Best Laptop for Film Students – There aren’t many gadgets in the market that cater specifically to filmmaking students. Although we can always select powerful workstation notebooks film editing professionals, students require a more holistic approach towards gadget selection. Each one of these 9 gadgets is therefore chosen based on budget, professional and academic preferences, and even leisure indulgences.
OVERVIEW
If you are looking for an insanely powerful notebook that scales beyond every competition and allows you to learn about every aspect of this creative domain with ease, the MSI P65 Creator is the way to go. However, if portability is on your mind and that too without performance trade-offs, the Surface Book 3 is the one to invest in.
ROUND UP
You want a more budget-friendly notebook that features a top-of-the-line CPU, you must readily opt for the Acer Aspire 7. While there are quite a few options to choose from, it is always advisable to check the institute curriculum before moving ahead with the purchase.
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Features
- AMD Ryzen 3 3200U Dual Core Processor (Up to 3.5GHz); 4GB DDR4 Memory; 128GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- 15.6 inches full HD (1920 x 1080) widescreen LED backlit IPS display; AMD Radeon Vega 3 Mobile Graphics
- 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 port, 2 USB 2.0 ports & 1 HDMI port with HDCP support
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Backlit Keyboard; Up to 7.5 hours battery life
- Windows 10 in S mode. Maximum power supply wattage: 65 Watts
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2.HP OMEN
Features
- 【Upgraded】 Seal is opened for Hardware/Software upgrade only to enhance performance. 17.3" Full HD (1920x1080) 144Hz Refresh Rate Display; Wi-Fi 6 AX201 Wifi, Bluetooth 5.0, Ethernet LAN (RJ-45), Integrated Webcam, Backlit Keyboard
- 【Powerful Performance with Intel Core i7-10750H Hexa Core】 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10750H 2.60GHz Processor (upto 5.00 GHz, 12MB Smart Cache, 6-Cores) ; NVIDIA RTX 2070 Super 8GB GDDR6 Graphics
- 【High Speed and Multitasking】 64GB DDR4 SODIMM RAM; 230W Power Supply, 4-Cell 70WHr Battery; Black Color
- 【Enormous Storage】 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD + 1TB HDD; 3 USB 3.1 Gen1, 1 HDMI, 1 mini Display Port, Thunderbolt3 (Type-C), SD Reader, 1 x Headphone/Microphone Combo Jack, 1 x SPDIF., Windows 10 Home-64, 1 Year Manufacturer warranty from GreatPriceTech (Professionally upgraded by GreatPriceTech)
- 【Authorized Docztorm Bundle】 Includes Dockztorm USB HUb(Special Edition Portable Docztorm Data Hub;Super Speedy Data Syn Rate upto 5Gbps;Authorized Sellers ONLY)
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3.Razer Blade
Features
- GeForce RTX 3060: NVIDIA’s 2nd gen RTX—with new RT Cores, Tensor Cores, and streaming multiprocessors to give the most realistic ray-traced graphics and improved performance.
- More Power: The 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10750H processor provides the ultimate level of performance with up to 5.0GHz Max Turbo and 6 cores.
- FHD 144Hz: Incredible performance paired with the fast 144Hz 15.6" Full HD thin bezel display helps edge out the win.
- Thin and Compact: The CNC aluminum unibody frame houses incredible performance in the most compact footprint possible, while remaining remarkably durable and just 0.78" thin.
- Ready To Connect: Fully loaded with Wi-Fi 6, Gigabit Ethernet, Thunderbolt 3, USB Type-A and Type-C ports, and HDMI, for a desktop-class experience
- Make It Yours: Customize the backlight color of the keyboard with Razer Chroma, and expand the memory and storage, making the Razer Blade 15 uniquely yours.
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4.Microsoft Surface
Features
- No WiFi, no problem, in addition to WiFi, every model comes enabled with blazing fast LTE Advanced Pro connectivity
- Perfect for your on the go lifestyle — sleek and slim, in Matte Black, Surface Pro X is just 7.3mm thin and starts at 1.7 pounds
- See more and do more on a 13” screen. Virtually edge to edge PixelSense Display touchscreen and Surface signature 3:2 ratio gives you the most workspace possible
- Powered by Qualcomm, the new custom Microsoft SQ1 processor delivers multitasking laptop performance, Long battery life, and faster LTE and Wi Fi connectivity
- Ultra slim and versatile design. Surface Pro X adapts to you, transforming from the ultra thin laptop, to powerful tablet, to portable studio
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5.Dell XPS
Features
- 62% larger touchpad, 5% larger screen, and 5.6% smaller footprint
- 16:10 FHD+ edge to edge display equipped with DisplayHDR 400 and Dolby Vision
- Integrated Eyesafe display technology
- Quad speaker design with Waves Nx audio
- High-polished diamond-cut sidewalls
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6.HP Spectre
Features
- Include Windows 10 Professional, HP Premium Warranty, 3 Years McAfee Internet Security(activation required), HP Stylus Pen, and HP Sleeve by BEST LAPTOP an HP Authorized Partner
- Newest Intel 10th Gen. i7-10510U (1.8 GHz, up to 4.9 GHz, 8 MB cache, 4 cores)+NVIDIA GeForce MX330 (2GB), 16GB DDR4 RAM(2x8GB), 1 TB PCI NVMe M.2 SSD
- 15.6" diagonal 4K IPS micro-edge WLED-backlit (3840 x 2160), HP TrueVision FHD IR Camera with digital microphone, Fingerprint reader; Privacy Camera Kill Switch
- Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX 201 (2x2) and Bluetooth 5 Combo (Supporting Gigabit file transfer speeds), 2 USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-C with Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gb/s signaling rate, Power Delivery 3.0, DisplayPort 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge); 1 USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type-A (HP Sleep and Charge); 1 HDMI 2.0; 1 headphone/microphone combo
- Full size backlit keyboard, Bang & Olufsen, quad speakers, HP Audio Boost, HP Imagepad with multi-touch gesture support, microSD card reader
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7.Lenovo Yoga
Features
- 13.3” FHD(1920 x 1080)IPS LED backlight Multi-touch Display
- 8th Intel Quad Core i5-8250U(16/3.4GHz, 6MB), Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620
- 8G DDR4 2400MHZ, 256G PCIe NVMe SSD
- 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.1, JBL speakers, 1x USB Type-C with Thunderbolt, 2xUSB 3.0, 1xHeadphone/microphone combo jack. 1 x HDMI
- Windows 10 Home 64-Bit, Backlight Keyboard, Up to 10.5 hours Battery Life
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8.Acer Nitro
Features
- 10th Generation Intel Core i5-10300H Processor (Up to 4.5GHz)
- 15" Full HD Widescreen IPS LED-backlit 144Hz Refresh Display | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Graphics with 4 GB of dedicated GDDR6 VRAM
- 8GB DDR4 2933MHz Memory | 256GB NVMe SSD (2 x PCIe M.2 Slots - 1 Slot Open for Easy Upgrades) & 1 - Available Hard Drive Bay
- LAN: Killer Ethernet E2600 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN | Wireless: Intel Wireless Wi-Fi 6 AX201 802.11ax
- Backlit Keyboard | Acer CoolBoost Technology with Twin Fans and Quad Exhaust Ports Design
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9.Apple MacBook
Features
- Apple-designed M1 chip for a giant leap in CPU, GPU, and machine learning performance
- Go longer than ever with up to 18 hours of battery life
- 8-core CPU delivers up to 3.5x faster performance to tackle projects faster than ever
- Up to eight GPU cores with up to 5x faster graphics for graphics-intensive apps and games
- 16-core Neural Engine for advanced machine learning
- 8GB of unified memory so everything you do is fast and fluid
- Superfast SSD storage launches apps and opens files in an instant
- Fanless design for silent operation
- 13.3-inch Retina display with P3 wide color for vibrant images and incredible detail
- FaceTime HD camera with advanced image signal processor for clearer, sharper video calls
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10.ASUS ROG
Features
- 8th-Gen Intel Core i7-8750H processor. 6 cores, up to 3.9GHz (Boost clock)
- Powerful gaming performance with GTX 1050 Ti 4GB graphics
- 120Hz 17.3" Full HD display. Ultra-fast 3ms response time; Battery: 64WHrs, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion
- ASUS AURA SYNC customizable RGB Gaming Keyboard. Scar Edition design with Kevlar pattern on palm rest
- 128GB PCIe SSD + 1TB FireCuda Hybrid Drive (up to 5x faster performance than traditional HDD) for ideal combination of OS drive speed and storage capacity
- Gigabit Wave 2 WiFi. Up to 1.73Gbps with 2X2 802.11ac. USB 3.1 Type-C. HDMI 1.4. Mini Displayport
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Best Laptop for Film Students – BUYER’S GUIDE
Adobe Premiere vs Final Cut Pro X
The first thing you should right off the bat is to check with your college to see what they are recommeinding in the way of computers.
Usually you’ll find that either a Windows or an Apple laptop is reocmmended but there are still specific models that may be recommended.
More importantly check whether the school is either using Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere. If it’s the former, your options are limited and much simpler (but a bit too expensive). I’ll talk about cheaper options and what exact Mac Models you’ll need to run Final Cut Pro at the end of this post so you can jump right to it if you know you are going to working with it.
Adobe Premiere
Most of this section will assume you are going to run Adobe Premiere. Before we dwelve into the hardware details, let’s clear up what we mean by the following: encoding, rendering, transcoding and exporting:
CPU
The most important component in making a project take a day compared to a few hours. To pick the best processor for film editing you need to know at least two concepts about them:
Frequency(Hz): tells you how many operations a single core can complete per second.
Cores(dual core, quad core, hexa core): these physical cores act as “separate CPUs” within a CPU, they help you perform task faster by sharing the load among them. Not all operations can make use all of the “CPUs” within your CPU efficiently, most software can only take advantage of a single core for its operations.
Clock Speed (Frequency)
Encoding and applying effects are mostly frequency bound, that is, they depend the clock speed of your processor. There’s really no limit, the higher the better. Current laptop CPUs can go past 4GHz!
Rendering also benefits from the highest clock frequencies as well as multiple cores.
MultiCore Support
There are several third party benchmark studies that have concluded that exporting benefits from multi core CPUS far more than frequency (the limit is 8 cores with 1080p videos and 10 cores for 4k videos).
On the other hand, rendering can be a mixed bag. Sometimes it benefits from many many cores and other instances it does not. It depends on the sourface footage. Either they do benefit from than 2 cores so you’re always better off with a quad core processor or a six core processor.. You can check the studies carried out by pudget systems if you are interested.
RAM
How much RAM do I need?
It depends on how big your footage is, how long your average cuts are, etc..
How does RAM help film editing?
The more data you can fit into RAM, the faster your CPU will be able to operate on it for editing/rendering/encoding,etc.
So you’ll benefit from RAM until you can fit in all your source footage on it:
60min< : 8GB
+60min>: 16GB
When will I need more than 16GB?
Going beyond 16GB is usually unnnecessary unless you use Adobe After Effects and external plug-ins like Magic Bullet. Adobe After Effects works best when it has a ton of RAM to work with.
Storage
When footage doesn’t fit into RAM, your computer will go onto using your storage drive as a back up for processing. This can slow things down(though not significantly). Nevertheless all film editors will benefit from a fast storage drive.
HDD ( Hard Disk Drive)
Unfortunately the most common type of storages out there are the old and slow bricks called Hard Disk Drives. They’re way too slow today for pretty much anything including the film editing industry. In fact, having an HDD doesn’t just mean increased times between operations but also jumpy playback/dropped frames.
The good part is that these are crazy cheap for the amount of capacity they offer (usually no less than 1TB = 1000GB).
SSD ( Solid State Drive)
Solid State Drives are now the defact standard for anyone serious about film making. The fastest SSD out there (PCIe NVMe SSD) which most professionals go for are actually x17 faster at reading/writing than HDDs.
Where exactly will benefit from Solid State Drives?
Whenever you have to render, preview, load your raw data, outputting and exporting. Pretty much everywhere.
Transfering files from your camera to your computer will also be done several times faster.
As well as booting up your machine in less than 10 seconds and loading all your film editing software (including Adobe Premiere) within seconds. Not even exagerating here, I was suprised to see this myself.
Recommended Set Up
Anything that includes an SSD. Either an standalone low capacity SSD (+an external HDD as a back up/repository) or a regular sized – SSD paired with an 1TB HDD to act as a repository.
Use the SSD to contain the operating system, Adobe Premiere & Media cache. Leave all the rest to the HDD.
As long as you have an SSD on your laptop/desktop you’ll be golden.
PCIe NVMe SSD vs M.2 SATA III SSDs
You’ll only find SSDs of the these two types on modern laptops. The former will give you a 20% increased performance compared with the latter.
GPU
You don’t need to worry about graphics card if you are working with a basic 1080p assembly.
Applying Effects
That’s because not all effects take advantage of GPU acceleration. But if you are doing anything more intensive than basic assembly, like color correction/grading or even simple transitions like Cross Dissolve, you need to pay close attention to the graphics card, it must be dedicated either with NVIDIA or AMD name on it , not Intel HD.
Rendering
Your software will also go onto using the GPU to act as an extra “Core” for rendering, cutting down rendering times even more. That is , if you rely on any of these accelerated effects. If you are just rely on simple cuts and effects then a dedicated GPU will have no effect on the time it takes to render.
Video PlayBack
When playing back videos at much higher reoslutions (1080p) , perhaps with a 4k display or an external monitor, you’ll also benefit from a powerful GPU.
More specific benefits (and what kind of graphics card are best for each instance) have been thoroughly tested by Pudget Systems as well.
But to make it short and sweet …
- 4k Editing & serious film editing need at least a high end 9th or 10th generation GFX card: 960M, 970M,980M or 1060GTX,1070GTX,2060, 2070,2080RTX
- The 1070GTX /2070RTX should be the limit, there’s little benefit in going for the more powerful (and more expensive) XX80 cards.
- The bigger the timeline and the higher the resolution, the more powerful your graphics card needs to be.
- You’ll usually benefit the most with the graphics card that has more vRAM if you have to choose between two.
NVIDIA vs AMD
It’s not like there’s a bias. it’s just the fact that NVIDIA’s technology seems to outperform AMD’s. It’s more like CUDA vs Open CL.
CUDA vs Open CL *
NVIDIA has developed CUDA cores, which are like mini processors inside a GPU which can act as “additional cores” when rendering/exporting,etc.
AMD has OpenCL which is also supported by film editing software but apparently it doesn’t have the same performance as NVIDIA’s CUDA technology.
Workstation Cards
These offer little to no benefit than gaming cards and they’re extremely expensive. At this point, I would just avoid them unless you deal a lot with 10bit displays.
Display
Displays in laptops are just bad, you’ll probably have to resort an external monitor for the final touch ups.
Because laptops try to cut on prices by reducing display quality, there are still a few features you need to watch out for (that is a must haves).
IPS
In Plane Switching Technology (IPS) panels are expensive but they’re commmon among laptops that have a beefy CPU and GPU. There are just a few sneaky manufacturers which try to take them out. They’re not a must have but they’re a huge bonus: you’ll have better viewing angles and greater color accuracy.
Matte vs Glossy
The policy of this site is to recommend Matte Displays when possible. If you think you don’t have a problem with glares wherever you work at, you can settle for a Glossy finish.
1080p Resolution (full HD)
If you get a beefy CPU and a dedicated GPU (any), your laptop will come by default with a full HD resolution. This is a must have. If you rely on simple cuts/transitions for film editing and are not opting for a dGPU, then you will have to carefully watch out if your laptop doesn’t have it.
4k Editing
The moment you’ve probably been waiting for that’s because 4k videos seem to be the current trend.
You do not need a 4k display on a laptop to work with 4k Video editing. All you’re going to get is more worksapce for editing it, that’s it.
Your software will always scale down the resolution (since your editing window is much smaller).
If you want to do real 4k editing you either need a desktop or an external high resolution monitor.
Heat
When you look for a laptop, keep in mind that it will never match the performance you will get from a desktop system and that you should always have a proper notebook cooler to go with that laptop when you’re doing serious work.
back to menu ↑Frequently Asked Questions
Which is the most demanding film making domain, when computing resources are concerned?
Adding effects to the existing imagery or scenes via VFX or implementing exclusive CGI or Computer Generated Imagery are some of the most demanding aspects of movie-making. Either one of these tasks is both CPU and GPU-intensive and requires high-end laptops like the MSI P65 Creator to take care of.
How important is laptop portability for a film student?
A film making student needs to travel around the globe to study more about the filmmaking process. Therefore, it is desirable to have a light-weighted gadget and that too with a solid battery in place. Portability, in case of laptops, is the perfect balance between weight and battery backup, sans any performance compromises.
What are the benefits of Touchscreen displays for film making students?
Film making isn’t as straightforward as audio or video editing as there are several simultaneous processes involved. Moreover, every application has a different UI that requires continuous interactions with the system. This is why a touch panel comes in handy as it cuts down on the requirement of keyboard and touchpad for feeding in or interacting with the existing software.
Why workstation-notebooks aren’t always good for film making students?
Film making students often find it hard to invest in separate notebooks for work and entertainment. Therefore, if they get workstation-laptops for handling 3D modeling, CGI, color grading, compositing, VFX, and other demanding processes, it becomes difficult to indulge in leisure gaming due to the lack of the gaming prowess, mostly associated with Quadro GPUs. Moreover, workstations aren’t portable and therefore are popular among the students.
Which is the most powerful CGI tool for aspiring filmmakers and what computing resources does it use?
If you are looking for an excellent CGI tool that caters to professionals and students alike, you must consider the Autodesk Maya. The existing application software allows you to work with 3D animation, 3D modeling, shading, 3D rendering, and motion graphics. Therefore, for using Maya in the best possible manner, it is necessary to get a laptop with a powerful, HyperThreading, Intel i7 or i9 processor, and an RTX 20-series GPU with at least 6GB VRAM.
What are the essential software modules that every film making student must know how to use?
Besides Autodesk Maya, you need to get a good grasp of Adobe After Effects for proper video editing and compositing and even the all-encompassing DaVinci Resolve for efficient color grading. However, top-notch applications like these require powerful laptops, including overclocking processors, GPUs with support for ray tracing, and even sizeable RAM for handling multiple workflows with ease.
WRAP UP
Most importantly, these are only a few software selections and students often need to work with other similar combinations, based on the preferences and options provided by the institutes. As there are no generic devices that can fit in with every requirement, it is necessary to zero in on a few specifications, based on the preferred specializations.
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