My experience has shown me that having one of the best laptops for music production can really change the way you make music. I remember a time when most music production took place in large studios with lots of expensive mixers. But now that powerful laptops and advanced software are available, anyone can make music, even people like me.
It might be difficult to choose a new laptop that meets your individual demands. Although we constantly update our list of the greatest laptops available today, there will never be a one-size-fits-all option. Like all forms of content creation, music production has certain needs if you want to execute it well. If you’re interested other types of material, we’ve previously compiled a list of the best creator laptops, but for this list, we’ve compiled a list of best laptops for music production.
Best Laptops for Music Production
Apple MacBook Pro 14
After months of rumors and speculation, the MacBook 14 is here, and it’s loaded with extras, as befits its $2,899 price tag. The ultraportable device brings along quite a few useful ports and does without the novel but impractical Touch Bar. The mini-LED screen is downright stunning, as is the new and improved speaker system with its spatial audio capabilities.
You know, for years, 15 inches has been my preferred size when it comes to a notebook on the go. When I’m traveling to conventions, you like to have as much room as possible without breaking my back. However, when I’m working with the 3.5-pound, 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.6-inch MacBook Pro, 14 inches might be just the ticket. Compared to devices like the Dell XPS 15 (4.3 pounds, 13.6 x 9.1 x 0.7 inches), Microsoft Surface Studio (4 pounds, 12.7 x 9 x 0.8 inches), and Razer Blade 14 (3.9 pounds, 12.6 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches), the MacBook Pro is light as a feather.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 15 (2022)
The review unit Asus sent us is in the mid-range in terms of available configurations of the ROG Strix Scar, which is pretty contemporary compared to other high-end gaming notebooks. The latest Intel Core i9 12900H, above-average RTX 3070 Ti graphics card, and generous 32GB of fast DDR5 memory round out the features. They all power a fast 240Hz 1440p display. But if you’re looking for a webcam, you’ll have to look further: This model simply doesn’t have one.
The Scar is in no way understated, and the same goes for its dimensions. At more than an inch thick and weighing just over five pounds, it’s among the largest and heaviest 15-inch devices, even in the gaming category. This compromise allows it to have a massive cooling system (with exhaust on three sides!), seven different RGB lighting zones on the keyboard, bass-boosting speakers, and access to the best available hardware on the market.
Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop
Now that we’ve tested a few AMD Ryzen 5000-series gaming laptops with RTX 3070, we get a feel for how well some of these machines compare to each other, especially in the $1,500 to $1,800 price range. As you can see in our benchmarks, the combination offers solid performance.
Of the notebooks we tested, the Nitro 5 is on par in CPU and GPU performance with the Asus TUF Gaming A15, which may be its closest competitor. Heck, they even kind of look the same when you put them side by side. Both deliver solid 1080p performance, although the Nitro 5 runs much cooler during intense gaming, which is always a plus. Overall, the Nitro 5 has a good value per frame.
Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition
If you’re not looking for software certification or support for more graphics memory, stability, or 16 GB of GPU RAM compared to the 2080’s 8 GB, you might want to stick with the cheaper lower-end configuration. Unfortunately, you also get less RAM and storage in this case the Studio model comes with 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of SSD versus 16 GB and 512 GB.
The Razer Blade laptop Its performance compared to other systems with the same processor should remain about the same, though the newer processor definitely gives it a speed boost over the 9750H and probably slightly better battery life. It’s also worth noting that the newer model is equipped with the Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 chipset, which seems to have fewer problems than the AX200 when connecting to a Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) access point.
Asus VivoBook Pro 16X OLED
The design of the Vivobook Pro is similar to the ProArt Studiobook 16 OLED, but it is a bit slimmer. It’s a sleek, black chassis that generally looks good, even though it probably won’t win any design contests. Although it has the 16-inch OLED screen of the Studiobook, it’s only slightly thinner and slimmer: it measures 0.74 x 14.2 x 10.2 inches (HWD) versus 0.77 x 14.3 x 10.4 inches.
As for the rest of the build, the keyboard is fairly unobtrusive and provides a serviceable typing experience, but not much else. There is a slim numeric keypad on the right side for users who can’t do without one. Most of the keys are black, but some of the command keys are gray and the escape key is bright red. There is a fingerprint sensor for Windows Hello login in the power button.
Apple MacBook Pro M1 13
The MacBook Pro M1 has been announced for November 17 and is priced from $1,299. With this configuration, you get Apple’s powerful M1 chip with an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU, as well as 8 GB of random access memory (RAM). Initially, 256GB of storage is available, but the $1,499 MacBook Pro M1 model includes 512GB of storage.
If you want to configure the MacBook Pro M1 yourself, there are a number of upgrades available. Going from 8 GB to 16 GB of memory costs $200. If you want more than 512 GB memory card of storage, 1 TB costs an additional $400, while 2 TB costs $800. The easiest way to sum up the MacBook Pro M1’s performance is to say that the obstacles standing between you and getting things done are gone. It’s almost as if the laptop isn’t even there.
Surface Laptop Studio
The Surface Book showed that Microsoft is capable of designing more than just a normal notebook, and it was able to provide a “one more thing” moment in the demo where the screen was separated from the keyboard. That separation leads to the Surface Book’s biggest problem.
The Surface Laptop Studio fixes this. By always having the screen attached to the base, you always have all the battery and processing power at your fingertips, although if you want to switch to tablet mode, you still have all the weight. This isn’t a Surface that wants to be a tablet – that’s what the Surface Pro line is for.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Laptop
The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15 (2021) is a simple Windows notebook with processors from the AMD Ryzen 5000 series. It feels well-made despite being mostly plastic and is easy to carry around thanks to its thin and light design. Battery life is good, lasting over 9 hours during normal productivity and almost 8 hours during video playback.
The webcam’s video quality is decent, the touchpad handles reasonably well, and the keyboard has well-spaced keys but can be tiring to type on over time. The Ryzen 5-5300U CPU provides smooth performance for light tasks like text formatting, spreadsheets, and web browsing, and it can handle some 3D rendering tasks as long as the material isn’t too complex.
Microsoft Surface Pro 8
With the Surface Pro 8, Microsoft has finally completely modernized the aging design of the Surface Pro lineup. This is the biggest change we’ve seen to this flagship device in years. It brings some long overdue design improvements like thinner edges, rounded edges, and Thunderbolt 4 integration.
The Surface Pro 8 is still recognizable as part of Microsoft’s Windows tablet lineup. At the same time, with these design changes and some of the fastest hardware ever seen in a Windows tablet, it really feels like a new generation. And while we lament the loss of some traditional ports, this is the best Surface Pro we’ve gotten in years. Plus, the new Windows 11 operating system is pre-installed.
Asus Rog Strix Scar III
Design-wise, ASUS has kept the similar design language of the previous Scar II, but with a little extra on the back where there is now a vent-like design that makes it look a little different than the rest.
It still has the gorgeous brushed dual-tone finish with the ROG logo on the side that makes it look gamer-esque. However, it has become a bit more eye-catching this time around. The notebook features an RGB light strip on the bottom that makes the notebook look stunning.
Final Words
Music creation is a difficult and sophisticated endeavor that requires the fastest CPUs and laptops available. Music creation might be challenging without high-quality computers. We’ve highlighted a few of the numerous music production laptops from various brands that may be utilized for music creation in this post. We’re hoping it will assist you in deciding which laptop is ideal for your audio application.
