Animation comes in many different forms. We have 2D animations and 3D life-like videos. Therefore, you need to think about which type of animation you will be doing. However, the fact that you need a deep pocket will not change. Your laptop will need to do heavy image processing and rendering. From years of experience, I can assure you a dual-core CPU or integrated GPU will not cut it.
You will need better for quick results and timely submission of your project and work. You will need a processor with more than two cores, and clock speed should be as high as possible, a dedicated graphics card - the higher the VRAM size, the better; an SSD, comparatively bigger display; and lastly, DDR4 RAM preferably in two digits of GB. So, I will list a few laptops to fit your budget. But you must know which will be the best laptop for animators.
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Aspiring Acer brings to you its Aspire VX 15. They are calling it a gaming laptop. Shall we see then how it fares? The laptop comes with a 7th generation Core i7-7700HQ processor. The processor has a base frequency of 2.80 GHz and boosts the speed up to 3.80 GHz. It is a quad-core processor that can handle 8 threads and has 6 MB of cache memory.
The laptop also has a DDR4 16 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD for quick data transactions. There is a 15.6 inches Full HD IPS display that gets support from a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti from Nvidia graphics card with a dedicated 4 GB VRAM. The battery can support for about 6 hours.
MSI brings to you its GL65 Leopard 10SFK-062. They are calling it a gaming laptop. Shall we see then how it fares? The laptop comes with a 10th Generation Core™ i7-10750H Processor from Intel®. The processor has a base frequency of 2.60 GHz and boosts the speed up to 5.00 GHz. It is a six-core processor that can handle 12 threads and has 12 MB of Smart Cache memory.
The laptop also has a DDR4 16 GB RAM at 2666 MHz and 512 GB SSD for quick data transactions. There is a 15.6 inches Full HD IPS display that gets support from a GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card from Nvidia, and the graphics card has a dedicated GDDR6 8 GB VRAM. The battery can support for about 5 hours.
Acer brings to you its Predator Helios 300. They are calling it a gaming laptop. Shall we see then how it fares? The laptop comes with a 10th Generation Core™ i7-10750H from Intel®. The processor has a base frequency of 2.60 GHz and boosts the speed up to 5.00 GHz. It is a six-core processor that can handle 12 threads and has 12 MB of Smart Cache memory.
The laptop also has a dual-channel DDR4 16 GB RAM at 2933 MHz and 512 GB SSD for quick data transactions. 1 extra slot for hard disk upgrade. There is a 15.6 inches LED-backlit Full HD widescreen IPS display which gets support from a GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card from Nvidia, and the graphics card has a dedicated GDDR6 6 GB VRAM. The display has a refresh rate of 144Hz, brightness of 300nit, and 72 percent NTSC; its response time for Overdrive is 3ms. The battery can support for about 3 hours and 12 minutes.
Behold New Apple MacBook Pro. It is a beauty in its design and a beast in its hardware. It comes with a superfast 9th generation hexa core Core i7-3720QM with a base frequency of 2.6 MHz which maxes out at an astonishing 4.5 MHz and 12 MB of L3 Cache memory. You get a DDR4 16 GB RAM of 2666 MHz bus speed. RAM is upgradable to 64 GB max. It has a 512 GB / 1 TB SSD. It has a LED-backlit 16-inches IPS display that supports 3072 x 1920 resolution.
This display runs on a dedicated 4 GB GDDR6 AMD Radeon Pro 5300M, which can automatically switch to its default built-in graphics unit Intel UHD Graphics 630. The battery can run the laptop for 11 hours. Charge once, and you are suitable for the day. Apart from all these, you get Thunderbolt USB C ports - 4 for display and charging, generation 2 USB 3.1, WIFI, and Bluetooth 5.
Yes, it is Razer again with its Blade 15. There is a reason why it is called Blade 15. A monstrous processor is humming inside of its chassis - an 8th generation Intel Core i7-8750H Processor. It has six cores capable of running at base frequency 2.60 GHz and a maximum of 4.10 GHz and has a 9 MB Intel Smart Cache. That is not the end of it.
There is an edge-to-edge Full HD thin 4.9 mm bezel 15.6 inches display that runs on a dedicated GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q design VR Ready from Nvidia. It has a dual-Channel - 2667 Hz DDR4 16 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD. It has a very fleeting battery life of five to six hours.
The famous MSI brand brings you its GS66 Stealth 10SGS-036 model. This matte black stealth beauty houses a superfast 10th generation Intel® Core-i7-10750H processor. The process has six cores and can handle 12 threads at a base frequency of 2.60 GHz speed, and can squeeze out a maximum of 5.0 GHz of clock speed. This unbelievable monstrous power is backed up by a massive 12 MB cache memory.
The laptop comes with 32 GB (16 GB x 2) random access memory which can be upgraded to 64 GB at 2666 MHz bus speed. It has a fast 512 GB SSD for better data transfer. It has a 3 ms 300 Hz 15.6-inch Full HD display with wide-angle view and anti-glare technology. This display is powered by a dedicated supermassive graphics card GeForce RTX2080 Super Max-Q from NVIDIA. It has a dedicated GDDR6 8 GB graphics memory. You can forget about CPU lag forever. It has 1 Thunderbolt 3, 1 USB, and 1 USB 3.2 port. It also has an HD webcam with 720p. Its battery has a 99.9 WHr capacity.
This laptop is from the famous computer manufacturer Dell. This is another installment of amazing computing configuration. A quad-core 7th generation Core i5-7300HQ runs the computer. The processor has a considerably big 6MB cache memory. The clock speed can reach up to 3.5 GHz speed. It houses a muscular DDR4 2400 MHz 8GB RAM, but it is upgradable to 32 GB. It houses a 256 GB SSD. A dedicated GDDR5 4 GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 powers the 15.6 inches full HD TN-panel anti-glare display. The laptop battery, on average, can support for 7 hours straight. It has 3 USB 3.0 ports.
The famous Asus brand brings you its gaming class TUF FX505DT model. This beauty houses a superfast Ryzen 5 R5-3550h Processor from AMD. The process has 4 cores and can handle 8 threads at a base frequency of 2.10 GHz speed, and can squeeze out a maximum of 3.70 GHz of clock speed. This unbelievable monstrous power is backed up by a massive 4 MB L3 cache memory.
The laptop comes with 8 GB DDR4 random access memory. It has a fast 256 GB SSD for better data transfer (2 slots available). It has a Full HD 120Hz refresh rate IPS 15.6-inch display. The laptop has a GeForce GTX 1650 with dedicated 4 GB video memory from Nvidia. This laptop has 2-4 hours of battery support.
This powerhouse is from Dell. It houses a powerful quad-core Core i7 8th generation processor, which can speed up to 4.6 GHz and has 8 megabytes of cache memory. With such a sizable cache memory, speed will not be a problem for you. It supports Ultra High-Definition graphics. It runs on an 8 GB 2133 MHz RAM which ensures faster loading of windows and apps. It has a built-in microphone with its webcam.
The power button has an integrated fingerprint sensor. It has a platinum, silver chassis, black-colored palm rest made of carbon fiber. For two Thunderbolt 3 that have power delivery and can also work as DisplayPort. It also has a MicroSD reader, a headphone jack, and a lock slot. Its non-touch display unit and the touch display unit weigh respectively 1.23 and 1.21 kgs.
The famous HP brand brings you its business category EliteBook 850 G7 model. This silver beauty houses a superfast 10th generation Core™ i5-10310U Processor from Intel®. The process has four cores and can handle 8 threads at a base frequency of 1.70 GHz speed, and can squeeze out a maximum of 4.40 GHz of clock speed.
This unbelievable monstrous power is backed up by a massive 6 MB cache memory. The laptop comes with 8 GB (8 GB x 1) random access memory. It has a fast 256 GB SSD for better data transfer. It has a Full HD 1920 x 1080 IPS display with an Infrared camera. The camera has a privacy shutter. The laptop has Intel UHD integrated graphics. According to HP's official page, this laptop has 23 hours of battery support.
The famous HP brand brings you its business category EliteBook 850 G7 model. This silver beauty houses a superfast 10th generation Core™ i7-9750H Processor from Intel®. The process has 6 cores and can handle 12 threads at a base frequency of 2.60 GHz speed, and can squeeze out a maximum of 4.50 GHz of clock speed. This unbelievable monstrous power is backed up by a massive 12 MB cache memory.
The laptop comes with 16 GB (8 GB x 2) DDR4 3200 MHz random access memory. It has a fast 512 GB SSD for better data transfer (2 slots available). It has a UHD 4K AMOLED 15.6-inch display and an amazing 89 percent screen-to-body ratio. The camera has a privacy shutter. The laptop has a GeForce GTX 1660Ti with dedicated 6 GB video memory from Nvidia. This laptop has 3 Hours 31 minutes of battery support.
The famous MSI brand brings you its GS75 Stealth - 093 models. This matte black stealth beauty houses a superfast 8th generation Intel® Core - i7-8750H processor. The process has six cores and can handle 12 threads at a base frequency of 2.20 GHz speed, and can squeeze out a maximum of 4.10 GHz of clock speed. This unbelievable monstrous power is backed up by a massive 9 MB cache memory.
The laptop comes with 16 GB (8 GB x 2) random access memory at 2400 MHz bus speed. It has a fast 512 GB SSD for better data transfer. It has a 3 ms 144 Hz wide view angle anti-glare 17.3-inch Full HD IPS display with 72 percent NTSC. This display is powered by a dedicated supermassive graphics card GeForce GTX1060 from NVIDIA. It has a dedicated GDDR6 6 GB graphics memory. You can forget about CPU lag forever. The battery can support 3 hours and 36 minutes.
Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 has a sexy stylish outlook since the beginning. It is a tablet, a laptop, or a Desktop computer if you want it to be. It is ultra-thin and extremely lightweight. There is hardly any other contender in this product slot. It comes packed with so many resources! If you want processing speed - it has powerful processor line-ups to suit your budget.
It comes with Core i5 and i7 from the 10th generation series. It also comes with respectively DDR4 8, and 16 GB of RAM. It also comes with fast 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB SSD options. The display runs on Iris plus (1GB memory) graphics card. It has an improved battery life of 11.5 hours. But this can change depending on the workload.
Deciding what could be the best laptop for animators can be difficult if you do not know anything about mobile computers. As you are an animator, you will need to focus on your CPU, RAM, and GPU.
If you are already working with a big company, your workload will be more significant, but if you're a student, you will have that kind of workload. For office goers, I suggest Hexa core or octa-core CPU, and if you are a student, you can go with dual-core or quad-core CPU. But remember to check if they have hyperthreading technology or not. Buy the most recent generation.
Do not waste your time. Just go with a dedicated GPU or graphics card. You will also need an expensive one with bigger-sized reliable RAM. Nvidia and Radeon from AMD offer a lot of options. Always ask the laptop dealers if they can customize a laptop for you or not.
Animation work will need faster and bigger RAM. So, either go with LPDDR4 or DDR4 16 GB or 32 GB of RAM.
Find a laptop with a good user review on the batter support. Buy a laptop with at least 8 hours of straight battery life.
The bigger monitor will allow you to manage your screen better. Buy either a 15 or a 17-inch display with FHD or UHD 4K anti-glare support. So that you can also work under the sun if you need.
Animation files are big. So, buy a combination of SATA 1 TB and 128 GB SSD. SSD will load your apps and OS faster, and in the SATA, you can save all the RAW files.
There is a possibility, but HDD is not included with this model. Therefore, you will not get the screws or brackets which are necessary for this HDD.
The information I received from Acer's website shows that the processor is 7700hq, which is a quad-core processor.
The model comes with a Core i7-7700HQ. It has 4 cores.
This model has an IPS display.
I recommend adding a 5mm ultra-slim version. 7mm will damage your cover.
Yes. Up to 2 TB was tested and was working fine.
Laptop can support up to 64 GB (32 x 2). The Laptop supports 2.6 GHz and 3.0 GHz.
2020 Apple MacBook Air Laptop: Apple M1 Chip, 13” Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD - Walmart, Etsy, Ebay
Acer Aspire 5 A515-55G-57H8, 15.6" Full HD IPS Display, 10th Gen Intel Core i5-1035G1, - Walmart, Etsy, Ebay
2020 Asus TUF 15.6" FHD Premium Gaming Laptop, 10th Gen Intel Quad-Core i5-10300H, 16GB - Walmart, Etsy, Ebay
ASUS VivoBook 15 K513 Thin & Light Laptop, 15.6” FHD Display, Intel i7-1165G7 CPU, NVIDIA - Walmart, Etsy, eBay
Acer Nitro 7 Gaming Laptop, 15.6" Full HD IPS Display, 9th Gen Intel i7-9750H, GeForce - Walmart, Etsy, eBay
Razer Blade 15 Gaming Laptop: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 - 11th Gen Intel 8-Core i9 CPU - - Walmart, Etsy, Ebay
2021 Apple MacBook Pro (16-inch, Apple M1 Pro chip with 10‑core CPU and 16‑core GPU, 16GB - Walmart, Etsy, Ebay
In this article, I have tried to list the best laptop for animators. As I have said earlier, it depends on the animator precisely what kind of workload s/he is expecting to put her/his laptop through. So, based on the workload and budget, a person should buy a laptop. I would suggest looking at the dedicated graphics card, RAM, SSD, and processor cores. Choose the best that fits your work. Happy hunting!
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