Best Laptops for Film Students: Best Laptops for Film School in 2019

As a Film student,you will have a lot of exciting times at your college learning about film making, film production and theory, digital media production, and screenwriting, but there is also a lot of work that needs to be done. And one of the main tools that all Film Students need, is a good laptop, that’s capable of handling professional software, such as Adobe Premiere, or Final Cut Pro.

This means that you will need a laptop that can also perform heavy tasks together with light ones. Another important aspect before you start searching for the right laptop is also understood what your needs are going to be. Maybe you will also want to use the laptop for editing and creating different projects on it, become aware of how you plan to use it. This will help you a lot figuring out what model you should get.

The popular programs like Adobe Premiere or Final Cut Pro for sure need an i7 processor in order to make them run efficiently. If you go with lighter editing you can always find other easier programs to handle that don’t need so many resources like the ones we just mentioned.

Chances are quite big that after graduation you will still be editing films so also take this into consideration. Also figuring out the amount of time that you want to keep the laptop is a good step to do prior to buying it. This is because you can save some money by investing a bit more now rather than chancing your laptop in one or two years. Think smart and take the best decision.

What to look for when getting a Laptop for Film School?

Most Film Students learn Film editing skills, as well as animation and CGI; so getting a laptop on which you can perform these tasks (to an extent) is very helpful.  here are some recommendations in order to get the best laptop for you:

Processor: Laptop processors have become more capable than ever, and they rival some desktops when it comes to video editing.  However, the entry level processors included on budget laptops might not be enough for  tasks as, video editing, or compositing. If you don’t want your system to crawl, we recommend at least an 8^th generation Intel i5 processor or AMD equivalent, and to work with 4K or  high quality video, it is recommended to get an i7 processor at least. Intel’s latest generation processors now offer more cores and threads.  For more power, you can go for laptop that has an “H” processor, like the i7-8750H, which has 6 cores and 12 threads and operates at a higher voltage in comparison to the “U” variant, i7-8550U, which has 4 cores only, and runs a lower voltage to reduce power consumption.

RAM:  RAM is hands down the second most important part of a good laptop for Film School. We usually recommend a minimum of 8GB for any new laptop, but in this case, you’ll quickly find out that you need more than that. Ideally, you can consider a laptop that has 16GB RAM installed in a dual-channel configuration, which helps maximize performance.  If you can’t afford a laptop with 16GB RAM now, check if the laptop has a free RAM slot, and if it’s possible to add more RAM later.

Storage: There are two things that matter when it comes to storage: transfer rate, and storage capacity. We highly recommended to choose a laptop with an SSD.  Although an SSD is significantly more expensive per GB, its high speeds will allow you to open programs and load big video files quickly; and also allows your system to boot faster than any traditional hard drive. If money is no problem, a PCIe based SSD will even offer a better performance.

Graphics Card: For  Film School, you shouldn’t skimp on the graphics card, especially if you will be using the laptop for editing videos.  It’s true that you can edit videos even with integrated graphics; but that’s only if you’re doing something very basic; because in 2019, most video editing software takes advantage of the graphics card through hardware acceleration for encoding and rendering.  We recommended at least a GTX 1050 as an entry level video card for video editing. Also, if you’re planning to use Adobe software, such as Premiere Pro, you should know that it’s actually optimized for Nvidia Cards.

Display: This is actually one of the most important features to consider when getting a laptop for Film School, because it’s actually where you will actually see and preview your work, and a good quality display is mandatory.  For Film Students, it is recommended to get a laptop with a 15 inch display, because unless connected to an external screen, working on a small display is just not going a good experience. Screen resolution is also another factor you should take in consideration, and it’s recommended to have a laptop with A Full HD screen at least.  Newer laptops also come with IPS technology – In-Plane Switching – which provides a better experience because of its wider viewing angles and superior color quality. You can also look for laptops that have excellent color gamut, at least 100% sRGB, or even better 100% Adobe RGB coverage.

These are some essential criteria that you can check out when you are starting to explore the list of laptops that you can get for yourself. Now that we know them, we also want to show you some of our choices and we prepared some laptops for film students that we think are going to do a great job.

Best Laptops for Film Students:

So, now that you have an idea what to consider when looking for a laptop for Film School, let’s check some of the best laptops for Film Students available right now. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to ask us in the comments below.

• Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-52-78VL

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First on our list, Acer Predator Helios 300 is a great laptop for Film Students, especially if portability is not an issue. The construction is solid having a metal back and a decent backlit keyboard. The processor is a 9th gen i7-9750H, which can reach a speed of 4.5 GHz if needed. The 16GB of RAM included are perfect for multi-tasking and different editing programs. Hard disk size is 256GB SDD and although it can be sometimes small for film projects you can always upgrade or add an external one.

The screen has 15.6 in and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti Graphics that has 6GB of dedicated VRAM is for sure a powerful graphic card. It has different ports and it is easy to upgrade.

• Apple MacBook Pro 15
  

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The Apple MacBook Pro is one of the most popular laptops among creative professionals, including film students. This model comes with 16GB of RAM and a 15-inch screen that offers a great view due to its Retina display.

Powered by a 9Th-generation 8-Core Intel Core i9 8950HK Processor,for sure any editing program that you are using will run smooth with it. The Radeon Pro GPU is perfect for tasks like rendering 3D or similar ones. Being faster you get more time to create more amazing work.

The 512 SSD is perfect to save up even larger projects and with the Thunderbolt 3, you can transfer data or add video outputs.

• Dell XPS 15 7590

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Next on our list is the Dell XPS 15 a cool looking laptop that also impresses with its performance, and style. It features a 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H , 16GB of RAM, a dedicated Nvidia GPU, and a 1TB SSD giving you enough storage space for all the projects you might be working at. It’s one of the best laptops for Film Students at this price range, as it combines power, and portability.

In addition to that, the XPS 7590 comes in a stylish looking chassis, and is also one of the few laptops that have an 4K display. For video playback, the image quality is simply outstanding. And although the 4K display does drain the battery faster in comparison to the Full HD variant, it’s still worth it if you’re looking for a laptop with high quality IPS display that covers 100% Adobe RGB colors.

• Gigabyte AERO 15 Classic-:SA-U73ADW

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The Gigabyte AERO 15 is another great laptop with an amazing screen that will really make a difference for editing videos and watching content. The 15.6 in display offers enough visual space for your projects and it is also capable of 100% Adobe RGB colors. The display is IPS, and is also one of the few Pantone Certified laptops displays; which makes this laptop a perfect choice if you’re a professional and if color accuracy is important to you.

This laptop comes with an i7-9750Hprocessor, 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and a Dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti graphics card. In terms of performance, you can expect a consistent power, whether you’re editing 4K video, or playing the latest AAA games.

• MSI P65 Creator-1084

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MSI P65 Creator is a laptop that we think can do a great job with filming projects. It has 32 GB of RAM that are going to be useful for the editing tools you have.

The Intel Core i7-9750H does a great job in powering the laptop with a speed of 4.5 GHz and the GeForce RTX 2060 is also a great add-in the hardware specs. It has a 1TB Teton Glacier SSD that makes it fast and silent.

The display is a 4K one and it can support 100% Adobe RGB colors. Its size is 15.6″ and the overall build feels strong and the weight is light. The battery goes up to 8 hours of use.