Editing video pushes laptops to their limits. Happily, in 2025 powerful CPUs and RTX-50 series GPUs mean the best high-end machines now rival desktops, delivering professional performance anywhere. Here are the 7 best.
For anyone that’s been around the industry long enough, the thought of editing video on a laptop is enough to bring them out in a sweat. Video takes a lot of resources and NLEs are resource hungry beasts in themselves. Laptops have traditionally struggled to tame all this, but over the years have steadily improved to the point where they can give desktops a run for their money, especially at the higher end of the pricing scale.
A new generation of machines with powerful CPUs, GPUs, and increasingly capable NPUs are redefining the performance we expect from portable machines. So, with that in mind, here are seven of the current crop of machines that we reckon will see your right — whatever you’re editing and wherever you’re doing it.
First off, a quick summary of the minimum spec you should be aiming for when it comes to a machine for editing.
Note: Prices given below are the starting price. Fully spec these machines and you can easily double the price. So, in alphabetical order, we give you…
$2499
The latest 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro manages to be both ridiculously powerful *and* have a long battery life that has been measured in testing at over 20 hours. It’s fast too, a whole 45% faster than the M2 Max was.
The 16.2-inch (3456 x 2234) 120Hz Liquid Retina XDR display covers 99% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. RAM tops out at 48 GB and storage at 2 TB. It is less upgradeable and connectable than the best Windows machines, but that’s always been the case with Apple.
A starting $2499 is a hefty price to pay, but you can shave off $500 by going for the 14-inch model (though this also loses a few CPU and GPU cores). An even more cost-effective option would be to trade down to the standard M4 MacBook Air. 15-inch models start at $1199.
If you want a performance comparison, sifting through the multi-core Geekbench scores, the Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro is going to be about 1.7x faster than the M4 MacBook Air. If you’re working up at the high-end, that can make a lot of difference.
$2499
An upgraded machine launched in June and is even more impressive. The ProArt P16 is now powered by the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor with an XDNA NPU (up to 50 TOPS), and is now available with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU.
ASUS says that the launch of the RTX 50 Series Laptop GPUs marks a breakthrough moment for video editing by accelerating 10-bit 4:2:2 video workflows, with superior multi-track 4K/8K playback, faster export speeds, enhanced stability for high-res, multi-layer content, faster AI effects processing, and more VRAM.
The ProArt P16 also features the new ASUS Lumina Pro OLED touchscreen, billed as the best display in an ASUS laptop to date. It has an impressive spec. Factory-calibrated to achieve Delta E < 1 color accuracy, it features up to 1600 nits HDR peak brightness and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 1000 certification. A 120Hz refresh rate and variable refresh rate (VRR) technology ensure smooth motion and crisp frame transitions. An anti-reflection coating reduces light reflection by 65%, improving visibility and minimizing eye strain during long sessions. It is also Pantone Validated, Dolby Vision certified, and TÜV Rheinland certified for eye care.
There’s one 40 Gbps USB 4 Type-C port for fast charging and external displays, alongside two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, and the latest HDMI 2.1 FRL port, as well as an SD Express 7.0 card reader for quick transfers. Ultrafast WiFi 7 ensures seamless connectivity anywhere.
It will support up to three external displays at 8K resolution with a 60 Hz refresh rate, or three displays at 4K resolution with a 120 Hz refresh rate. A combination of vapor chamber, tri-fan, and stealth air outlet design effectively disperses heat, while a special liquid metal thermal compound improves cooling.
Finally, the ASUS Dial rotary control is one of those innovations that can really make editing fly, allowing for enviable precision in creative apps, especially as it is tightly integrated with many of the leading ones you will want to install on it.
$2249
Happily, not just the name has changed. RTX-50 Series graphics (you can buy it cheaper without) and up to Intel Core Ultra 9 (Series 2) processors combine to make the Dell 16 Premium a reported 13% faster at video editing than the XPS 16.
The 16.3-inch InfinityEdge OLED 4K display supports 100% DCI and has a 260 PPI, making it an excellent screen for editing purposes. Typical brightness is 400 nits. Dell has also sunk a lot of effort into thermal management, with Liquid Crystal Polymer blades and a unique housing shape allowing for faster, less noisy fans, a vapour chamber, Gore Aerogel insulation, and more.
Dell has made some interesting choices when it comes to ports, equipping it with three Thunderbolt 5 ports, a microSD card reader, and a headphone jack and that’s it. No USB-A or HDMI, which certainly means it’s not going to fit into everybody’s setups without an additional hub being involved.
That invisible touchpad sure looks pretty though...
$2799
Specs vary, but it’s powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra 9 processors (Series 2) which peak at 16 cores and 24 threads with clock speeds reaching up to 5.4 GHz, has an integrated NPU for enhanced AI processing, and scales up to Nvidia RTX PRO 2000 Blackwell generation graphics. In other words, if you want horsepower you’ve got it. Tandem OLED (T-OLED) technology provides up to 100% DCI and up to 800 nits.
It supports up to 64 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and will provide you with up to 8 TB of NVMe SSD storage. A 90 Wh battery will give you plenty of field-editing time, though early reviews do suggest it can get a bit noisy under heavy workloads.
Connectivity is good:
And, of course it has that keyboard. Control surfaces matter even if they’re not specially engineered for editing, and the tactile feel and deep key travel of the ThinkPad range has always been one of its USPs. The TrackPoint nub is also a bit of a winner in our book too; allowing for precise cursor movement without having to lift your hands from the keyboard.
Of course, the arrival of the Gen 8 means there will be steepening discounts available on last year's Gen 7, which is still a very powerful editing machine.
$2399 / $2499
The HP Omen Max 16 might like something from a 70s horror film, but was one of the first machines to hit the market with the RTX 50 series GPUs inside. And while everyone else has now caught up, it still stands out because of its gorgeous screen. This is a 16-inch 2560×1600 240Hz OLED that supports 500 nits in HDR mode,100% DCI-P3, and is frankly beloved by everyone who sees it.
However against that it performs less well when unplugged, it can be loud under load, and the touchpad is small.
The Razer Blade 16 is another gaming-first design that works well in the video space. 24 GB VRAM give you headroom to deal with demanding video workflows and you have another high-performing OLED panel. It’s also thin and light (weight is something we’ve not really touched on so far), and has a decent thermal design despite that slimline look.
However, on the downside battery life can be poor under pressure, and that thinness will always mean heftier laptops can stay plugging away at the 4K+ video editing coalface for longer.
$2699
Finally, a bonus stretch goal — quite literally. The ROG Strix SCAR 18 from ASUS's Republic of Gamers brand is physically bigger than the other high-end laptops talked about above, with an impressive 18-inch screen.
The 240Hz, 2.5K (2560 x 1600, WQXGA), mini LED ROG Nebula HDR Display supports 100% of the DCI-P3 spec, has over 2000 dimming zones, and will peak at 1200 nits in HDR mode. A brand-new dual ACR layer reduces reflections and enhances contrast by 4.5X for incredibly vivid colors.
This can be coupled with RTX 5070, 5080, or 5090 Laptop GPUs depending on your budget. CPU meanwhile is an Intel Core Ultra 9 Processor 275HX 2.7 GHz, which should provide you with plenty of power. 32 GB base spec RAM is expandable up to 64 GB, and being a high-end gaming machine it's generous on storage too, featuring 2 TB + 2 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 performance SSDs.
Two Thunderbolt 5, 1x HDMI 2.1, and 3x USB-A provide core connectivity while plenty of attention has been paid to cooling with an end-to-end vapor chamber featuring a sandwiched heatsink, Tri-Fan Technology, and the wonderfully named Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal applied to both the CPU & GPU.
And here's a bonus for using a gaming laptop: ASUS has even paid attention to the airflow. All of the exhaust vents have been placed at the rear of the hinge to keep warm air away from your mousing hand, while the sides and bottom of the machine act as an air intake and air also flows through the keyboard deck. ASUS says all this keeps your hands cooler during intense gaming sessions, which, of course, means it will work just as well during intense editing sessions.
Just remember to plug it in. Even though the ROG Strix SCAR 18 has a 90W battery, all that screen takes energy, and once you start pushing the envelope you're not going to get more than an hour or two of use on the battery alone.