Best Laptops for Digital Artists: A 2020 Buyers’ Guide!

The market for digital art software has never looked this diverse. Photoshop and Maya might still be the most common ones that come in your mind, but there’s a rich constellation of alternative applications, both premium and freeware. If you’re specifically into manga and comics illustration, Clip Studio Paint or MediBang Paint Pro are a couple valid options for you. Are you a graphic designer, instead? Affinity Designer is a popular option. With a free and open source software as Krita, sketching and drawing on your laptop doesn’t require that much of an investment.Also, if you’re on a budget, you might even consider a Chromebook that comes with an active Pen, Google’s Canva app is great for digital art, and Chromebooks are considerably cheaper.

Finding the right software and the best device to unleash your creativity might take some time, especially reading through reviews and guides. Getting to know the true potential of your chosen tool is another time draining activity.

Most of the time, people don’t exactly know what to consider when looking for a laptop for Digital Art. In this article, though, we’ll ease some of your struggle when it comes to buying a good enough laptop for your digital art. There are a few things for you to consider and they’re all relevant:

• Processor and RAM: an Intel Core i7 processor coupled with 16 GB of RAM is a safe bet for any kind of digital art. If you’re into casual sketching and you’re not bothered by upping your game in the future, you might save a couple bucks with a laptop featuring an i5 processor, with 8 GB of RAM. You’ll get a longer lasting battery instead!
• Storage: a SSD is recommended for digital artists, to get the smoothest experience out of your software. 512 GB are good enough for most users.
• Display: 1080p is a consolidated standard for modern displays, so stick with that. Consider if you’d be comfortable with touchscreen functionality, at the expense of a few hours of battery life. Some laptops come in hybrid forms, with a digital pen included. If you don’t own any other device for your art, that’s a strong option for you.
• Connectivity: depending on your art routine, you might need two USB 3.0 ports to connect your devices, a HDMI port for streaming to an external monitor, and a SD slot to transfer files from your camera, if you use photography in your artwork.
• Battery life: inspiration comes and goes as it likes. Carrying a laptop is the best way to avoid letting that good creativity escape, but you’ll need to get one with 8 real hours of battery life at least. Otherwise, the laptop will end up being another brick in your bag.

So, now that you have an idea which laptops to consider for digital art, let’s check some of the best laptops for digital artists we selected for you. This list will be updated regularly, so if you have a suggestion or a question, ask us in the comments.

Best Laptops for Digital Artists:

Acer Spin 3 SP314-53N-77AJ

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The Acer Spin 3 SP314-53N-77AJ is a 14” Full HD convertible laptop, that you can bend all the way around thanks to the 360° hinge. It features an 8^th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB SSD.

Thanks to the touchscreen capability and the included active stylus, the Spin 3 makes for a great hybrid laptop for digital art right out of the box. This machine also comes with everything that you need in connectivity: USB ports, SD card reader, HDMI port. There’s also a dedicated dock for the rechargeable stylus. As a cherry on the top, you’ll get a backlit keyboard and a fingerprint reader.

With up to 12 hours of battery life, by manufacturer’s statement, the Spin 3 is guaranteed to never let you down in a typical workday.

Microsoft Surface Pro 6

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The new Microsoft Surface Pro 6 is your premium option when it comes to hybrid laptops. You’ll have to be mindful and check if the Surface Pen and the detachable keyboard (Surface Type Cover) are included in your shipping. We recommend the setup with an 8^th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB SSD.

The Surface Pro 6 is a 12.3” tablet with a stunning 2735×1824 resolution. The 3:2 screen ratio is arguably the best for digital artists, as it allows for more workspace compared to a traditional 16:9 display. The Surface Pro 6 is also the most portable model in this list, weighting only 1.76lbs. Despite lacking a Thunderbolt 3 port, this model has ports for anything that you might need to connect: USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort, SD card reader.

Averaging 9 real-world hours, battery life is no longer a deal breaker in the Surface Pro line.

LG Gram 14T990-U.AAS8U1

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The LG Gram 14T990-U.AAS8U1 is a 14 inch Full HD touchscreen laptop, featuring an 8^th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 512 GB SSD. The Gram 14T990-U also comes with a Wacom AES 2.0 pen, which makes it one of the best laptops for digital art. The included LG Stylus Pen has 4,096 levels of tilt detection to help create a more natural writing and drawing experience.

The LG Gram 14T990-U.AAS8U1 also comes in a sleek and lightweight chassis, and is easy to carry around to school or work.  The screen has minimal bezels, which reduces the overall footprint, and this laptop also comes with a wide variety of I/O ports, including a USB-C port. However, unlike other Gram versions, this one doesn’t come with a Thunderbolt 3 port. If you’re interested in Thunderbolt 3, you can check our top laptops with Thunderbolt 3 guide.

With 21 hours of battery life as per the manufacturer’s statement, the LG Gram 14T990-U.AAS8U1 has the best battery life on this list; and it’s not only on paper!

Apple MacBook Pro 15

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The Apple MacBook Pro 15 is surely expensive, but it has always been a favorite among Digital Artists, as the MacOS environment might be exactly what you need to unleach your creativity. The latest 15.6” model features a 9^th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB SSD. It also includes Radeon pro 555x graphics, with another 4 GB of VRAM. Although that’s the setup we’re recommending, you can personalize your purchase by upping processor, RAM and storage.

There’s a reason why MacBooks make for perfect companions to digital artists, and that’s the amazing Retina display. If you believe the devil is in the details, you won’t get a better display anywhere else. The MacBook Pro 15 is a high-performance laptop with modern connectivity. Unfortunately, it comes at the cost of a poor battery life.

Lenovo Yoga C930

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At a more affordable price range, we have the Lenovo Yoga C930 2 in 1, a premium convertible laptop that has lots of potential when it comes to drawing, and creating content, and taking notes. It features an 8th generation Intel i7-8550U processor, 12GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Needless to say that the Yoga C930 performs very well in daily productivity tasks, and can also be your main computer.

But there are other reasons why the Yoga C930 is the one of the best laptops for Digital artists. First, it comes with 13.9″ Full HD touch screen, which provides vivid colors and excellent viewing angles thanks to the IPS panel. In addition to that, the C930 has one of the best sound systems in its class, with a unique rotating sound bar with Dolby Atmos speaker system. Which helps direct the sound when you’re using the laptop in tent or tablet mode.

Battery life is also excellent, with up to 12 hours of use. This laptop also comes with a Stylus, and it’s also one of the few windows laptops with 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports.

GIGABYTE AERO 15-X9-RT5P

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The GIGABYTE AERO 15-X9-RT5P might not have a touch display or come with a stylus, but it has one of the best laptops displays ever. Featuring an 8^th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM and a 1 TB SSD, it’s also  packed with a dedicated Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card, with 8 GB of VRAM. Despite being mainly targeted to gamers, athis laptop will also fit if you need a powerful laptop for creating digital art, editing videos, create 3D models …etc. The chassis design isn’t as aggressive as a typical gaming laptop, so you can bring it with you to work without people staring at you. It’s also one of the thinnest gaming laptops available.

The narrow bezel display is Pantone certified for color calibration, which is a rarity on laptops. The Aero 15 is the laptop with the most comprehensive connectivity in this list, including a Thunderbolt 3 port. Like the MacBook Pro, this is a laptop you’ll want to use at your desk, relying on the few hours of battery life only in emergencies.