Video editing laptop

Mr_Singleton

Popped into the Apple store with the intention of probably picking up a new video editing laptop.

As I intend to keep it for a while and upgrading components isn’t possible I specc’d up a decent machine.

Now, I’m not going to fool anyone by saying I thought it was going to be cheap. I was expecting it to not only be expensive but probably very expensive but the final cost was north of £4000. I’m not price sensitive and normally just buy what I need but this just feels like a complete rip off.

So, I’ve been looking at Davinci Resolve and was wondering what laptop I could pair it with for editing 4K video inc. R3D files.
Thanks

Neil_Jones

If you're able to you will be better off with a desktop for video editing and it will not cost anywhere near £4k. It would be faster and get the processing done (than pretty much any laptop) but of course it takes up more space - base, monitor, keyboard/mouse, chair and table.

jamesperrett

Look at the Dell Precision range if you really want a laptop. They're not cheap but solidly built and more powerful than most other laptops. You can also find them refurbished for more reasonable prices.

Heedtheadvice

and laptops are far inferior ergonomically. You do not say if using for leisure or work and why you wish a laptop!


Addditionally consider how much cheaper and better the facilities will be with a tower/desktop pc: separate easy move mouse or trackball on desk in comfortable position; better positioned bigger high res screen; separate speakers for higher quality sound reproduction (do not forget sound is a very important part of 'video'!); easier to change things such as graphics card, add a drive, dvd burner, if you make an error in your spec. proper full size keyboard etc. Comms to external tv/audio for quality/review purposes.....



Spec for a video editor need not be too different from a bog standard pc. Ensure lots of ram, SSD primary disk (and secondary biggish one if videos are to be big to ensure fast edit application) hard drive for storage (offline if a secondary SSD is used) an external drive for backups. Decent m/board and cpu i5 (or better but need not be high end) built in graphics probably more than adequate.


You might improve on that if doing the editing professionally as work but then the ergonomics will take even greater importance

Cisco001

Why video edit laptop?

Get a desktop and probably an additional ipad for leisure would be nowhere near £4k.