3 Best Laptops for Stenographers in 2024
From this article, you will know what are, in our opinion, the best laptops for stenographers you can buy and use in 2024.
Stenographers are people who record in written text what is being said verbally in an event in real-time. They usually do their work in courts, legal meetings, and business meetings where the recordings of the conversations that happen are important to be documented.
To do their work these days, many stenographers use a steno writer that is connected to a laptop. After stenographers record what is being said in an event with a steno writer, they edit and finalize the recordings on a laptop with a word-processing software program. A laptop can be the ideal device to use here since it is portable and can have the computational power needed to process those recordings optimally.
If you are a stenographer but you don’t have a laptop yet to support your work, you might be interested in buying a new laptop. However, it can be confusing to pick the right laptop for a stenographer from many laptop models and specification choices available out there. This is why Compute Expert has created a list of the best laptops for stenographers that you can use as your laptop-buying reference.
Want to know what laptops we recommend and the reasons why we recommend them? Let’s start digging into the list right away.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links from which we earn commission from qualifying purchases/actions at no additional cost for you. Learn more
| Image | View on Amazon | Product |
|---|---|---|
| Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon | ||
| Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 | ||
| Asus ZenBook 15 |
Table of Contents:
What are the Best Laptops for Stenographers?
Now, let us see the laptops that make it to our list of excellent laptops for stenographers to use. Using one of these laptops should give you the portability and computational capability you need from a laptop to do your steno work optimally.1. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is the first laptop we recommend for you if you want to do steno work with the help of a laptop. Coming from the popular Lenovo ThinkPad series, this laptop is a high-quality business laptop with a suitable model and specifications to support your activities as a stenographer.This laptop has a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB RAM capacity to deliver the performance level you need from a laptop. Running software like Case CATalyst should be smooth with those specifications in place. The relatively large RAM capacity can be useful when you need this laptop to multitask a lot so you can do your work much more optimally.
This laptop is sleek and lightweight so you can bring it around easily. Working with high mobility with this laptop should be great to do, thanks to its design. This laptop’s hinge is quite flexible as you can stretch it up to 180 degrees to get you the best position to work.
The display of this laptop is friendly to the eye thanks to the technologies that it uses so you can work for long hours with this laptop without feeling much eye strain. All in all, considering its model and overall specifications, this Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon can be the ideal laptop for you as a stenographer to use.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 14 inches, 1920 x 1200 pixels
- Processor: 13th Gen Intel Core i7 with 10 cores and speed in the range of 1.7-5 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 13 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support the work of a stenographer
- Solid build
- Sleek and lightweight
- USB-A, Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, and HDMI ports
- Friendly-to-the-eye display
- Stretchable hinge (up to 180 degrees)
- Comfortable keyboard to type on
Cons
- No SD card reader slots
2. Microsoft Surface Laptop 5
Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 is the next laptop you might want to consider for your laptop purchase. It is an excellent laptop from Microsoft with a highly portable design and great specifications for a laptop to have.To back up its performance, this laptop uses a 12th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB RAM capacity. These are nice specifications that should be up to the task to accompany the work of a stenographer well. When you need to use the battery to work, it should be able to last all day on a single charge to let you stay productive even without a power outlet.
The keyboard of this laptop is comfortable to use so you should feel great when you type on it to work on your recordings. It also produces low-level noise to make you and other people around you not distracted when you type. In terms of design, it is sleek and lightweight so you can work with high mobility as you attend events to work or meet with your colleagues or clients.
Looking for a capable laptop to support your steno work? You might want to consider buying and using this Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 too.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 15 inches, 2496 x 1664 pixels
- Processor: 12th Gen Intel Core i7 with 10 cores and speed in the range of 1.7-4.7 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 18 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support the work of a stenographer
- Sleek and lightweight
- Good battery life
- USB-A and Thunderbolt 4 ports
- Good display and sound quality
- Comfortable keyboard to type on
Cons
- No HDMI ports and SD card reader slots
- Thick bezels
- Average webcam
3. Asus ZenBook 15
Asus ZenBook 15 is another laptop we think can be great for a stenographer to use. Looking at the model and specifications, this laptop seems to be capable of supporting steno work splendidly.The processor of this laptop is an AMD processor with AMD Ryzen 5 7535U. It is a good processor to use with a fast base clock speed to run all the software you need smoothly. As for the RAM capacity, it is 16GB which is plenty to provide the memory space needed by the software you want to open simultaneously for your work.
This laptop has an ergonomic design with its ErgoLift hinge can give you a better typing experience, cooling, and audio quality. The keyboard is also comfortable to type on. When you need to connect to external devices like your steno writer or monitors, there is a full range of ports ready for you to use on the sides of this laptop.
This laptop uses slim bezels as well to give you more viewports when you work. Overall, this Asus ZenBook 15 is a nice laptop you might want to consider buying and using too.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 15.6 inches, 1920 x 1080 pixels
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 7535U with 6 cores and speed in the range of 2.9-4.55 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 8 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support the work of a stenographer
- Quite portable
- USB-A, USB-C, and HDMI ports
- Stretchable hinge (up to 180 degrees)
- A full-HD webcam
- Comfortable keyboard to type on
Cons
- No SD card reader slots
What are the Things We Should Consider When We Want to Buy a Laptop for a Stenographer to Use?
Here are the things we think you should consider when you want to buy a laptop to support steno work.- Operating System (OS). Software like Case CATalyst, which is used by many stenographers, runs natively on Windows and doesn’t seem to be able to run at all in the newest generations of MacBooks that have Apple silicon chips as their processors. Therefore, it is better if the laptop you buy is a Windows laptop so you can simply run all the software you need without having to worry about any problem related to your OS
- Processor. The laptop you buy should have a good processor so it can run the software you need for your work smoothly. We recommend a laptop with at least a late-generation i5 or Ryzen 5 processor for this
- RAM capacity. You may need a lot of memory space on the laptop you use as you may want the laptop to multitask a lot during your work. Therefore, the laptop you buy better has a quite large RAM capacity. We recommend a laptop with at least 16GB RAM for this
- Storage. You may need to store a lot of files related to your steno work internally on your laptop so you can access them much easier. Therefore, the laptop you buy should have adequate storage space to accommodate those files. We recommend a laptop with at least 256GB SSD storage space for this
- Ports. The laptop you use most likely needs to be connected to your Steno writer through a USB-A port so you can do your work. Therefore, if you don’t want to use a dongle, you should buy a laptop with at least one USB-A port and probably more other ports as well to connect to other external devices you need for your work
Wrap Up
When you want to buy a laptop, you may want one that can help you to do your work as a stenographer optimally. However, it can be confusing to find a laptop like that from many laptop choices available out there. This is why Compute Expert has compiled a list of the best laptops for stenographers to help you.To summarize, here are three laptops we recommend for stenographers to use.
We hope our list can help you buy the best laptop to support your steno work!
Read also:
