo editors.
“The first highlight for me was its battery life,” said our reviewer of the previous-gen model, who used the 2-in-1 laptop all day, every day when testing it. Much the same applies just as much to this revised model, and the power was pretty great too – though you can choose just how highly specced you want this machine to be.
This Gen 2 model gets the latest 13th Gen CPUs from Intel and a choice of Intel Xe graphics or an Nvidia RTX 4060 and RTX 2000 Ada professional GPUs, so there’s plenty of power here – though it does mean the build is a little bulky. Of course, if it’s just the performance you want, you can get it for less from other laptops – but you’d have to give up the drawing abilities that make this a great pick for designers in the first place.
Best compact laptop for graphic design
Good things often come in small packages, and that’s never been truer than with the Dell Precision 5480 laptop. It may not have the expansive display of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but this 14-inch parcel comes loaded with a huge amount of power for its compact frame. In fact, our testing of the previous-Gen 5480 model put its performance close to that of a 14-inch MacBook Pro with Apple’s M2 Pro chip, which is a superb laptop chip for graphic design work, and the new 5480 with 13th Gen Intel processors is even faster.
We got over 12 hours of battery life from Dell’s Precision 5470 in our review, and the comfortable keyboard serves up an enjoyable typing experience. It’s all wrapped up in a superbly well-made chassis that feels well-built and exudes quality. So if you want portable power and are put off by some of the larger laptops on the market, Dell’s offering could be right up your street.
Best 13-inch graphic design laptop
Apple’s MacBook Air range is a favourite among laptop lovers everywhere, and the 2022 version with the M2 chip updates the design with a fresh new look. But you’ll get much more than just aesthetic changes – the latest MacBook Air is still a great device for graphic design work.
One of the reasons is the aforementioned M2 chip. An upgrade over the previous M1, the M2 retains the superb combination of power and efficiency that we’ve come to expect from Apple silicon. In fact, it’s so efficient that the MacBook Air doesn’t even need a fan, and while it’ll get a little toasty under the most extreme workloads, for everything else it stays icy cold and whisper quiet. Plus there’s all the standard Apple goodness, including a beautiful display, Touch ID button, and fantastic metal construction.
Apple has just brought out a 15-inch MacBook Air if you need more display real estate, and it’s a fantastic choice for graphic design work. If that’s too large, the 13-inch MacBook Air will serve you well – read our full MacBook Air M2 review for more insight.
Best MacBook Pro alternative
If you’re after a PC alternative to the mighty Apple MacBook Pro, look no further than the Dell XPS 15. For starters, it offers the very latest and greatest Intel CPUs and Nvidia graphics chips. So outright performance is up there with the very best.
Of course, countless high-spec laptops can claim that. What they can’t match is the XPS’s lush alloy frame and carbon-fibre palm rest. Then there are the ultra-slim bezels, which make for a much more modern design than even the latest MacBook Pro models.
Another important advantage of the XPS is its optional 4K OLED display with touch support. For now, Apple offers neither OLED nor touchscreen technology on its MacBook portables. If there’s a measure by which the Dell XPS 15 falls short of the Apple option, it’s battery life. Dell claims 16 hours for the standard LCD model and nine hours for the OLED option. That’s a long way off the 22 hours of the MacBooks.
Still, model for model, the XPS tends to be cheaper than the Apple portables and if you are OK with shorter battery life and want a Windows machine, the Dell XPS 15 is absolutely gorgeous.
Best value laptop for graphic design
Yep, another MacBook on this list. We’re not biased, though – Apple really does make some of the best laptops for graphic design, and the 2020 MacBook Air, while more affordable than a MacBook Pro, still stands up to use as a graphic design laptop thanks to its ARM-based Apple M1 chip. While there is a new MacBook Air with the M2 chip and even a new M3 chip in the Pro models, which are all also great for graphic design, we still recommend the older M1 model for people on a budget. That’s because the price has dropped further and you can now get it for as little as £850.
The fanless design makes it silent in use, but we found the laptop could still cope with heavy workloads without overheating. It supports the P3 colour gamut, which means the screen can display accurate colours, a consideration that is incredibly important for creative professionals. Add in amazing battery life and a gorgeous thin and light design, and you have a brilliant graphic design laptop. See our full MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review.
Best dual-screen laptop for graphic design
The Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED (2022) offers cutting-edge components, including a recent update to a 13th-generation Intel processor and up to Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics, which means it’ll handle most graphic design projects you throw at it – and even a little gaming.
The 14-core processor and 32GB of RAM also mean this is an absolute beast when it comes to multitasking, which can seriously speed up your workflow. However, the most eye-catching feature of the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED (2022) is its dual-screen setup – there’s a 14.5-inch 120Hz OLED mains screen, which looks fantastic, and a 12.7-inch IPS display above the keyboard.
Think of that second screen as a super-charged Touch Bar, allowing you to move apps and tools to the bottom screen, giving you more space to work with on the main one. You can also use a stylus on the second screen, turning it into a great drawing tablet. It’s expensive, and the battery life isn’t the best, but it’s an incredible machine for working on.
Read more in our Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED (2022) review.
Best thin and light laptop for graphic design
Looking for a laptop that pushes out the maximum power while still proving to be portable? If so, the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED is absolutely worth considering. As we said in our review, “It offers about as much power as you’re going to find in a portable computer right now without getting yourself an RGB-festooned gaming PC,” and goes blow-for-blow with the MacBook Pro in terms of performance. You’ll also get a built-in touchscreen and will pay less than the MacBook Pro.
You’ll get around eight hours of battery life, which can’t compete with Apple’s laptops, but is still decent for an i9-equipped device. And remember that touchscreen? It has an OLED panel that’s bright, sharp, and colourful, making it ideal for creative work.
Best powerful laptop for graphic design
The Razer Blade 18 is the latest version of Razer’s ultra high-end laptop and it’s better than ever with a larger screen, smaller bezels and the latest Intel and Nvidia chips. It’s just a fantastic laptop for all kinds of serious work, including graphic design.
That’s in no small part down to the hot new Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, the fastest laptop GPU on the planet. It’s as good as it gets when it comes to supporting all kinds of graphical work. Indeed, it might be overkill for some workflows, in which case you can opt for cheaper and lower-powered RTX 40 GPUs. Of course, if you like a little gaming on the side, a powerful GPU certainly doesn’t hurt.
It’s far from just a gaming laptop, however, as it’s built for creative professionals of all types and offers the most powerful Intel CPUs currently available. It’s very expensive, but for your money, you’re getting some of the best mobile tech available right now. Combined with a great build quality, that stunning 18-inch screen, and those Intel 13th Gen CPUs, this is a brilliant creative workstation for people who need a lot of power.
FAQs
How to choose a laptop for graphic design?
So how do you pick which of the best laptops for graphic design is right for your work? Clearly you’ll be guided by what you can afford, which is why we have the best options for all budgets here. But there are a few other things to consider too.
One is power versus portability: you probably want something that’s thin and light enough to throw in your backpack, but also powerful enough to run your suite of creative tools. You also need to decide whether macOS or Windows is right for you. The former used to be the staple of creative professionals, but it really doesn’t matter what platform you use these days.
Whatever your preferences, each of the machines here will give you all the power and performance you need to hit the ground running with your latest, greatest project. You might also want to see our guide to the best laptops for Photoshop if that’s a tool you use frequently.
What laptop specs do I need for graphic design?
When buying a laptop for graphic design, you’ll need to take into account the specifications of the models you’re researching. But what specs do you need in the first place?
For a good graphic design laptop, you’ll want a modern processor from either Intel or AMD. When it comes to MacBooks, Apple has its own chip – the M1 – which performs brilliantly as well. If you’re going for Intel or AMD, we recommend getting an 13th gen Intel or AMD Ryzen 7000 mobile processor if you want to future-proof the laptop. For Apple fans, look for the M2 series of chips.
When it comes to RAM, the more you have, the better, especially if you want to multitask. We suggest a minimum of 8GB RAM, but ideally 16-64GB if your budget can stretch to it.
A dedicated graphics card is also worth thinking about, especially for graphically intensive workloads. However, these can up the price of a laptop considerably, and modern integrated GPUs are good enough for day-to-day graphic design use. For any heavier usage, though, a discrete graphics card is a must.
How do we test?
When it comes to testing laptops for graphic design, most elements of performance are pretty import. A good, high resolution screen is very desirable, though the bigger you go, the more you compromise portability.
We assess pixel density, colour accuracy, contrast and more, to decide how well a screen performs for graphic design. As for CPU and GPU performance, to an extent it will depend on your precise workflows how critical each element is. Modern chips tend to be known quantities. However, laptop thermal properties can vary dramatically. So, we test for both CPU core and graphics performance to make sure you’ll get the performance you expect from the latest processors and GPUs.
Storage is arguably a little less critical, as well-specified laptops now come with fast PCIe SSDs. But we still test sequential throughput and random access to make sure that nothing unusual is going on.
We also assess ergonomics, build and usability, including keyboard quality, chassis rigidity, trackpad response and more to build up a practical picture of how well a laptop performs in the real world rather than merely benchmarks.
Finally, battery life is important for any laptop and it’s also a metric by which different models can differ dramatically, both from each other and from the manufacturer claims.
