What Is Best Laptop For Artists & Drawing? (Reviews 2023)
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Is it easy to find out the best laptop for artists & drawing? The answer is yes. Let’s consider the critical features as well as read our recommendations.
If you make the right decision, you can buy the best laptop for artists & drawing, which is an excellent replacement for pencils, paper, watercolor, and other related things. In case you don’t have any experience and knowledge to choose the best one, let us help you.
In this article, you can learn some vital information to choose the best one. Or you can refer to our recommendations in the list below:
What to Look out for the Best Laptop for Artist and Drawing
Nowadays, it’s very convenient for artists to draw with only a proper laptop. The right decision can take your creativity to the next level. However, how to choose the best laptop for an artist and drawing?
Let’s help you below:
Display
Make sure to select a responsive display because responsiveness affects your work very much.
You will use a stylus to draw on a laptop and interact with the screen physically. Thus, a responsive display will give you exact and fast drawings on the screen when you touching it.
Portability
A drawing laptop plays a role as a sketchbook for artists. Thus, you need to ensure that it is lightweight and slim to carry everywhere for drawing.
What is a better choice?
It is a 2-in- laptop, which allows you to detach the screen to draw on the tablet more conveniently.
Durability
Traveling artists change their environment regularly, so make sure that your laptop is durable enough to put up with harsh conditions like extremely hot and very humid places.
Battery
The process of seeking out ideas and drawing may take a lot of time. Therefore, you had better invest in a laptop with a long battery time. It should last at least 8 hours to bring a long working time.
Which features do you need for a graphic design computer?
Screen resolution plays a vital role in drawing accurately for artists. Even with a tight budget, you shouldn’t purchase a cheap product with a 1366 x768 resolution display. Or you will ruin your drawings because they are only used for typing up word documents and web browsing without suiting to produce art.
In some cases, you may need to hook up to an external display. Thus, make sure that your laptop comes with an HDMI port.
Are you working with digital photography?
If yes, it’s better to prepare an external card reader or a built-in card reader.
5 Best Laptops for Artists & Drawing You Can Invest
After learning from many readers and users, we picked up 5 best laptops for artists and drawing on the market. There is at least one of them can meet your demands:
#1. Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX581 – The best editor’s choice
Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX581 is the best choice of editor for artists and drawing. It is equipped with a cutting-edge dual-screen and OLED, which turns your laptop into a potential photo-editing powerhouse.
Moreover, you can perform a lot of tasks at the same time on this laptop because of many monitors. There is no need to juggle windows continuously.
It’s better:
You can both have boring meetings aside and keep working on your beautiful drawings on another side.
Like HP laptops, the Screen Pad Plus of Asus works as a standalone second display. And both displays come with great touchscreens. With the basic pressure-sensitivity, 1.024 levels, and a battery-driven stylus, the secondary display suits the occasional digital signature instead of annotation and notetaking.
However, the half-height screen on the ZenBook and the tiny one on the HP Omen X 2S are not as pretty as the large second screen.
Its battery life is mediocre (about 2 hours). Thus, you need to plug it all the time.
Pros
- Quiet operation
- Sturdy
Cons
- Heavy
Summary of specifications:
| Asus ZenBook Pro Duo UX581 | |
| Processor | Latest 9th generation Intel Core i7-9750H Quad-Core Processor |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 |
| Display (Resolution) | 3840 x 2160 pixels |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro |
| Batteries | Lithium Polymer batteries |
| Weight | 5.5 lbs |
#2. HP Spectre x360 15t Convertible laptop – The best 2-in-1 laptop for drawing
With this 2-in-1 laptop for drawing, you can both draw on a touch screen with a stylus freely and use a powerful laptop over a tablet.
Although there are available a lot of Spectre versions on the market, this laptop works well for digital artwork. It is because the cutting edge processor and large memory allow you to run any art application as well as the dedicated graphics card.
Any artist loves this amazing feature:
Your drawings will pop off the screen through the stunning 4k display.
In spite of many outstanding features, it also comes with some drawbacks such as the lack of a built-in card reader, and small storage capacity. Thus, in case your work relates to digital photography, you should prepare a USB card reader.
Pros
- Long battery life
- Fast to boot up
- Fast shipping
Cons
- Not good customer service
Summary of specifications:
| HP Spectre x360 15t Convertible laptop | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-8550U (8 MB Cache, 1.8 – 4 GHz) |
| RAM | 16GB DDR4 RAM |
| Storage | 256GB SSD |
| Graphics | Nvidia Geforce MX150 (2GB) |
| Display (Resolution) | 15.6-Inch 4K UHD Touch Screen Display, 3840 x 2160 Pixels Resolution |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home 64 Bit |
| Batteries | 6-cell, 79.2 Whr Battery |
| Weight | 4.41 lbs |
#3. Lenovo Flex 81SS0005US – The best windows laptop for artists
Why Lenovo Flex 81SS0005US is the best Windows laptop for artists?
It is good at many features: a full HD display, 16GB memory, 2.1 GHz AMD R Series processor, AMD Radeon Vega 8, and 256GB solid-state drive storage.
First, its design is appreciated with a polished aluminum look and a smooth dark finish. Especially, the most interesting thing about this laptop is the flexible 60-degree hinges. You can use your model at different positions such as stand and tent mode.
Unluckily, the speakers are designed at the bottom of the laptop, so the sound isn’t great.
Furthermore, this model is lightweight and highly portable, so you can carry it everywhere for drawing.
Apart from drawing, this is also an ideal choice for movies and multimedia. With the 15.6 inches display and full HD resolution viewing, you have the modest viewing angles as well as crisp pictures while watching films.
With 16GB of memory, you can easily run all demanding workloads from drawing, video editing to light gaming.
The lifespan of the battery is very long, so you can draw your pictures all day long without needing power for charging (about 8 hours, 38 minutes.)
Pros
- Lightweight
- Highly portable
- Great performance
Cons
- A bit hard to open the laptop
- Plastic keyboard
Summary of specifications:
| Lenovo Flex 81SS0005US | |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 5-3500U |
| RAM | 8GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 256GB SSD |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon Vega 8 |
| Display (Resolution) | 14 Inch FHD Touchscreen |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Batteries | Lithium Polymer batteries |
| Weight | 3.52 lbs |
#4. Microsoft Surface Pro 6 – The best for beginning artists
Microsoft Surface Pro 6 is the best for beginning artists since it’s very easy to use. It works as a laptop or a tablet when you removing the keyboard. This feature is so convenient for you to deal with your drawings better.
If you are looking for the best laptop for artists & drawing, this model is a perfect choice. It comes with a special surface pen of 4.096 levels of pressure sensitivity, which is the most appropriate digital pen for drawing.
However, this product requires you to buy the extra surface pen and the type cover. Therefore, they will cost you an extra amount of money at around $200.
Aside from the pen, its display is also very astounding. Artists will feel so comfortable to draw on the 12.3-inches PixelSense 10-point full multi-touch display. What’s more, the stunning 2736 x 1824 resolution (267 PPI) produces true to life color of graphics.
Pros
- Multitasking
- Powerful
- Highly portable
- Long battery time
Cons
- Uncomfortable keyboard
Summary of specifications:
| Microsoft Surface Pro 6 | |
| Processor | Intel Core i5-8250U |
| RAM | 8GB |
| Storage | 128GB SSD |
| Graphics | Intel HD 620 Graphics |
| Display (Resolution) | 2736×1824 pixels |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Batteries | All-day battery life |
| Weight | 3.53 lbs |
#5. Microsoft Surface Book 2 – The best creative choice for drawing
If you have a huge budget, Microsoft Surface Book 2 is a worthy investment for drawing. This laptop allows you to use four different configurations.
Artist lovers of traveling will appreciate its high-end and lightweight material, allowing you to carry everywhere for drawing.
After setting the Studio mode, it’s very easy and convenient to draw and paint with the Microsoft Surface Dial and the Surface Pen functions.
Besides, this laptop can deal with resource-intensive programs like Illustrator, Gimp, and Photoshop.
Although you have a new surface stylus with 4.096 levels of pressure sensitivity, you must buy separately the Surface Dial.
Though this product is great, it isn’t added, up-firing base speakers.
Pros
- Long battery life
- Powerful
- Lightweight
- Good cooling
Cons
- Small trackpad
- Pricey
Summary of specifications:
| Microsoft Surface Book 2 | |
| Processor | 8th generation Intel Quad-Core i7 (Up to 4.2GHz) |
| RAM | 16GB DDR3 RAM |
| Storage | 512GB SSD |
| Graphics | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 (2GB) |
| Display (Resolution) | 13.5-Inch Touch Screen Display, 3000 x 2000 Pixels Resolution |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit |
| Batteries | 17 hours |
| Weight | 3.62 lbs |
Recommended Configuration for an Art Laptop
Here is our suggested configuration for an art laptop:
In case you use Adobe InDesign, Adobe XD, or QuarkXpress, we strongly recommend a 4k display, 512GB SSD, 16GB of RAM, and Core i7 processor.
If your tasks are editing video, creating graphics, and simple animation in Photoshop and Illustrator, you should invest in Core i7 processor, 512GB SSD, 16GB of RAM, and 4k display. Don’t forget that you also need powerful graphics like Nvidia GeForce GTX1050 and AMD Radeon Pro 555X. To connect fast external storage, you need thunderbolt 3 ports.
For more complex tasks like editing 4k videos, the most powerful laptop is a must. Choose something over Core i9 processor, 512GB or 1TB SSD, 32GB of RAM, Retina or 4k display, Nvidia RTX graphics card, and Thunderbolt 3 port.
If you have a tight budget, please consider Core i7 processor, 512GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, and FHD display.
FAQs
Here is the list of common questions about a laptop for artists & drawing.
Do drawing tablets work with laptops?
Yes, the drawing tables can work with laptops.
Which laptop screen size is best for an artist, 13.3 or 15.6 inches?
For us, the 13.3-inch laptop screen size is the best for the artist while the 15.6-inch laptop works well for gaming.
Please take a look at their differences to know the reasons:
The 13.3 laptop is pretty small, meaning that it has physical limitations. For example, this laptop can’t dissipate heat fast and too long battery time.
Its outstanding feature is a lightweight and portable laptop. You can carry it with you everywhere for drawing. In spite of slow processor and low performance, it comes with a wonderful touch screen that is so convenient for artists.
This laptop has a small area, so its keyboard is designed more densely. It may be a bit hard to type.
The 15-inch laptop can give you a very long battery time. Moreover, you have a bigger keyboard space for natural typing experience.
Unluckily, it’s pretty bulky to carry anywhere. This type of laptop suits to play the game more.
How much RAM do you need for digital art?
This is an open-ended question. The answer depends on 3 following things:
What is the hardware you are using? Is it a Windows desktop PC or an iPad?
What kind of work are you planning to do? Is it a 2D digital pencil or 3D rendered video?
What is the final product you want to create? Is it a low res final digital jpg, a poster print, or a full-length movie?
If your work is large scale projects in 3D, 16gigs is enough to help you complete your tasks.
What are the minimum specs you should accept for an art laptop?
The minimum specs for an art laptop will depend on what specific programs you use and the answer to this question.
Are you interested in 2D art or 3D rendering?
If your work is freehand draw digital creations, we strongly recommend a hybrid Android tablet or notebook. Meanwhile, a full Window 10 computer requires more than 16 GB of RAM because most art programs are very memory-intensive. Keep in mind this thing if you don’t want to see an unacceptable lag.
Moreover, rendering 3D scenes needs a dedicated graphics card. In case you are a digital artist, it’s possible to get away with a 2GB video card.
Will the laptops in list be able to handle both 2D and 3D art?
Yes, all recommended laptops in this list can deal with both 2D and 3D art.
It’s time to make a decision
Before asking you about your choice, let’s see our decision. Microsoft Surface Book 2 is the best of the best on this list. Although it is quite expensive, this is a smart strategy and a worthy investment. You can use in 4 different configurations. It is lightweight, powerful and easy to move everywhere.
Now, what is the best laptop for artists & drawing? Did you understand any laptop-related information? Please let me know your choice in the comment section below.
Thanks for reading and see you in the next article.
Have a nice day.
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