Can a thin and light laptop be powerful enough for content creation?

Look, I get it: nobody wants a great big clunker of a laptop. The whole point of laptop PCs is to give you a desktop-style experience that you can easily pack up into a backpack and take on the go – but unfortunately, some of the best thin and light laptops simply don't have the processing power to handle more demanding workloads, like video or audio content creation.

If you're a content creator who wants a portable workstation, the safe bet is to pick up a gaming laptop. These typically come with a dedicated GPU (as opposed to using CPU-integrated graphics), which provides a lot more oomph for resource-intensive tasks like 4K video editing or 3D rendering.

The downside to gaming laptops, though, is that they're typically pretty damn bulky – and if they're not, like the excellent Razer Blade 16, then they instead come with an eye-watering price tag. And even if the cost doesn't put you off, the Blade 16 is still larger and heavier than the average laptop.

So, can you actually get laptop performance sufficient for regular content creation work in a lightweight form factor? Well, yes – but you'll need to be mindful of a few things. I've been testing and reviewing laptops for more than eight years, so I'll be putting my experience to work for TechRadar's Content Creator Week to help you find the perfect thin-and-light laptop for your needs. Let's get into it!

Minimum requirements

First, I want to run through a few aspects of a potential new laptop that you'll want to keep a keen eye out for. These things are not optional; if you're expecting to use your laptop for content creation, this should set the baseline specs for whatever laptop you buy.

RAM - a hot topic right now due to spiraling demand from AI datacenters - is vital for any laptop being used for digital creative work. At the bare minimum, you're going to want 16GB of RAM, but more won't hurt; some laptops will have 24GB, 32GB, or even 64GB configurations (though the latter is probably overkill for most users).

Next up, let's talk about the CPU. If you're buying a laptop without a discrete GPU (this will usually be an Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics card), then you'll be letting your CPU handle basically everything. In short, that means you need a good one.

As a general rule of thumb, I would recommend almost any of Intel's recent 'Core Ultra' chips, preferably the 200-series or the more recently released 300-series. These have some seriously impressive integrated graphics despite being available in ultra-thin laptops like the MSI Prestige 14 AI+, and should offer solid battery life too, thanks to their excellent energy efficiency.

If you're an Apple fan and would rather pick up a MacBook than a Windows laptop, I would advise getting one with either an M4 Pro or M5 Pro chip, preferably with 32GB of RAM. The 'Max' chips are also an option here, but again, they'll likely be more power than the average content creator really needs; even the slightly older M4 Pro is a beast when it comes to creative workloads like video and music production.

Added extras

Those are the main elements of a new laptop you'll definitely want to consider, but it's not a comprehensive list. Now, I'll dig into some of the optional stuff that is worth investigating before you make a purchase – and finally, I'll drop a few of my personal recommendations.

Getting a laptop with a bigger SSD (so more file storage) isn't a bad idea, but the prevalence of cloud storage these days means that it isn't mandatory unless you're planning on doing a lot of work offline. That being said, I would advise against any laptop with less than 512GB of storage, if only because installing creative software can take up a lot of space before you even start to think about your file storage.

You also might want to look into the specs of the display, especially if your content creation is focused on areas like photography or film editing. A higher-resolution screen will set you back more in terms of overall cost, but it's essentially mandatory if you want to work with similarly high-resolution images and videos. Those with an eye to the artistic should check the contrast ratio and color gamut as well – you may even want to consider a laptop with an OLED screen, since these tend to offer better brightness and color reproduction than conventional LCD and LED displays.

Lastly, you shouldn't discount laptops with dedicated GPUs altogether, especially if the work you're planning to do will involve 3D modelling – 3D artists, game designers, and anyone making creative content for VR/AR spaces should strongly consider a laptop with a discrete graphics card from Nvidia or AMD. These will typically be more expensive and may be larger too, though some manufacturers do offer ultrabooks with optional compact GPUs, like Dell's XPS series.

My recommendations

The aforementioned MSI Prestige 14 AI+ is a venerable choice of thin-and-light laptop that will be able to comfortably handle light-to-medium intensity content creation tasks. If you want something with more power (ideal for streaming games on Twitch, for example), the Razer Blade 16, which I also highlighted further up in this article, is also a strong pick.

One of my personal favorite laptops is the Asus Zenbook S 16, which delivers a stunning 3K OLED display along with good performance from its AMD HX processor. If you'd rather stick with Intel, the best pick right now is unquestionably the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra with an Intel Core 300-series chip, which TechRadar's own Matt Hanson described as a 'MacBook killer' in his review.

If you do prefer Apple, though, the M5 MacBook Pro 14-inch is a stellar option for content creators, with a lightweight design, powerful performance, and good battery life. However, it's a fairly modest upgrade over the previous M4 model, so I'm very comfortable recommending that version instead so you can save a few bucks. Just bear in mind that before you buy a MacBook, you'll need to make sure all the software you want to use is compatible with macOS.

So, long story short? Yes, you can get great content creation performance on a thin and light laptop – just be prepared to pony up some cash or at least try to shop the sales, because the good ones don't come cheap.

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