BEST LAPTOPS FOR MUSIC PRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION-
Music production is a very tedious task in its own ways. No doubt about the fact that it is fun! Music producers and sound creators love their job and are following their passion for music. Well, music production not only requires high-end music headphones or top instrument gears but a great laptop too. A laptop is an essential tool for producing music requiring best in class software programs and other technical know-how. Thus, a music producer’s laptop must have a good RAM to carry out the tasks quick and easy, and good storage because producers need to transfer tons of heavy data that too with great speed on data transfers. Thus, choosing a laptop for a music producer is a thoughtful task. I did my research on various editors’ choices and music producer’s personal gear and collected some precious data. Following are the laptops which are “THE BEST” when it comes to music production as of 2018:
- Apple MacBook 12″
- Apple MacBook Pro 15″
- Dell XPS 15
- Lenovo Yoga 720
Apple MacBook 12″
The Design of the MacBook 12″ is indeed ‘perfection.’ It is so sleek, so light and so gorgeous regarding looks that it fails any other laptop on the market. You would not believe your eyes on how ridiculously thin the laptop is. It is even thinner than the MacBook Air. Yes! It has beaten the record of the laptop which used to set an example to be called the thinnest and the lightest laptop. The look of the laptop resembles the MacBook Pro with an aluminium uni-body and a high-gloss sheen Apple logo at the back. The only drawback of the design is that it features only one USB-C port and a headphone jack on the other side. It has an angle made in such a way that when placed on a table, it looks even thinner, it just 0.52 inches, though it is bested by the Acer Swift 7 at just 0.39 inches.
The Display that Apple offers has only a few competitions in the market; it is one of the most remarkable displays with 226ppi and 304x1440p resolutions. The pictures are bright and vivid with Apple’s Retina Display, and pixel density is outstanding when it comes to a screen this small. There are competitors like the Dell XPS13 and the Matebook X, but Apple is above them all when it comes to a display this beautiful.
The Performance and Hardware of this laptop, does not surprise as well. The default model of the laptop comes with an Intel Core M3 processor, which can go up-to core i5 and i7 processors. The power of the M3 processors is great and makes the laptop work efficiently without any lag. The default storage offered is 256 GB SSD which is more than the 128 GB SSD on the MacBook Pro 13″. There is a reason why producers mostly prefer this laptop; it does not disappoint when it comes to performance.
Talking about the sound quality of the laptop, the four sound bars are placed just below the hinge, and it manages to produce some loud tunes with a great base. The sound quality on a laptop this thin is better than most of its rivals. Thumbs up! On the sound quality too.
The Battery Life– The thin laptop runs 6 to 7 hours before it hits the last 15%, which is pretty impressive for a laptop without a fan. The XPS 13 and Huawei MateBook X are neck to neck in the battery life competition.
Conclusion– The MacBook 12″ is an elegant looking laptop with great performance at high speeds and can be the best option for music producers mainly because of its great portability and battery life. The only downfall is the lack of ports on the device. The laptop is priced at $1,299 on Amazon/us.
Rating- 9/10
Apple MacBook Pro 15″
The Design of the MacBook Pro has been uplifted after the year 2015. Apple made some major design changes like cutting down on the thickness of the laptop and increasing the size of the beautiful touch-pad. Apple replaced the old keyboard mechanism with the latest butterfly keys, decreasing the key travel and lowering the sound of the keys similar to the MacBook 12″. The laptop is fitted in complete aluminium chassis which looks premium and superior.
The Display on the MacBook 2018 is known as “True Tone Display.” This 15.4-inch display is smart with 2880x1800p resolutions on a 4K video. Apple claims that the laptop is equipped with several multi-channel sensors to adjust the colour and intensity as per the surroundings. While comparing the new 2018 variant with older variants the difference in display is quite evident.
Let’s discuss the Performance of the 15″ beast. As the name suggests, the MacBook Pro is literally a Pro machine when it comes to power and performance. The Intel Core i9-8950HK CPU and 32 GB of RAM together are a perfect duo for a large utility. Music Producers prefer to use the 15″ MacBook for their work in the studio or their workplace. Keeping the storage in mind, the laptop comes with a 256 GB and 512 GB of SSD. Music producers love to keep this power-packed laptop to carry out their beautiful art of music.
The sound Quality of the 15″ MacBook is better than the 12″ variant. The speaker grills are perfectly placed differently than the 12″ variant on the right and left side of the keyboard creating a surround sound effect which produces clear sound and high quality, perfect for any production of music.
The Battery Life on the laptop lasts for a whole day with up-to 10 hours and 20 min. Juice. When compared with other rivals, it is better than the Huawei Matebook X and Apple’s own MacBook 12″.
Conclusion– The MacBook Pro 15″ is in all ways better than the 12″ MacBook, and other rivals like the Dell XPS15 as well. It is a heavy duty machine with great capabilities when it comes to professional work. As I mentioned earlier, Producers and Creators like to keep this laptop in their studios, as it is not that portable.
Portability= MacBook 12″, Performance= MacBook 15″. The laptop is expensively priced at $1,699 on Amazon/us.
Ratings– 9.4/10
Dell XPS15
The Design of the XPS 15 from the year 2017 is very similar to its predecessor. There are no radical changes in design, light aluminium chassis which encloses in a rubberized panel surrounded by plastic inputs. The keyboard is improved than the last time, with key travel similar to the MacBook Pro. It has a slim industrial design look which catches the eye for sure. Not just this, it even has a similar shiny metal logo at the centre of the lid which looks stunning. The machine looks quite beautiful on the outside, and I assure you that it is beautiful inside as well. The screen is almost bezel-less which the company calls “infinity edge bezel” surrounding the 15.6″display.
Let’s jump to the display of this machine. The display of the XPS15 is capable of producing rich colour and fine sharp details; the matte 1920x1080p resolution display steals the show. Looking at the fine details of the pictures on the screen, I was hardly surprised knowing that it can reproduce 115 of the sRGB gamut. The competition has become even more vibrant and colourful when compared to the flagships like the MacBook Pro, spectre 360, Matebook X and SurfaceBook.
Under the hood, Performance takes the lead with 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-8750H processor with 16 GB of RAM packed inside the slim case.. On running several tests on the performance of the laptop, it has passed each one of them with pretty decent marks and is undoubtedly a powerful device for heavy tasks like music production.
The quality of speakers is not that great on the XPS 15. The sound is distorted and not that clear when compared to the MacBook or even Lenovo’s Yoga Book. The Sound may be bad, but otherwise, the process of music production and experience is great.
The battery life is the second most important thing for producers to look for in a laptop, first obviously being the performance. The XPS15 can run a class when it comes to endurance. The laptop lasted 11 hours and 56 min. On a single charge which makes it an almost perfect machine for music producers. This laptop beats the MacBook devices and Huawei Matebook X and other rivals as well in this regard.
Conclusion– The XPS15 is a great device to produce music for sure. It is powerful; it is portable and looks amazing most importantly. The battery life is excellent as compared to other rivals on the market. The only downfall can be the quality of sound from the speaker grills, which shall hopefully be improved by the next XPS device. The laptop is priced at $2,199 on Amazon/us.
Ratings– 7.9/10
Lenovo Yoga 720
The Design of the Lenovo Yoga 720 is a two in one laptop part tablet. It is evident from the looks that Lenovo has worked really hard on the looks and design of the laptop. It is a slim device with equally distributed weight. The laptop is made of metal which gives the laptop a sturdy solid look, supporting the screen offering completely no distortion in picture quality even on pressing the screen. The matte finish of the laptop attracts no smudges and fingerprints, a plus point for all users. The screen can be folded full 360 degrees as well, for the use in tablet mode.
In association with the Display, the laptop features a 13.3 inch, full HD display with IPS technology. The colour saturation and contrast are great thanks to the wide-angle screen and an Anti-glare panel on the sides. The indoor lighting is vibrant with this laptop, the brightness of the screen could be better if looked with a professional eye, but otherwise, the display quality is pretty decent when compared to other competitors.
Moving on to the Performance of the laptop; it features an Intel Core i7-7500 CPU in combination with 8 gigs of two-channel DDR4 RAM, which makes this laptop a beast when it comes to specifications. The SSD offered is 512 GB PCle. How can we leave the graphics when it is Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU, which is pretty impressive!
Now let’s talk in the interest of music producers, the speakers! JBL designs the speakers on the machine with Dolby Audio Premium enhancement software for the best experience. The base is negligible in the sound, the vocals being great.
The juice of the battery is supposed to run 10 hours on a single charge. On a day with super heavy usage, the laptop can run only up-to 4 hours. The 4-cell battery does wonders for the laptop. This laptop gives healthy competition to the Huawei MateBook X and the MacBook Air regarding battery life.
Conclusion– The Lenovo Yoga 720 is an excellent laptop with good display quality and bold design. It is also a powerful laptop, just like what a music producer needs. The sound quality is better than most of its competitors, thanks to the JBL speakers and Dolby Audio Enhancement software. The laptop costs $1,059 on Amazon.com/us.
Ratings– 7/10.
VERDICT–
There are many different factors to consider when you are looking for the best laptop for music production. Till now you all must have decided, which laptop is the best. According to my study and experience with all these laptops, I am delighted with the performance and portability of the MacBook 12 inch. This thinner than ever laptop has captivated me in many ways; the design, the battery life, the performance, the speed, and above all the portability. The ultra-portable device is perfect for any music producer. So, my choice for the best laptop under this category would be the 12 inch MacBook.