Some artists are looking to get a compact and easy-to-carry laptop, while others want a 2-in1 that supports an active pen. And all will want to run Corel Painter, Photoshop, Illustrator, Affinity Designer, or similar drawing and art software. If you look around, you will know that the laptop they use can be their sole source of income for some artists. You need the right tools to work with digital files when they are the only source of income for you.
Although there are many opinions about the best laptops for artists, knowing what kind of features you require can be very helpful in selecting what’s right for you. The laptop can be useful if you often meet clients face-to-face, work remotely, or don’t have enough space at home to have a full computer setup. Most people nowadays can’t even imagine life without a laptop that they can carry around with them.
We developed a list of the best laptops for artists and art students by researching thoroughly and getting input from professionals in the field. During our review of these laptops, we took into consideration the fact that an artist like you uses them more efficiently and gets more benefit. Some of the models featured are budget-friendly as well and come from reputable brands. These models are all reliable choices regardless of your budget or requirements as an art major.
Our Top Picking Laptops are:-
- 2020 Apple MacBook Air Laptop: Apple M1 Chip, 13” Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage, Backlit Keyboard, FaceTime HD Camera, Touch ID. Works with iPhone/iPad; Gold
- LG gram Laptop – 15.6″ Full HD Touchscreen, Intel 8th Gen Core i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB (2 x 512GB SSD), 18.5 hrs Battery, Thunderbolt 3 – 15Z990-R.AAS9U1 (2019), Dark Silver
- ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo UX581 Laptop, 15.6” 4K UHD NanoEdge Touch Display, Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, 1TB PCIe SSD, GeForce RTX 2060, ScreenPad Plus, Windows 10 Pro, Celestial Blue, UX581LV-XS74T
- HP Pavilion x360 14 Convertible 2-in-1 Laptop, 14” Full HD Touchscreen Display, Intel Core i5, 8 GB DDR4 RAM, 512 GB SSD Storage, Windows 10 Home, Backlit Keyboard (14-dh2011nr, 2020 Model)
- ASUS ZenBook 14 Ultra-Slim Laptop 14” FHD NanoEdge Bezel Display, Intel Core i7-1165G7, NVIDIA MX450, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, ScreenPad 2.0, Thunderbolt 4, Windows 10 Pro, Pine Grey, UX435EG-XH74
5 Best Laptops for Artists
1. Apple MacBook Air M1
MacBook’s are one of the most popular laptops among computer science students because of their developer-friendly workspace. However, in 2020, Apple released their new MacBook that is powered by the M1 chipset. It is an Apple-made chipset and comes with eight cores based on TSMC’s 5nm processing node. As a result, you will most likely get up to 3.2GHz of clock speed. Meanwhile, this laptop comes with a 16 core neural engine which will give higher AI performance.An HD Webcam is further integrated to help you with online classes, video conferencing, streaming videos, and working from home if you are also doing a part-time job. Seeing the beautiful panel, some students would be thinking of using it for entertainment. This is a perfect machine to do so, whether watching movies, Netflix, Youtube or listening to music. Its dual front-firing setup produces adequately loud audio output. As we know, MacBooks have never been so good in the I/O department, and there is no exception with the latest Macbook Air.
Key Features
- All-Day Battery Life: Go longer than ever with up to 18 hours of battery life.
- Environmentally Friendly: MacBook Air is made with a 100% recycled aluminum enclosure and uses less energy for a smaller carbon footprint.
- Stunning Display: With a 13.3” Retina display, images come alive with new levels of realism. Text is sharp and clear, and colors are more vibrant
- Fanless Design: Your MacBook Air stays cool and runs quietly even while tackling intense workloads.
- Powerful Performance: Take on everything from professional-quality editing to action-packed gaming with ease. The Apple M1 chip with an 8-core CPU delivers up to 3.5x faster performance than the previous generation while using way less power.
- Superfast Memory: 8GB of unified memory makes your entire system speedy and responsive. That way it can support tasks like memory-hogging multi tab browsing and opening a huge graphic file quickly and easily..
- Why Mac: Easy to learn. Easy to set up. Astoundingly powerful. Intuitive. Packed with apps to use right out of the box. Mac is designed to let you work, play, and create like never before.
- Simply Compatible: All your existing apps work, including Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft 365, and Google Drive. Plus you can use your favorite iPhone and iPad apps directly on macOS. Altogether you’ll have access to the biggest collection of apps ever for Mac. All available on the App Store.
- Easy to Learn: If you already have an iPhone, MacBook Air feels familiar from the moment you turn it on. And it works perfectly with all your Apple devices. Use your iPad to extend the workspace of your Mac, answer texts and phone calls directly on your Mac, and more.
- AppleCare: Every Mac comes with a one-year limited warranty and up to 90 days of complementary technical support. Get AppleCare+ to extend your coverage and reduce the stress and cost of unexpected repairs.
Technical Specifications
Product Dimensions | 11.97 x 0.63 x 8.36 inches; 2.8 Pounds |
Item Weight | 2.8 pounds |
Manufacturer | Apple Computer |
Language | English |
ASIN | B08N5M7S6K |
Item model number | MGND3LL/A |
Batteries | 1 Lithium Polymer batteries required. (included) |
Date First Available | November 10, 2020 |
Pros
- Outstanding Performance
- Aluminum Build Quality
- Adequate Audio Output
- Long-Lasting Battery Life
- Color Accurate Display
Cons
- Only Two USB Ports
- Limited Room for Repair
- Restricted 256GB Onboard Storage
Recommendations
The laptop includes only two Thunderbolt 4 capable USB Type C ports with DisplayPort and charging support. Additionally, it gets a headphone jack. So you will have to use a dongle to get more functions, especially if you tend to use external devices more often. Apart from that, this laptop has Wi-Fi 6 technology along with Bluetooth 5 support. The laptop is framed with solid Aluminium construction regarding the build quality, weighing less than 3 pounds. Speaking of the overall design, this is outstanding with great portability.
2. LG gram
In the LG gram laptops, there are a few features that stand out from all other laptops. This laptop was designed with the main objective of providing lightweight laptops to the world. Let us tell you more about this awesome product.LG gram laptop comes in different display sizes from 14″ to 17″ and you can also choose for the 2 in 1 system. The design of the LG gram is quite slim and its frame is made up of magnesium alloy which gives it a metallic look and also makes it lightweight.
Key Features
- Windows home 10
- Thunderbolt 3 connectivity
- Fingerprint reader : Backlit keyboard
- Intel Core i7 (8th Generation – 8565U)
- 16GB RAM & 1TB SSD (512GB x 2)
- Ultra lightweight laptop weighing just under 2. 5 pounds
- 15. 6 inch Full HD IPS touchscreen display w/ultra slim bezel
- Long lasting 72Wh battery for up to 18. 5 hours Battery Life (Mobile mark 2014 standard)
Technical Specifications
Standing screen display size | 15.6 Inches |
Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels |
Processor | 1.8 GHz core_i7 |
RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
Memory Speed | 2400 MHz |
Hard Drive | 1 TB Flash Memory Solid State |
Graphics Coprocessor | Intel HD Graphics 620 |
Chipset Brand | Intel |
Card Description | Integrated |
Graphics Card Ram Size | 128 MB |
Wireless Type | 801.11ac |
Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 3 |
Average Battery Life (in hours) | 18.5 Hours |
Pros
- It is lightweight
- Very functional ports
- Large battery lifetime
- Has outstanding durability
Cons
- Takes a bit longer to charge
Recommendations
LG laptop is an excellent laptop of excellent quality, ideal for artists. The LG Gram 2-in-1 laptop is a lightweight, affordable, sturdy laptop with smooth performance. This LG Gram touch screen is the best 2 in 1 laptop for design. The rest of the body is also highly durable and can easily withstand the adverse effects of dust, high and low temperatures, vibration, and low pressure. It comes with a stylus to meet your drawing and animation needs, which I like very much. Therefore, it brings the required accuracy and line changes.
3. ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo
With the most powerful processor, an optimized cooling system, and dual screens that are an arresting sight to behold, the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo is the real winner when it comes to buying the best engineering laptops. On the display front, you get a standard 15.6-inch 4K OLED touchscreen at 3840×2160 resolution. The laptop comes with another 14-inch widescreen just above the keyboard. It is a brilliant concept for engineers that need to extend or split windows or apps on the screen.
Key Features
- 15.6” 4K UHD NanoEdge touch screen glossy main display
- 14 inch 4K matte touchscreen, giving your endless way to optimize your multitasking experience by extending the screen or split windows and apps on both displays
- Fast storage and memory featuring 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD with 16GB DDR4 RAM
- Latest 10th generation Intel Core i7-10750H Processor (12M Cache, up to 5.0 GHz) with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060
- Detachable palm rest and ASUS active stylus pen included. Military Grade : US MIL-STD 810G military-grade standard
Technical Specifications
Display Size | 15.6 Inches |
Max Screen Resolution | 3840X2160 Pixels |
Processor | 5 GHz corei7_10750h |
RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
Hard Drive | 1 TB |
Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2060 |
Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
Card Description | RTX 2060 |
Wireless Type | Bluetooth, 802.11ax |
Pros
- The second display simplifies workflows
- Improved quality and better contrast due to OLED panel
- Intel Core i7 and NVIDIA RTX 2060 offer computing muscle
- 1TB SSD storage is excellent to store all the engineering projects
Cons
- The laptop is costly
- 5-hour battery life is short
Recommendations
With the help of Windows 10 Pro, you can easily install the latest engineering updates and features. The built-in camera is sensational and can recognize your face instantly. So, you can effectively protect your projects from unauthorized access.Other than that, the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo is a highly functional machine offering an excellent multitasking experience and tremendous power and is something we can recommend with our eyes closed.
4. HP Pavilion x360
Under the hood, HP houses the G-series, Intel Core i5 processor, which is good enough for most graphics-intensive and mid-level academic tasks. While the base clock speed of 1GHz might not look like much, you can always overclock the same at 3.6GHz, for managing some of the more demanding applications.
As far as storage is concerned, you get a 512GB solid-state drive, which ensures faster boot-ups and file retrievals. The 14-inch display is an asset in itself, courtesy of the 1080p resolution, WLED-backlit support, and bright IPS paneling.
Key Features
- Display: 14.0” diagonal full HD, IPS, micro-edge, WLED-backlit, multi touch-enabled, edge-to-edge glass touch screen display (1920 x 1080); 80% screen to body ratio
- Four versatile modes: Easily convert from laptop mode to tablet, stand or tent mode for note taking, drawing and other daily activities that feel as natural as pen on paper
- BIOS recovery & protection: Automatically checks the health of your PC, protects against unauthorized access, secures local storage and recovers itself from boot-up issues
- Connect in more ways: Whether it’s online chatting or professional video meetings, the solid Wi-Fi 6 connection is up to the task, and the HP wide vision HD webcam with dual array microphone lets you see in wide-angle clarity so you can feel closer
- Fast processor: 10th Generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1035G1, Quad-Core, 1.0 GHz base frequency, up to 3.6 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology
- Battery life: Up to 9 hours and 15 minutes (mixed usage), up to 6 hours and 45 minutes (video playback), up to 9 hours and 45 minutes (wireless streaming); 0 to 50% charge in 45 minutes with HP fast charge
- Fast bootup with solid-state drive & higher bandwidth memory: Boot up in seconds, transfer files without waiting hours, and enjoy a speedier experience with the internal 512 GB PCIe(R) NVMe(TM) M.2 SSD, and higher bandwidth, speed and efficiency with 8 GB DDR4-3200 SDRAM (1 x 8 GB, not upgradable)
Technical Specifications
Display Size | 14 Inches |
Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels |
Processor | 3.6 GHz core_i5 |
RAM | 8 GB DDR4 |
Memory Speed | 3200 MHz |
Hard Drive | flash memory solid state |
Chipset Brand | Integrated |
Card Description | Integrated |
Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
Wireless Type | Bluetooth |
Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 2 |
Average Battery Life (in hours) | 9.25 Hours |
Pros
- Alexa-compatible
- Excellent battery life
- Sharp viewing angles
- High-speed storage module
- Wide range of form factors
Cons
- Slow data transfer speeds
- Non-upgradeable system memory
Recommendations
Nothing works better than a convertible if you are an aspiring art professional or a student who is most invested in graphic design, digital art, photo editing, and other non-engineering tasks. This is why our bets are on the HP Pavilion x360, courtesy of the multi-mode operability and a pretty reliable specs sheet. As far as the ports are concerned, you get access to several high-speed USB slots, a usable HDMI port, and the Wi-Fi 6 support. The battery life, at close to 9 hours is also worth mentioning as it offers excellent value to the art students.
5. ASUS ZenBook 14
The ASUS ZenBook 14 ultra-slim laptop is one of the most powerful yet compact notebooks with a 14-inch screen on our list that digital artists, animators, and illustrators would want to consider. It has a 14” screen with a 1920 x 1080 pixel screen resolution with a narrow bezel design. The machine offers a higher screen-to-body ratio compared to the competition, which is bright and color accurate.
The Zenbook 14 offers 8GB RAM and helps an artist open multiple software in the background while surfing the web without any issue. It also has plenty of flash storage, 512GB to be exact, which allows the user to install software locally and store their animations, drawing, and artwork without any picture storage issues.
Key Features
- Display: 14” 400nits Full HD (1920×1080), Anti-Glare IPS level NanoEdge bezel display
- Operating System: Comes with Windows 10 and a FREE upgrade to Windows 11
- Handwriting on ScreenPad: Take note or jot down your ideas by writing on the ScreenPad
- Innovative ScreenPad: 5.65” Full HD+ interactive touchscreen trackpad that adapts to your needs for smarter control and multitasking
- NumberKey on ScreenPad: Turn ScreenPad into a numeric keypad for easy numeric data entry
- App Switcher on ScreenPad: Easily move docked windows between your main display and ScreenPad display
Technical Specifications
Display Size | 14 Inches |
Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels |
Processor | 4.7 GHz apple_ci7 |
RAM | 16 GB LPDDR4 |
Memory Speed | 4266 MHz |
Hard Drive | 512 GB Flash Memory Solid State |
Graphics Coprocessor | NVIDIA GeForce MX450 |
Chipset Brand | NVIDIA |
Card Description | NVIDIA MX450 |
Graphics Card Ram Size | 2 GB |
Wireless Type | Bluetooth, 802.11ax |
Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 3 |
Average Battery Life (in hours) | 16 Hours |
Pros
- Good keyboard
- Powerful battery life
- Different trackpad
- Good bezel-less display
- Lightweight and easy to carry
Cons
- Limited ports
- A bit expensive
Recommendations
What stands out about this model is its multipurpose Touch-enabled screen pad. It can especially be helpful for art and design students to draw, take notes, and other minimalistic changes. The keyboard has good keys with a fast travel time. Overall, it is a great machine for graduating art majors who want a laptop that is lightweight and offers great performance. However, if you’re looking forward to playing high-end games on this, then this might not be the best choice.
Final Words
There are many options available for drawing laptops. To make the best laptop purchase for skilled artists and amateur drawing enthusiasts, several factors must be considered. Simultaneously, a powerful and fast CPU, an efficient GPU, quick RAM and storage, long-lasting battery life, and precise display quality.
The laptops mentioned above are the best laptops for drawing, doodling, painting, and working that are aimed at artists on a budget. Whichever laptop you choose, we hope that the top 5 list have helped you choose the right one for your needs. This article hopefully helped you in making the right decision for your needs in terms of an art laptop.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What should I look for in a computer for digital art?
4GB of RAM should be sufficient for light graphics work, e.g. not too many graphics applications running at the same time. 8GB RAM is recommended in general for graphics work. Note that RAM is also shared with other software and the operating system (OS).
2. Is 8GB RAM enough for Photoshop drawing?
The answer is a big NO. If you just wanted to know whether 8 GB is enough for Photoshop or not, you have the answer. If you want to know why then read further. Photoshop is a resource-hogging software like Chrome.
3. Do you need a good computer for digital art?
Whether you’re a hobbyist or professional, if you’re just getting into digital art and you don’t have a computer the best route to go is laptop or tablet. Being able to create anywhere can be very helpful.
4. How can we use laptops in making artwork?
You can make lots of different types of art on a computer. You can draw, paint or play with photographs. When you use an app on a tablet or smartphone, you can use your finger like a pen or paint brush and make shapes on the screen. You can also use a mouse on a laptop or desktop computer to make art.
5. Do digital artists make money?
Digital products are the easiest way to make money with digital art online. Selling digital art online is usually the cornerstone to earning a passive income online, outside of print on demand services and direct marketing which does not usually apply to art based products.