How often do you experience your laptop for graphic designing running dead slow and you pulling your hair out of the frustration of being unable to open your project? Quite frequently? Not really? Yet to buy a laptop? Whatever is the answer, a handy portable design device powerful enough to handle the complicated tasks you perform is all you need.
Before you even start looking for your next or first graphic design laptop, understand your work and work requirements thoroughly. If it is more of a 3D design stuff, go for a high-end laptop, if working predominantly on 2D designs, a mid to low-end laptop will do it for you. Set your budget and other expectations in the design laptop of your dream. It is a decision worth spending time on and you need to be super careful when buying one.
Now that you have it sorted, let’s get back to the point. I had penned down 6 things to look for when buying a laptop for graphic design. So without further ado, let’s get started.
1. Operating System
This is more of a personal choice and like. If you are looking for a seamless design experience with amazing hardware, Mac is just the right one for you. On the other hand, if you prioritize customization, app compatibility, and the facility to upgrade the hardware components, then Windows is much better.
Of late, Apple is removing the ports from its devices to make them look slim and stylish. I believe this will be one of the frustrations in users as they’d find it difficult to plug-in multiple accessories. Otherwise, Apple laptops offer great performance to meet your design requirements.
The choice is yours, both the OS are really good. Read on to know the other factors worth considering when buying a graphic design laptop.
2. Processor
A processor or the CPU decides how fast your laptop would run. Graphic designing calls for a powerful processor to run the complex design software. It is highly recommended you go for an i5 or i7 processor laptop with a quad-core processor.
Secondly, check out the graphics card. A graphics card performs quick calculations while allowing the processor to perform other tasks. It speeds up the creation and rendering of graphics. For 3D designs, you may need a dedicated graphics card which will cost you extra bucks. If your designs are limited to 2D, an integrated graphics card chip is enough to run basic design software.
3. RAM
RAM or Memory holds all the essential information your system needs to access at any instant in time. If you are a multitasker with multiple complex applications running in the background, try to choose a laptop with as much memory as possible, ideally an 8GB RAM.
Make sure your laptop has the facility to upgrade the RAM as RAM is paramount to your design applications. Go with a decent 8GB RAM and later on if need be, you anyway have the memory expansion option.
4. Storage capacity
Hard Drives are the permanent storage in the computers. Strictly speaking, Hard Disk Drives are outdated. They are quite affordable but in a laptop with HDD, speed would surely take a hit.
Typically, laptops come with a 500BB or 1TB HDD. 1TB HDD should just be fine for storing the design software, complex files, and projects. Seagate is the top hard drive manufacturing company and most laptops come equipped with it.
The Solid State Drive (SSD), however, is the most preferred one these days as it makes rendering and fetching of files and projects seamless. The good news is that SSDs are getting affordable with tech advancing every single day.
5. Screen Size And Display
Who likes to design and create on a small screen? With all the design software flooded with menus, tools, font and color palettes, templates, and more elements, it becomes almost impossible to draw in that miniature workspace. Look for laptops with a screen size of more than 15 inches and you will find yourself a great workspace to execute your ideas.
The display is yet another key factor to check out for while planning to buy a graphic design laptop. Smaller resolution screens with 1366Χ768 resolution and lesser don’t precisely define your designs, which is of course not healthy for your designing endeavors.
A laptop running with a resolution of 1920X1080 is all you need for your momentous designing projects. If you need an even larger workspace, you would have to slack your pocket on a 4K TV or monitor.
6. Color Accuracy
Colour accuracy represents the ability of a display to produce colors and shades as intended. Inaccurate colors can ruin all your hard work as it impacts the audience’s emotions and can ultimately shape into a nasty user experience.
It is measured in terms of Delta-E which indicates whether the display is completely color accurate or not. A lower Delta-E score is a good indicator of healthy accuracy. The recommended number is 5 or below.
Talking about color accuracy goes with a color gamut. The range of colors any device can produce or record is known as a color gamut. Why is it important for you? All the color-utilizing devices with the likes of digital cameras, smartphones, PCs, laptops, tablets, scanners can correctly produce sRGB color gamut. This means that images can be reproduced across devices consistently without quality degradation.
Final Word
Summing it up, these were the most important things to look for when buying a graphic design laptop. I hope you found this purchase guide useful and that it added some value to your pursuit of buying the right laptop for your design endeavors. Wish you the very best in your creative career!
