Zenbook, MacBook, Or Surface: What Is The Best Laptop For Artists?
Duane Beckett
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If you’re an artist who works on the go, a top-of-the-line laptop is essential:
An artist needs a fast CPU, heaps of storage, and bright, high-resolution screens with high color fidelity.
The problem is, there are so many expensive options, picking the best laptop for artists can be tricky.
To help, we’ve picked out the best four options:
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1. Asus Zenbook Pro Duo UX582 15″
Many artists advise against picking a laptop where you create art with a touchscreen. Yet we’re convinced the artists who said that never tried an Asus Zenbook Pro Duo:
The ZenBook Pro includes 16 GB of ultra-fast RAM and 1 TB of internal SSD storage, ensuring that even the most severe or advanced painters, animators, 3-D modelers, or photographers have enough memory, processing power, and storage space.
The Asus Zenbook Pro Duo is expensive (around $2,000 on Amazon right now), but its innovation costs. And without a doubt, this is the best laptop for artists on the market, in our opinion.
System Specification:
- CPU: 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10870H 5 GHz Processor
- GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3070 6GB GDDR6 Graphics, VR Ready
- RAM: 16 Gigabytes DDR4
- Internal Storage: 1 TerrabytesPCle SSD
- Screen Size: 15.6”
- Display Resolution: 4K UHD OLED (3840×2160)
- Operating System: Windows 10
CHECK OUT: Asus Zenbook Pro Duo UX582 Review – Built For Creatives
2. Apple MacBook Pro 16”
The new M2-powered MacBook Pro takes Apple’s best laptop and ups the power and performance to 11. Even the screen is improved, with a Liquid Retina XDR display that adds more depth and detail than ever before:
The new Apple processor is exceedingly fast and powerful, and depending on the model you pick up, it will have either 16 or 32 GPU cores, and 16 or 32 GB of Unified Memory. Any of which combination is powerful enough for an artist.
The best thing about a Macbook is that the operating system and apps running on it, are almost glitch- and problem-free. So much so, it is hard to remember the last time a Mac crashes vs. a Windows system.
Finally, Apple is synonymous with artists. So whatever your passion, the MacBook Pro will have access to the software your craft needs.
System Specification:
- CPU: 10-Core CPU
- GPU: 16-Core to 32-Core GPU
- RAM: 16 GB to 32 GB
- Internal Storage: 512 GB SSD to 1 TB SSD
- Screen Size: 16.0-inch (diagonal) Liquid Retina XDR display
- Display Resolution: 3456 x 2234
- Operating System: Mac OS
- Price: Ranges from $2,500 to $3,500 on Apple, depending on customizations
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3. Microsoft Surface Laptop 4, 13.5” Ryzen Edition
The Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 is a 2-in-1 convertible tablet/laptop that packs a punch for an artist on the go:
It isn’t as good as the Asus or MacBook above, but it has one advantage, price. You can pick up a Surface Laptop 4 for around $1,000 from Amazon, depending on the customizations. This makes the Surface roughly a thousand dollars cheaper than the 16-inch MacBook Pro and Asus.
Price isn’t the only reason to pick up a Surface Laptop 4, the device is superbly made, light, sleek, and strong. It also packs a bright, striking high-definition touchscreen and more than enough processing power and memory to run even the most advanced painting or animation software.
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The Surface Pro laptop boasts a quick Ryzen processor, Radeon graphics, and hyper-fast DDR4 RAM. It is a superb choice for demanding animation, high-definition graphics, and professional editing:
System Specification:
- CPU: AMD Ryzen™ 5 3580U or AMD Ryzen™ 7 3780U
- GPU: Radeon Vega 9 or RX Vega 11
- RAM: 16, or 32 Gigabytes
- Internal Storage: Removable 256 GB, 512 GB, or 1 TB Ultrafast SSD
- Screen Size: 13.5″ or 15” PixelSense Display
- Display Resolution: 2496×1664
- Operating System: Windows 11
The Surface is good, but It just isn’t as innovative as the Asus, or as powerful as the MacBook. Hence the reason it lands #3 on our list.