Best Tablets, Laptops, And Desktops For Designers And Creatives In 2019

Many of us are using a laptop either for work or other things. But for designers and creative workers, the laptop will have to be a bit different from that of a regular user. So with the year 2019 ending, what are the best laptops for such users with special needs?

No matter if you just use your laptop of regular office work or you’re a designer that needs a strong device, we hope this article will help you find out the right laptop for yourself.

First, as a creative worker, you should remember a few rules when you’re making the decision:

Check your requirements for software: Some apps need components at the workstation-class like Nvidia Quadro processors instead of GeForce for accessing advanced features. But this will add up the cost.

Choose the specifications based on what you spend the most time in: If you have to make trade-offs due to limited budget, make sure you spend your money on the right thing. Decide which apps you will spend the most time on and choose the specs that serve them the best.

Consider making the desktop boutique: It may be better to have your own custom-built PC, which can help you have a longer battery life though you will have to pay extra.

In case your work is color-critical, get a laptop that has hardware calibration: A device supporting color profiles that are stored in hardware means the color is more consistent when you’re on several calibrated monitors. In addition, they seem better because requires a much lower level of color error than usual.

And here’s the list of best laptops for designers and creative workers.

Razer Blade 15 Advanced OLED

OLED screens offer a combination of contrast and color gamut (100% P3) that IPS displays cannot match yet, but they require calibration for keeping colors from chaos. This laptop, measuring 15 inches, has a sleek design and a strong performance. It has all the specifications of the Nvidia Studio, except for the logo, and lets you download the Studio driver yourself. Quick calibration with the i1Display Pro showed that the Razer Blade worked well in grayscale and white point tracking, which ultimately helps the device display proper color.

However, Razer laptops are always expensive, the 4K screen drains the battery super fast.

Price: Rs 2,99,990

Apple iPad Pro 2018

If you can work with tablet apps instead of desktop apps and you don’t require the flexibility of a complete OS, the iPad Pro is a powerful device and a long battery life for lots of video and photo editing as well as sketching capabilities.

For colorwork, you will have the Retina display and for sketching, you will get to use the fine-feeling Apple Pen. With the 2018 model, you can charge the Pen wirelessly by simply attaching it through a magnetic strip on the device. Furthermore, you will get the USB-C rather than the Lightning connector.

Earlier this year, Apple announced to split the OS for the iPad and iPhone, meaning the iPad getting iPadOS along with capabilities dedicated to creative work. These include the ability to use the device as a secondary display through Sidecar and a file system supporting connections to cameras for downloading and browsing.

However, the keyboard and Pencil 2 raise the price of the iPad Pro, which is already expensive. Meanwhile, the new iPad Air offers the same features as the original iPad Pro along with support for the original Pencil, but it’s faster and its pricing starts from Rs 44,900. So you can consider getting it instead of the more expensive Pro model. But the iPad Air doesn’t support some iPad OS features, it has the Lightning connector instead of the USB-C one.

Price: Rs 72,500

Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701

This laptop features a 17-inch display, an 8GB Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080, a slim design, and weighs just under 2.7 kilograms. Plus, Nvidia has not rolled out any mobile Quadro RTX processors yet, so you can only use the gaming GeForce GPUs to enjoy cutting-edge graphics. Unless you can deal with less power and have an external GPU to plug in, this laptop is among the fastest Mx-Q 17-inch devices out there right now. And in case your work doesn’t require as much GPU power as the CPU, you can save money and drop to RTX 2060.

The drawbacks of this laptop include a high price, greater weight compared with other competitors and you won’t have the option of Core i9 configuration, which means you will sacrifice rendering speed for better operational fluidity in real-time. And since the GPU is made for regular users, you won’t get to use a number of advanced features. Also, its battery life is not great and the touchpad is placed on the right.

Price: Rs 299,990

Microsoft Surface Pro 6

This device comes with 4,096 pressure sensitivity levels, running Windows 10 and supporting the Microsoft Dial that substitutes several functions if you can’t access the keyboard for shortcuts. In addition, you can use the sRGB color space rather than the default setting. And it offers a better battery life compared with previous models.

If you use the device for painting more than sketching, pick the processor carefully. If you have a big budget, take the Intel Core i7 for more storage and a better CPU. Meanwhile, different prices mean different configurations depending on storage and memory.

Nevertheless, the device measures only 12.3 inches, which is small if you intend to use the Dial. The cost may also increase and you have to pay additional costs for the keyboard, Dial, and the pen. And it doesn’t seem to have enough ports, you may need an HDMI dongle for presentation.

Price: Rs 102,303

Microsoft Surface Studio 2

This device offers flexibility, a 28-inch screen that you can adjust for different angles as well as draw on using a pressure-sensitive stylus. And if you want a fourth input device besides the stylus, keyboard, and mouse while working, you can use Microsoft Dial. The company updated the system last year with a GeForce GTX 1070.

However, its stylus offers only last-gen Nvidia GPUs as well as slow mobile CPUs. Additionally, Microsoft plans to roll out the display separately, meaning it can be attached to a more powerful system.

Price: Rs 4,20,090

Dell Precision 5530/Dell XPS 15 2-in-1

The XPS 15 2-in-1 comes with a display as great as that of the XPS 15 but offers the needed flexibility for sketching, drawing, and presentation as you can flip the screen. However, the 4K screen will drain your battery quickly.

Meanwhile, the Precision 5530 has the capability of a workstation, offering excellent design and display options, but with better security as well as more powerful options, which include a Xeon CPU or Core i9 with up to 32GB RAM. The Radeon Vega WX GL graphics on this laptop are not very powerful but they have the power of a workstation and is 4K touchscreen display is great. However, it doesn't have support for ECC memory.