The best laptops for animation need to have enough power for animation software and a display that allows you to see the details of what you’re working on. Though this used to mean a bulky device or even desktop PC, nowadays there are sleek, versatile laptops to choose from that can save some desk space and offer more portability.
We’ve tested and reviewed every laptop on this list, putting them through their paces with extensive benchmark testing. The power, performance, battery life and display are just a few of the criteria we test against – so you can be sure you’re in safe hands. Read our how we test laptops page for more information, and we also have some more insight into the best laptop for animation at the bottom of this article.
Every laptop on this page can run the best animation software, including After Effects, Blender, Maya and more, but will differ in terms of cost, screen size and other important features. Of course, laptops aren’t your only option – the best drawing tablets for animation will give you a totally different approach to your work.
We loved this Windows option for its excellent colour-accurate touchscreen OLED display, powerful performance and the bonus of the built-in dial that can be used to scrub through a timeline or change brush sizes. Read more
If you’re looking to keep your spend under a grand, this premium 2-in-1 laptop has a rather lovely 13.3-inch OLED touch screen, complemented by a powerful 12th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM for smooth multitasking. Read more
Perfect for power and portability, with AI tech that boosts the already capable internal and discrete setup. A gaming laptop that’s a creative’s dream. Read more
We think the M3 Pro or Max MacBook Pro 16 is the best MacBook for animation overall. We found that runs even the most demanding animation programs with ease, it has a large bright screen and battery life is outstanding. Read more
We loved this Windows option for its excellent colour-accurate touchscreen OLED display, powerful performance and the bonus of the built-in dial that can be used to scrub through a timeline or change brush sizes. Read more
If you want a large laptop for animation, this mobile workstation from Dell is super-powerful. It’s heavy, and there’s no 4K display, but if you want a beast there isn’t a better Dell option. Read more
Screen: 16-inch, glasses-free 3D OLED display, 3.2K (3200 x 2000)
Storage: Up to 8TB (2x4TB SSD)
Ports: Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2 Gen 2, SD Express reader, HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm headset jack, Ethernet
Reasons to buy
+
Excellent spec
+
Runs cool and quiet
+
Thunderbolt 4
Reasons to avoid
–
Expensive
–
Keyboard may take a bit of getting used to
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Battery life a little low
We think Asus managed something quite special with its ProArt Studiobook OLED (H7604) laptop. It’s packed with high-end components but stays cool and composed almost at all times. If you want to be able to do run your heavy workloads without worrying that your laptop is going to melt, Asus’s device will be very attractive. Our reviewer found it was easily powerful enough to cope with the demands of 3D animation.
Meanwhile the touchscreen OLED display is bright and hit 100% of the DCI-P3 colour gamut in our tests, making this another option for colour-accurate work. We also liked the built-in dial that sits above the trackpad. This can be customised to change its role depending on which app you’re running, and, once we got used to it being there, we found it useful for things like scrubbing through a timeline or tweaking brush sizes. With all that going for it, the ProArt Studiobook OLED is the laptop to go for if you’re not a fan of Apple’s MacBooks. Read our full Asus ProArt Studiobook OLED review for more details.
Screen: 13.3″ diagonal FHD WLED-backlit touch screen (1920 x 1080)
Storage: 1 TB PCIe SSD
Ports: 1 x USB Type-C (Power, Display, Data), 2 x USB Type-A, 1 x HDMI 2.0b, 1 x SD media card, 1 x AC Smart Pin, 1 x 3.5mm combo jack
Reasons to buy
+
2-in-1 design
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Bang & Oulfsen speakers
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OLED screen
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Exceptional battery performance
Reasons to avoid
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No stylus dock
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Disappointing storage space
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Can feel clunky when in tablet mode
If you’re looking to keep your spend under a grand, the HP Envy x360 stands out as a premium 2-in-1 laptop that’s very capable. Its rather lovely 13.3-inch OLED touch screen is complemented by a powerful 12th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM for smooth multitasking.
While the 512GB SSD storage capacity is limited, you get a generous array of ports, including Thunderbolt 4, USB-A, and a headphone jack. An the extended battery life of up to 17.5 hours means you’ll be able to work away from a socket for absolutely ages. The included tilt pen facilitates pen input (excellent for animators), and the Bang & Olufsen speakers enhance the multimedia experience.
The lack of dedicated pen storage and the attached keyboard add up to a slightly clunky tablet experience. But otherwise, this versatile and capable 2-in-1 laptop would be a good choice for animation on a relatively limited budget.
The brand-new-for-2024 HP Omen Transcend 14 is a sleek, relatively lightweight bundle of portable, powerful joy. When we tested it, we found it to be one of the new generation of gaming laptops that don’t look like gaming laptops, aka the holy grail for creatives. The 14-inch OLED screen is a joy, with 500 nits peak brightness (sounds average but the OLED tech makes it seem brighter) even in HDR mode. And it’s got the trendy 16:10 aspect ratio, too.
The top-spec model is magnificently powerful for the size, price and build, with our review showing some excellent benchmarks across creative tasks from 3D to photo editing – all of which you might need in your animation workflow. The AI tech is to thank for that, as it gives a boost to the already capable internal setup and discrete graphics card.
And even throughout all that power, the battery life was ample. We got around seven and a half hours with a moderately heavy workflow. This, combined with the design, is why we rate this brilliant laptop for portability.
We found the latest MacBook Pro 16 to be a beast of a laptop. With the M3 Max configuration that we tested, it was able to handle high-end animation programmes with ease. With up to 128GB RAM, 16-core CPU and 40-core GPU, there is an option for even the most performance-hungry animator. We tested it Cinema 4D, Blender and DaVinci Resolve, and projects felt super smooth.
The display is also wonderful for any kind of creative work , with excellent colour accuracy, brightness and contrast. Our own tests vouched for Apple’s claim that the brightness of 1000 nits can be taken up to 1600 nits for HDR content, and we found the brightness enough to overcome glare throughout our testing.
Whether you are working on a short animation film, or find yourself rendering an 8K animation sequence for a major studio, we think the MacBook Pro M3 Pro, and in particular the M3 Max, is the best portable computer you could ask for today. Read our full MacBook Pro M3 review for the full lowdown.
Want to connect a lot of Thunderbolt devices to your laptop, or just want something that’s nice and future-proof? Then you’ll love the four Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports on this laptop, along with a MicroSD card reader and 3.5mm headphone jack.
More generally, this laptop may not have the expansive display of the 16-inch MacBook Pro, but this 14-inch parcel comes loaded with a huge amount of power for its compact frame. In fact, our testing put its performance close to that of a 14-inch MacBook Pro with Apple’s M2 Pro chip, convincing our reviewer, who is a self-confessed Apple obsessive.
While the screen is smaller, the 16:10 aspect ratio makes the most of the space with a little extra height than a standard 16:9, and every bit counts for cramped animation software interfaces. Our testing confirmed solid colour accuracy.
The laptop also gave us a reasonable 12 hours of battery life in our testing. And it’s all wrapped up in a superbly well-made chassis that feels well-built and exudes quality. So if you want power and but need portability, Dell’s offering could be what you’re after.
If you’re looking for pure power and have money to spend, this Dell is a great option, marketed as Dell’s most powerful mobile workstation. Designed with creative professionals in mind, this 17-inch beast has a seriously powerful GPU and upgrade options that give extremely good benchmark scores across heavy creative tasks. It will be too much power for 2D animators, but those working in 3D and with video will be well served.
This model is heavy and quite bulky, as maybe expected from a full mobile workstation, so it isn’t our recommendation for mobile working (the above Dell Precision 5470 is best for that, as well as being cheaper). Added to that, the battery life is pretty dire (we only managed three hours of creative work when we reviewed the Dell Precision 7780).
The other drawback is there’s no 4K display here, and the aspect ratio is 16:9 rather than the 16:10 often favoured by creators. But our reviewer was pleased as it means a slightly slimmer chassis – and we also thought the Full HD display looked great.
Ports: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 2x Thunderbolt 4, 1x HDMI 2.1, 3.5mm combo jack
Reasons to buy
+
Double screen
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Second screen stylus-compatible
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Super speedy
Reasons to avoid
–
Not everyone will want the extra screen
The latest Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED packs powerful components with a Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and could easily handle animation projects in our tests. The 14-core processor and 32GB of RAM also means this is an absolute beast when it comes to multitasking, which can seriously speed up your animation workflow.
However, the most eye-catching feature of the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED is its dual-screen setup – the upgraded 2024 model houses two two 14in 2880×1800 120Hz OLED screens, as opposed to a smaller one over the keyboard as with the last model. That second screen gives you space to put apps and tools, so your main screen isn’t interrupted. Because you can draw on the second screen with a stylus.
The battery life is much improved with this iteration – we got over 12 hours of use with one screen on. The second screen sucks up battery faster but it’s not unreasonable so as long as you’re near a plug point at some point in the day.
The specs you will need in a laptop for animation will depend on what software you use, and it’s always worth checking the minimum specs quoted by the developer. In many cases, thee minimum system requirements are not particularly high. For example. CelAction2D states a minimum of 8 GB of RAM and an Intel i5 CPU, which is fairly standard.
That said, software such as Autodesk Maya, Adobe Animate and Blender, do require significant processing power for complex calculations and renderings, and we would recommend a 10th or 11th generation Intel Core i7 or i9 or AMD Ryzen 7 or 9 series H for anyone doing 3D animation. We would also recommend going for a laptop with a dedicated graphics card.
For 2D animation, we recommend at least a GPU with 4GB of VRAM. For 3D animation, 8 GB of VRAM would be preferable. As for RAM, we would recommend at least 16GB to be able to handle multiple layers and complex character rigs and provide smooth playback. Going to 32GB is likely to provide a smoother experience for extensive rendering and simulation in 3D animation.
You’ll also need enough storage space to store your animation files. Solid-state drives (SSDs) are the way to go for the best read/write speeds, and you’ll probably want at least 512GB. Finally, you’ll want a display with high-resolution (at least Full HD, 1920×1080) and good colour coverage and accuracy. Some animators like a touchscreen so that they can use a stylus for drawing and sketching, although there’s also the option to use a graphics tablet for this.
Are gaming laptops good for animation?
Gaming laptops are some of the most powerful machines on the market, and increasingly creatives are finding themselves investing in an RGB-clad laptop to handle their processing and rendering needs – we’ve even included a laptop from Razer, famed for its gaming hardware, in our selection of the best laptops for animation above. Most of the best gaming laptops will be perfectly capable of meeting an animator’s needs.
Choosing the best laptop for animation for you will depend upon what type of animation, how you work and your budget. We’ve tested the laptops above for use with animation software, but some are more geared to professionals while others provide more portability or better value. All have the minimum requirements of a modern processor and at least 8GB of RAM (most can be configured higher than that, and would recommend going for 16GB if your budget allows it).
With the increasing popularity of GPU render engines like Redshift and Octane, you should also think about whether you will be using your GPU or CPU to render animations. For CPU rendering, you want to look for a high clock speed so the machine can animate in real time and handle the complex calculations needed to render animations.
For more complex 3D animations, you’re probably better off using your GPU, and so we’d suggest looking at laptops with a dedicated graphics card – especially if you’re going to be attempting final-quality rendering. While these will inevitably be more expensive, the drastic impact it will have on the speed of your workflow is well worth the investment.
We have tested all the laptops in this guide hands on. We run a series of benchmark tests on each device to measure power and performance, including:
• Cinebench R23/2024 – this assesses the performance of a computer’s CPU and GPU using real-world 3D rendering tasks
• Geekbench 5/6 – this tests the CPU’s processing power, both by using a single core for a single task at a time as well as all the CPU’s core to see its ability to multitask
• PCMark 10 – this test assesses a computer’s ability to run all everyday tasks from web browsing to digital content creation, testing app launch speeds, running drawing and animation software, performing 3D rendering, and it also tests its battery life
As well as technical benchmarking, we evaluate machines in real-world situations, using animation software such as Adobe Animate and AutoDesk Maya and also push them to the limit with multiple applications running. We evaluate power, speed, display, design and build as well as value. For more details, see our article on How we test.
Best overall
Most portable
Best MacBook
Best Thunderbolt
Best 17-inch
