Best Laptop For Crafting

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In today’s world, it is very easy to transform any tasks online. From insurance agents to majors of accounting & finance, everyone’s job is partially transformed to online form. It happened with Crafting too.

There were days when you’ve to make every piece of content of craft by hand and glue.

But now you can do them all on your laptop. Yes, it has become that handy. You can even decorate your own laptop with this crafting work.

Laptops are now so powerful that they can handle pretty much all forms of activities. But to enjoy to fullest of a laptop, you have to choose the right laptop and of course in a decent price range.

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In this guide, I will show you everything you need to know before buying a laptop for crafting purposes.

After the end of this guide, I will mention the top 10 best laptops for crafting. And my personal thought (review) on them. Both ‘Buyer’s Guide’ & reviews will greatly help the crafters/designers to choose the laptop – that fit in correctly.

What is Digital or Online Crafting?

I want you to ask one simple question. What do you need to create a craft? Simple, It’s the images.

So digital crafting means you can create those impressive images through your laptop or computer. Yes, it is that easy.

To master digital crafting, you only need a few software. Those softwares will help you create the best craft. I’ll talk about that in a while.

Graphics Programs For Paper Crafters: What Will Be The best choice?

Lots of graphics programs can do your task. Some of them are paid and others are free. I recommend using paid versions if possible as it will give more facilities to the users.

I have tested several of the programs are available in the market right now.

Among them, I found Print Artist & Adobe Illustrator very helpful. Print Artist is somewhere light and strong software. You can use canva too for creating your images. Both of them are doing pretty well. But I will recommend using Print Artist.
Print Artist

What Factors Define The Best Laptops For Crafting?

When it comes to photoshop or creating images through your laptop, you shouldn’t compromise with the laptop’s internal specifications.

But, what about the price?

Yes. Some of those high-end laptops may cost you thousands of dollars. That spending won’t hurt much if you get the best value for money.

So, choosing the best laptop for crafting might be a tough challenge for some. But don’t you worry – I’ve got you covered.

I will showcase everything ‘important’ you’ll need on your laptop.

So, let’s get started.

Performance – The Most Important Part

A laptop for gaming or crafting requires high performance to gain the title “Best Laptop”.

Whether you buy a stolen laptop or an intact laptop, performance should be your top priority.

The high-end laptop usually performs well than budget laptops. So, you should aim at buying a laptop with rich specifications. In other word, you should avoid buying budget laptops for crafting purposes.

However, this article will help you with choosing the best laptop for your crafting purposes. Let’s assume you’re convinced to buy an expensive laptop. Still, you have to double-check these following components and specifications:

  • Processor: Laptop or desktop’s performance relay on its processor. You should check a laptop’s CPU because it is the most important part of that machine. While there are several types and kinds of processors out there, you should be conscious while choosing it. Choosing the latest version of the processor is a wise choice. The latest version of the processor is the 9th generation processor. But this processor is very costly. Photo editing or crafting work can be done pretty easily in the 8th generation processor or higher.

 

  • RAM: RAM is another important element of a computer. This unit will power up your performance while editing any stuff. It will also help to do any kind of multi-tasking. The more RAM you have, the more fluently you can make your job done. There are RAMs of 2 GB to 16GB (or even higher) in the market. But for crafting purposes, you should choose RAM of 8 GB or higher.

 

  • Storage Drive: This component will store your hard-earned images. Most of the craft images consume 20MB or even higher. So choosing a storage drive of 265GB will do fine. Also, there are two kinds of storage drives- SSD and HDD. SDD is the latest and strongest storage drive available in the market.

 

  • Graphics Card: A graphics card helps a computer to represent itself through its display. The latest graphics card a computer gets, the greater it can perform. There are two types of graphics cards- Integrated Graphics Card and Discrete Graphics Card. The majority of the people go for an integrated graphics card. But crafter wants a smooth performance while editing a photo. For this reason, they should go for a discrete graphics card. Laptops with discrete graphics cards often cost more. So you should consider the price too. However, you can use external GPU too – only if your laptop is external GPU compatible laptop.

Besides performance, you should check these components as well:

  • Screen: Size & Resulation
  • Keyboard & Touchpad
  • Battery

Screen: Size & Resulation

The screen helps crafters to see theirs after product. The hours of working on a project are represented by a screen. So a high-resolution screen is a must. Most of the laptop’s screen is between 11 inches to 17 inches.

For professional crafters, a screen of 1920 by 1080 pixels is a minimum requirement for doing his work smoothly. I too recommend you to go for a minimum 1080p display for a sharper look of your images.

Keyboard & Touchpad

You’ll be spending a lot of time editing and fixing your crafts. That’s why you need a decent size of the keyboard and a sensitive touchpad. You can do almost everything with your touchpad. But I will recommend you to buy a gaming mouse.

Often gaming mouse comes with lots of buttons that can be used in editing images too. That will give a little more flexibility in your work.

Battery Life

The battery made it possible to carry and work on a laptop on the go. However, most of the laptop’s battery life is relatively low. You should avoid these kinda laptops while buying the best laptop for crafting and other purposes.

The battery is the most important component of a laptop. If you’re a person who loves to do his job while traveling, then you should choose a laptop with a higher battery capacity. Battery life will help you – if you want to represent your crafts outside your home.

What Is The Best Laptop For Crafting?

Now you know what to look at before buying your laptop for crafting.

As a crafter, you should always keep these factors in your mind. The laptop meets the requirements of a crafter, will be the best laptop for crafting.

I and my team tested several laptops before creating this guide. We have discovered some of the best laptops (Popular & Non-Populer) for crafters and graphics designer. Here’s the list of our top 10 picks with my personal opinion (review).

Top 10 Best Laptop For Crafting 2021

Before starting, have a quick glance over the laptop lists. Cheers.

Name Platform
1. Mircrosoft Surface Laptop 3
2. Lenovo Yoga 730
3. Lenovo Yoga C930
4. Apple M1 Macbook Air
5. Asus Zenbook Pro

1. Mircrosoft Surface Laptop 3 – Best For Beginner Artists (Cheap Price)

Microsoft Surface laptop 3 best laptop for crafting and designing

Introducing – the slimmest laptop of this laptop list. Despite being a lightweight laptop, this laptop didn’t disappoint us. We are highly impressed with the specs and overall look of this laptop.

This is a 13.5” PixelSense HD Display laptop backed by Microsoft – designed and crafted with care. The size and weight of this laptop made it one of the best travel-friendly laptop of 2021.

Microsoft Surface Laptop is powered by 7th Generation Intel i5 Processor – and supported by a massive 8GB RAM. This machine is sturdy enough to tolerate any crafting project  (Photo/Video Editing ) with ease.

This laptop features a massive 256GB of SSD – to store your essential project documents and lighting fast Boot up. If you find this storage a bit less, then you can buy its 512GB  variant, but that will cost more than $1200. As my opinion, this laptop’s price is the sweetest of all – as its outer look, and the luxurious fabric-covered keyboard gives it a premium look.

Under the hood, you’ll find a powerful Intel HD Graphics 620 – crafting will be more pleasurable with this graphics card. Besides everything else, the primary key feature of this laptop is the spacious keyboard. Hours of editing data won’t be that irritating with this premium quality keyboard – helps increasing productivity.
Overall, this laptop would be an excellent option for any crafter or graphic designer – and one of the best budget laptops you can buy for crafting.

PROS
  • Ultra Slim & Lightweight – 2.76 pounds
  • Clean & High-Resolution Touchscreen
  • Luxurious Fabric Covered Keyboard
CONS
  • Poor in ports – Only two ports Available

 

2. Lenovo Yoga 730 Best For Professionals

Lenovo Yoga 730

If you’re a person who loves dual modes, then I have a great deal for you.

Lenovo Yoga 730 laptop can convert to a tablet when necessary. This laptop has a huge 15.6 inches of a touch screen display. The display quality of this laptop is pretty impressive. With a 4k display, Lenovo Yoga 730 is rocking in its price segment (under $1300).

This laptop comes with some extra security features. One of them is a built-in fingerprint scanner. This laptop is highly portable and lightweight. You don’t have to worry much while traveling with this laptop.

Lenovo Yoga 730 is powered by 8th generation Intel Core i7-8550U. You can expect high performance from this laptop. The slick design with powerful specifications made this laptop one of the best laptop for crafters 2021. All latest and finest features are available in this laptop.

This laptop comes with a 16GB RAM. And multitasking won’t be a problem for this RAM capacity. The higher range of crafting programs will fit in this laptop without any problem. With the help of a 1TB SSD drive, you won’t have to bother with external hard drives.

Lenovo Yoga 730 is packed with NVIDIA GeForce 1050 graphics. This type of graphics card is strong enough to support any kind of program. Overall, this laptop is one of the best laptops for crafting considering the price and other specifications. Do give it a try.

PROS
  • Price Efficient
  • High-Quality Display
CONS
  • Large Chin in bottom

 

3. Lenovo Yoga C930 – 2 in 1 Convertible Laptop

Lenovo Yoga C930 - best laptop for designer students

This laptop is a bomb from the ‘Lenovo Yoga’ series. From inner beauty (Specs) to outer beauty – this laptop is a competitive player to beat. Lenovo Yoga C930 laptop is a 13.9” 4K laptop with dual-mode – Laptop & Tablet.

It’s a fresh 2020 yoga model, powered by 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8550U processor. Though the base frequency of this processor is 1.80GHz, with the grace of Intel Turbo Technology – it can fire up to 4.00GHz. This much energy is a need but rarely while rendering ‘heavy’ crafting work (images & videos).

With Lenovo’s active pen, you can unleash your hidden creativity using pen & paper. The 4K Touchscreen display is like a blessing for any crafters – as they can view every micro part of their projects with stretching out their eyes!

Under the hood, you’ll find a powerful 16 GB DDR4 RAM along with Intel UHD Graphics 620 – every bit of their power will be used for ensuring the best crafting experience possible. Whether you’re fond of using Illustrators or PrintArtist, this laptop is compatible with every program and software.

The giant storage of 1TB is ready to hold your portfolio and client projects – without showing ‘Insufficient Space’ message. Besides, you can add up both RAM & ROM (External) in this laptop, if you find that necessary.

The security system of this laptop is impressive. You’ll be getting physical slide over the camera – so that nobody can snoop remotely. The built-in fingerprint reader will also prevent theft from accessing your data (if it gets stolen somehow). Overall, by examining this laptop up to bottom – I can say it’s one of the best laptops for crafting in 2021.

PROS
  • 4K Touchscreen Display
  • 2 in 1 Convertible Laptop
  • Can output 4K image/video on TV/Monitor
CONS
  • Poor battery life – Can be fixed by Changing a Few Defaults

4. Apple M1 Macbook Air (Late 2020)- Best For Crafters & Graphic Designer

Apple M1 Macbook Air- best for crafter and graphic designer

 

Apple’s M1 chip is getting love from graphics designer & crafter professionals. M1 Macbook air is an upgraded version of Macbook Air(2020) integrated with the M1 chip. This 13.3 inches 13.3-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit widescreen display laptop has incredible ability to satisfy a crafter in many ways.

This laptop is powered by Apple’s latest M1 chip (8-Cores) – a mighty processor for any graphic designer and crafter. You’ll be getting an 8-core CPU (4 performance cores & 4 efficiency cores) to boost up your crafting experience. Also, 

You’ll find an 8GB RAM to fuel up your crafting project’s speed. The powerful Apple 8-core GPU will accelerate your professional & creative apps for higher performance. 

If you’re not satisfied with the built-in GPU, don’t worry! This laptop comes with two thunderbolt port/ USB 4 ports. Thunderbolt makes it an eGPU capable laptop – to smoothen your work period.

Are you thinking of the storage? Well, this laptop has 256GB of SSD to store documents and files – you can utilize iCloud storage if necessary. Decent storage-capacity alone indicates whether it’s one of the best computer for crafting or not.

This laptop is also comparatively lighter than others; it’s only 2.8 pounds. As it’s featuring a diagonal LED-backlit widescreen display, you can expect to have tons of viewing angles from this laptop.

Overall, this is one of the best laptop for crafting and other graphics work. Consider checking this laptop if you want something called ‘cutting edge’ quality products.

Pros
  • Features All-New M1 Chip
  • Battery Life Up To 15 Hours
  • Comes With Backlight Keyboard
Cons
  • Some Software Needs To be Operate Via Rosetta

 

5. Asus Zenbook Pro UX550GE – Best Overall Laptop For Crafting 

Asus Zenbook Pro UX550GE

 

Asus is one of the leading brands in inventing quality laptops. ASUS Zenbook Pro UX550GE is their flagship laptop. This laptop is packed up with all the exciting specifications in a slim body.

This laptop has a great display of 15.6” inches. It is an ultra HD touch display. You can pretty much do everything without using the keyboard if not necessary. The premium material used in this laptop made it one of the smoother laptops of our list.

Asus Zenbook Pro UX550GE is powered by the 8th generation intel core i-7 8750HK processor. The speed of this processor is beyond imagination. Added up with windows 10 pro, made this laptop one of the best laptop for crafting.

This laptop is also capable of handling all the graphics programs needed for a crafter.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050Ti is giving the strength to this laptop. With the help of this graphics card, you can pretty much run every short of programs you need.

This laptop comes with 16GB dual-channel DDR4 RAM. And also gives you the option to upgrade it with 32GB RAM.

However, you might not need that much extra RAM. Because the built-in RAM is more than enough for your daily works.

The storage capacity of Asus Zenbook Pro UX550GE is really good. You are getting a 512GB SSD.

This laptop also provides you various types of ports by default. You don’t need to carry an extra adapter for your works done. This laptop can be good choice for the crafters without any confusion.

PROS
  • Lighting Fast SSD of 512 GB
  • Sleek and Lightweight
  • Latest 8th Generation Processor
CONS
  • Heat issue

6. Razer Blade 15 – Best For Gamer Crafters

Razer Blade 15

 

Razer laptops are known for the beast of gaming laptops. Because Razer provides laptops with all the killer specifications. However, Razer Blade 15 can be a great deal for crafting. As it has a lot of higher specifications and facilities, crafters are ought to fall in love with this laptop’s performance.

The screen is a great factor for a crafting laptop. Thanks to Razer, they haven’t compromised with the screen while making this a thin bezel laptop.

It has a screen of 15.6 inches. This is a full edge-to-edge display. You can expect a great viewing experience in this laptop for a small bezel as low as 4.9mm.

Talking about the graphics card, it has an NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics card. This graphics card is designed for handling high graphics game with ease. No wonder it can handle crafting programs and software without any difficulty.

Razer Blade 15 comes with 16 GB DDR4 RAM and a 512GB SSD drive. This much RAM is installed on this laptop by default.

If you want to expand your RAM, you surely can. You can add another 32GB memory to your laptop.

For high performance, Razer Blade 15 has another great feature! You can add upto  1TB of HDD.

This laptop is powered by 8th generation intel core i-7 8750H. So you really don’t need to worry about its CPU. Along with the 8th generation processor, this laptop comes with Windows 10 operating system.

Overall, this is a great laptop from the specification perspective. But the most important part is, you can satisfy yourself working on this laptop.

PROS
  • Comes With Both SSD & HDD
  • Powerful Graphics For Design Work
  • Full Edge-to-Edge display
CONS
  • Touch Screen Unavailable 

 

7. Dell G7 15

Dell G7 15

If you want a flagship laptop but do not want to break your bank, then I have a nice deal for you.

Dell is providing the best value for money ever since they started their laptop business. Dell G7 15 will meet all the needs of a crafter with ease. The main attraction of this laptop is its price!

Dell G7 15 comes with 15.6 inches of HD display. This display size is pretty decent. Not that small or big.

It has a resolution of 1090 by 1080 pixels. You can enjoy HD movies seamlessly through the display. The graphics card provided with this laptop is also pretty good. That gives an extra boost to the displayed content.

Whether you’re working on your craft or playing some shorts of games, a graphics card plays an important role. Dell G7 15 is powered by NVIDIA GeForce 1060. This works the same as the graphics card provided in any 1500$+ laptops.

Dell G7 15 is rocking the Intel Core i7-8750H processor. This processor handles everything needed for the crafter with ease.

You can have all of your work done without facing any complication with this processor. This processor’s normal speed is 2.2GHz, but this can go up to 4.1GHz if needed.

With a DDR4 RAM of 16GB and 256GB SSD, this laptop has won the heart of our testing team. Finding this much specification from a laptop under 1100$ was very interesting to us. That’s not all. This laptop also comes with an extra 1TB of HDD storage. These specifications made this laptop one of the best laptop for crafting of 2021.

PROS
  • Best For Gaming & Crafting
  • Awesome Build Quality
  • Durable
CONS
  • A Bit Expensive

8. Apple MacBook Pro 15 – Best For Professionals

Apple MacBook Pro 15

Apple fans, I have a great deal for you. Apple MacBook Pro 15 is one of the finest laptops from Apple. You can enjoy your work period on this laptop for sure – without any doubt.

Apple MacBook Pro 15 comes with a 15inch retina display. This display is as sharp as an HD display.

Generally, Apple offers small display sizes in most of their laptops. But this one got a decent size display. It will boost your productivity for sure.

Most of the buyers are very concerned about battery life (Smaller Battery). But the good news is, Apple is very good at optimizing their performance and battery life. As a result, this laptop can stay up to 10 hours in a single charge period.

This laptop is powered by Intel UHD Graphics 630. Together with the graphics card and retina display, this makes it one of the top-notch laptop of this list.

This laptop has one of the finest designs of all time – and you can feel the premium quality just holding this laptop.

Apple MacBook Pro comes with ultra-fast 16GB RAM. Also, it has an SSD of 256GB. Moreover, it also offers a touch bar with it. It will help the crafters shifting from programs to programs a lot faster.

Apple may provide less specification than others, compared to the price. But we all know Apple products are highly optimized and specifications isn’t a concerned part if it’s from Apple. Consider checking this laptop for a better idea about its performance.

PROS
  • Large display
  • Great performance
  • Massive Storage
CONS
  • No face ID

 

9. Microsoft Surface Pro 6

If you’re like most of the people, then you will love a portable yet very powerful laptop. We have tested few lightweight portable laptops and found Microsoft Surface Pro 6 very powerful.

This model offered by Microsoft would be a great deal for the crafters. It can run high CPU consumer programs with ease.

Microsoft Surface Pro 6 is powered by the latest 8th Generation Core Processor. This processor is strong enough to handle any kinds of photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop.

This laptop comes with an impressive battery life. It can assure you all-day battery life along with up to 13.5 hours of video playback. So you can work for hours without worrying about charging this machine.

This laptop comes with a 12.3” PixelSense touchscreen display with a resolution of 2736 by 1824 pixels. You should be able to do your job pretty nicely with this display.

Microsoft Surface Pro 6 comes with two RAM variation of 8 GB and 16 GB. I prefer the 8GB variation, as it will be enough for any kinds of crafting job.

You will be given an Integrated Graphics Card with this laptop. This laptop offers an SSD of 256 GB.

Overall, this laptop is an exhausting deal for any crafters. Also, it is one of the best laptops for artists too. Consider checking this laptop if you budget isn’t a concern for you.

PROS
  • Long Battery Life
  • Extremely Powerful – Best For Gamers Too
  • Four versatile modes
CONS
  • Minor Heat Issue Detected

10. Dell G5 15 – Best For Gaming Passionate Crafters

Dell G5 15 – Best For Gaming Passionate Crafters

Besides crafting, some of you crafters maybe passionate about gaming too. Dell G5 15 can satisfy gamers and crafters single-handedly.

This crafting laptop features a 15.6” FHD LCD anti-glare screen that will help reducing eye strain – while working on long projects. Besides, the dual-fan cooling system integrated with advanced thermal design ensures the system to stay cool while you fire up your work.

Dell G5 15 is powered by 9th Generation Intel Core i7-9750H processor that can boost up clock speed at 4.5GHz. It’s a six-core processor specialized for gaming and heavy graphics work (Crafting) – smoothly. Also, a 16 GB RAM will fuel up its performance any task; professional or personal. No doubt, it’s one of the best laptop for artist along with gamers.

The storage capacity of this laptop is insane. You’ll be getting a 256GB SSD storage along with 1TB HDD storage. I recommend using SSD storage – storing applications (Adobe Photoshop, Illustrators, Games etc ) and store your files/documents in HDD. SSD drive helps improving laptop’s overall performance, that’s why you should give it for laptops internal usage with your applications.

Lastly, the most important part – The Graphic Section. This laptop is featuring powerful NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card along with 4GB GDDR5 Graphics RAM. This graphics card will ensure that – you get the best user experience possible from an under $1300 laptop.

Overall, this is one of the best laptop for crafting & gaming. If you’re partially interested in gaming – besides crafting, then you should consider buying this laptop.

PROS
  • Ideal Laptop for Gamer Crafters
  • Massive Storage of 1.256TB (1TB+256GB)
  • Powerful Dual-Fan Cooling System
CONS
  • Wight Heavy – 8.58 Pounds

Conclusion

That was it, a list of top 10 best laptops for crafting of 2021. Some of these laptops are very high powered. If you’re still confused about what to choose and want my recommendation, then I would suggest “Asus Zenbook Pro UX550GE“. It can provide excellent user experience to any professional crafter.

If you’re a finance student – you may like our Best Laptop For Finance Majors guide!

 

Daniel Josef
Daniel Josef
Articles: 8

2 Comments

  1. I`m looking for a large screen laptop for crafting I don`t care about the cost I don`t want to upgrade it in 5yrs times so I want a good one with a minimum of 1TB

    • Apple should be in your priority list if you want laptop to last that long with full efficiency. If budget isn’t an issue, check these Macbooks.

      Apple MacBook Pro 16″ late 2019
      https://amzn.to/3jc4oul

      Apple Macbook Pro 16″ 2019
      https://amzn.to/3lnzGRG

      As you don’t want smaller screen (13″), I didn’t recommended any M1 chip MacBook. The only M1 enabled available MacBook is the 13″ variant with 2TB SSD
      You check here: https://amzn.to/3rQechO

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