Welcome to our guide of the best laptops for art students. No matter what creative course you are studying or which institution you attend, whether it is school or university, this list has laptops for everyone, from illustration and programming students to design and engineering.
Keep in mind that when choosing the Best Laptops for Art Students, there are some important things you have to consider. Ideally, a laptop should last you the entire race, if not longer, and should be balanced between quality and price.
Quick Views
- 1. Dell Latitude 7490
- 2. Apple MacBook Air
- 3. Acer Switch 3 – Cheap laptop for students
- 4. Dell G5 15 5590
- 5. MacBook Pro 15-inch (2019)
- 6. Microsoft Surface Pro 6
- 7. Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 (For art students who want to draw)
- 8. Asus Chromebook Flip – (The best Chromebook for arts students)
- 9. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Mobile Workstation
- 10. Microsoft Surface Go
Other things to consider when buying an art student laptop is battery life, as students can be in classes and lectures all day, so getting a laptop that can last several hours between charges is essential.
The Best Laptops for Art Students
Another important aspect to consider is storage. If you are a student in a creative field, especially, you will want a laptop that comes with a lot of hard disk space to store your work. For students of photography, video editing, and music production, we recommend going for at least 1TB. If you specialize in image editing, you may also want to consider one of these best art student laptops.
Having a large screen and a comfortable keyboard to use are also characteristics of the best laptops for art students since you will work on them for long periods of time.
Then, read on to know our selection of the Best Laptops for Art Students, and let our list of pros and cons help you decide. Let’s start!
1. Dell Latitude 7490
The Dell Latitude 7490 is our choice for the best overall art student laptop. This is because they have all the perfect features for students. Its modern components are powerful enough for daily work, with an SSD that maintains the speed of the laptop while offering plenty of space for your important files and courses.
It also has excellent battery life, which means you can take it with you at school or on campus all day without worrying about running out of energy. Best of all, it has a reasonable price so that you won’t be spending a fortune, and Dell allows you to customize the Latitude 7490 so you can build a laptop that suits your needs and budget.
- CPU: 8th-generation Intel Core i3 – i7
- Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620
- RAM: 4GB – 16GB
- Storage: 128GB SSD – 512GB SSD
- Excellent performance
- Great battery life
- Dell exclusive power supply
2. Apple MacBook Air (2019) – Best if money is not an issue
If you have an exclusive and decent amount of money to spend on a laptop, or if your parents feel particularly generous, then the Apple MacBook Air (2019) is quite possibly the best student laptop you can buy. Apple has renewed its thin and light notebook, adding True Tone technology to its screen and an even more reliable keyboard.
The hardware specs remain the same as the 2018 version, but what makes the MacBook Air a good choice for students is its reliable performance, slim design (which makes it comfortable to carry in a backpack all day), and excellent battery life. It is not the most powerful laptop on this list, so if you need something for heavy graphics editing, check out the MacBook Pro, which is also on this list.
- CPU: 1.6GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
- Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 617
- RAM: 8GB – 16GB
- Display: 13.3-inch (diagonal) 2,560 x 1,600 LED-backlit display with IPS technology
- Storage : 128GB – 1TB SSD
- Dimensions: 11.97 x 8.36 x 0.61 inches (30.41 x 21.24 x 1.56cm; W x D x H)
- Good design
- The screen is excellent
- Fantastic battery life
- New lower price
- Lack of power
- Lack of storage space
3. Acer Switch 3 - Cheap for students
The Acer Switch 3 is our choice for the best cheap student laptop. It's one of the best 2-in-1 hybrid laptops/tablets, making it a versatile little student device, and it's small enough to take with you on campus or between classes easily. Despite its low price, it's solidly built and has a decent amount of power, especially if you go for a version with 8GB of RAM and an Intel Core i3 processor.
This laptop is perfect for day to day, to write tasks, and even for a relaxing moment on Netflix, this is an excellent and affordable option for students.
- CPU: 1.10GHz Intel Pentium Quad Core N4200 – Intel Core i3 7100U
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 505
- RAM: 4GB
- Screen: 12.2-inch, 1920 x 1200 IPS LCD touchscreen
- Storage : 64GB – 128GB eMMC
- Much power
- Fantastic 4K screen
- Great user experience.
- Heavy
- Expensive
4. Dell G5 15 5590
While being a student is certainly hard work, you do need to have a little bit of downtime, so when you're taking a break from your studies, you may want to let off some steam with a little play. If that's the case, you'll want a powerful but affordable gaming laptop, so the Dell G5 15 5590 is a good choice.
The Dell 15 5590 has decent specs that will play the latest games smooth at 1080p, plus a sleek design and great build quality, all for an incredibly low selling price. Perhaps best of all, it offers 10 hours of battery life, which is quite unknown in gaming laptops, and means you can use it as a productivity laptop when you need to work.
- CPU: up to 9th generation Intel Core i7-9750H
- Graphics: up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 with Max-Q
- RAM: 8GB – 16GB
- Display: 15.6 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS 300-nits – 15.6 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) 300nits IPS Anti-Glare LED with 144Hz refresh rate
- Storage: 128GB SSD + 1TB HDD – 1TB SSD
- The perfectly balanced feature set
- Strong gaming performance
- Very good battery life
- Confusing configuration options
5. MacBook Pro 15-inch (2019)
Chosen as one of the best graphic design laptops on our list, if that's what you're studying, it would be hard to find a better one than the 15-inch MacBook Pro.
This incredibly powerful laptop has had a hardware update for this year, making it more powerful than ever, and its discrete AMD graphics means it is powerful enough to handle intensive graphic design tasks. It is expensive, but the powerful components, as well as Apple's renowned build quality, means that it is a laptop that will last for years, both during your studies and when you get a job.
- CPU: 9th-generation Intel Core i7 – i9
- Graphics: AMD Radeon Pro 555X – 560X, Intel UHD Graphics 630
- RAM: 16GB – 32GB
- Display: 15.4-inch, 2,880 x 1,800 Retina display
- Storage: 512GB – 4TB SSD.
- Dimensions (H x W x D): 34.93 x 24.07 x 1.55cm
- Powerful
- Decent configuration options
- The screen is still beautiful
- Expensive
- Lack of ports
- Keyboard concerns remain
6. Microsoft Surface Pro 6
Microsoft's Surface Pro 6 is an ideal laptop for programming students, thanks to its compact design, excellent build quality, and powerful components.
Its Intel quad-core processor and a decent amount of RAM (choose between 8 GB and 16 GB) means that you can compile code quickly and easily, and as you run Windows 10, you don't have to worry about compatibility issues. Just be aware that you'll have to pay more for the Type Cover, which adds a keyboard.
- CPU: 5th-Generation Intel Core i5-i7
- Graphics: Intel UHD Graphics 620
- RAM: 8-16GB
- Screen: 12.3-inch, 2,736 x 1,824 PixelSense display
- Storage: 128GB-1TB SSD
- Connectivity: 802.11ac Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.1
- Camera: 8MP rear-facing, 5MP front-facing
- Weight: 1.73 pounds
- Size: 11.5 x 7.93 x 0.33 inches
- Quad-core processor
- Incredibly portable
- Without USB-C
7. Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 (For students who want to draw)
The Dell XPS 15 2-in-1 is one of the best convertible laptops in the world, with a lot of energy in an impressively thin body. It offers enough power to keep up with graphic design applications, and its touchscreen works great with a stylus, making it the ideal choice for students who need a laptop they can draw on.
It is thin and light enough to carry it comfortably with you, and also offers a decent amount of connectivity, which includes two Thunderbolt 3 and two USB-C, plus a headphone jack and a MicroSD card reader. It's expensive, but Dell often presents this laptop in its stores, so you can often find it at a very attractive price.
- CPU: Intel Core i5-i7
- Graphics: Radeon RX Vega M GL Graphics with 4GB HMB2 Graphics Memory
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 512GB PCIe SSD
- Awesome design
- Stunning integrated graphics
- A bit noisy
8. Asus Chromebook Flip - (The best Chromebook for students)
Chromebooks are fantastic devices for students, thanks to their low prices, great battery life, and, especially with laptops such as the Asus Chromebook Flip, a great build quality.
This 2-in-1 Chromebook runs Google's ChromeOS. It's different from Windows 10 and can't run Windows applications. Still, it's easy to understand, and ChromeOS has thousands of applications (along with Android applications, which you can now run), which means you'll probably find an alternative.
The benefit of ChromeOS is that it is lightweight, so the batteries last longer and are safer: you don't need to worry about viruses. It also has a large selection of parental controls. The Asus Chromebook Flip comes with an Intel Core processor and a Full HD screen.
- CPU: Intel Pentium 4405Y – Intel Core m3-6Y30
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 515
- RAM: 4GB
- Display: 12.5-inch, FHD (1,920 x 1,080) LED backlit anti-glare
- Storage: 32GB – 64GB eMMC
- Stylish tablet mode
- Touch keyboard
- Not compatible with Android apps
- Medium speakers
9. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Mobile Workstation
If you're looking for a workhorse and have the funds for it, Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Extreme Mobile Workstation is the best laptop for engineering students. It's an incredibly powerful laptop that can handle even the most demanding applications and programs, and it comes with a sturdy aluminum and carbon fiber body that will outlast any field job.
This is not going to be a laptop that suits all students, due to its high price and quality components, but for art students looking for a laptop that can handle complex tasks with ease, then this laptop is worth considering.
- CPU: up to 8th-generation Intel Core i7
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti with Max-Q design
- RAM: up to 64GB
- Screen: 15.6 “FHD (1920 x 1080) – 15.6” 4K UHD HDR (3840 x 2160) multi-touch
- Storage: up to 1TB SSD
- Much power
- Fantastic 4K screen
- Great user experience.
- Heavy
- Expensive
10. Microsoft Surface Go
Microsoft's affordable Surface Go is a great laptop/tablet hybrid for students who want something portable and stylish for general word processing.
As a Microsoft device, you can be sure that you run Office programs, such as Word and Excel, with ease, and it is a small, bright device for quickly pointing notes, or if you get the keyboard, writing full essays. The beautiful PixelSense screen is also great for watching Netflix in your spare time.
- CPU: Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 615
- RAM: 4GB – 8GB
- Screen: 10-inch 1,800 x 1,200 PixelSense Display
- Storage: 64GB – 128GB SSD
- Affordable
- Beautiful style
- The keyboard comes separately
Conclusion
Previous laptops are included with all the features present in a graphics tablet, so you don't have to add any other external or peripheral accessories for your illustrations. In short, you're looking for a laptop with an excellent touchscreen, accurate colors, and one that has a stylus capable of understanding different pressure levels.
The laptop must also be powerful enough for its drawing software to run smoothly on it. It must be lightweight and portable so that you can also transport it. Additionally, artists must select a laptop for their drawing work that allows them to edit their work professionally. These are some of the laptops that are ideal for drawing and worth buying.
