Laptop Specifications Video Editing

Basically you want laptop with a quad core CPU; preferably Intel because their CPUs are better than AMD's APU's when it come to edit videos. This basically means a Core i5 or Core i7 CPU. A Core i7 CPU would be better because it has Hyper Threading (HT) which allows each CPU core to process 2 streams of instructions instead of only 1. Modern video codecs are designed to take advantage of HT. Of course Core i7 CPUs are more expensive than Core i5 CPUs. There are basically 2 generations of Intel CPUs to choose from:

- 7th generation Core i5 & Core i7 CPUs: All "u" model CPUs are low power dual core CPUs like the i5-7200u and i7-7500u; they are rated as 15w CPUs. Note that both i5 and i7 "u" CPUs have HT; the basic difference it that the i7's have higher clockspeeds. You can use these CPUs to edit videos, but will not perform as well as quad core CPUs. Then there are the normal or high power "HQ" which quad core CPU rated at 45w; examples are the i5-7300HQ and i7-7700HQ. The i7 "HQ" CPU has HT, but the the i5 "HQ" CPU does not.

- 8th generation Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs: At the moment these are strictly "u" model CPUs rated at 15w. However, 8th gen Core i5 and Core i7 CPUs are all quad core CPUs; the i7 has HT. But since they are "u" model low power CPUs most of the time the clockspeed will stay far below the maximum clock speed to keep temperatures down and keep power consumption from being too high. These CPUs are better than 7th gen "u" CPUs, but less powerful than 7th gen "HQ" CPUs.

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Adobe Premiere benefits from nVidia GPU's CUDA cores when you use effects that can take advantage of them. However, a nVidia GPU is not absolutely required if you cannot afford a laptop with a nVidia GPU. Intel's integrated graphics core can work just as well.

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You want at least 8GB of RAM. More if you are working with very large project such as editing multiple video sources into a single video.

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When it comes to storage, using a hard drive will be fine as long as you are not editing more than 2 video sources together without having to deal with lag. A SSD with a SATA interface (the most common type of SSD) should allow you to use 4 video sources. A SSD with a PCIe interface (these are more expensive than SATA SSDs and are typically only found in more expensive laptops) should be able to handle 6 video sources. The more storage the better especially if you are working on large projects.

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If you are doing color correction or you simply want accurate colors, then you should by a laptop with an IPS panel display which is generally better at reproducing colors than TN panel display. However, just like cars there are many different models of cars like there is for IPS panel displays. Some cars are better than others and some IPS panel displays are better than others. More expensive laptops tends to have better quality IPS panel displays.

If color correction / color accuracy is not important, then perhaps a laptop with a TN panel screen will be fine.