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The 3 Best Workstation Laptops - Fall 2024

Updated Oct 24, 2024 at 03:30 pm
Best Workstation Laptops

Whether your workflow includes editing videos or creating 3D graphics, a workstation laptop with a fast CPU and GPU goes a long way, as it'll provide a smoother experience and allow you to complete renders or exports faster. To further improve your workflow, you'll want to look for a laptop with a fast SSD and plenty of ports, especially USB-C ports with USB4 or Thunderbolt 4 support. A good keyboard will allow you to work comfortably for long hours, and if you perform color-critical work like video editing, you'll want to look for a model with a screen that can display all the colors in the color space in which you work. Of course, you'll also want to look at quality-of-life things like thermals and fan noise, portability, and battery life. We've put together a few picks below to get you started and help you narrow down your options. The list is short for now but will grow as we review more laptops.

We've tested more than 135 laptops, and below are our recommendations for the top workstation laptops you can buy. You can also see our recommendations for the best laptops, the best business laptops, and the best video editing laptops.


  1. Best Workstation Laptop

    The best workstation laptop we've tested is the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023). This incredibly well-built premium workstation provides an amazing user experience with its sharp, color-accurate Mini LED display, spacious keyboard, and large, haptic touchpad. Apple's M3 Pro/Max SoCs can easily handle demanding tasks like video editing and 3D graphics and are incredibly power-efficient, resulting in all-day battery life. These new chips also bring hardware-accelerated ray tracing and increased memory support up to 128GB.

    Port selection is excellent; you get three USB-C/Thunderbolt 4s, an HDMI 2.1, a full-size SD card reader, and a high-output headphone jack for hard-to-drive headphones. You also get Wi-Fi 6E wireless connectivity and a fingerprint sensor. The only downside is that none of the components are user-replaceable. If you want a more portable model and don't mind a smaller screen, get the larger Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) instead. It's essentially the same laptop, but its speakers don't sound quite as good as its larger sibling.

    Our recommendation for Windows users is the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 (2024), also a 16-inch workstation laptop that can handle intensive workloads. It has multiple display options, including an OLED panel with full DCI P3 coverage. You also get Lenovo's beloved keyboard, a haptic touchpad, Wi-Fi 7, and an excellent 1440p webcam. While its Intel Meteor Lake processors won't give you as much CPU processing power as a maxed-out MacBook Pro, you can get more raw GPU performance if you go with one of the higher-end GPUs, like the NVIDIA RTX Ada Generation 3000 or RTX 4070. RAM configuration maxes out at 64GB, though you can upgrade it yourself up to 96GB. Unfortunately, this laptop gets hotter and louder under load, and none of the available displays get as bright as the MacBook Pro's Mini LED panel.

    See our review

  2. Best Mid-Range Workstation Laptop

    Our mid-range pick is the Dell Precision 5690 (2024). This 16-inch model is very similar to the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 (2024) above, as it's also available with Intel Meteor Lake CPUs and NVIDIA NVIDIA RTX Ada Generation Laptop GPUs. In fact, you can get this laptop with the higher-end RTX 4000 and 5000 Laptop GPUs, which aren't available on the Lenovo laptop. The downside is that you can only get up to 64GB of soldered RAM, which might not be enough for some extremely memory-intensive tasks. It also has fewer display options, as it's only available with an FHD+ IPS or 4K+ OLED, both running at 60Hz.

    The keyboard feels great to type on for extended periods—no complaints there. As for the touchpad, it's large and responsive, though it's a traditional diving board touchpad, not haptic. Other minor compromises include the port selection and webcam; there's no USB-A port, so a dongle might be necessary for some peripherals, and while the webcam is good, it's noticeably worse than the webcam on the MacBook Pro 16 and ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 above.

    See our review

  3. Best Budget Workstation Laptop

    The best budget workstation laptop we've tested is the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (2023). Obviously, this is a gaming laptop, so it isn't available with professional GPUs, which are better optimized for tasks like 3D modeling. Also, its RAM configuration maxes out at a measly 32GB. That said, it can still be a good option if you have a very limited budget, and your workload isn't overly demanding. You can configure this model with a Ryzen 7 7735HS or Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU paired with an AMD Radeon RX 6700S or Radeon RX 7700S, which are fairly capable. Display options include a 165Hz FHD+ or a 240Hz QHD+ panel. We recommend the latter, as its increased sharpness improves text clarity and has a higher peak brightness to combat glare.

    This laptop sports a solid port selection for peripherals and external displays, including two USB-Cs, an Ethernet, and a true HDMI 2.1 port. No Thunderbolt 4 or USB4 support, though. Its build quality is excellent for the price, and its battery life is outstanding at nearly 13 hours of light use. The keyboard feels comfortable, albeit slightly mushy, and the touchpad is large and responsive. Unfortunately, there are a few other drawbacks besides the lack of Thunderbolt 4 support, like its bulky design and loud fan noise. Also, its 720p webcam is sub-par, and there are no biometrics, like a fingerprint sensor or facial recognition camera.

    See our review

Notable Mentions

  • Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 (2024):

    The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 (2024) is also a good Windows alternative to the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023). It's available with faster Intel 14th Gen HX CPUs and higher-end NVIDIA GPUs than the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 (2024), including the NVIDIA RTX 4000 and 5000 Ada Generation Laptop GPUs. Unfortunately, this is a very bulky laptop that's better suited as a desktop replacement, and the overall user experience is nowhere as good as the MacBook Pro or the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7.

    See our review

Recent Updates

  1. Oct 24, 2024:

    Replaced the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) with the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023) because the 16-inch model has a larger display and better speakers. Replaced the Dell XPS 16 (2024) with the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 (2024) as an alternative to the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023). Replaced the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) with the Dell Precision 5690 (2024) because the Dell can support more memory and is available with professional GPUs. Removed the Lenovo LOQ 15 (2023) and the 'Best Cheap' category because it's no longer available and there's no better option. Added the Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 2 (2024) as a Notable Mention. Removed the Dell Alienware m18 R2 (2024) from the Notable Mentions because it isn't available with professional GPUs.

  2. Aug 06, 2024: Minor text changes to add the Dell XPS 16 (2024) as an alternative to the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023). Removed the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 Gen 8 (2023) as a Notable Mention and replaced it with the Dell Alienware m18 R2 (2024) because the Alienware is available with more powerful CPUs/GPUs. Replaced the HP OMEN Transcend 14 (2024) with the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) because the G14 performs better overall.

  3. May 16, 2024: Replaced the Dell XPS 15 (2023) with the HP OMEN Transcend 14 (2024), as the previous pick is discontinued and harder to find. Added mention of the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (2023) being on sale. Minor text changes for accuracy and clarity.

  4. Mar 21, 2024: Replaced the ASUS TUF Dash F15 (2023) with the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (2023) and replaced the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (2021) with the Lenovo LOQ 15 (2023) because the previous picks are discontinued and harder to find. Removed the Lenovo Slim Pro 7 14 (2023) from the Notable Mentions since it's discontinued.

  5. Jan 22, 2024: Replaced the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M2, 2023) with the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) because Apple no longer sells the M2 model. Replaced the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) with the Dell XPS 15 (2023) because the ASUS is discontinued and hard to find.

All Reviews

Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best workstation laptops to buy for most people. In addition to the test results, we factor in the price (a cheaper laptop wins over a pricier one if the difference isn't worth it), feedback from our visitors, and availability (no laptops that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).

If you prefer to make your own decision, here's the list of all of our laptop reviews, sorted by price from low to high. Most laptops are available in various configurations, and the table only shows the results of the model we tested, so it's best to see the full review for information about other variants.