Nowadays, a lot of people believe that every laptop is good for producing music. However, in reality, not all ordinary laptops have suitable characters to produce music with high-quality sounds.
Therefore, what is the best laptop for music production? Also, what are the main features to consider when buying a laptop? While many music professions are choosing Macbook for their works, is that kind of laptop too expensive for you?
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To answer the questions, the article below gives you the list of 7 best laptops for music production and the features you should consider when buying, which is essential for any customers looking for the best suitable laptop with them.
Contents
Top 7 Best Laptops For Music Production 2021
#1 Dell XPS 13
The best laptop on our list is Dell XPS 13, which is an affordable device and gives you the same experience as other high price laptops such as a Microsoft or Mac notebook. The newest version features the updated 10th generation Intel Core i5-i7 processing, has 8GB RAM and 2.5Hz clock time.
Moreover, the best laptop producers prefer the laptop for its design and screen with powerful spec.
Pros
- Sleek design
- Gorgeous screen
- Long battery life
Cons
- Lacks HDMI ports
Dell XPS 13 is a favored laptop by many professional music producers for the great experiences it gives. Besides, a powerful processor and a big RAM are remarkable features for you to choose it.
#2 Micro Surface Laptop 2
Micro Surface laptop 2 is the second attempt of Microsoft to produce a perfect laptop device for producing music, which is also easily portable. This laptop features Intel Core i5-i7, uses more than 8GB RAM, which can handle five to 25 audio tracks. Besides, this device is well equipped with SSD instead of HDD, so your data can be transferred in minutes.
Moreover, it also has premium build quality and design, which is well worth investing in.
Pros
- The power level is competitive
- A lovely black color scheme
- DAW software
- Not too expensive
Cons
- Lack of Thunderbolt 3 option
- Not enough ports for its size
Despite some of its lacking, this laptop is loved for its impressive quality and design, giving prospects a powerful Windows 10 laptop experience. Overall, it is the best laptop for music production.
#3 Apple Macbook Pro M1 13″
Coming to a studio, you can easily see a Mac laptop. Windows computer is becoming more and more popular. However, a Mac laptop is still mainly used in the laptop market.
Apple Macbook Pro M1 13″ combines CPU, GPU, and memory into one chip, making unprecedented boosts in performance, speeds, and battery life. It also has a RAM of more than 8GB and the storage of 256GB to 2TB, which gives an impressive computer experience. Besides, it has a 13.3″ Retina display screen, which is quite convenient while producing music.
Pros
- A potentially incredible performance
- A long battery life
- Weighs less than 2Ibs
Cons
- An old design
- Expensive
Apple Macbook Pro M1 13″ is suitable for professional music producers who want to have excellent laptop experience and have to handle much software at the same time. Besides, its battery life is an additional feature making it so popular through the ages.
#4 Macbook Air
After having not been updated for many years, Macbook Air was renewed in 2019, making it one of the best laptops for music production. Although Macbook Air is not as powerful as Macbook Pro, it is suitable for prospects who need a small and convenient laptop without high specifications.
The laptop features a 12-inch screen and has a fifth-generation 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5 processor with turbo boost.
Pros
- Affordable price
- Incredibly thin
- Long battery life
- Turbo boost
Cons
- The processor is not so powerful
Apple’s products are often beloved by music producers because of their being easy to navigate. While others have high prices, this type of laptop is not only cheap but also meet necessarily minimum requirements
#5 Lenovo Yoga 730
If you do not have high investment capital, but you still want a 2 in 1 laptop, this is for you.
Lenovo Yoga 730 uses an Intel i7 processor, which is the main reason for its impressive speeds without an SSD. Although it does not run long, about 4 to 5 hours, it is still a beast of a piece of equipment.
Besides, if users want to increase the storage space, they can use the external hard drive, which is sometimes best for your work.
Pros
- i7 processor
- The cooling is quite
- Both for gaming and music producing
- 2-in-1 laptop
- Quite cheap
Cons
- Running in a short time
- Slow with a significant workload
If you find a small and 2-in-1 laptop without working for long hours, this laptop best suits you. Besides, its low price is quite suitable for some customers who want to save money
#6 ASUS Vivobook Pro 17
If you are willing to pay for a powerful and big display, ASUS Vivobook Pro 17 maybe meet your needs. Although it is not as perfect as others, this laptop with quite a stunning design and that the rate between laptop and the screen is 85% are the reasons convincing many prospects.
To more detail, it uses the CPU Intel core i5 and has a RAM of 8GB and an SSD instead of an HDD
Pros
- A bigger screen compared to others
- Affordable
- Additional 1TB hardware
Cons
- Not powerful processor
Although it is lacking the ability to run smoothly while using many apps, this laptop is worth investing in because of its impressively colossal screen and low price but still being capable of producing high-quality songs and sounds
#7 HP ZBook Studio
Recently, several customers have been searching for a laptop that can do serious works fast and carry with easily. One of the best portable laptops meeting these needs is HP Zbook Studio. This laptop is well equipped with a CPU 2.8GHz Intel Xeon, different from other ordinary laptops. It also has 16GB RAM and SSD 512GB. Significantly, the graphics Nvidia Quadra M1000M in the laptop are often recognized in professional devices.
Pros
- Enormously powerful processor
- Easily portable
- Battery life is astounding
Cons
- Design is not attractive
- Thick body
With professional music producers who find a powerful and portable laptop, HP Zbook Studio is an intelligent choice. Although it does not have a quite impressive design, it absolutely can give a great experience.
Features to Consider When Choosing Laptop for Music Production
CPU
Always CPU is the first specification every customer should consider when choosing a laptop for its function as a “brain” of the laptop. It is used to run programs, perform calculations and carry out actions.
Firstly, the best laptops for producing music should have a dual or even quad-core processor because the more processors, the faster the laptop will be to perform more tasks simultaneously.
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Secondly, it is suggested that prospects choose a laptop that has a high frequency in the CPU. The frequency should not be lower than 2.2GHz, which makes the home recording more easily.
Lastly, some customers ask about the difference between Core i3, i5, and i7. Shortly, it stands for models of processors of company Intel. The more significant numbers, the better they are, and the more capabilities they have. However, bearing in mind that the higher price is also for, the newer updated version.
RAM
Random-access memory or RAM is the short-term working memory. This part of the laptop is like a wallet from which you take money to pay for your needs. However, whenever you shut down your laptop, the money from this wallet disappears also.
Therefore, to produce music and primarily, 4GB to 8GB of RAM is more than enough to run any DAW software. However, if you have to work multiple tasks or add more plug-ins to your processor, you maybe need a laptop with more RAM (perhaps 16GB or even 32GB).
Besides, you also should think about RAM ports if you have to advance your RAM in the future.
Storages
Some customers often find it quite hard to consider storage when buying a laptop. To store a crazily considerable number of data, the laptop’s space is not calculated with megabytes but gigabytes.
For this reason, often, SSD (Solid State Drive) is highly recommended because it can run without too much noise, more smoothly, and even incredibly faster compared to HDD (Hard Disk Drive). However, this is not entirely necessary if you can not afford an SSD. In general, because most of the data are saved on the RAM, it is much more important to have a good RAM than an SSD.
About the size, a 512GB SSD is the best for the DAW software. But if you have a high budget, you can choose to buy a smaller SDD, at either 256GB or 128GB, and use an external hard drive to save your data.
Graphics Cards
In some cases, the additional graphic added in the newest processor is too powerful that you do not need unique graphics cards. In contrast, if you have to add more plug-in with many graphics, a graphic card’s importance is undeniable. Therefore, the top graphic cards are not entirely necessary, but some original graphic cards such as MX150 improve your laptop’s efficiency.
Moreover, if you play games, you will need better graphic cards ( a GPU Nvidia GTX 1050 or 1060)
On the other hand, a powerful GPU often makes noise when it works at high speed. For that reason, when only making music, you should choose a weaker GPU.
FAQs
What Is Kind Of Laptop Best For Music Production?
If you find the best laptop for Music Production, you should check out the Apple products because of their reputation and popularity in this market. However, if you find the best ones in lower capital, you can also find Microsoft products.
Is A MacBook Pro Good For Music Production?
A MacBook Pro is perfect for either primary or professional music production for its powerful processor and high quality in a long time. However, if you do not have high capital, this is not perhaps your best choice.
How Much RAM Do You Need For Music Production?
It depends on the amount of work you do with the laptop. If you only need to produce music primarily, a 4GB or 8GB is more than enough.
However, if you are professional music producers who always do huge workloads, it is recommended to use more than 16GB of RAM.
Is Core i5 Good For Music Production?
Generally, Core i5 is somewhat useful to produce music. It refers to the model of processor produced by the company Intel, which helps your laptop run more quickly than Core i3 but not as quickly as i7. However, if your home recording is not too highly professional, a Core i5 is more than enough.
Is RAM or CPU More Important For Music Production?
CPU plays a more critical role in a laptop for music production due to its being the laptop’s brain. Concerning RAM, it is the short term memory that helps access data quickly. In general, you do not need such a huge RAM, but you always hope for a more powerful processor.
Final Words
The best laptop for music production is Dell XPS 13. It gives you the most incredible experience as other expensive devices and also affordable with the newest and impressively powerful processor. However, for the budget option, a Lenovo Yoga 730 meets all of your minimum needs and a 2-in-1 laptop with a Core i7 processor. Besides, its cooling runs quietly while running is an additional feature to consider for music producers.
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Above are the seven best laptops to produce music. Besides, the article also gives you a little basic knowledge to choose your suitable laptop. Hopefully, you will find your laptop to serve your music producing work soon!