First, we’ll start by figuring out what type of laptop you’re searching. That includes nailing down the your prefered laptop size, priorities when it comes to performance-to-portability ratio and general budget limits.
Then, I’ll cover the most important specs and metrics that are essential for any good graphic design laptop. One by one, I’ll explain their role in our particular case and then what exact specs you should be looking for.
Finally, I show what are the 10 absolute best laptops for graphic design. These notebooks were picked out of a pool of over 170 computers. And in the unlikely event that you don’t fancy a single of my recommended models – I’m giving away the comparison sheet of all 172 compared laptops for free. It is tailored specifically for graphic design so you’ll save hours.
But first things first – what are the requirements for the best laptop for graphic design?
What is crucial to a graphic design laptop?
First of all, to know what kind of laptop will be the best for you, you decide on your budget and preferred screen size.
Size
For simplicity’s sake, I’ll talk about 3 most common laptop sizes: 13″, 15″ and 17″. I apologize for not including 14″, which I know is just in the sweet spot for some graphic designers. But their characteristics can be easily guessed as a mix between 13.3″ and 15.7″ laptops.
Let’s begin with 13-inch notebooks. They are best suited if you need a very portable laptop. It’s the best size for travel due to its excellent portability. But the lack of screen “real estate” is not ideal for any type of visual work.
15″ is the most common option for most people, including graphic designers. 15 inches is the standard size for an office laptop.
17″ the best screen size if you’re searching for a desktop-replacement workstation and you will need to carry it only once in a while.
Don’t forget that often there are options for external displays. If you need a small laptop for home and a larger one for office – getting a 13″-15″ notebook with a few ports for display can be enough. So you’re not necessarily limited by a screen size. The number and versions of HDMI, Display Port, USB 3.1 Type C (w/ Thunderbolt III) connections determine the number of screens you can use. 13″ laptops usually can have 1-2 external displays while a standard 17″ behemoth can have ~4 of them.
2018 September Update. Luckily, nursing students do not need to have some specific requirements for a laptop which make almost any laptop a viable option for the course. At the same time, lack of clear guidelines makes it hard if you’re determined to get the best laptop for nursing students, even if for your own limited budget.
As a nursing student, you’ll need to deal with office apps, research on the web and, possibly, some domain-specific software (for example, statistical programs). There are some 
Nursing students mostly have to deal with basic word processing/excel spreadsheet work, email, web-surfing and occasionally some statistical software. That type of work does not need a good processor. But there are a few types of processors I’d avoid still. First off, all Windows laptops with Celeron and Pentium processors should be ignored for good. Only Chromebooks can function properly on these slow processors but even then I’d suggest going for an Intel Core i3 CPU instead
I will go straight to the point with this one. Find the best Ubuntu laptop is not easy – even finding a good laptop for Windows can take some time. And when we add compatibility issues and varying degrees of Ubuntu support for 15.xx and 16.xx releases, we can find ourselves crossing fingers hoping that the trackpad and WiFi work out-of-the-box.
At the end, I’ll list out 5 best picks when it comes to best laptops for photography. To find them, I went over a 120 hottest laptops and evaluated them using an array of metrics and benchmarks starting from the processor and ending with every important display metric: panel, resolution, brightness, contrast, sRGB/RGB coverage.