5 Best Laptops for UX Designers in 2024
From this article, you will know what are, in our opinion, the best laptops for UX designers you can buy and use in 2024.
UX designers are people who try to optimize the experience of users through their impression and interaction with a brand. In terms of websites and mobile applications, UX designers make the design of the website or mobile application intuitive to use and satisfy the expectations of the users.
Several tools can help UX designers to do their work. Among those tools, one of the most important ones is probably a laptop. A laptop can help UX designers run the software they use for work while also having the flexibility to work anywhere they want.
However, the laptop that UX designers use should have the model and specifications needed to help them do their work optimally. If you are a UX designer and you feel you don’t have a laptop like that yet, you might be interested in buying a new laptop.
It can be confusing, nevertheless, to find the right laptop for a UX designer to use from many laptop choices available out there. This is why Compute Expert has created a list of the best laptops for UX designers that you can make as your laptop-buying reference.
Want to know what laptops we recommend for UX designers and why we think they are excellent for UX designers to use? Let’s get on the list right away.
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| Image | View on Amazon | Product |
|---|---|---|
| Apple MacBook Pro M3 16 | ||
| Apple MacBook Air M3 | ||
| Asus ZenBook Duo 14 | ||
| Lenovo ThinkPad P1 | ||
| Dell XPS 15 |
Table of Contents:
What are the Best Laptops for UX Designers?
Now, let’s look deeper at the laptops that make it to our list of excellent laptops for UX designers to use. Using one of these laptops should give you the laptop support you need to plan and design a positive user experience optimally.1. Apple MacBook Pro M3 16
Apple MacBook Pro M3 16 is the first laptop we think you should consider for your laptop purchase. Powered by the Apple silicon chip, this MacBook is fast and should be able to handle all tasks related to UX design work without much problem.The Apple silicon chip that this MacBook uses is an Apple M3 Pro chip. It is an excellent processor that is much faster than the Intel processors in the previous MacBook Pro generations. You should be able to run software like Figma or Sketch flawlessly with the support of this chip.
Thanks to the excellent power management of the chip, this MacBook also has an incredible battery life with up to 22 hours of usage capacity. Working for 1-2 days without charging should be okay with that kind of battery capacity. The display of this MacBook is a quality one as it can provide you with sharp color accuracy and contrast.
The webcam, microphones, and speakers that this MacBook has are great and should be able to make you communicate clearly with your colleagues over video calls. All in all, this Apple MacBook Pro M3 16 can be one of the best laptops for you to use as a UX designer.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 14 inches, 3456 x 2234 pixels
- Processor: Apple M3 Pro with 12 cores and a speed of 4.05 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 22 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support the work of a UX designer
- Sleek design
- Three Thunderbolt 4 ports and one HDMI port
- Long-lasting battery
- Excellent display and sound quality
- Excellent webcam and microphones
- Comfortable keyboard to type on
Cons
- No USB-A ports
- Notched display
2. Apple MacBook Air M3
Apple MacBook Air M3 is another MacBook that can be great for a UX designer to use. If you want a MacBook that is lighter and quieter for your UX design work, then this MacBook Air model is probably just what you need.This MacBook is powered by an Apple silicon chip too (M3) to give you the performance level you need for your design work. Although not as powerful as the chip in the MacBook Pro, it should be adequate to run all the software you usually use. There is 16GB RAM capacity as well to give you plenty of room for multitasking.
The display of this MacBook is great with its Liquid Retina display that is clear and detailed. When you need to use the battery, it can give you up to 18 hours of usage capacity on a single charge to make you not too dependent on a power outlet.
Looking for a capable laptop that is highly portable for your UX design work? This Apple MacBook Air M2 can be a great laptop choice for you.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 13.6 inches, 2560 x 1664 pixels
- Processor: Apple M3 with 8 cores and a speed of 4.05 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 16GB
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 18 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support the work of a UX designer
- Sleek and lightweight
- Fanless design which means quiet laptop operations
- Two Thunderbolt 4 ports
- Long-lasting battery
- Excellent display and sound quality
- Excellent webcam and microphones
- Comfortable keyboard to type on
Cons
- No USB-A, HDMI ports, and SD card reader slots
- Notched display
3. Asus ZenBook Duo 14
Asus ZenBook Duo 14 is a unique laptop that is suitable for what UX designers usually do in their work. This laptop has two screens to give you extra viewports to see more of your design at the same time.The extra second screen can be useful in design work like the one UX designers do. Besides more design views, you can also use it to see more windows when you need to open several software programs and files simultaneously or place the adjusters of your design to edit it much easier. It can make you more productive as a UX designer as you try to deliver the best user experience on your product/service.
As for the performance specifications to run your software, this laptop should have more than adequate ones. After all, it has an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor and 32GB RAM capacity. These are nice specifications that should be excellent to run software like Figma.
You should be able to see your design clearly too thanks to the 3K resolution and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut that this laptop has in its display. Overall, this Asus ZenBook Duo 14 can be just the laptop you need to optimally do your work as a UX designer.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 14 inches, 2880 x 1800 pixels
- Processor: Intel Core Ultra 9 185H with 16 cores and speed in the range of 3.9-5.1 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 32GB
- Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 10 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support the work of a UX designer
- Two screens to give extra viewports
- USB-A, Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, and HDMI ports
- High-quality display
- Good speakers
Cons
- No SD card reader slots
4. Lenovo ThinkPad P1
Lenovo ThinkPad P1 is the next laptop you might want to take a look at deeper. Coming from the popular Lenovo ThinkPad series, this laptop has excellent specifications and models to support your work as a UX designer.The processor that this laptop uses is an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor. It has 16 cores and a speed of up to 4.8 GHz to deliver the performance level you need to do your optimum design work. The RAM capacity is 32GB which should be enough for the memory space needs of your software.
The hinge of this laptop is quite flexible with it can be stretched up to 180 degrees. Viewing this laptop’s display in a more comfortable position for you should be easier to do with it. When you need to work for long hours, its friendly-to-the-eye display should give you much less eye strain compared to if you use many other laptops.
This laptop’s keyboard is excellent to use and should give you a comfortable typing experience when you need to type something for your work. All in all, this Lenovo ThinkPad P1 can also be a brilliant laptop for a UX designer to use looking at the things it has to offer as a laptop.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 16 inches, 2560 x 1600 pixels
- Processor: Intel Core Ultra 7 155H with 16 cores and speed in the range of 3.8-4.8 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 32GB
- Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 12 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support the work of a UX designer
- Sleek design
- Solid build
- A full range of ports with two Thunderbolt 4 ports
- Friendly-to-the-eye display
- A quite flexible hinge (stretchable up to 180 degrees)
- Comfortable keyboard to type on
Cons
- Can get hot under an intense workload
5. Dell XPS 15
Dell XPS 15 is the last laptop we recommend on this list. It is an excellent laptop from Dell with a professional-looking design and the performance to run the software you need for your UX design work.To back up its performance level, this laptop has a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and 32GB RAM capacity. Running UX design software and other things you need when you work with this laptop should be fast with those specifications in place. The relatively large RAM capacity can be useful when you do complex design projects.
There are two Thunderbolt 4 ports on this laptop you can use when you need to connect to external devices. Transferring data quickly or using external displays should be no problem for you if you use those ports. In terms of design, this laptop is sleek, work-like, and has a premium build to give you the confidence to work in any professional setting you want.
Want an excellent laptop for a UX designer to use? You might want to consider buying and using this Dell XPS 15 laptop too.
Key Features
- Screen Size, Resolution: 15.6 inches, 1920 x 1200 pixels
- Processor: 13th Gen Intel Core i7 with 10 cores and speed in the range of 2.4-4.9 GHz
- RAM Capacity: 32GB
- Storage: 1TB PCIe NVMe SSD
- Battery Life (Estimation): up to 9 hours of usage capacity
Pros
- Excellent specifications to support the work of a UX designer
- Sleek and professional-looking design
- Premium build
- Two Thunderbolt 4 ports
- Comfortable keyboard to type on
- Great speakers
Cons
- No USB-A and HDMI ports
- Average webcam quality
What are the Things We Should Consider When We Want to Buy a Laptop for a UX Designer to Use?
Here are the things we think you should consider when you want to buy a laptop to support the work of a UX designer.- Processor. The laptop you buy should have a good processor so it can run UX design software like Figma and InVision Studio and other software you need for your work. We recommend a laptop with at least a late-generation i5 or Ryzen 5 processor or an Apple silicon chip for this
- RAM capacity. You may need your laptop to multitask a lot when you work. For that, the laptop you buy should have a large RAM capacity to anticipate your memory space needs. We recommend a laptop with at least 16GB RAM for this
- Storage. You may need to store a lot of files related to your work internally on your laptop so you can access them much easier. For that, the laptop you buy needs to have adequate storage space to accommodate those files. We recommend a laptop with at least 512GB SSD storage space for this
Is a Windows Laptop or a MacBook Better for UX Design?
If you want to use Sketch as your UX design software or the company where you work uses it as its primary UX design software, you should use a MacBook as Sketch only runs on macOS. If you don’t use Sketch, then you should just use a laptop that you think is the best for you looking at its model and specifications, whether it is a Windows laptop or a MacBook. You might want to consider which Operating System (OS) you are the most comfortable with too.Wrap Up
When you want to buy a laptop, you may want one that can help you to work as a UX designer optimally. However, it can be hard to find a laptop like that of many laptop choices available out there. This is why Compute Expert has compiled a list of the best laptops for UX designers to help you.To summarize, here are five laptops we recommend for UX designers.
We hope our list can help you buy the best laptop to support your UX design work!
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