Animation is a demanding field that requires powerful hardware to ensure smooth workflow and high-quality output. As technology continues to advance, so do the requirements for a great laptop for animators.
With so many options on the market, it can be overwhelming to find the best laptop for your animation needs. To help you out, we have researched and compiled a list of the top 7 laptops for animation in 2023.
These laptops have been selected based on their processing power, graphics capabilities, storage, and other features necessary for animation work. Whether you’re a professional animator or just starting out, these laptops are sure to provide you with the performance you need to bring your visions to life.
Many professionals consider the Apple 2023 MacBook Pro as the top laptop for animation in 2023, thanks to its outstanding performance and innovative features. One of its impressive highlights is the M3 chip with up to 16 cores, which enables lightning-fast processing speeds that can handle complex animation projects with ease.
Moreover, the MacBook Pro boasts a high-end graphics card that makes it suitable for intense rendering and graphic design work. The MacBook Pro also features a stunning 16-inch Retina display with True Tone technology, providing unparalleled color accuracy and clarity.
This display is perfect for animators who need to work with high-resolution images and videos. Moreover, the laptop’s massive 32GB of RAM and up to 8TB of storage ensures that animators have enough space to store their projects and work on them without any lag.
Another great feature of the MacBook Pro is its long battery life of up to 11 hours, allowing animators to work on their projects without worrying about running out of power. Additionally, the Macbook Pro’s sleek and lightweight design makes it easy to carry around and work on-the-go.
With its powerful performance and advanced features, the ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15 is an outstanding laptop that can handle both animation and gaming. Powered by a 10th Gen Intel Core i9-10980HK processor, this laptop is specifically designed to manage intensive workloads such as rendering animations and playing high-end games.
Furthermore, it comes with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card that delivers excellent graphics performance, making it capable of handling even the most demanding visual effects and rendering tasks.
The ASUS ROG Strix Scar 15’s 15.6-inch FHD display is a standout feature, with a 300Hz refresh rate and a 3ms response time that offers an incredibly smooth and responsive experience for both gaming and animation work. The laptop is also equipped with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage, providing ample space for animators and gamers to store their projects and games.
Another impressive feature of this laptop is its innovative cooling system, which uses a liquid metal thermal compound and a unique heat dissipation design to prevent the laptop from overheating, even during extended gaming or animation sessions.
The Dell XPS 9000 is a versatile laptop that is well-suited for both animation and office work, thanks to its powerful performance and sleek design. With its 10th Gen Intel Core i9-10900K processor, this laptop delivers lightning-fast processing speeds that make it ideal for rendering animations and running complex office applications.
The laptop’s NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card provides excellent graphics performance and can handle even the most demanding visual effects and rendering tasks. Additionally, its 17-inch 4K Ultra HD display with touchscreen capability provides an exceptional viewing experience with vivid colors and sharp details, making it easier for animators and office workers alike to interact with their projects and work.
When it comes to storage, the Dell XPS 9000 has 32GB of DDR4 RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, providing ample space for storing large animation projects or a significant amount of office documents and files. Additionally, its innovative cooling system ensures that the laptop remains cool even during long animation or office work sessions.
In terms of design, the Dell XPS 9000 has a sleek and stylish look that is ideal for office environments, with its thin bezels, lightweight design, and durable construction. It also has a backlit keyboard that makes it easy to work in low-light environments.
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 is a top-of-the-line laptop that is tailor-made for professional animators and content creators who require a high-performance machine to handle their demanding workloads. With its advanced features and superior performance, this laptop is widely considered to be the best choice for animators.
The dual-screen design is one of the most impressive features of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16, providing animators with more screen space to work with, allowing them to open multiple applications and tools simultaneously, streamlining the animation workflow. The main display is a 15.6-inch 4K UHD screen, and the secondary display is a 14.1-inch touch display, making it a unique and innovative choice for animation.
The laptop also boasts an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card and an Intel Core i9-11900H processor, which delivers fast processing speeds and exceptional graphics performance, making it ideal for rendering animations and complex visual effects.
The ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 comes with 32GB of DDR4 RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, providing ample space for animators to store their projects and files. The innovative cooling system ensures that the laptop remains cool even during long animation sessions, preventing overheating and performance throttling.
Overall, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 16 is an excellent choice for animators who require a powerful and efficient machine to handle their intensive workloads. Its dual-screen design, impressive graphics and processing capabilities, abundant storage, and innovative cooling system make it the best laptop for animation available on the market today.
The Microsoft Surface 4 is considered the best touch screen laptop for animation due to its exceptional touch and stylus capabilities, high-resolution display, and powerful hardware.
It features a 13.5-inch PixelSense display with a resolution of 2256 x 1504, providing animators with a sharp and clear visual experience when working on their projects. Additionally, the laptop is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 processor and Radeon Graphics, providing high-speed processing and excellent graphics performance for rendering animations and working with visual effects.
The Microsoft Surface 4 also boasts an innovative touch screen and stylus system, making it easier for animators to work on their projects with precision and control. The laptop’s touch screen is responsive and accurate, allowing animators to use their fingers or stylus to draw, sketch, and annotate their work.
The stylus has low latency and supports tilt and pressure sensitivity, making it an ideal tool for animators who prefer a pen-like experience when working on their projects.
In addition, the laptop has 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of SSD storage, providing ample space for animators to store their projects and files. Its slim and lightweight design also makes it easy to carry around, allowing animators to work on their projects on-the-go.
The Acer ConceptD 3 Ezel is a top-of-the-line convertible laptop that is specifically designed for animation and creative work. One of the standout features of this laptop is its versatile Ezel hinge, which allows the screen to be rotated, flipped, and tilted to various angles, providing users with flexibility and convenience when working on their animations or creative projects.
The laptop features an Intel Core i7 processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics card, providing powerful and efficient performance for animators and creatives. The 14-inch IPS touchscreen display has a resolution of 1920×1080, providing sharp and accurate colors for working on graphic design and animation projects.
Additionally, the Acer ConceptD 3 Ezel has 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD, ensuring that animators and creatives have enough space to store their projects and files without any lag or delay.
The laptop’s cooling system features dual fans and an innovative design that prevents overheating, ensuring that the laptop runs smoothly and efficiently even during extended animation or creative sessions.
The Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga G2 is a versatile and powerful laptop that offers excellent price-to-performance for animators and creatives on a budget. It features an Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor, which delivers strong performance and efficiency, and an NVIDIA GeForce MX450 graphics card, which provides good graphics performance for rendering animations and working with visual effects.
One of the standout features of the ThinkBook 14s Yoga G2 is its 14-inch FHD touch display with a 360-degree hinge, which allows it to convert into a tablet or tent mode for easier drawing and sketching. This makes it a great option for animators who prefer to work on a touchscreen.
The Thinkbook 14s also has 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 512GB SSD, which provides ample storage for animators to store their projects and files. The Thinkbook 14s build quality is also exceptional, with a durable aluminum chassis and MIL-STD-810G certification for shock and vibration resistance.
If you’re looking to buy a laptop for animation, there are several factors to consider. Here’s a buying guide that can help you make an informed decision:
When looking for a laptop for animation, you want to make sure it has a powerful processor and dedicated graphics card to handle the demanding workloads of animation software. Processors like the Intel Core i7 and i9, or AMD Ryzen 7 and 9, are ideal choices for handling animation software.
Additionally, dedicated graphics cards such as NVIDIA GeForce or AMD Radeon provide excellent graphics performance and help accelerate rendering times.
The display is a critical component of any laptop for animation. You want to choose a laptop with a high-resolution display that can accurately display colors and details.
Look for a display with at least 1920 x 1080 pixels, or even higher, for crisp and clear images. Consider a laptop with an IPS or OLED panel, which provides better color accuracy and wider viewing angles.
A larger screen size, such as 15 inches or more, can also provide more screen real estate to work with.
Animation software can be memory-intensive, so you want to choose a laptop with enough RAM to handle the demands. At a minimum, look for a laptop with 16GB of RAM. If your budget allows, consider a laptop with 32GB or more of RAM for even better performance.
Animation files can be large, so you want to choose a laptop with enough storage to store all your projects and files. Consider a laptop with a large SSD, which provides fast read and write speeds compared to traditional hard drives.
A laptop with at least 512GB of SSD storage is ideal, but if your budget allows, consider a laptop with 1TB or more of storage.
When working on animations, you want to ensure that your laptop has a long battery life. A laptop with at least 8 hours of battery life is ideal, but if you need to work on your animations for longer periods, consider a laptop with even longer battery life.
Additionally, look for laptops with fast charging capabilities, so you can quickly recharge your laptop when needed.
Animation workloads can generate a lot of heat, so it’s important to choose a laptop with an effective cooling system. Look for laptops with multiple cooling fans, heat pipes, or vapor chambers that can help dissipate heat and prevent overheating.
Additionally, consider laptops with software that can control the fan speeds or monitor the temperature of the laptop to ensure it stays cool during intensive workloads.
Finally, the cost of the device is an important consideration when choosing a laptop for animation. While you want to get the best possible performance, it’s important to balance that with the cost of the laptop.
Look for laptops that offer good value for the price, considering the performance, features, and overall build quality of the laptop. Additionally, consider refurbished or used laptops, which can offer good value at a lower cost than a brand new laptop.
