best rated affordable laptops for graphic design

Its display now has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which removes the bottom bezel that most laptops have below the screen, giving it an awesome body-to-screen ratio. If you like the ultra-thin feel of an ultrabook but don't want to skimp out on specs, the Dell XPS 13 has long been a favorite of our friends at Windows Central, and the 9310 model is beautiful. So, the MacBook Air will be super quiet, but it will throttle performance if it needs to prevent overheating - something to keep in mind. Speaking of performance, the new MacBook Air with M1 can actually outperform a 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2019 in certain situations, proving that the M1 chip is nothing to sneeze at however, the machine has no fans at all. The M1 MacBook Air has outstanding battery life compared to its previous intel models, typically lasting about 15-20 hours, depending on your usage. Plus, you can outfit the machine with up to 16GB of RAM and of SSD storage. The base model starts with a 7-core GPU, while the higher-end version has an 8-core GPU. However, the M1 chip really does a lot of heavy lifting.

Its combination of performance and price make it a compelling device for anyone, but we wouldn't blame graphic designers for being cautious of its lower-end specs.

The new MacBook Air with M1, which is no only our favorite Mac laptop, but also our favorite overall Mac for most people. Plus, it's compatible with some software that doesn't run on M1 Macs (or runs less smooth). However, you still get the biggest screen on a MacBook, which is super useful for viewing larger-scale graphic work and photos. Just keep in mind that the 16-inch MacBook Pro (2019) is a little dated at this point since it does not have Apple's M1 powering it, which has been proven to outperform Intel processors. While it's certainly powerful enough, the 16-inch MacBook Pro can connect to up to four external displays with 4096x2304 resolution at 60Hz, or can connect to two external displays with 6016x3384 resolution at 60Hz, giving you a very expansive and impressive workstation when you're not on the move. Plus, you can spec out to be a very powerful machine that will not only let you get your work done but export and render your work surprisingly fast. You have room for more accessories like drawing tablets, mice, hard drives, or anything else you need. It has four Thunderbolt 3 ports - the most in the entire Mac laptop line. This workhorse of a laptop can support up to 8 cores of Intel's latest Coffee Lake refresh processor chip with turbo boosts of up to 4.8GHz and SSD read speeds of up to 3.2Gbps.

Best rated affordable laptops for graphic design