Pro Tools is software that you can use for creating and editing sound for film and video projects. If you want to record music professionally, Pro Tools is an excellent option. This audio recording system can handle anything from simple demos to the high demands of professional studio work.
When it comes to DAWs, Pro Tools is the industry standard. This software offers a streamlined user interface and a large library of available plugins. However, in order to use this tool, you need a powerful laptop.
If you are looking for a laptop for your Pro Tools workflow, there are a few key considerations that you should make. A powerful processor is vital. You will not be able to get the most out of Pro Tools if you don’t have the proper hardware.
Another factor that you need to consider is RAM. A laptop with sufficient RAM is important for multitasking. Graphics are not an essential part of Pro Tools, but a higher GPU specification will help you with more demanding tasks.
Another factor to consider when looking for a laptop for Pro Tools is the operating system. Both Windows and Mac OS are common choices. You should also look for a laptop with at least a 15.6-inch screen and 1920 x 1080 resolution with 400 nits of brightness.
In a hurry? Here are our top 3 favorite picks when it comes to the best laptops for Pro Tools in 2023! We have tried and tested many laptops and created a list of the best ones on the basis of performance, speed, display, RAM, and storage in mind.
Also read: Laptops with SIM slots
Best Overall
Runner Up
Budget Pick
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Minimum and Recommended System Requirements for Running Pro Tools
In order to use Pro Tools smoothly, you need to buy a laptop with minimum or recommended system requirements. You need enough RAM, storage space, and cores to run this software. Here are the minimum and recommended system requirements for running Pro Tools.
Minimum System Requirements
- Processor: Intel Core i5 or M1 processor
- Storage: 256GB SSD
- RAM: 8GB
- Operating System: Windows 10 Home or macOS 10.14.6
Recommended System Requirements
- Processor: Intel Core i7 or M1 processor
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- RAM: 16GB
- Operating System: Windows 10 Pro or macOS 10.15.7
What To Look For In Laptops For Pro Tools?
There are many factors to consider when purchasing a laptop for Pro tools. The size and type of the display are crucial. You also need a large screen with crisp lines. Music production takes time and requires a high-resolution screen. For maximum efficiency, you’ll want a screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and a brightness of 400 nits or more.
You should also look for USB ports, thunderbolt ports, RJ45 Ethernet, and PCI-Express expansion ports. These ports allow you to connect to external audio and video equipment. Depending on what you’ll be using your laptop for, you might also want to consider adding extra RAM to it.
When it comes to performance, there are some laptops that are worth the price tag. For example, the latest laptops are a great option for Pro Tools users. With a powerful AMD Ryzen octa-core CPU, they deliver a lot of power. It also boasts a blazing display with a high contrast ratio and wide color gamut.
There are many benefits to using laptops for Pro tools. For one thing, they are incredibly portable. Laptops are great for travel, and some are even touchscreen. Whether you’re editing videos, creating music, or editing photos, you’ll find a laptop perfect for your needs. These laptops help you to produce music with ease, so they are totally worth it.
If you are looking for a laptop to run Pro Tools, here are the top 7 best options in 2023.
Also read: Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop review
1. ASUS VivoBook Pro 14 – Best Overall
This ASUS VivoBook Pro 14 OLED laptop has many good features, which makes it perfect for Pro Tools. It has a spacious trackpad and an ASUS NumberPad 2.0 that you can activate by tapping the calculator logo in the upper right corner.
The processor is an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H, which makes this laptop very powerful. It comes with a 1TB SSD which helps you to easily store multiple files.
The VivoBook Pro 14’s RAM and SSD make the laptop fast and responsive for most tasks. Asus also equipped the laptop with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card, which ensures that you get the best performance possible. This laptop comes with 16GB RAM, which is enough for most tasks.
The ASUS VivoBook Pro 14 OLED has an impressive OLED display with a stunning 14-inch resolution. It also features great speakers by Harman and Kardon, and Asus claims a decent battery life.
Despite its price, the VivoBook Pro 14 OLED is one of the most powerful laptops on the market today. Its 2.8K OLED screen and 90Hz refresh rate are unrivaled in the market.
In terms of performance, the VivoBook Pro 14 OLED scores highly in Cinebench, which measures CPU performance. Its multi-core performance is also impressive, with an average score of 5193 points. Those with video-editing and music production applications will be pleased with its performance.
The best thing about this laptop is that it comes with various connectivity ports. It comes with USB 3.2 Type C, USB 2.0 Type-A, USB 3.2 Type A, HDMI, and 3.5mm Combo Audio Jack connectivity options. You will also get Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth connectivity with this laptop.
If you’re looking for a laptop that can easily run Pro Tools, the Asus VivoBook Pro 14 is the best option. Its excellent performance in day-to-day music production is impressive, and its large battery will ensure you won’t need to plug it in throughout the day. Its high-resolution OLED screen makes it an ideal choice for audio-makers and other content creators.
Why Is This the Best Laptop for Pro Tools in 2023?
If you’re a professional who works with pro tools on a regular basis, you’ll probably need a laptop that can handle the demanding tasks of this industry.
There are many great options out there, but the ASUS VivoBook Pro 14 OLED slim laptop is the best choice for this task. It has a powerful processor and loads of RAM, a fast SSD, and a wide OLED display with thin bezels.
A good processor is crucial to audio production, and the ASUS VivoBook Pro 14 OLED slim laptop is equipped with an AMD Ryzen octa-core CPU, one of the best processors available.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H is an ideal processor for audio work, with a base clock speed of 3.2GHz and a boost clock of 4.4GHz. With this processor, you’ll be able to multitask smoothly and run heavy plugins without affecting your performance.
Its port selection is impressive, as it includes several USB type-A and USB-C ports, as well as a microSD card reader. Among its many other features, the Vivobook Pro 14 OLED’s wide variety of connectivity options will satisfy any audio production professional.
USB 2.0 and Type-C ports are included, along with two HDMI ports and a microSD card reader. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 make it easy to stay connected.
An Asus VivoBook Pro 14 OLED touchscreen doubles as a number pad. Its twill pattern highlights the Enter key. The Asus VivoBook Pro’s large and responsive touchpad is perfect for typing numbers.
It also has a lockable function for your convenience. Its high-quality speakers are an added bonus, too. You don’t have to worry about noise when recording with a laptop with a high-quality audio track.
When it comes to RAM, the Asus VivoBook Pro 14 OLED has an excellent choice. It comes with 16GB RAM as well as 1TB SSD storage. It also boasts an OLED screen, which is usually reserved for high-end electronics.
The display offers a wide color gamut and an aspect ratio of 16:10. Moreover, a full-sized keyboard with a backlight is a nice addition. All these features make it perfect for using Pro Tools.
2. Acer Predator Helios 300 – Runner Up
If you’re in the market for a laptop that can run Pro Tools Acer, Predator Helios 300 is a good choice. This laptop offers powerful and affordable performance for music producers. Equipped with the powerful hardware of a gaming laptop, this device helps you to easily run Pro Tools.
The Acer Predator Helios 300’s display is one of the most impressive things about this laptop, especially for its price. At a 15.6-inch native 1,920×1080 resolution, this laptop offers a 144Hz refresh.
The laptop also offers six cores with hyper-threading, making it great for a gamer. The Acer Predator Helios 300 comes with an Intel i7-10750H processor. This 10th Gen Intel processor boosts up to 5.0GHz.
Overall, the Acer Predator Helios 300 is one of the most competitive gaming notebooks currently available. It offers excellent performance, an affordable price, and a wide range of ports.
The Predator Helios 300 is a midrange gaming laptop with a new Intel processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 GPU. With these components, it promises blazingly fast performance delivering great productivity.
The design of the Acer Predator Helios 300 is similar to the design of many of the other Predator laptops. The black chassis features the Acer logo surrounded by blue brackets. The interior is dark black, as is the exterior.
Its deck is covered in metal and features a large touchpad and edge-to-edge keyboard. Although slightly heavier than previous models, the weight makes it easy to carry around.
This laptop is equipped with 16GB RAM, which helps you to easily run Pro Tools. You will also get 512GB SSD storage with this laptop.
Apart from that, you will get additional features like a 4-Zone RGB backlit keyboard, Wi-Fi 6, 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2, 1 RJ-45, 1 HDMI, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1, 1 Kensington lock slot, and one headphone/microphone combo.
3. Lenovo IdeaPad 3 – Budget Pick
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 15 is one of the most affordable laptops that you can use for Pro Tools. Despite the price, this gaming laptop packs a lot of great hardware for an entry-level machine.
It comes with all the minimum requirements to run Pro Tools without any issues. The AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor in this laptop is powerful and fast enough. It comes with six ultra-responsive cores.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 comes with a full-sized keyboard and a large trackpad. Both have similar design elements, with blue accents on the rear. This laptop boats 15.6 inches screen size and 1920 x 1080 resolution with a 16:10 aspect ratio. The screen itself is bright and colorful, with a 120Hz refresh rate. In addition, it has a 100% sRGB color gamut.
Storage space is limited, but that was to be expected for this budget-priced laptop. While the IdeaPad Gaming 3 comes with a 256-gigabyte M.2 2242 PCIe 3.0×4 NVMe SSD, you can also insert a 2.5-inch SSD for even more storage.
While the storage space is small, it is sufficient for Pro Tools. With this laptop, you will only get 8GB Ram, but the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card makes up for it.
Another notable feature is the number of ports. The IdeaPad Gaming 3 comes with two USB Type-A ports. Of course, one of them is reserved for power. In addition to that, it also features an HDMI 2.0 port, an RJ-45 Ethernet port, and a DC-in/out power connector. You will also get Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity with this laptop.
4. Dell XPS 15 Laptop – Premium Pick
If you are looking for a premium laptop to run Pro Tools, you can use Dell XPS 15. This laptop is designed to rival many of the higher-end laptops on the market. This new Dell laptop features a 15.6-inch display and 16GB of memory.
Its memory is 1.2 times faster than the average laptop’s memory, so you can expect faster access to your content. In addition, you’ll be pleased to find that it supports 512GB of solid-state storage. All these features make it one of the most powerful laptops to run Pro Tools.
Aside from the high-end features of the Dell XPS 15, the battery life is also impressive. The battery is more than enough to run productivity apps for long hours.
While the keyboard is an important component of a high-end multimedia notebook, this laptop also has a solid FHD screen and plenty of RAM and SSD storage. It also comes with Eyesafe display technology as well as DisplayHDR 400 and Dolby Vision.
One of the most impressive aspects of this laptop is its 15.6-inch display. The display offers an excellent screen with a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080 pixels. This laptop is equipped with Intel Core i7 10th Gen processor and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti 4GB GDDR6, which makes it perfect for Pro Tools.
There are many connectivity ports on this laptop. It comes with 1x USB-C 3.1 with power delivery & DisplayPort, SD card reader v6.0, 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack , 2x Thunderbolt 3 with power delivery & DisplayPort.
5. Lenovo Legion 5 Gaming Laptop
If you’re looking for a powerful laptop that can keep up with Pro Tools, the Lenovo Legion 5 is a solid choice. It features an AMD Ryzen processor with NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics and the Legion Coldfront 3.0 AI Engine.
These components allow you to take full advantage of the features such as Q Control and AI Engine. This laptop’s performance is also bolstered by a 512GB SSD.
The keyboard on the Legion 5 is a solid affair, with numeric keys and a number pad. The keyboard is rock solid, too, with 1.8mm of key travel and full-size cursor keys. The trackpad is offset to the left for easy cable management.
Overall, it feels great to type on. The Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptop is a stylish machine. The aluminum body is sturdy, with the lid flexing slightly towards the hinge.
The Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptop offers solid performance for the price. It comes with AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics. You will also get 16GB RAM with this laptop which helps you to easily run Pro Tools.
The 15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS display is another impressive feature of this laptop. You will also get many additional features with this laptop.
It comes with a 4-zone RGB backlight, 2 x 2W speakers, and multiple ports. You will get connectivity options like Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, 4 USB, HDMI 2.1, USB-C, DisplayPort 1.4, RJ45 Ethernet, etc. Another positive feature of the Legion 5 is its battery life. It offers respectable six-and-a-half hours when using full brightness.
6. 2021 Apple MacBook Pro
If you’re a creative professional, the new 2021 Apple MacBook Pro is one of the best laptops for your money. The newest model offers everything a creative professional needs in a laptop. This new laptop has a better chipset with CPU and GPU performance. In short, the new MacBook Pro is better than ever.
Powered by M1 Pro or M1 Max chips, the new MacBook Pro 14 is the best laptop if you’re a creative professional. It’s the best of both worlds when it comes to power and design. You’ll feel like a true creator after buying this laptop. There are no more excuses. You will get 16GB RAM as well as 512GB SSD with this laptop.
While the new machine is slightly more expensive than its predecessor, it offers superior performance. The screen resolution is backed by mini-LED technology and has a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
The 14-inch screen has a Liquid Retina XDR display. In addition, the laptop has three USB-C ports. Another USB-C thunderbolt port serves as the DisplayPort and can charge the laptop. Bluetooth 5 and Wi-Fi 6 are included.
7. Razer Blade 15 Base Gaming Laptop
If you’re in the market for a new laptop to use Pro Tools, you’ll want to consider the Razer Blade 15. The company’s latest gaming notebook is available in a base and an advanced model.
The base model comes with a Full HD display and a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card. This laptop comes with some of the best features to run demanding software.
The Razer Blade 15 Base Gaming Laptop 2021 offers a wide range of configuration options. It has three USB-A ports and one USB-C port on each side. It comes with a 144Hz 15.6-inch 1080p display and a full-size SD memory card reader.
Its slim design and the affordable price tag will appeal to gamers. You will also get 16GB faster RAM and 512GB SSD storage with this laptop.
When compared to its more expensive counterparts, the Razer Blade 15’s base model is a good choice for price-conscious creators. It comes with the latest graphics card and on-the-go ray-tracing lighting.
The Intel Core i7-10750H processor with 6 cores makes the laptop all the more powerful. The Razer Blade 15 is a solid machine that offers ample connectivity and a solid build.
Pros
- Powerful Intel i7 processor with 6 cores
- Good graphics performance
- Thin and compact design
- Extensive connectivity
Cons
- Overheats with extensive use
How to Choose the Best Laptop for Pro Tools in 2023?
If you’re a professional audio engineer or music producer, choosing a laptop for your work is of utmost importance. Pro Tools users need a laptop with the highest levels of processor, GPU, RAM, storage, and display resolution.
CPU
If you’re planning to use Pro Tools, you’ll need a laptop with sufficient memory and processing power. A laptop with at least an Intel Core i5 processor with a clock speed of 2.6GHz is recommended. However, if you want better performance, you need to use a laptop with an M1 or Intel Core i7 processor.
RAM
RAM is a crucial part of Pro Tools. Many of the latest laptops come with sufficient RAM to accommodate the software. You need at least 8GB to 16GB of RAM to easily run this software on your laptop. The higher the RAM, the better performance and speed your laptop will deliver.
Storage
Considering the needs of a professional music producer, you may be wondering how to select the best laptop for Pro Tools storage. A good laptop for Pro Tools will come with excellent storage space. If you want to store music files on the laptop, it is best to choose 25GB or 512GB SSD storage.
Display
The display is probably the most important factor when it comes to the performance of the best laptop for Pro Tools. Because Pro Tools allows you to work with tons of detail on the screen, you’ll want to make sure it’s as high-res as possible.
You’ll be using multiple views, plugins, and windows at once. A high-res screen will help you see them all clearly and edit in Pro Tools with no problems.
Wireless Connectivity and Ports
The wireless connectivity and ports of the best laptop for Pro Tools are important for users of audio software. A laptop that does not support these features will not function properly with this software.
If you plan to use Pro Tools for editing, you should also choose a laptop that has HDMI and Thunderbolt ports. The best laptop for Pro Tools will also have USB, FireWire, Thunderbolt, and RJ45 Ethernet ports.
GPU
For those looking for the best laptop for music production, you may want to consider a device with a good GPU. While the RAM is important for multitasking, graphics are not as crucial as other specs. Purchasing a laptop with an integrated GPU will do the trick just fine. Higher graphics cards are a good option for high-end tasks that require graphics.
Overheat during extensive use
One common drawback associated with laptops is their tendency to overheat during extensive use. This is primarily due to the high-performance components such as the CPU and GPU, which generate a substantial amount of heat when running intensive actions. Overheating can lead to decreased performance, shorter hardware lifespan, and in extreme cases, damage to the laptop.
Thankfully, there are solutions to mitigate this problem. One such solution is a cooling pad designed specifically for laptops. A cooling pad helps disperse the heat generated by your laptop, preventing it from overheating and ensuring optimal performance even during long sessions.
Frequently Asked Questions About Pro Tools & Laptops
Is Pro Tools Compatible With HP Laptop?
Fortunately, the answer is a resounding yes! You can use this software on any laptop with Windows and Mac operating systems. If your HP laptop has a powerful processor, good RAM, and display, you can easily use Pro Tools on it.
Can You Use Any Laptop For Pro Tools?
If you’re planning to use Pro Tools on a laptop, there are several factors that you should consider. You need a laptop with minimum system requirements to run this software.
A high-quality laptop for Pro Tools will have a 15.6-inch screen with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. Other things to consider are the number of USB ports, firewire and thunderbolt connections, and PCI Express expansion ports. Finally, be sure to get a model that has at least one of these ports.
Is 16GB RAM Good For Pro Tools?
The answer is yes, but it is better if you upgrade your RAM. Generally speaking, a laptop with 16GB of RAM will perform better than a computer with just four. This is because Pro Tools is designed to run at the highest possible sample rate and bit depth. Most people use a laptop with 16GB for Pro Tools.
Final Thoughts
If you are a music producer, it is best to invest in a laptop with Pro Tools. A laptop is extremely portable and will help you to easily produce music with ease. There are many laptops available in the market, but not all the suitable for running this software.
To help you, we have tried and tested many devices and picked the top 7 best laptops for Pro Tools in 2023. You can smoothly run this software on any of these laptops. If you want to suggest something or need additional details, write to us in the comments below.
If you are a fan of HP, you may like our text on the most secure HP laptops on the market.
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