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As the popularity of TV and movies only increases, video editing is an important skill to have these days, especially if you work in the entertainment industry. While desktop computers are an obvious choice for video editors, they don’t provide you the freedom that laptops do.
Despite being more expensive than their cumbersome cousins, laptops are a popular choice for creatives who enjoy traveling or collaborating with others, and many have powerful hardware perfect for video editing.
With so many different laptop models available on the market, it can be difficult finding the perfect model for you. Narrowing down the best options at various price points can be time-consuming.
For that reason, PC Mecca is here to assist you with reviews of the top laptop models available. In this article, you’ll learn about the 12 best budget laptops for video editing in 2023 over different price ranges.
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Best Laptops For Video Editing Under $1000
Best Laptops For Video Editing Under $800
Best Laptops For Video Editing Under $600
Best Laptops For Video Editing Under $400
Best Budget Laptops for Video Editing Under $1000
Video editing requires powerful hardware in order to properly render and process video file information during the editing process. Therefore, highly powerful, more expensive laptops within a higher price range for computers will be the most adequate for working with large video projects.
While the downside of expensive laptops is obviously the price tag, they have the most powerful hardware components for video editing, and they will last the longest if you are not looking to upgrade every year or two, so they can be the most cost-effective despite being very expensive upfront.
The table below will give you a quick look at our selections for the 3 best laptops for video editing currently available on the market for under $1000. To read a full review, simply click on ‘review>>’ in the respective row.
1. HP Victus
Display: 15.6” IPS | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti | RAM: 16 GB DDR4 | Storage: 1 TB SSD | Battery Life: 8 Hours | Weight: 5.5 lbs / 2.5 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- By far the best performance per dollar
- High-performing CPU and GPU
- Plenty of RAM and storage (both upgradeable)
- Large, smooth, sharp display
- Excellent color accuracy (100% sRGB)
- Responsive keyboard
- Excellent connectivity
- Good battery life
REASONS TO AVOID
- Heavy
- All-plastic construction
Our Rating: 9.9/10
The HP Victus is the latest addition to HP’s gaming laptop lineup, and it is a killer machine for video editing on a budget. It’s got everything you need–Color accurate display, incredible performance per dollar, and plenty of memory (which is also upgradeable). For less than $1000, it’s an absolute steal.
The biggest drawbacks of this laptop are its weight and build quality. The Victus weighs in at 5.5 lbs, which is not terrible–There are heavier laptops out there; however, this isn’t a very portable laptop. On top of that, the chassis is all-plastic and doesn’t feel premium at all.
We’d say these are minor drawbacks if you’re not specifically looking for a portable laptop. Especially when you weigh it against how good the laptop performs and how good of a display it has for the money.
Speaking of performance, an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor provides excellent performance for complex video editing projects and general productivity. Its single-core performance is also good, but regardless, you will be able to get very fast speeds when rendering videos and utilizing 3D graphics.
It’s, by far, the best processor you can have in this price range.
Graphics-wise, the Victus is equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card with 4 GB of VRAM. It’s one of the weakest GPUs from the 30 series of Nvidia GPUs, but again, it’s one of the best you can get in this price range.
In combination with the CPU, the GPU allows you to utilize and process images and video clips with minimal lag, which is especially helpful when editing large video files.
The baseline storage and RAM specifications of the Victus are also excellent. A 1 TB SSD stores your files and allows you to write and read them quickly, and the RAM comes in at 16 GB, which is the golden standard for video editing.
If you need more RAM or storage for more complex projects, you’re in luck–The RAM and SSD are both expandable, and you can easily double the amount of RAM and storage to 32 GB and 2 TB, making this laptop compete with laptops that cost twice as much.
Details in video that may not have been apparent on other models of laptops will stand out with this model thanks to its display. It is a 15.6-inch FHD (1920×1080) display that covers 100% of the sRGB gamut, making it ideal for editors by providing extremely accurate colors.
True to the name, the colors are bright and vivid without being overly saturated, and the screen brightness is good that you can see the screen outside in the light without much difficulty. This display won’t need any calibration or color correction out of the box, as its accuracy is evident right away.
Battery life doesn’t disappoint as well, with 8 hours of light use. However, when video editing, expect this to go down to around three-four hours. It’s not ideal, but again, it’s the best in this price range with this much power under the hood.
Lastly, the connectivity is also among the best in this category, only missing the Thunderbolt 4 connection, which is typically found on more expensive, non-gaming laptops. But with three USB ports, one USB Type-C port, Ethernet, HDMI, an SD card reader, and HD audio jacks, you’ll have everything a video editor needs.
Overall, the HP Victus is a fantastic machine and our number-one selection for the best laptop for video editing under $1000 for 2023. It’s got an outstanding performance, color-accurate display, excellent connectivity, and solid battery life–What more can you really ask for in the sub-$1000 category?
2. Lenovo Legion 5
Display: 15.6” IPS | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti | RAM: 16 GB DDR4 | Storage: 512 GB SSD | Battery Life: 7 Hours | Weight: 5.3 lbs / 2.4 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- Lots of power for the price
- Solid and durable build
- Incredible value
- 16GB of RAM
- Excellent, color-accurate display (100% sRGB)
- Buttery-smooth 165 Hz refresh rate
- Supports up to 64 GB of RAM
- Soft and comfortable keyboard
REASONS TO AVOID
- No bells and whistles
- Heavy and bulky
- Slightly over the budget
Our Rating: 9.8/10
Lenovo’s gaming laptops are a force to be reckoned with when it comes to video editing on a budget. The Legion 5 offers a combination of power and high-quality display to provide a performance that video editors can rely on for heavy projects for years to come.
An AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor is at the heart of this computer and runs pretty close to full power regardless of what you use the Legion 5 for. Of course, this is dependent on your performance settings, but for the most part, this laptop runs at a fairly even speed and provides very consistent performance, so you’ll get pretty even performance across a variety of video editing programs.
The 5800H processor is more than capable of handling video playback while you’re editing videos without lagging or creating rendering issues. In fact, in terms of speed and power, the Ryzen 7 5800H outperforms many of the latest Intel i7 processors.
It does get pretty hot when running demanding programs, though, so you may want to invest in a cooling pad for the laptop in order to keep it from overheating.
Another win for the Legion 5 is its RAM. It sports 16 GB of DDR4 memory, which will be enough for you if you plan on editing 4k videos. It’s also enough for memory-heavy programs, the newest games, and for general productivity. 16 GB is enough memory to run programs like Adobe After Effects and Sony Vegas Pro without lagging much or using up an unnecessary amount of power if you have smaller projects.
That being said, for bigger video projects with 8K video and more productivity, more RAM will be needed. In that case, the Legion 5 can be upgraded to 32 GB of RAM, which only enhances the performance of this already powerful laptop.
The Legion 5’s 512 GB SSD will provide you with enough speed to import and export videos quickly and ample storage space for various editing programs and storing video files. But, if you’re working with higher video resolutions, 512 GB won’t nearly be enough storage for all your files.
Luckily, the Legion 5 is equipped with four USB 3.1 ports for external SSDs, plus an HDMI cable for connecting your additional screens to the laptop.
Furthermore, the display on the Legion 5 is a 15.6-inch FHD IPS display (1920 x 1080 pixels) and is characterized by superb clarity and bright, vivid colors with a color accuracy rating of 100% (sRGB), which is a necessity for video editing.
Plus, it has a 165hz refresh rate, meaning games and videos will be much smoother–another feature that’s rare for laptops costing less than $1000.
The display’s color accuracy is great for exposing color issues with your recordings so you know what needs to be changed, as you can be sure that the colors you are seeing are the same as what was recorded and correct them appropriately.
Graphics-wise, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card is easily the best graphics card you can get at this price point with a budget laptop. It’s a mid-range card as far as performance goes, but it handles games and demanding graphics very well, so video playback or automating animation cues in your editing suite will go smoothly.
Construction-wise, the Legion 5 is built like a tank. While the chassis is all plastic, it’s durable and feels incredibly solid in hands–This one is made to last.
However, with the durability comes a big drawback for video editors who are frequently on the go–The laptop is pretty heavy, weighing in at 5.3 lbs. That’s still a solid improvement over the previous model, which clocked in at 5.5 lbs, but if you’re looking for a portable laptop, this isn’t it.
Speaking of improvements over the last year’s model, we have to mention battery life. It still isn’t a strong point for the Legion 5, clocking in at only 7 hours of regular use (video editing is going to cut that in half at least), but it’s 2 hours more than its predecessor.
Overall though, the Legion 5 is no doubt one of the most powerful laptops for video editing that you can get on a budget at this price point. It doesn’t have many flashy features, and it’s pretty bulky and heavy. But if you have a $1000 budget and looking for the most performance to get your projects done quickly and efficiently, plus a color-accurate display to go with it, this is, along with the HP Victus, one of the absolute best purchases you can make.
3. Dell G5 15 SE
Display: 15.6” IPS | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4600H | GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5600M | RAM: 8 GB DDR4 | Storage: 256 GB SSD | Battery Life: 7 Hours | Weight: 5.5 lbs / 2.5 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- Good value for the money
- Great overall performance
- Large IPS display
- Quality construction
- Comfortable keyboard
- Plenty of connectivity
- Decent battery life
REASONS TO AVOID
- Only 256 GB of memory
- Only 8 GB of RAM
- Poor color accuracy (63% sRGB)
Our Rating: 9.5/10
Dell’s computers are known for being fast and reliable and are some of the best-value products in the top-tier price range.
The G5 15 SE is a more affordable alternative to Alienware computers if you don’t want to shell out that much money for a high-performing laptop for video editing. For the price, you get a powerful GPU and CPU pairing that combines a Ryzen processor with Radeon graphics.
The Dell G5 15 SE fantastic computer for those who want a lot of productivity. Thanks to its Ryzen 5 4600H processor, you can effortlessly run multiple video editing programs at the same time without experiencing interruptions.
For those who work with large video productions, a lightning-fast processor can make such a difference during the editing process. The Ryzen 5 4600H easily out performs some of the older i7 CPUs, making it a top contender among popular processors for video editing.
As far as the GPU goes, you’ll find that the G5 15 SE has an adequate amount of memory (4 GB) to smoothly play through your high-quality video projects without taking hours to do so. The graphics card is an AMD Radeon RX 5600M and performs very closely to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, with the former coming in at a better performance value at its price.
The GPU is a bit slow for playing games running at the highest quality graphics settings, but for video editing, it doesn’t cause as much lag unless you’re utilizing software that uses mainly GPU for rendering.
Now, some people find the 15.6-inch FHD IPS display to be duller than they’d like, while others find it to have an adequate amount of brightness for their needs. The display is anti-glare but still doesn’t do that well outside in a lot of light, so you should stick to using this laptop indoors for the best viewing results.
As far as display accuracy, the screen has a bit more of a limited color gamut (63% sRGB), so you may want to utilize an additional screen with the G5 15 SE. Colors are still vivid, but the overall range of color is less accurate than with other displays.
That being said, if you don’t want to spend money on a separate display and you’re willing to slightly cross the $1000 mark, you can purchase the 144hz display version. The screen is much better (108% of sRGB), and you also get a better-performing processor (Ryzen 7 4800H) and an extra 256GB of memory. The only downside is that you will still be stuck with 8GB of RAM.
Now back to the cheaper version. As with most gaming laptops that can be used for video editing on a budget, the baseline specifications for storage and memory tend to be lower than what is ideal for video editing.
With this model of the G5 15 SE, you get a 256 GB SSD and 8 GB of RAM. Both the storage and memory can be upgraded and expanded to meet your needs. 8GB of RAM is adequate for editing 1080p videos, but upgrading to 16GB is necessary if you want to edit in 4k resolution–and for general productivity as well.
Other features that make this computer a worthy addition to your video editing studio include backlit keys, a durable chassis, and plenty of connections for additional storage devices and displays, and respectable 7-hour battery life.
All in all, the Dell G5 15 SE is another great laptop to consider in this price range. It is not as good as the Victus from HP or the Legion 5 fro Lenovo, but it is notably cheaper. With the money you save on the laptop itself, you can look to purchase additional RAM or memory. However, if you mostly edit 1080p and even 4k videos, you will find it beyond satisfying for your needs.
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Best Budget Laptops for Video Editing Under $800
At this price point, you will find laptops that have slightly less generous specifications for the processor, GPU, memory, and display but for the most part, are still able to handle editing and rendering high-quality video projects and more.
Smaller to medium-sized video projects will run the most easily on laptops within this range, with some exceptions in models that have better specifications as far as CPU and GPU go.
The table below will give you a quick look at our selections for the 3 best laptops for video editing currently available on the market for under $800. To read a full review, simply click on ‘review>>’ in the respective row.
1. HP Victus
Display: 15.6” IPS | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: Intel Core i5-12450H | GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 | RAM: 32 GB DDR4 | Storage: 1 TB SSD | Battery Life: 8 Hours | Weight: 5.5 lbs / 2.5 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- Easily the best performance under $800
- Enormous amount of RAM and storage
- Large, sharp, smooth display
- Highly accurate colors (100% sRGB coverage)
- Good battery life
- Excellent connectivity
- Great feedback from the keyboard
REASONS TO AVOID
- Heavy and bulky
- Plastic build
Our Rating: 9.9/10
If you’ve gone through our section under $1000, you’re already familiar with this laptop. While we wanted to have some variety of brands and models on this list, the Victus from HP packs so much power that we simply have to list it again.
For those who haven’t seen our $1000 listing, the HP Victus offers by far the best performance per dollar out of any laptop on the market, and combined with the excellent display; it’s hands down the best budget laptop for video editing you can buy in 2023.
The sub-$800 model of the Victus features a 12th generation Intel Core i5-12450H processor, which is an octa-core beast with up to 4.4 GHz turbo boost on its performance cores. That will provide you with plenty of power–You will have no problems running several video editing programs at once without degrading the performance of each program.
If you are interested in editing 4K videos, you will be pleased to know that this laptop comes equipped with 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, an unheard-of amount of RAM in the sub-$800 category. This amount of RAM is ideal for editing higher-resolution video and will allow you to edit and playback video without interruptions or lag.
On top of that, the storage of this laptop is quite generous considering the pretty affordable price. The 1 TB SSD of the Victus will give you enough space to store video files and other assets on your computer without the need for an external drive. 99% of laptops in this price range come with 512 GB of storage max, so you can see the incredible value of this laptop.
When it comes to video editing, the display this laptop boasts is, and this may sound too good to be true, fantastic for a laptop at this price point. It’s a 15.6-inch. quality IPS panel with wide viewing angles and 1080p resolution, the golden standard–But for laptops that cost several hundred dollars more.
In addition to that, the display features 300 nits of brightness which isn’t ideal, but this can only become an issue if you’re using it in direct sunlight. Most importantly, the display provides highly accurate colors, with 100% coverage of the sRGB color gamut, another golden standard for video editors on a budget. To top it all off, the display is incredibly smooth, with a 144 Hz refresh rate.
As far as connectivity, you’ll have nearly everything you need, with the exception of Thunderbolt 4. The HP Victus features three USB ports (including type-C), an ethernet port for wired internet connectivity, an HDMI port, an SD card reader, and an HD audio jack.
Lastly, the battery life of this laptop is stated as lasting up to 7 hours, but testing only showed around 5 and a half hours of light use. But keep in mind video editing is a taxing activity and will cut down your battery life to half, if not more.
All things considered, the HP Victus is easily the best laptop for video editing available in 2023 for less than $800. Aside from it being a bit bulky and heavy, it’s an exceptional performer, features an amazing display, and delivers on features like battery life and connectivity. For less than $800, you won’t find a better laptop for video editing.
2. Dell Gaming G3 15 3500
Display: 15.6” IPS | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10300H | GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti | RAM: 8 GB DDR4 | Storage: 512 GB SSD | Battery Life: Around 7 hours | Weight: 5.6 lbs / 2.5 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- Top performance in its class
- Great value for the money
- Quality and durable build
- Decent battery life
- Plenty of connectivity
- 512GB SSD
REASONS TO AVOID
- Loud under heavy load
- Disappointing display quality
Our Rating: 9.6/10
Our second choice when it comes to powerful laptops under $800 is the Dell G3 15 3500–A laptop that packs a solid amount of power for a reasonable price. It ticks almost all the boxes, making it a good choice for you if you’re looking for a budget laptop for video editing and gaming.
The processor in the Dell G3 is a 10th Generation Intel Core i5-10300H, which beats the majority of Ryzen 3 processors in performance and speed. Despite being a bit older, it is very fast, allowing you to perform editing tasks like adding transitions, importing new clips, and rendering video files at lightning speeds without interruptions.
3D graphics programs like Blender will also run well with this processor, and animating 3D objects is a breeze with the speed and power that the 10300H has. If you need an extra boost, Dell includes a button on the laptop that activates high-performance mode.
Disappointingly, you only get 8 GB of RAM here, which is ideal for video editing with smaller files and lower resolutions, but luckily there is another slot for more memory to be added, and the maximum amount of memory you can have on it is 32 GB, which is perfect for 4K editing videos with lots of animations and effects.
The flexibility of this laptop makes it a top choice for those with specific needs, as you can save money by simply buying another RAM stick instead of buying a more expensive laptop if you need the extra RAM.
The GPU in the Dell Gaming G3 15 is an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti with 4 GB of VRAM, which is definitely suitable for video editing. You’ll have no problem working with graphics-heavy applications and high-resolution video files.
Storage-wise, the 512 GB SSD will allow you to save and access your files very quickly. This also benefits overall processor speed because an SSD is more efficient than an HDD. 512 GB of storage will be a good amount of space for you if your video files don’t take up much space, but since it can add up quickly, there are two USB 2.0 and two USB 3.0 ports for connecting external storage drives.
Now for the worst part of this laptop, the display. You get a 15.6-inch FHD WVA display on the Gaming G3 15, but there is a slight sacrifice in terms of quality. The display is not especially bright, scoring around average for budget gaming laptops in terms of display brightness.
Besides that, it only reaches around 63% of the sRGB color gamut and 45% of NTSC, and this is where you need to reconsider if spending an extra couple hundred dollars on one of the laptops from the sub-1000 category isn’t worth it for you. That being said, the display isn’t terrible, but for artists who need accurate color reproduction, it is simply not good enough.
While this trade-off might not bother some users, video editors rely on accurate displays, so if you end up finding that this computer is the one for you, you may want to purchase an additional display in order to get a more accurate representation of colors. On the upside, the Gaming G3’s screen is anti-glare, so you won’t have to worry about serious sun reflection in bright environments.
Finally, the battery life of the G3 15 lasts slightly longer than the average gaming computer, coming in at around 6.5 hours while running graphics-heavy programs and the CPU working hard. This may be enough for you if you don’t work on long projects or work for long periods of time, but otherwise, you’ll need to keep a charger handy.
Overall, the Dell Gaming G3 15 laptop is a solid choice for a video editing laptop on a budget without sacrificing very many features. For HD video editing of small to mid-sized projects, the G3 is an ideal choice thanks to its power and performance. The display will definitely limit you, but if you’re a hobbyist and can find this laptop on sale, it is still a good pick-up.
3. HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2
Display: 13.3″ IPS | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: Intel Core i7-7600U | GPU: Intel HD Graphics 620 | RAM: 16 GB DDR4 | Storage: 512 GB SSD | Battery Life: Around 12 hours | Weight: 2.8 lbs / 1.3 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- Top CPU in this price range
- Ample SSD capacity
- Has a touchscreen
- 16 GB of RAM
- Perfect for quick workflows
- Quality construction
REASONS TO AVOID
- Less powerful GPU
- Average screen brightness
Our Rating: 9.3/10
The HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2 is another great budget workhorse laptop that is ideal for those who want to combine efficiency with performance power. Its specifications provide more than ample power, storage, and display quality for the beginner video editor to the experienced professional.
The CPU featured in the HP EliteBook is a 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7600U processor. For a mid-tier priced laptop, this CPU is suitable for intermediate to advanced graphics editing programs and bigger video projects. While there are a few high-end (and newer) CPUs that currently beat the performance of this one, the 7600U is one of the better ones you can get in a laptop for this price.
Graphics-wise, the integrated Intel HD Graphics 620 graphics make video run smoothly. Unfortunately, the GPU does take a hit in performance at this price point, especially if you are looking for a high-performing CPU, but it will be just enough for 1080p video editing.
Also featured is a 16 GB DDR4 RAM stick, which will give you enough memory to make video editing programs playback video and run processes snappily, even with the low-end graphics chip. For playing back videos without lag, having a large amount of RAM is the most ideal scenario.
For storage in the HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2, you get a 512 GB SSD. The read and write speeds of SSDs are much faster than that of HDDs, and because of this, accessing video files on an SSD is effortless and doesn’t slow down your workflow.
A 13.3-inch FHD IPS display is one of the most notable features of the HP EliteBook x360, as it is quite accurate in terms of color, coming in at around 88% of sRGB. The screen brightness is about average, so this laptop won’t do that well outside in the sun unless you’re in the shade.
On the bright side, it has a touchscreen display with stylus compatibility, so if you prefer a very quick, productive workflow and like to use your hands when editing videos, this display will help speed up your workflow.
In addition, the battery life you’ll get out of the HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2 is an average of 12 hours, but as is standard with video editing on laptops, for best results, you will likely want to keep the laptop plugged into an outlet so that the battery life doesn’t have an effect on performance as it decreases.
Overall, the HP EliteBook x360 1030 G2 is another great choice that will meet your video editing needs. The only real downside is the lack of a discrete graphics card, which will restrict you from certain activities. But, with an i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and a great display, this is a really solid budget laptop for hobbyist video editors.
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Best Budget Laptops for Video Editing Under $600
Under $600, this is where you really start to see the quality go down in laptops if you want one for video editing. While there are a decent amount of laptops in this range that can perform small to medium video editing tasks, finding models with specifications that make video editing pain-free is difficult.
With the decrease in processor performance, GPU quality, memory, and display quality, there is consequently more room for error when editing videos with a laptop within this range. Be mindful of this when looking for a laptop within this budget.
If possible, save up some extra cash for a laptop in the $700-1000. In under $600 category, you’ll always going to make some sacrifices, be it performance or display quality.
The table below will give you a quick look at our selections for the 3 best laptops for video editing currently available on the market for under $600. To read a full review, simply click on ‘review>>’ in the respective row.
1. Acer Swift 3
Display: 14″ IPS | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4500U | GPU: Radeon Graphics | RAM: 8GB LPDDR4 | Storage: 256GB SSD | Battery Life: Up to 11.5 hours | Weight: 2.7 lbs / 1.2 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- Great performance for the price
- Great display at this price range
- Expandable memory and storage
- Fair price
- Excellent battery life
- Very portable
REASONS TO AVOID
- Dimmer display
- Inaccurate color representation
Our Rating: 9.7/10
Acer is a brand that has a good spread of both business and professional laptops as well as gaming laptops, and at this price point, the Acer Swift 3 is a pretty reliable laptop that you can use for light to medium video editing without suffering from too much lag. If you are looking for a laptop that is portable and fast while remaining pretty cheap, this one is worth checking out.
The Swift 3’s processor is a higher-end AMD Ryzen 5 4500U Hexa-Core processor that can boost up to 4.0 GHz from 2.3 GHz. The 4500U processor has a really good multi-core performance, making it ideal for multitasking and rendering large projects.
With 8 GB of RAM on the Swift 3, you’ll likely find that you’ll need more memory for anything more than light video editing, but there are two memory card slots in which you can put up to 16 GB of RAM each.
For storage, this model of the Swift 3 has a 256 GB SSD. For small videos or those of you who don’t edit videos too often, this size might be okay, but it is not nearly enough for the storing of large video files, so an external drive will be needed.
The SSD featured here is very fast and will add to your workflow speed because you won’t have to wait as long for files to open or save. Luckily, the SSD is also upgradeable in the Swift 3, with one extra M.2 slot.
The integrated AMD Radeon Graphics processor can handle running a decent amount of frames per second, surpassing average benchmarks, but with 4K videos; this is where you’ll start running into problems because the GPU can’t handle the higher resolution. Unfortunately, it is not possible to upgrade the GPU here, which is why this laptop is better for lighter video editing work.
Lastly, the Swift 3 sports a 14-inch FHD display, but it is not especially bright, and the color accuracy is not that high (52% sRGB), so while the other components of this laptop can handle video editing fine, you’ll definitely want to get an external display with this laptop if you want accurate colors.
Overall, for a laptop at this price point, the Acer Swift 3 makes for a competitive option between its incredibly fast processor, 11-hour battery life, and expandable RAM and storage. While we would recommend spending at least $800 for a video editing laptop, the Acer Swift 3 is one of the best options in the sub-$600 category.
2. ASUS VivoBook 15
Display: 15.6” TN | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: Intel Core i5-1035G1 | GPU: Intel UHD Graphics G1 | RAM: 8 GB | Storage: 512 GB SSD | Battery Life: Up to 6 hours | Weight: 3.9 lbs / 1.8 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- Great value for the money
- Good performance for video editing
- Quality construction
- Plenty of connectivity
- Nice design
- Upgradeable
REASONS TO AVOID
- Heavier
- Poor viewing angles
- Only covers 55% of sRGB
Our Rating: 9.5/10
The Asus VivoBook 15 is another pretty affordable laptop that is powerful enough for video editing if you stay under 4K in terms of video resolution. For light to medium editing, the VivoBook 15 is sure to surprise you with its performance despite its lower specifications.
To start things off, it features an Intel Quad-Core i5-1035G1 processor, which is a decently performing CPU for a laptop from an older generation. It doesn’t beat the Ryzen 5 4500U that comes with the Acer Swift 3 in general performance, but it has more than enough juice to power through large editing projects.
GPU-wise, the VivoBook 15 features an Intel UHD Graphics G1 processor, which doesn’t have that much rendering power, making this the reason for the VivoBook being limited to graphics-light applications. 4K video easily overloads the GPU, causing a lot of lag and ultimately slowing down your workflow, which is why we don’t recommend trying to edit 4K video on this laptop.
The amount of RAM on this laptop is actually decent, considering we’re in the under $600 budget. Although it’s on the lower side of the scale for higher-end video editing, the 8 GB of RAM is enough to power through projects that aren’t extremely intricate.
Storage on this laptop is a 512 GB SSD, which, again, at this price point, is a pleasant surprise. As you may already know, in this day and age, 512 GB isn’t enough, especially for modern video editors. Fortunately, the VivoBook 15 does have multiple USB ports for connecting an external storage drive.
Getting down to the display, the VivoBook 15 features a 15.6” Full HD display, and this is where things get a bit tricky. It utilizes a TN panel, which is an outdated technology–if you’re not familiar with different display panels, feel free to check out our guide covering different panel technologies.
But for now, all you need to know is that it offers the worst viewing experience with poor viewing angles and only covers 55% of sRGB. If you’re someone who relies on accurate colors and quality display, we advise you to take a look at our recommendations in the sub $800 category.
All in all, the Asus VivoBook 15 represents great value despite being a low-budget laptop. It will provide you with enough performance for daily video editing, plenty of connectivity, and a nice, sleek design. If the display isn’t a deal-breaker for you, you will love what this laptop can do for you.
3. ASUS VivoBook F510QA
Display: 15.6″ IPS | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: AMD Quad-Core A12-9720P | GPU: AMD Radeon R7 | RAM: 12 GB DDR4 | Storage: 1 TB HDD | Battery Life: Up to 6 hours | Weight: 3.7 lbs / 1.7 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- Great for light video editing
- Large amount of storage
- Decently performing processor
- 12GB of RAM
- Quality build
REASONS TO AVOID
- Mediocre battery life
- Inaccurate display
- HDD instead of SSD
Our Rating: 9.1/10
The ASUS VivoBook 15 is a surprising choice for video editing on a lower budget. While this laptop sacrifices some features for a lower price tag, it makes up for that with storage capabilities and still provides a good amount of performance compared to other laptops in this price range. For light to medium video editing, you’ll find that this model will sufficiently meet your performance requirements.
Featured as the CPU of the ASUS VivoBook 15 is an AMD Quad-Core A12-9720P processor, which is comparable in performance to Intel’s Core i3 CPUs. While this is a much less powerful processor than more expensive laptop models, it is sufficient enough to run any video editing software efficiently.
For light to medium video editing, the VivoBook 15 may experience a very small amount of lag, especially if you are using multiple editing programs at the same time.
Following the AMD trend here, the graphics card in the VivoBook 15 is an AMD Radeon R7 card, which is decent for video editing, but it doesn’t handle intricate 3D graphics very well, so using 3D modeling programs or 3D assets in videos may be a challenge without causing some interruptions during playback. As long as you stick to lighter editing, you should face fewer problems with this.
This model of the VivoBook 15 features 12 GB of RAM, which is a good medium if you don’t want to settle with 8 GB but don’t want to spend the money on 16 GB. This much RAM will aid in improving stuttering or lag issues in your video editing programs during playback; however, it’s not a large enough amount to work with 4K video. If you think you’ll need 16 GB of RAM, you can swap out the 12 GB stick pretty easily.
As for the storage, in this model, you’ll find a 1 TB HDD, which has its pros and cons. The large amount of storage space is perfect for those who edit lots of videos or create large video project files, but HDDs are generally slower to read and write, making accessing your files take a bit more time.
There’s nothing wrong with HDDs – there is just a difference in speed, and for some, this doesn’t make that much of a difference, but if you are working with large video files, you’ll likely prefer an SSD because they read and write files much faster.
The weakest point of this laptop is its display, so you’ll want to purchase an additional display with better specifications to meet your needs. The VivoBook’s display is a 15.6-inch FHD IPS anti-glare display, which is helpful in environments with a lot of light, but on the other hand, the display’s color is not that accurate, which can cause problems during color correction sessions and translate to poor-looking videos.
A solid beginner video editor’s computer, the ASUS VivoBook 15 makes lighter video editing easy without compromising too much in terms of power and other important specifications while remaining within quite an affordable price range. While its battery life is only around 6 hours, the VivoBook 15 proves to be a decent laptop that video editors will find to be surprisingly satisfying.
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Best Budget Laptops for Video Editing Under $400
At the $400 and under price point, this is where you’ll find that good-quality laptops for video editing are very rare. Because the price of laptops in this range is so low, you will be sacrificing quality on all components that make high-quality video editing fast, easy, and pain-free.
However, there are a few business-type laptops that can be used for very light video editing if you are willing to deal with slower speeds, more interruptions and lagging, and less accurate color displays.
If you can find a cheaper model with a processor that has decent speeds, you can sacrifice RAM, storage, and the display and buy them separately to install and use instead of the featured components. Depending on what you choose, you may or may not save money.
A $400 budget is also where you need to start looking for used laptops to get the power you will need for your video editing projects.
The table below will give you a quick look at our selections for the 3 best laptops for video editing currently available on the market for under $400. To read a full review, simply click on ‘review>>’ in the respective row.
1. Acer Aspire 5
Display: 15.6″ IPS | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: AMD Ryzen 3-3200U | GPU: AMD Radeon Vega 3 | RAM: 4 GB DDR4 | Storage: 128 GB SSD | Battery Life: Up to 7.5 hours | Weight: 4 lbs / 1.8 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- Excellent upgrade capability
- Solid performance for video editing
- Decent display for the price
- Fantastic keyboard
- Great CPU
- Good battery life
- Sleek design
REASONS TO AVOID
- Only 4GB of RAM
- Only 128GB of storage
Our Rating: 9.1/10
One of the most popular laptops out there is the Acer Aspire 5 Slim for its price and all-around consistency in performance across a variety of light activities. While this is a business-oriented laptop, its features are good enough for light video editing in programs that aren’t overly heavy on the CPU.
The Aspire 5 Slim features a Ryzen 3 DualCore-3200U Mobile Processor, which is one of the best processors you can get in this price range. Being a lower to mid-range processor, it is slower than a lot of popular processors available on the market, but it’s not at the bottom of the barrel. As far as video editing goes, you’ll only want to use this processor for light video editing.
With this laptop, RAM is where the quality starts to go down due to there only being 4 GB of memory on the Aspire 5 Slim. Fortunately, the RAM is expandable up to 16 GB, thus making the laptop largely more suitable for video editing by providing more speed to your workflow and storing more temporary data.
Upgrading the RAM is highly recommended, as it provides more speed and power to the Aspire 5 Slim, allowing you to employ more effects, animations, and other elements in your video projects. On top of this, by buying a cheaper model with a decent processor and lower RAM, you save money by buying RAM sticks separately and installing them yourself.
Storage is also very limited on this laptop, with only a 128 GB SSD for your files. This is absolutely not enough for video files, but the storage is also expandable and has a capacity of up to 2 TB if you need an SSD of that size. SSDs included in laptops can be pricey when they’ve got a large storage capacity, so it’s a wiser decision to buy your storage drives separately as well.
The GPU of the Aspire 5 Slim is an integrated AMD Radeon Vega 3 Mobile Graphics unit, which is an entry-level GPU that performs similarly to the NVIDIA GTX 1050 graphics card but does not pass it in performance. As with the processor, this again confirms that the Aspire 5 Slim is better for light video editing as opposed to heavily editing 4K video files.
The Aspire’s 15.6-inch FHD IPS display is only slightly muted compared to many of the other laptops at this price point, so if you don’t have the money to spend on a separate display, you can get away with using the laptop’s display.
Color accuracy is around 63% (sRGB), which is pretty close to the average level for low-budget laptops. Purchasing an external display will solve this slight accuracy issue if it’s something that is high on your priority list.
In general, the Acer Aspire 5 Slim is a very portable, decent laptop for light video editing regardless of skill level. Adequate battery life of 7.5 hours, a satisfactory level of processing power at this price point, customizable RAM and storage, and good value for the price make it an option you and your wallet will appreciate.
2. Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5
Display: 14″ IPS Touch Display | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: AMD Ryzen 3 4300U | GPU: Integrated AMD Radeon Graphics | RAM: 4GB DDR4 | Storage: 128GB SSD | Battery Life: Up to 12 hours | Weight: 3.3 lbs / 1.5 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- Great performance for the price
- Sensitive touch screen
- 360-degree hinge
- Decent processor
- Upgradable RAM
REASONS TO AVOID
- Only 4GB of RAM
- Only 128GB of storage
- Renewed
Our Rating: 9.0/10
The Lenovo IdeaPad series of laptops has proven to be a reliable series of laptops over a variety of price ranges. Coming in at the lowest price of these laptops, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 is a laptop that provides users with a comfortable video editing experience with a lower to mid-tier processor and slightly more limited storage, GPU, and RAM.
An AMD Quad Core Ryzen 3 4300U processor provides the Flex 5 14 with ample power for light video editing with a boost speed of up to 3.70 GHz. This CPU offers a surprisingly good balance of performance, power, and speed for a laptop at this price, giving it some incredible value.
Tasks like rendering videos don’t take too much time with this processor, but it may struggle to run several video programs at the same time depending on the programs you use and how large your video files are.
Only 4 GB of RAM comes with this model of the Flex, but it can be upgraded to 8 GB, which is the absolute lowest amount of RAM that is recommended for video editing. This upgrade is highly recommended, as 4 GB of RAM is going to cause lag and interruptions and decrease the speed of your video editing process if your videos are in HD.
Advantageously, the 128 GB SSD does slightly help with exporting speeds, but in the long run is not enough storage for a large number of video files, so like usual with these cheap laptops, you should get an external drive if there is no option to upgrade the storage component. For this model, the storage is able to be upgraded to however much space you need.
The Lenovo Flex 5 14’s GPU is pretty modest, an integrated AMD Radeon Graphics chip that does a decent job. While it’s not the best GPU out there, it’ll be okay for light editing, perhaps for beginners who are still learning about the editing process.
As for the display, since the Flex is a 2-in-1 laptop, it has a 360-degree hinge that allows you to position the display in the most accurate orientation for your editing workflow. The display is a 14-inch FHD IPS touchscreen display that doesn’t have a very bright backlight or that wide of a color gamut.
This affects the color accuracy level to some degree, but an HDMI port is available for you to connect an external display to the laptop for more accurate color replication. The lower-quality screen is the biggest disadvantage of this laptop when it comes to video editing.
Overall, the Lenovo Flex 5 is a pretty good low-budget laptop for video editing if you want a 2-in-1 that can be used for light video editing and would be a good option for beginner video editors who plan to upgrade to a better laptop in the future. If you don’t mind the poor battery life despite its claims of lasting 12 hours and are willing to spend some extra money on upgrading it, the Flex 5 14 can handle more editing processes than you may expect.
3. ASUS Chromebook Flip C434
Display: 14″ NanoEdge Touchscreen | Screen Resolution: FullHD (1920 x 1080) | CPU: Intel Core m3-8100Y | GPU: Intel HD Graphics 615 | RAM: 4GB LPDDR3 | Storage: 32GB eMMC | Battery Life: Up to 10 hours | Weight: 3.2 lbs / 1.5 kg
REASONS TO BUY
- Extremely portable
- High color accuracy
- Ample turbo boost speed
- 2 in 1 laptop/tablet combo
REASONS TO AVOID
- Weak graphics
- Extra storage and memory needed
- Poor CPU for video editing
Our Rating: 8.5/10
Another ultra-portable option for video editing from ASUS, the Chromebook Flip C434 is a 2-in-1 laptop that is ideal for light editing of smaller videos on the go.
As this laptop runs on the Chrome OS, take note that video editing applications from the Google Play Store are the only programs that you’ll be able to download, but Android and Google have a wide variety of very good quality video editing apps that are both easy and intuitive to use to speed up your workflow.
The Chromebook Flip C434 features an Intel Core m3-8100Y processor, which performs at around half the speed of the Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, but it has a Turbo Boost of up to 3.4 GHz to improve the performance.
With this processor, you’ll only be able to do light video editing, but considering you’ll be working with applications rather than large programs, the speed and performance is good, and you will be able to run a couple of apps at the same time without a decrease in performance.
As far as RAM goes, there is only 4 GB of RAM, which could pose a problem when working with higher-quality video resolutions. Unfortunately, the RAM is soldered on, making it impossible for you to upgrade it.
Later models of the Chromebook Flip C434 have 8 GB of RAM, but if you need to stay under this budget, this is what you’re stuck with. It’s not the absolute worst, but it will definitely slow down your editing process with large video projects and multiple apps open at one time.
The storage aspect of this laptop is slightly disappointing, but considering you’re saving a bit of money, it makes up for it. This is a budget laptop model that uses an eMMC storage card. Unfortunately, this card only allows for 32 GB of storage, so you’ll need an additional storage drive, which can be connected to one of the three USB ports.
The transfer speed can be slow at times, especially with big files, so you’ll want to get a very fast storage drive in order to save time during the reading and writing process of your video files. Chromebooks have integrated cloud storage, so this is an added benefit if you use Google Drive to store your files. Additionally, the SD card reader allows for an extra 256 GB of storage to be accessed.
It’s a shame that the processing power isn’t better because the 14-inch touch screen with FHD resolution has excellent color accuracy, covering 93% of the sRGB color gamut, making it perfect for color-correcting video footage as well as photos. As it is a touch screen and you’ll be using apps, this speeds up the workflow a lot because the apps are geared toward both mouse users and those who prefer to use their fingers or a stylus on the display.
The GPU is an integrated Intel HD 615, which is one of the weakest graphics chips on the market. Again, with apps in mind, you won’t necessarily need to have a crazily high-performing GPU when doing light video editing.
In addition to this, the C434 has a 360 hinge, allowing you to use it in different orientations, and a mediocre battery life, especially when video is involved. Overall, although being the weakest link out of the three in this price point, if you care mainly about portability and don’t mind using apps to edit your videos, the ASUS Chromebook Flip C434 can be worthwhile to use.
Final Words
While there is a multitude of laptops out there, the laptop models reviewed here are the best on the market for video editing on a budget in 2023.
While the quality, performance, graphics, and other aspects may vary depending on your final specifications, overall, all of these models can be used to edit videos.
For more reliable information on the best PCs and PC-related peripherals and accessories, be sure to check back soon with PC Mecca.
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