No matter how good a videographer is or the quality of his video camera, he/she will hardly capture ‘perfect videos’, hence the need for video editing. Video editing is done on many different bases and with the intention of achieving many a set of or all of these goals. The mere fact that you are reading this article means you at least have a reason for editing videos.

Gone are the days when a video editor had to do all his editing at home or in his office on a desktop computer, simply because laptops were not able to handle the intensity and demand of video editing. Today that is not the case at all as more and more people prefer to do their video editing on the go and thus require laptops that are powerful enough to handle the demands.

If you are looking into getting a laptop that is suitable for video editing, it is very important that you are aware that not all laptops will even handle basic editing. When considering a laptop for video editing, it is important that you pay close attention to the following key specs:

Processor

Memory (RAM)

Storage

Graphics

Screen quality and resolution.

Now that you have an idea of the things to look for in a video editing laptop, lets go into more details on each component/aspect.

Processor

Processing power is the number one component to pay attention to. The processor is the brain of your laptop and the mastermind in video editing. The last place you want to short yourself on your photo editing laptop is the processor.

Intel or AMD ?

As it relates to the brand processor to select for video editing; both brands make solid quad core multi threaded CPU’s, but Intel processors are far more popular for this task and in fact, we do recommend Intel. The Skylake processors have been doing a wonderful job in the video editing arena—see list of Intel Skylake processors that are great for video editing. Quad Core Intel Xeon processor processors are more suitable for extremely high level editing.

Memory (RAM)

Video editing is extremely memory intensive and hence the reason for your Random Access Memory (RAM) being the second most important component in video editing. The RAM is responsible for the temporary storage of important in information and files needed while you edit a video. It therefore means that the more RAM your laptop has, the quicker your video editing program will temporarily store and have access to these vital files, thus giving you a smooth editing process free of lags and glitches.

Recommended amount of RAM?

The amount of memory you laptop will need for video editing depends on the intensity of your video editing which usually takes into consideration the video quality, length , specific software being used as well as the exact adjustments you are making to video whether it be cutting, merging, adding effects etc. Usually for light video editing, 8 GB RAM and higher is recommended. For more intense and heavy editing, 12 GB RAM will do an okay job, but 16 GB and possible higher will always be ideal.

Storage

Storage is extremely important for video editors and as a result, should be paid special attention to when considering a laptop

for video editing. It is imperative that storage capacity as well as speed is considered when deciding upon your video editing laptop as you will need to regularly save video footage as well as incomplete a completed projects as you are engaged in video editing.

What to get?

Gone are the days when we would say, ensure you get a 7200 RPM hard drive which will deliver da ta about 33% faster than the 5400 RPM hard drive. Today we say, go for a Solid State Drive (SSD) which is significantly faster than the fastest Hard drive and much better for video editing. Because SSDs are very expensive and rightfully so as their costs can be justified easily, it will take some hefty dollars to land a laptop with a massive SSD. Therefore, it is recommended you get a laptop with a small (128 GB & above) SSD as your primary storage where operating system and video editing programs as well as files that are needed instantly, along with a larger Hard drive for storage of your edited videos etc. Remember, videos are not text documents, pictures or music files; they are significantly larger and as such, the bigger storage capacity you can lure, get it.

Screen Size and resolution

Screen size and resolution are very important in video editing and usually are looked at side by side. In video editing a bigger sized screen is usually preferred as users are able to have access to their full toolbar on screen while still have enough work area space. A very large screen laptop can however reduce the portability of a laptop and thus defying the number one reason for getting a laptop for video editing. It is on this note why some users may want to consider a 15.6 inches screen laptop. It is very important to note here that though you may be comfortable with either a 15 inches or 17 inches laptop for video editing, the quality and screen resolution of that screen is the key. A good quality 15 inches screen with good screen resolution is better than a larger screen laptop with lower screen resolution. It goes vice versa. For video editing especially of high definition videos, go for no lower than a 1920 x 1080 resolution.

Graphics Card

Though graphics card it self as a component is not at the top of the priority list for a video editing laptop, a dedicated graphics card can come in very handy. A dedicated graphics card in your laptop can make your video editing application more responsive, especially if you utilizing 3D transitions and other special effects that a dedicated graphic card handles better than integrated graphics. This means , if you are looking for a video editing laptop, try to ensure it has a dedicated graphics card whether from Nvidia or AMD. Getting one with more video RAM could also be a nice thing to do as well as it does increase performance.

Conclusion

So there you have it, things to look for in a video editing laptop. When making your making your selection of a video editing laptop, be sure to take all the components into consideration based on the order they are placed in above. This means you will throw most of your attention at the processor and memory, but by no means, forgetting your screen size and resolution, storage and graphics.