Whether you're a professional video editor working for a company or an amateur editing videos for social media, having a laptop with good performance is crucial, as video editing is a demanding task that requires a fair amount of processing power. A powerful laptop will provide a smoother experience when manipulating footage, play high-resolution videos smoothly with fewer frame drops, and render videos in less time. You'll also want to look for a laptop with a sharp, accurate display, preferably one that can reproduce all the colors in the color space in which you work. For the best user experience, you'll also want to consider the quality of the keyboard and touchpad, the port selection, SSD speed, and even the fan noise.
To help you with buying decisions, we've compiled a list of laptops suitable for video editing. This list includes mobile workstations and gaming laptops (yes, gaming laptops are just as good for video editing). However, it won't contain any Chromebooks because most video editing applications don't work on Chrome OS, and Chromebooks usually lack a dedicated GPU.
We've bought and tested over 145 laptops. Below are our recommendations for the best video editing laptops you can buy. You can also see our recommendations for the best workstation laptops, the best laptops for music production, and the best laptops for graphic design.
The best laptop for editing videos we've tested is the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2024). This exceptionally well-built model delivers an outstanding user experience and can handle even the most demanding video editing projects. Its Mini LED display looks sharp, bright, and color-accurate, sporting full coverage of the DCI P3 color space. You get a spacious keyboard, an easy-to-use haptic touchpad, and a wide port selection for peripherals and external displays. We recommend a model with an M4 Pro or Max SoC (the M4 Pro model starts at $1,999 USD). The base M4 chip can get the job done, but it'll quickly hit its limits if the material is highly complex.
There are a couple of notable upgrades and new features on this M4 model, including a brighter display (up to 1000 cd/m² in SDR when viewing content outdoors), a nano-texture display that further cuts glare, a 12 MP webcam with Center Stage support, and Thunderbolt 5 (Pro and Max models). The latter allows for up to 120Gbps data transfer speeds, triple the speed of Thunderbolt 4. If you want more screen space and don't mind a bulkier, more costly device, get the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2024). It's the same device but with better-sounding speakers.
For Windows users, we recommend the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 (2024), a 16-inch premium model. It's available with Intel Meteor Lake CPUs, up to a Core Ultra 9 185H, paired with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 or 4070 discrete GPU. RAM and storage max out at 64GB and 8TB, respectively, and unlike the MacBook Pro, these components are user-replaceable. There are a few display options, though only the top-end 4k+OLED panel has full DCI P3 coverage. You get tons of ports, including two Thunderbolt 4s, an HDMI 2.1, and an SD Express 7.0 card reader. Its main downside is that it gets noticeably hotter and louder than the MacBook Pro.
Our best mid-range pick is the HP OMEN Transcend 14 (2024), a gaming/content creator laptop. This model is available with an Intel Core Ultra 7 or Core Ultra 9 CPU and up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 discrete GPU, all capable hardware for video editing. It sports an excellent 2.8k OLED display with full sRGB and DCI P3 coverage, making it suitable for producing SDR and HDR content. While the display's brightness is fine for most indoor settings, it doesn't get nearly as bright as the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2024) in HDR. Also, its glossy finish doesn't handle reflections all that well. You get plenty of ports to connect peripherals and external displays, including two USB-As, two USB-Cs (one Thunderbolt 4), and an HDMI 2.1. Battery life is another area where it falls short, lasting only around six hours of light use. The laptop gets a little toasty under load, though not to the point of causing discomfort.
Another worthy mention is the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024). It's very similar to the HP OMEN Transcend 14, as it also sports a 120Hz OLED display with full DCI P3 coverage and is available with NVIDIA 40-series GPUs, up to an RTX 4070. The main difference is that it's an AMD Ryzen system. The Ryzen CPUs perform well, but some programs, like Adobe Premiere, work better on Intel/NVIDIA systems, so the choice really comes down to which apps you use. Also, this laptop gets hotter and louder under load.
The best budget laptop for video editing we've tested is the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (2023). When configured with a Ryzen 7 7735HS or Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU and paired with an AMD Radeon RX 6700S or Radeon RX 7700S, it has plenty of processing power for intensive video editing tasks. RAM and storage max out at 32GB and 1TB, respectively—you can upgrade or add more later, as both are user-replaceable. As for the display, you can choose between an FHD+ or a QHD+ panel. We recommend the latter, as its increased sharpness will allow you to see finer details more clearly. It also has a higher peak brightness to combat glare and full DCI P3 coverage, whereas the FHD+ display only has 100% sRGB.
This laptop feels very well built for the price. It isn't overly bulky for a 16-inch device, but it's a 16-inch device nonetheless, so you'll need a fairly big bag to carry it. Port selection is great; you get two USB-As, two USB-Cs, an Ethernet, and a true HDMI 2.1 port. Unfortunately, there's no Thunderbolt 4 or USB4 support. Also, this laptop gets hot and loud under load, and there are no biometrics, like a fingerprint sensor or facial recognition camera.
The Apple MacBook Air 15 (2024) is a great option if you prefer an ultraportable for the occasional video editing. Its Retina display has full coverage of the DCI P3 color space, and it's superbly calibrated out of the box, so you can get to work immediately with no further calibration. Sporting a base M3 SoC, this laptop can handle video editing. However, it'll struggle in intensive projects with multiple high-resolution streams, so if your work is highly complex, you're better off getting a MacBook Pro with a more powerful M3 Pro/Max SoC. Also, remember that this is a fanless system, which is both good and bad, as you won't have to worry about fan noise, but there'll be some thermal throttling. Port selection is another weak point; it only has two USB-C ports, and while there's support for two external displays, this is only possible with the lid closed.
Apple has recently discontinued the 8GB model and made 16GB the baseline spec, so many retailers are selling the remaining 8GB model at a much lower price. This may be tempting if you're on a strict budget but know that the performance will suffer with only 8GB of memory. If you want to save money, you can probably find a good deal on the older, albeit discontinued, M2 Apple MacBook Air 15 (2023) through a marketplace, third-party seller, or Apple's refurbished section. The M3 version only offers marginally better performance, faster Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, and support for two external monitors.
If you don't plan on using an external monitor and want the biggest display possible, the Dell Alienware m18 R2 (2024) is a good alternative to the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2024). It's available with various discrete GPUs and up to an RTX 4090, and unlike the MacBook Pro, its RAM and storage drive are user-replaceable. However, its top-end QHD+ display isn't as sharp or bright as the MacBook Pro's Mini LED screen, and its battery life is terrible. It also gets much hotter and louder under load.
See our reviewThe Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition is a good Windows alternative to the Apple MacBook Air 15 (2024). It's also a premium ultraportable with a full DCI P3 display and a fair amount of processing power. However, because it runs on an ARM chip, some programs might not work or run properly, so it's best to check for app compatibility first.
See our reviewThe Acer Swift Go 14 (2024) is a cheaper Windows alternative to the Apple MacBook Air 15 (2024). It has a wider port selection, and its Intel Core Ultra 7 processor performs quite well in multi-threaded workloads. You'll have to get a model with the 2.8k OLED display if you need full DCI P3 coverage; just remember that this panel doesn't get as bright, and it flickers, which might bother some people. The overall user experience isn't as good as on the MacBook Air, either, as it has a mushier keyboard, a non-haptic touchpad, and a lower-quality webcam.
See our reviewReplaced the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) with the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2024) since the M3 model was discontinued.
Small text changes to provide information regarding the new M4 Apple MacBook Pros and modifications to the baseline Apple MacBook Air specs. Added the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition 15 (2024) and the Acer Swift Go 14 (2024) as Notable Mentions.
Aug 28, 2024: Added the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 (2024) as an alternative to the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) and the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) as an alternative to the HP OMEN Transcend 14 (2024).
Jun 04, 2024: We've made some major changes due to product availability, replacing the Dell XPS 15 (2023) with the Dell XPS 16 (2024), the Apple MacBook Air 15 (2023) with the Apple MacBook Air 15 (2024), and the Dell Alienware m16 R1 (2023) with the HP OMEN Transcend 14 (2024). The Dell Alienware m16 R2 (2024) was added to the Notable Mentions. Minor text edits were made for clarity.
May 06, 2024: Removed the Dell Alienware m18 (2023) from the Notable Mentions and replaced it with the Dell Alienware m18 R2 (2024) because the newer version supports Thunderbolt 4. Added the HP OMEN Transcend 14 (2024) as a Notable Mention.
Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best video editing laptops to buy. 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.