Selecting the right laptop model to do video editing work can be intimidating since there are so many different possible hardware configurations and each one promises to be better than the others.
Aspects to consider are hardware performance, battery life, platform specific software and more.
We are inki.tech, a Device-as-a-Service provider that provides businesses with laptops and other devices in exchange for a monthly fee.
This article contains a list of the top 10 best laptops for video editing, based on our observations and discussions with our clients on which laptops are best for video editing.
3 Things to know before buying a laptop for video editing
Windows vs MacBook
Historically, most video editors have favored MacBooks instead of Windows laptops.
On a technical level, Apple has invested very heavily in optimizing MacBook hardware for creative work such as video and photo editing.
This includes hardware features such as the integrated media engines built into MacBook processors, specifically designed to work with media files. The screen itself is also exceptional for video editing since it has near perfect color accuracy.
Next is the fact that certain video editing software, such as Final Cut Pro, is only available for MacBook devices.
Finally, MacBooks tend to be more reliable in long term use compared to Windows laptops.
A MacBook Pro purchased in 2020 will have almost identical performance now, 5 years later.
By comparison, it’s a lottery if a Windows gaming laptop purchased five years ago will still turn on today (we’re exaggerating of course, but not by a lot).
For Windows laptops, choose laptops with Nvidia GPUs
Nearly every dedicated laptop GPU is produced by Nvidia or AMD. Both these manufacturers produce excellent GPUs, but Nvidia is frequently a better choice because they have better optimized software than AMD.
Without getting into too much detail, it’s because Nvidia’s software architecture relies on a technology called CUDA, while AMD uses OpenCL. Over the years, CUDA has proven to be better architecture compared to OpenCL, at least when it comes to video editing.
Another unique Nvidia technology is called NVENC (Nvidia Encoder). This technology uses specialized hardware found inside Nvidia GPUs that greatly helps with video encoding.
In real use, NVENC is much faster than AMD at encoding videos, meaning you spend less time waiting around for a video to be rendered.
Gaming laptops tend to be excellent for video editing
As it so happens, a gaming laptop is almost always a great choice for video editing. This is because the hardware required to efficiently run a video game can just as easily run a video editing program.
For professionals in creative fields, such as photo or video editing, 3D modeling and more, a gaming laptop is an exceptional, if unintentional, mobile workstation.
However, the same cannot be said of traditional office laptops such as the Dell Precision 5490 or ThinkPad X1. This is because these laptops have integrated GPUs, instead of dedicated GPUs.
An integrated GPU is a small processor built into the CPU that can only handle relatively simple graphics processing tasks.
On the other hand, a gaming laptop has a dedicated GPU that is separate from the CPU and is much larger, but also much more performant. This is partially why gaming laptops are so much heavier and thicker than traditional office laptops.
The Definitive Top 10 Laptops for Video Editing in 2025
Top 10 Laptops for Video Editing
The following table provides a high-level overview of our top 10 selections for 2025, categorized to allow for rapid identification of the most suitable models based on budget, workflow, and primary use case.
| Model | Price Tier (€) | New/Used |
| Acer Nitro V 15 | €1000 – €1500 | New |
| Dell G15 (5530) | €1000 – €1500 | New |
| Dell XPS 15 (9520) | €1000 – €1500 | Used |
| Razer Blade 15 (2022/23) | €1000 – €1500 | Used |
| Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (Gen 9) | €1500 – €2500 | New |
| ASUS TUF Gaming A16 | €1500 – €2500 | New |
| MacBook Pro 14″ (M2 Pro) | €1500 – €2500 | Used |
| Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 | €1500 – €2500 | Used |
| MacBook Pro 16″ (M4 Pro/Max) | €2500+ | New |
| Alienware m18 R2 / Razer Blade 16 | €2500+ | Used |
Acer Nitro V 15 (NEW) (€900 to €1200)
Summary:
The Acer Nitro V 15 is a budget gaming laptop designed for aspiring editors, students, and YouTubers who require strong GPU-accelerated performance without a substantial upfront investment. It has good processing capabilities but sacrifices premium features.
Specifications:
A typical Nitro V 15 configuration comes with a capable 13th Generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processor (or an AMD Ryzen 7 equivalent in the ANV15-41 model) with a modern NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 laptop GPU.
This combination provides ample power for editing 1080p and even 4K footage, with the RTX GPU significantly accelerating rendering and playback in supported applications like DaVinci Resolve and Premiere Pro.
However, the good performance comes with a critical compromise: the display. Base models of the Nitro V 15 are often equipped with panels that exhibit poor color gamut coverage, frequently measuring around 65% of the sRGB spectrum and 45% of the NTSC standard.
This limitation renders the built-in screen unsuitable for any professional color grading or color-sensitive work. For such tasks, the use of an external, color-accurate monitor is mandatory.
Another significant weakness is its battery life, which in our experience, often lasts only 2 to 3 hours even under light workloads.
This means the Acer Nitro V 15 needs to be tethered to a power outlet for any serious use.
Dell G15 (5530) (NEW) (€1100 – €1300)
Summary:
A direct competitor to the Acer Nitro V, the Dell G15 (5530) offers similar hardware performance but with a better chassis and more configuration options, including a much better screen.
It is a good choice for students and content creators who prioritize configurations with a better CPU performance and a better-quality display.
Specifications:
The Dell G15 uses Intel’s high-performance 13th Gen HX-series processors paired with NVIDIA GPUs ranging from the RTX 3050 to the more capable RTX 4060.
Like its Acer counterpart, the base model’s display is a significant compromise, often featuring a panel with only 45% NTSC color gamut coverage. However, Dell offers crucial upgrade options to a 165Hz panel that covers 100% of the sRGB color space.
Selecting this upgraded display makes the G15 a much more viable all-in-one solution for creators, though this configuration pushes the price towards €1500.
Unfortunately, the G15 can struggle with thermal management during sustained work periods (meaning it can suffer from performance throttling to protect against overheating).
And just like the Acer Nitro V15, battery life is limited to a few hours at best.
Dell XPS 15 (9520, 2022) (USED) (€880 to €1300)
Summary:
A used Dell XPS 15 (9520) is great for users who want a video editing laptop that prioritizes display quality and build integrity over maximum gaming performance.
It is an ideal machine for photographers who also edit videos, documentary filmmakers, and any visual creator who absolutely needs a color accurate screen for their workflow.
Specifications:
The best version of the Dell XPS 15 has a 3.5K OLED display, which provides excellent contrast and covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut—a level of color fidelity that is simply unattainable in new laptops within the 1000 to 1500 euros bracket.
For processing, the Dell XPS 15 contains an Intel 12th Gen Core i7-12700H processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU.
Altough a bit on the older side, this hardware is still capable of 4K editing workflows, particularly within Adobe Premiere Pro where the Intel CPU’s Quick Sync technology can accelerate H.264/HEVC timelines.
Finally, the device itself has a design that feels premium and attractive. It is made from a precision-milled aluminum chassis, a comfortable carbon fiber palm rest, a top-tier keyboard and trackpad, and the inclusion of a full-size SD card reader—a vital port for many creators.
Razer Blade 15 (USED) (€1100 to €1500)
Summary:
The Razer Blade 15 feels like the “MacBook of Windows” because of its design and excellent performance.
Unfortunately, the good performance and elegant design is dragged down by the brand’s mixed reputation for long-term reliability.
Specifications:
A used Razer Blade 15 (2022, 2023) has an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU which offers more than enough power for applications like DaVinci Resolve and 3D rendering.
The Razer Blade 15 comes with a QHD (2560×1440) display with 240Hz refresh rates.
It has good color gamut coverage and provides a sharp and vibrant canvas for editing.
The build quality is a major selling point, with a rigid and minimalist design that appeals to many creative professionals.
However, the brand has a well-documented history of issues with battery bloat, where the internal battery swells over time, and other quality control inconsistencies.
Therefore, purchasing from a reputable seller with a return policy and thoroughly inspecting the device’s physical condition and battery health is essential.
As with other high-performance gaming laptops, battery life is a significant weakness.
Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (NEW) (€1800 to €2400)
Summary:
The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro is a balanced laptop designed for editors and creators who require strong, sustained performance across both CPU and GPU-intensive tasks, coupled with a superior display and robust, reliable build quality.
Specifications:
A major advantage of the Legion series is its exceptional thermal design. This is not a trivial feature since it allows multiple advantages.
First, the good cooling systems allows gives it powerful components, such as the Intel Core i7-14650HX processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 or RTX 4070 GPU.
Secondly, the Legion 5 Pro can stay cool for longer periods, allowing it to maintain high clock speeds and power draw for extended periods without significant thermal throttling. This sustained performance is critical for long video exports and complex rendering tasks.
Another feature is the 16-inch QHD+ (2560×1600) display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. This taller aspect ratio provides more vertical screen real estate, which is useful for viewing video timelines.
Depending on what screen configuration you choose, the display offers high brightness (up to 500 nits) and excellent color coverage, with options for 100% sRGB or 100% DCI-P3.
Battery life is better than many of its direct competitors, but it’s still quite modest, providing around 4 to 6 hours of light, non-editing use.
ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (NEW) (around €1600)
Summary:
The ASUS TUF Gaming A16 is an exception to the Nvidia/Windows laptops on this list since it is uses an AMD CPU and GPU.
Video encoding might be as good as laptops with Nvidia GPUs, but it compensates for this with excellent battery life for the price, as well as good performance in work processes that require more CPU power than GPU power.
Specifications:
The ASUS TUF Gaming A16 comes with a AMD Ryzen 7 or Ryzen 9 paired with a capable AMD Radeon RX 7600S or RX 7700S dedicated GPU.
The CPU performance is a standout characteristic, with the high-end Ryzen chips often exceeding the performance of more expensive Intel-based laptops in multi-threaded tasks.
Its most significant advantage, however, is battery life since AMD processors tend to be more efficient than Intel CPUs.
In our testing, we often reached 10 hours of light use, which is very rare to find in the high-performance gaming laptop category.
The 16-inch display comes in either FHD+ and QHD+ resolutions, with both options providing excellent color coverage (100% sRGB or 100% DCI-P3), making the A16 suitable for color-accurate work out of the box.
It is important to note, however, that while the Radeon GPU is very capable, NVIDIA’s CUDA architecture and NVENC media engine are generally better supported and offer superior performance in many creative applications, including Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.
Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch (€1600 to €2200)
Summary:
A used or refurbished 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 Pro chip offers an excellent combination of performance, a world-class display, and industry-leading battery life at a significantly lower price than newer MacBook Pro models.
Specifications:
The Apple M2 Pro system-on-a-chip (SoC), with its 10 or 12 CPU cores and 16 or 19 GPU cores, provides more than enough power to effortlessly edit multiple streams of 4K ProRes footage in real-time.
This smooth performance with professional codecs is dramatically enhanced by the dedicated hardware accelerators in Apple’s Media Engine.
The MacBook Pro (M2) has a 14-inch Liquid Retina XDR display, which utilizes Mini-LED technology for best-in-class brightness, contrast and color accuracy, that is superior to nearly any Windows laptop display available in the ~2000 euro range.
The battery life is exceptional and often reaches 15 or so hours with light use.
Most importantly, however, it has excellent performance and great long-term reliability meaning you can confidently use this laptop for many years into the future, even if the laptop is already 2-3 years old at the time of purchase.
Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 (2023) (USED) (€1500 – €1800)
Summary:
A powerful and stylish used option that strikes a good balance between high performance and a more portable chassis. It is a good fit for video editors who need significant power on in a portable device but find laptops like the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro too bulky.
Specifications:
The Zephyrus G15 combines good hardware in laptop that is both thin and light.
A 2023 model usually comes with an AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU with an NVIDIA RTX 3070 GPU.
It has a QHD (2560×1440), 165Hz display with above average color accuracy and fast response times suitable for both editing and gaming.
However, its primary trade-off comes from its compact design. The thermal system, while capable, is less robust than that of its larger competitors like the Legion series. Under extreme, sustained workloads, this can lead to higher fan noise and a greater potential for performance throttling.
Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (NEW) (€2,999+)
Summary:
The Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch with the M4 Pro or M4 Max chip is without a doubt the best laptop in the world for mobile video editing.
It is the no-compromise laptop for professionals who want (and can afford) the absolute best in performance, display technology, and battery life and software optimization for video editing.
Specifications:
The M4 Pro and M4 Max, delivers performance that rivals (or even exceeds) that of high-end desktop workstations.
These chips can handle demanding 4K, 6K, and 8K video editing workflows with ease.
The Media Engines in the M4 series chips are also specially designed to work with ProRes or ProRes RAW footage. This results in a level of real-time performance and rendering speed that Windows based laptops struggle to match.
The 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display is the industry standard for laptop screens, offering unparalleled peak brightness for HDR content, perfect black levels thanks to its Mini-LED backlighting, and flawless color accuracy covering the wide P3 gamut.
Battery life is another major strength of the MacBook Pro and can last 24 hours of light usage.
The port selection offers multiple Thunderbolt 5 ports for high-speed data transfer, an HDMI 2.1 port for external displays, and a built-in SDXC card slot to expand memory storage.
Alienware m18 R2 (USED) (€2500 – €3000)
Summary:
A one-year-old flagship gaming laptop like the Alienware m18 R2 provides maximum graphics power for applications like DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premier and even 3D modeling, but at the cost of portability and, of course, money.
Specifications:
Purchasing a Alienware m18 R2 on the second-hand market provides access to top-tier components like the Intel Core i9-14900HX and, most importantly, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 or RTX 4090 Laptop GPU.
This level of GPU horsepower can exceed even that of the MacBook Pro M4 or M4 Pro and provides excellent performance for GPU-centric tasks, such as applying numerous noise reduction and color grading nodes in DaVinci Resolve.
The screen is large at 18-inch and comes with a 2560 x 1600 resolution and high refresh rate.
The color accuracy is good, but a step below the factory-calibrated panels on other laptop models.
Important reminder though, the Alienware m18 R2 is a large, heavy, and demanding laptop that delivers peak performance only when connected to a power source. This makes it more of a portable desktop rather than an easy to carry laptop.
