There has been a sharp rise in the number of music producers who produce electronic music. In earlier times, music production was usually done by professionals since you needed expensive synthesizers and other equipment to make music. In 2019, you only need a laptop. With the arrival and rising popularity of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), regular people like you and me can now download it to start making music. With this increase in the number of producers around the world, it becomes important for producers to take their music with them wherever they go. Hence, we have compiled a list of the best laptops for music production. We’ve made sure that the laptops are powerful enough to handle the latest DAWs like FL Studio and Ableton as well as any plugins that you might use.
Without further ado, these are the 5 best laptops for music production:
Laptop | Buy | CPU | RAM | Graphics | HDD |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Apple MacBook Pro | i5-2.4GHz | 8 GB DDR3 | Iris Plus Graphics 655 | 512 GB SSD | |
Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition | i7-9750H | 32 GB DDR4 | NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000 | 1TB SSD | |
Razer Blade Stealth 13 | i7-8565U | 16 GB DDR4 | NVIDIA GeForce MX150 | 512 GB SSD | |
Microsoft Surface Pro 6 | i7-8650U | 16 GB DDR3 | Intel UHD 620 | 512 GB SSD | |
Dell XPS 15 | i7-9750h | 16 GB DDR4 | Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 | 1 TB SSD |
Apple MacBook Pro
- 2.4 GHz 8th-Generation quad-core Intel Core i5 Processor
- Brilliant Retina Display with True Tone technology
- Touch Bar and Touch ID
- Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655
- Ultrafast SSD
- Four Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports
- Up to 10 hours of battery life
- 802.11AC Wi-Fi
- Latest Apple-designed keyboard
- Force touch trackpad
Pros
- Touch Bar is extremely intuitive
- efficient memory management
- fast launching and exporting
- decent speakers
- long battery life
Cons
- Slightly expensive
- 8GB RAM might be less for seasoned producers
The Touch Bar allows you to navigate DAW interfaces easily and provides increased accessibility to utilities and plugins. The battery lasts for up to 10 hours and the 13.3-inch Retina display is a treat to look at. The laptop is also equipped with Apple’s proprietary fingerprint technology Touch ID which facilitates secure logins and app security. Along with this, the Macbook Pro is the only laptop on this list that is capable of running Logic Pro X and GarageBand, Apple’s proprietary music production software. At $1,499.99, the MacBook Pro is certainly not the cheapest laptop on the market, but it is the most reliable and the most powerful laptop out there.
Razer Blade 15 Studio Edition
- Zero-Compromise Creative Mobile Workstation: Built for creative work in a 0.7" thin CNC aluminum unibody with high-performance, vapor chamber cooling powered by an NVIDIA Quadro series GPU
- Futureproof Design: Thunderbolt 3 capable, compatible with Razer Core external GPU enclosures for additional power; supports dual-channel memory and SSD upgradability
- Professional-Grade Studio Display: Features an individually calibrated 4K OLED touch display covering 100% DCI-P3 with a blazing fast 1ms response time
- Ready to Connect: Plug in multiple devices directly to expand the view on up to 3 extrenal displays via Thunderbolt 3, MiniDislayPort, and HDMIm and get over gigabit speeds through Intel Wi-Fi 6 for a desktop-class editing experience
- Biometric Security: Supports Windows Hello instant facial unlock with integrated webcam and IR sensor
- Customizable RGB Individual Key Lighting: Includes 16.8 million colors available with multiple preset profiles
- Summary: 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H 6 core processor w/ 2.6GHz/4.5GHz (base/max turbo), NVIDIA Quadro RTX 5000, 15.6" 4K OLED DCI-P3 100% display, 32GB RAM, 1TB NVMe SSD
Pros
- Super-fast performance
- intuitive touch screen display
- best overall Windows laptop for production
Cons
- Expensive
The laptop comes equipped with an Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 GPU with 16 GB of VRAM. These specifications allow the Razer Blade to take whatever you throw at it with ease. It can take in complex multi-layered plugins and instrumental presets and load them into the memory for you to use it at demand. It comes equipped with a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD which delivers industry-leading transfer speeds along with spacious storage capacity. The 80Wh battery gives the Razer Blade a long battery life that allows you to safely take your music production on the go. At $3,999.99, the Razer Blade Studio Edition is meant for those professional producers who use multiple utilities at the same time and demand ready-to-go performance at all times.
Razer Blade Stealth 13
- RAM: 16GB Dual Channel DDR4-2133Mhz; Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD(Resealed to upgrade ONLY)
- Intel Quad Core i7-8565U 1.80Ghz Processor (Max Turbo 4.6Ghz) NVIDIA GeForce MX150 (25W) 4GB VRAM graphics
- Up to 13 hours long battery life, Ultra-thin, light and incredibly durable, Keyboard featuring single zone RGB lighting with 16.8 million color options
- Matte Full HD screen @60hz, with 100% sRGB color saturation
- Thunderbolt 3, USB C, USB A, Wireless AC, Windows Hello infrared camera, and dual array mics
Pros
- Compact and portable
- good performance
- good input devices
Cons
- Slightly expensive
It has 512GB of SSD storage so you don’t need to worry about slow transfer speeds. The Razer Blade Stealth 13 is powerful enough to run any DAW without batting an eye. It has been the recommended laptop of multiple creative professionals who value extreme portability. At $1,799, the Razer Blade Stealth 13 is a compact powerhouse for all those producers who have ventured into the field of music production and are serious about producing music for a livelihood.
Microsoft Surface Pro 6
- A best-in-class laptop with the versatility of a studio and tablet
- More power — now with the new 8th Generation Intel Core processor
- Ultra-slim and light, starting at just 1.70 pounds. All-day battery life, with up to 13.5 hours of video playback
Pros
- Extremely lightweight and portable
- powerful
- long battery life
Cons
- Limited I/O options
The Surface Pro is powered by a high capacity battery that provides 13 hours of battery life. Moreover, the Intel UHD Graphics 620 that comes with the processor provides superior visual performance and assists the processor in handling plugin-based workloads. The Surface Pro 6 that we tested came with a Core i7 processor, 8GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD based storage along with an external keyboard. This bundle will set you back by about $1,344.94. The Surface Pro 6 lineup starts at $798 and depending on your preferred configuration, the price may increase or decrease.
Dell XPS 15
- 15.6" 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) InfinityEdge anti-reflective touch IPS 100% a do be RGB 500-nits Display
- 9th Generation Intel Core i7-9750h (12MB Cache, up to 4.5 GHz, 6 Cores)
- 16GB DDR4-2666MHz, 2x8G
- 1TB PCIe SSD
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 4GB GDDR5
- 6-Cell 97Whr integrated
- Backlit English keyboard with fingerprint reader
- Sd card reader, Thunderbolt, USB 3.0
Pros
- Extremely powerful
- beautiful display
- slim design
Cons
- Slightly expensive
- webcam position is sub-optimal
The laptop is powerful enough to run the best DAWs at optimum performance without breaking a sweat. For storage, the Dell XPS 15 uses a 1TB SSD which delivers industry-standard performance and spacious storage capacities. At $1,980, the Dell XPS 15 is not going to be cheap for you to take home. But if you do buy it, it is probably going to be the single best investment you make in your music production career.