best computers for animation 2020

Laptops for Animation and Graphic Design

To achieve optimal results in animation and graphic creation, you need a high end configuration laptop or PC. For you to be able to create transformative animation and graphics imagery, you should have a laptop or PC that has a powerful processor, plenty of RAM memory, good storage, and a high end graphics card.

Since graphic designers and animators run advanced software such as Flash Anim8or, Adobe Illustrator, Coral Draw and VFX works, we recommend a processor that is Intel i5 or above, at least 8GB RAM memory or above, and 2 GB of dedicated GPU at minimum. Other imperative features to look into include a large screen size and long battery life. A screen size of 15 inches, and at least 6 hours battery backup should work fine.

In this article, we discuss and review the best laptops for animation and graphic design. Whether you are a beginner or a high-end pro, we can guarantee that you will find an affordable and budget-friendly laptop that will cater for all your animation and graphics needs in this list.

1. HP Zbook 15u Notebook

The HP Zbook is packed with an Intel Core i7 processor, cutting-edge graphics coprocessor capabilities and 16GB RAM that will enable you to run heavyweight design and animation applications tasks without any restraint. It has a good screen size and great resolution that spell extraordinary quality.

HP Zbook 15u G4 Workstation 15.6" Notebook

Features

Display size: 15.6 inches
Max display resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
Processor type: Intel Core i7 2.7 GHz
RAM: 16 GB DDR4 SDRAM
Hard Drive: 128 GB Solid State
512 GB SSD
ATA Hard Drive Interface
Graphics Coprocessor type: FirePro W4190M
Graphics Card Size: 2 GB
AMD Chipset
Wireless compatibility : 802.11abg
2 USB 3.0 Ports

Review

Designed for convenience, the HP Zbook is a truly striking laptop. It is incredibly lightweight and easy to handle through its sleek touch screen capability. Its processor is extremely fast – a pre-requisite for design and animation applications. In addition, it has incredibly powerful inbuilt speakers.

What more, it is budget friendly and has an expected six-hour battery life that allows you to work as hard and as long as you want. You cannot go wrong with a HP Zbook – comes with a 3-year warranty and delivers an amazing performance that will see you successfully accomplish all your graphics and design tasks.

2. Apple MacBook Pro

Like many Apple devices, the Apple MacBook Pro is another cool laptop for graphics and animations that comes with a sleek design and streamlined performance for any professional designer or animator. Loaded with an i7 Quad core processor, powerful Radeon Pro discrete GPU and blazing fast SSD storage, Apple MacBook Pro delivers amazing performance for all your processes such as video encoding and rendering 3D models and huge file transfers.

Apple 15" MacBook Pro

Features

Display size: 15 inches
Display resolution: 2880 x 1800 pixels
Processor type: 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 Quad Core
RAM: 16 GB DDR3 SDRAM
Graphics Coprocessor: Radeon Pro 560
Hard Drive: 512 GB Solid State
Memory Speed: 2133 MHz
Wireless Type: 802.11 a/b/g/n, 802.11.ac , 802.11.a and 802.11abg
2 USB 3.0 Ports

Review

As one of the latest generation i7 processors, and with super-fast graphics, the Apple Macbook shouts quality for designers and animation experts out there. Thin, light and slim, working with this laptop is an all-round smooth experience that provides superior comfort and speedy responsiveness.

It has great resolution offering the brightest display and clarity that features LED backlighting, high-end contrast ratio and wide color grading.

With an average battery life of ten hours it allows you to keep designing, editing, encoding, watching and gaming for as long as you need from anywhere you want. It has impressive sound system featuring state of the art fast speakers and accommodates numerous Wi-Fi standards. If you are searching for the highest of quality animation and graphics laptop performance, the Apple MacBook is one of those that you would want to pick. Its power, long battery life and blazing speed are all rock solid!

3. ASUS ZenBook 3 Deluxe Ultraportable Laptop

Asus ZenBook 3 Deluxe has everything you need for excellent design and animation performance. It is truly an unmatched blend of power and magnificence that provide you with a perfect balance between performance, productivity and portability.

ASUS ZenBook 3 Deluxe Laptop

Its characteristics including a 16 GB RAM, i7 Core processor, 14 inches screen size and high quality USB ports, high quality graphics will provide high level performance and experience for all your design and animation projects.

Features

Display size: 14 inches
Processor type : Intel Core i7-8550U
512GB PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD
RAM: 16 GB
Wireless Type: 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1
Thunderbolt 3-enabled USB Ports that can transfer about 40 Gbps of data

Review

Launched in stunning royal blue color, ZenBook 3 Deluxe takes graphic design and animation tasks to the next level. It has everything you need for high-end quality performance with its 8th Generation Intel Core i7 processor, plenty of RAM, 512 SSD, thunderbolt USB ports and display support that ensures stunning coloring and unlimited contrast at wide-view angles enabling effective screen sharing and easy collaboration.

In addition, it has a powerful quad-speaker audio system, superior Wi-Fi capabilities and a whopping 9 hours battery life that is accompanies by an extremely fast charging system. Truly this sleekly designed and powerful laptop combines all the features you need for outstanding animation and graphics quality and performance

4. Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop

The Acer Predator Helios is amazingly loaded with high-level and state of the art specs for design, animation and gaming. It integrates a super powerful i7 Intel Core processor with the market's best and VR ready NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics. 16GB RAM Memory and 256 GB SSD offers high-speed work performance. Its powerful audio system and dual fan cooling capabilities supports any extreme designing, editing, animations and gaming sessions.

Acer Predator Helios 300 Gaming Laptop

Features

Display size: 15.6 inches
Display resolution: 1920 x 1080 pixels
Processor type : 3.8 GHz Intel Core i7
RAM: 16 GB
Graphics Coprocessor type : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
Graphics Card Size: 6GB
Hard Drive: 256 GB Solid State
Speed of Memory: 2133 MHz
Wireless compatibility: 802.11.ac
3 USB 3.0 Ports
2 USB 2.0 Ports

Review

For graphic design and animations related tasks, the Acer Predator Helios laptop is just on another level. It features high-quality capabilities to support all your design and animation task including a high-tech sound system with in-built stereo speakers and a secure digital card reader. Its silky design makes it easy to work with providing you with a great display of your active processes such as the CPU speed.

Its iron-red backlit keyboard is very tempting and attractive, illuminating the touchpad edge and keyboard keys even in the dark. If you want to take your graphics, animation skills and experience to the next level, go ahead and grab an Acer Predator Helios for yourself.

5. Lenovo ThinkPad P51 Laptop

Lenovo ThinkPad P51 is yet another powerhouse that is loaded with state-of-the-art hardware and software quality specs. Talk 15.6 inches, great display screen, latest generation Core i7 processor, 16GB RAM and good storage with a 500GB SSD that make it nothing less of an ultra-fast modern laptop.

Lenovo ThinkPad P51 Laptop

Features

Display size: 15. 6 inches
Display resolution: 2880 x 1800 pixels
Processor type: Intel i7-7700HQ Quad Core Processor
RAM: 16GB DDR4 2400MHz
Graphics Coprocessor type : NVIDIA Quadro M1200M
500GB Solid State Drive
64 GB Flash Memory Size
Wireless compatibility: Wi-Fi 2x2 802.11ac and Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 8265

Review

With its fantastic design, Lenovo Think Pad P51 laptop screams high quality. It is super-fast compared to many others and that can be confirmed with the boot up process which takes only a few seconds. The screen is charmingly decent and comes with a fingerprint reader that is so handy.

It is slim and lightweight and offers a spectacular 4K display, impressive sound system and an extraordinary cooling system. You will love the USB ports that allow you to transform loads of data very fast. A solid 8 hour battery power backup will see to it that you perform your tasks without limitations. Owning and working with Lenovo ThinkPad P51 will sure see you smoothly and effectively perform your design or animation tasks without any hitches. Highly recommended as one of the best laptops for animation and graphics.

6. Microsoft Surface Pro

Featuring the latest generation processor, 16 GB RAM, 512 GB of SSD storage, and approximately 13 hours of video playback, Microsoft Surface Pro is truly outstanding. It is super-fast for any multi-media related tasks. It has all that you need making it a perfect choice to quickly and successfully accomplish any design, animation tasks.

Microsoft Surface Pro

Features

• Processor: Intel i7 Core Processor
• Bright screen resolution
• RAM: 16GB
• 512 GB of storage
• Video compression
• High-tech editing and encoding capabilities

Review

With approximately seven hours of battery life, Microsoft Surface Pro is amazingly designed for performance and durability. It has high-tech front facing speaker's that work flawlessly, and without exaggerating – almost better than any speakers you have listened to and worked with. The screen is stunning with exceptional detail and clarity. Its touch-screen abilities and fast responsiveness are just excellent.

It has a great cooling system. Moreover, it is backward compatible with Surface Pro 3 and Surface Pro 4 with a folding feature that you can put away if you don't want to type which protects and guards its excellent screen from scratches and bumps.Also, its fingerprint reading feature is remarkably comfortable, faster and accurate, making it a perfect choice for any animation and graphic design jobs.

7. Acer Aspire VX 15 Gaming Laptop

Acer Aspire laptop integrates a dominant latest generation i7 Intel Core processor with a high-performance NVIDIA graphics preprocessor. It is designed and built to cater for all extreme and high-end gaming, animations and graphics sessions. 15 inches screen size, 256 SSD and 16GB RAM make it a perfect blend of high end performance and quality.

Acer Aspire VX 15 Gaming Laptop

Features

• Display size: 15. 6 inches
• Display resolution: 1980 x 1080 pixels
• Processor type: Intel Core i7 2.8 GHz
• 16GB RAM
• Graphics Coprocessor: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
• Hard Drive: 256 GB Solid State
• 1 USB 2.0 Port
• 3 USB 3.0 Ports
• Iron-Red backlit keyboard
• Dual fan cooling

Review
Have you heard of looks that kill? Well this is the case of the Acer Aspire VX 15 laptop. It exploits a futuristic sleek design topped with a striking display screen that puts you in complete command of not only your gaming but also your animation or graphic tasks. Its super-fast graphic capabilities, high-tech audio system, powerful processing and hard-edged design confirm it all.

Additionally, cutting-edge cooling capabilities support extreme gaming and graphic sessions. You can't hear the fan no matter how weighty you engage in heavy-weight applications. What more, it's lighting iron-red keyboard keeps you hooked to whatever action you are executing for many hours. The laptop is lightweight and can easily be carried in one hand on the go. Top on the list of the many gaming laptops out there, Acer Aspire VX 15 only spells high quality and high performance for designers and animators.

8. Microsoft Surface Book 2

Did we just reserve the best for the last? The Microsoft Surface Book 2 is yet another powerhouse animation and graphics laptop. It is designed to impress, and is available in 13.5 or 15 inches stunning screen sizes. It features a powerful Intel Core i7, a load of 16GB RAM, a NVIDIA GTX graphics co-processor and 256 GB SSD. It's irrefutably attractive inside and outside, and combines both pen and touch capabilities

Microsoft Surface Book 2

Features

• Display size: 15 inches
• Display type resolution: 3000x2000pixels
• Processor type: 4.2 GHz Intel Core i7
• RAM: 16GB
• Graphics Coprocessor type: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060
• 256 GB Solid State Drive
• Wireless compatibility: 802.11abg
• 2 USB 3.0 Ports
• 1 USB 2.0 Port

Review

This laptop cum tablet maybe exactly what you want for your animation and graphic jobs. By just pressing a button, you can ditch the keyboard and just utilize the screen making it lightweight and comfortable to use. A big RAM, portability, striking graphics and good storage, will work wonders by providing high quality performance for all your animation and design tasks.

It has a battery life like no other going for approximately 17 hours. If you are looking for a combination of power, productivity and portability, we strongly recommend the Microsoft Surface Book 2. Working with it will soon make you feel like it's the best you have owned by far.

Conclusion

When making a choice to buy a laptop, it is crucial to do an extensive specs research depending on what you want to perform with the machine. The best laptops for animation and graphics can be accessed by going through the features conversed above. However, apart from these features, it is imperative to consider the cost of the laptop. As a professional graphic designer or animator, we advise that you don't bargain with the laptop cost and quality.