Best Laptop for Graphic Design for 2022

2020 Apple MacBook Pro

Classic Apple Quality

Don’t be surprised that the 2022 Apple Macbook Pro is our first pick in this review. Apple is a brand known for its awesome products. While their devices may be on the expensive side, they’re usually worth the money you spend for them. This same applies to the Macbook Pro. Sitting in the $1000 price range, this laptop features a 13-inch retina display that offers vivid, crystal clear colors.

You get 8GB of ram to run your programs and a 512GB SSD to store your projects. As if that isn’t enough, this excellent laptop for graphic design comes with Apple’s new, ultra-powerful M1 chip, which will allow you to render faster and get more done in less time. This computer is truly one of the best for any designer who has the money to spend.

Microsoft Surface Book 2 15″

Versatile, Powerful Performance on the Go

Need a 2-in-1 Core i7 laptop to serve as your graphic design powerhouse? Look no further than the Microsoft Surface Book 2. This laptop is one of the best graphic design laptops in the world, with the capability to rival everything that the Apple Macbook Pro stands for. One major reason why graphic designers consider this laptop to be the best, besides the innards it comes with, is the fact that it offers you flexibility. You can use this laptop anywhere as it doubles as a tablet, too. This means that you can use it anywhere, whether you’re in a meeting, on the train, at home, or at work. All you need to do is detach the keyboard and you have a tablet ready to go.

The Microsoft Surface Book 2 comes in multiple variants, but the model featured in this review comes with a 15-inch touchscreen display and a surface pen. You get enhanced graphical performance from the NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1060 GPU and 6GB of dedicated graphics memory. Just like the Apple Macbook Pro above, this computer also features 16GB RAM and a 512GB solid-state drive. It has a very good battery life as well given the fact that you can get 17 hours of video playback from a single charge. Four versatile modes of use and the inclusion of a USB Type-C provide this laptop with the power and connectivity required to be one of the best for graphic designers who are always on the go. If you’ve got over $2000 to spend, this is arguably the best machine to go for.

Lenovo Flex 14 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop

2-in-1 Flexibility at an Affordable Price

The Lenovo Flex 14 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop is another great 2-in1 computer for graphic designers. This laptop comes with features and specs that will help you produce beautiful and colorful works. With a price tag of around $600, this Lenovo product is certainly a lot cheaper than the first two laptops on our list. While it may not come with quite as awesome specs as the Apple and the Microsoft surface, it still features some of the best specs for its price, thereby qualifying it for our list.

Although the keyboard cannot be detached like on the Microsoft Surface Book above, this Lenovo laptop can still be used as a tablet simply by folding the keyboard backward. The Lenovo Flex comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB NVMe SSD. It uses an AMD Ryzen 5 processor to carry out everyday tasks and its Radeon Vega 8 GPU to carry out your graphics work. This Windows 10 laptop comes with a 14-inch screen, which makes it a little more compact than the Microsoft laptop above. You also get up to 8 hours of battery life from this device, a stylus pen, and a camera shutter to help provide additional security and privacy. Available ports include HDMI, USB Type-C, and USB 3.0. This laptop even comes with a fingerprint scanner for enhanced security.

Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop

Gaming-Tier Graphical Power

The Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop is one of the best laptops for graphic design you can choose. Although it’s mainly marketed as a gaming laptop, this computer is endowed with the power to produce stunning graphical results. It is fast, powerful, and immensely better than many other laptops on the market. So, what specs has Acer packed in to make this laptop one of the best choices for graphic designers? Let’s start with the fact that you get the eighth-generation Intel Core i7 processor with the capability to go up to 4.1 GHz. Also included in the package is the NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1060 and 6GB of dedicated memory.

A full Intel HD graphics display further pushes the package forward with its 300 nits brightness and 144Hz refresh rate. Up to 7 hours of battery life allows you to work for longer hours and the Aeroblade 3D fan cooling system ensures that your laptop doesn’t overheat, helping to reduce lag in turn. This Acer computer also features 16GB RAM, a backlit keyboard, and a 256 SSD. And the fact that you get an extra slot for an extra SSD or hard drive makes this worthwhile. If you’re looking to grab one of the best laptops for graphic design in 2022, the Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop is one of the best choices you can make.

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 Flip Laptop

A Capable 2-in-1 Powerhouse

Hewlett Packard (HP) is another company that’s just as big as Apple in the computing industry. Their high-end laptops are packed with amazing features, designs, and specs. This rings true for the HP Envy x360. Not only is this laptop a beauty to behold, but it’s also a beauty when it starts running Photoshop, Lightroom, and other graphic software. This hardware will help you remain at the top of your game what with all the features and specs it offers.

This beautiful laptop comes with a Full HD WLED display that every Photoshop professional is surely going to appreciate. The AMD Ryzen 7 CPU may be a little lighter than some of the processors offered by other options on our list, but that allows the versatile 2-in-1 design to operate at its best without cutting corners. A battery life of up to 11 hours ensures that you are able to produce your maximum output without getting worried about constantly needing a power outlet nearby. And a whopping 1TB SSD ensures you’ll be able to store all your projects and access them at a moment’s notice

Dell XPS 9310 OLED 4K Touchscreen Screen Laptop

Looking for a lightweight yet ultra-powerful computer for your graphic design works? The Dell XPS 9310 is one of the best laptops for graphic design you can go with. You won’t know what you’re missing until you start using this laptop. It comes with nothing but the best specs. Unlike the other computers we’ve reviewed so far, the Dell XPS 9310 comes with a whopping 2TB SSD storage instead of 512GB or 256GB. The almost bezel-less 4K OLED display means you’ll be able to get the very best out of your graphic design projects.

It also features 32GB RAM to back up its powerful 11th-gen Intel i7 CPU. As a whole, this laptop is lightweight, compact, fast, and beautiful. This laptop comes two Thunderbolt 3 ports to keep it ahead of the game and ensure you get fast charging and transfer speeds at all times. Though with a battery life of up to 10 hours, you aren’t likely to be relying on that fast charging too often.

Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop

Razer is a name best known for its quality gaming-oriented devices, and the Razer Blade 15 is no exception to this quality. While it’s primarily a gaming laptop, the specs it carries to that end make it an exceptional companion for graphic design. Housing a powerful 10th-gen Intel i7 processor and a mighty NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 GPU, this is a level of performance not to be taken lightly.

While the design may be very basic, particularly for a Razer product, this certainly isn’t a laptop basic in its components. A capable 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD will ensure you have all the memory and storage necessary to work on your projects without disruption, and the 4K OLED display will allow you to glean the absolute most from every pixel. A host of USB Type-A, Type-C, Thunderbolt 3, and HDMI ports allow for the utmost connectivity and offer a desktop-class experience should you opt to pair this laptop with an additional monitor.

Lenovo Legion 5 Gaming Laptop

Following the trend of the previous entry, the Lenovo Legion 5 is another gaming powerhouse. And once again, the specs that make this laptop great for gaming also make it incredible for graphic design. A very capable AMD Ryzen 7 processor is paired with a very much sought-after NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050Ti to deliver almost unparalleled graphical performance.

As is more or less the standard for this list, the specs on the Legion 5 are backed by 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD, which are more than sufficient for all of your graphic design needs. Its Full HD IPS display runs at an impressive refresh rate of 165Hz, making for impressive gaming visuals but also an ideal display for animations, video editing, and other such motion-heavy media.

Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop

A lot of the laptops on our list have a pretty hefty asking price due to their heavy-duty specs. But creativity shouldn’t just be reserved for those who can afford the best of the best products. The Acer Aspire 5 serves as proof that graphic designers and other such creators can benefit from very capable specs without needing to take out a second mortgage. The model featured here boasts an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU backed by 8GB RAM and a 512GB SSD, but those working on a tighter budget can get models up to twice as cheap by sacrificing only a slight bit of performance.

This 15.6″ laptop is very slim, making it ideal for taking with you on the go. And a battery life of up to 11 hours means you can work the whole day without needing to rely on always having a power outlet handy. A whole slew of ports including USB Type-A, Type-C, and HDMI offer extensive connectivity so you can use all of your peripherals with ease and even hook this laptop up to an external monitor. With a price tag of less than $800, this is a steal for graphic designers not yet willing to drop thousands on top-of-the-line devices.

Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop

Closing off our list is yet another gaming laptop, this time following in the footsteps of the Acer Aspire above in its budget approach. For a lower cost than most of the devices on this list, you get impressive high-level gaming specs packed into a sleek and stylish body. A 10th-gen Intel i5 processor is matched with a formidable NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 GPU for very capable gaming performance and an even more capable creative workflow.

The 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD may not be anything to call home about, but they should still offer plenty of memory and storage for all of your creative works. If you’re careful about ensuring you don’t run too many RAM-intensive programs at once and make sure to back up your data every few months, you should be golden. The Full HD 15.6″ LED-backlit display offers a refresh rate of 144Hz, which means it can work very comfortably with motion graphics.