7 Best Laptops for Freelancers (2022) – Reviews & Buying Guide

Freelancing has gained a lot of attention and popularity over the years. It is the most convenient method of making money from the comfort of your home. As a freelancer, you must have a good laptop that fulfills your needs. Because a stable wifi connection and the best laptop for freelancers are all, you need to start on your freelancing journey.

Laptops come in a variety and many different sizes. Some focus on fast processing while others focus on excellent portability and large storage space. The most common freelance work on popular freelance platforms is content writing, website design and development, and graphic design. And it requires using the best laptop for a freelancer that is powerful and fast enough for handling this kind of work.

1. Dell XPS 9570 – The Best Laptop for Freelancers

The Dell XPS 9570 is an all-round laptop that has all the amazing qualities for offering maximum performance. This laptop has a powerful 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H processor for handling all your daily tasks efficiently. It has a CPU clock speed of 4.10 GHz, which makes it fast for doing heavy graphics design work.

The Dell XPS 9570 offers a massive internal storage space of 1TB for storing all your media files as a graphic designer. As a freelance video editor, you will need a large hard disk drive for storing all your data. So, it is better to go for a laptop that offers large storage capacity.

This laptop comes with a 32GB DDR4 RAM, which provides fast response upon requests of opening and closing applications. With such large RAM size, you can easily run heavy programming softwares, which can otherwise slow down your computer having low RAM. The large RAM size offered by this laptop is also ideal for running powerful editing softwares such as Adobe Photoshop.

The Dell XPS 9570 has a 15.6 inches 4k HD display screen with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels. This is a high-resolution screen for better visibility of photos when doing editing or website design work. The display screen of this laptop is touch-sensitive, which makes it easy to directly zoom in and zoom out of the content displayed on the screen. This laptop has a card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, and a headset jack.

This laptop comes with a pre-installed 64-bit Windows 10, which is a popular choice of most computer users. The Dell XPS 9570 has a sleek silver design that looks quite neat and stylish. This laptop weighs around 4.2 pounds, which is light enough to carry it with you. It offers a back-lit keyboard so you could easily work at night when the lamps are dim. This is a balanced laptop for doing all sorts of freelance work on it, and you should consider buying it.

2. 2019 Apple MacBook Pro – Best Under Budget

Apple is a well-known laptop brand, and Apple MacBooks are being used all around the world due to its amazing performance capabilities. The new Apple MacBook Pro comes with a lot of upgrades, which has greatly pleased its users. This MacBook Pro has a 16 inches display screen, which is large enough to provide good visibility. This laptop has a native resolution of 3072×1920, which supports a large number of colors.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro has a 9th generation 6-Core Intel Core i7 processor which can handle almost anything. With such a powerful processor, you can easily run heavy programming and editing softwares. Programming and testing applications require a lot of processing power, and the new MacBook Pro can do that quite efficiently.

The new MacBook Pro lets you configure its RAM size up to 64 GB, which can give you an exceptional speed for doing heavy video editing work. With such a large RAM, you can do anything. Your computer won’t hinder your productivity. This laptop offers 8TB internal storage, which makes it quite suitable for people who make and edit videos daily.

This laptop offers powerful AMD Radeon 5000M graphics GPU for video editing and 3D content creation. With this graphics card, you can develop games with high-quality graphics. It offers an amazing game playing experience with such impressive graphics. The MacBook Pro has a long battery life, which can last several hours.

The MacBook Pro has a nice keyboard with small keys, which allows for easy typing. This updated keyboard has a touch bar that keeps the most used keys in one place for comfortable, quick typing. The large touchpad of the MacBook Pro allows you to scroll and zoom in and out with quick touch gestures. For high performance and good productivity, this is an incredible laptop for doing heavy freelance work, and you should consider buying it.

3. Lenovo Chromebook C330 – 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop

As the name suggests, Lenovo Chromebook C330 is a convertible laptop that can be rotated up to 360 degrees. The convertible ability of this laptop makes it especially suitable for a freelance content writer who can work with great ease using this laptop. This is an extremely lightweight laptop that weighs around 2.82 pounds. The lightweight of this laptop makes it easy to carry when you are on the move.

The Lenovo Chromebook C330 has a thin touch screen display of 11.6 inches and a screen resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. It does have a smaller screen, but for people who appreciate good portability in a laptop, this screen size is ideal for them. You can carry this laptop to a nearby cafe and carry on with your freelance content writing work.

This laptop comes with a MediaTek MT8173C processor and a 4GB RAM, which is adequate for doing basic routine tasks and writing content. The Chromebook C330 has a nice keyboard with comfortable keys. With this laptop, you will have a smooth typing experience. It has a large touchpad that allows you to freely move your fingers and control the mouse cursor.

The Chromebook C330 comes with a pre-installed Chrome Operating System, which is easy to use and understand. This laptop has a cool white color, which catches your attention at first glance. It has an internal storage of 32 GB, which is sufficient for storing your content files.

This laptop has a built-in antivirus software for protecting it from malicious viruses online. The Chromebook C330 has USB type C port and USB 3.0 port. It comes with a Lithium metal battery that lasts for more than 9 hours when web surfing. The best thing about this laptop is that it comes already set up. All you have to do is turn it on and login to your google account to start using it. This is a good laptop for doing routine light work and offers comfortable and smooth typing.

4. ASUS VivoBook S – Best Lightweight Laptop for Freelancers

The Asus VivoBook is an affordable laptop for young freelancers looking for a simple yet productive computer that performs all tasks efficiently. This laptop has a sophisticated design and comes in silver color. This is an extremely thin laptop with a light weight of 3.2 pounds. The thin and lightweight combination of the Asus VivoBook makes it quite portable.

This laptop comes with an 8th Generation Intel Core i7 8550U quad-core processor, which is powerful enough for doing daily web surfing and blog writing. With an NVIDIA GeForce MX150 integrated graphics coprocessor, you get to see amazing graphics when playing games.

The VivoBook S has an 8GB DDR4 RAM for fast response when moving between applications. The large RAM of this laptop allows you to do your work quickly. You can also run application development software tools on this laptop, and it won’t slow down your laptop. This laptop has the Windows 10 operating system, which comes pre-installed.

The display screen of this laptop is 14 inches long and has a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. This is a good screen size for a lightweight laptop. The high resolution of the VivoBook S screen lets you have a quality display and allows for incredible user experience. This laptop has a backlit keyboard with small keys that offers comfortable typing. This laptop has an average battery life of more than 6 hours, which is enough for doing your work.

The VivoBook S has a 256 GB SSD for increased performance. Although being extremely slim, it still comes with several connectivity ports. It has two USB 2.0 ports and an SD card reader on one side, and on the other side of the laptop, you get a USB type C and a USB 3.0 port. This laptop is powerful enough for playing games and doing work. If you are a student and also working as a freelancer, you should get this laptop.

5. Acer Aspire 5 Slim Laptop – Fast Laptops for Freelancers

Acer has been building high-performance laptops for all kinds of users. The new Acer Aspire 5 is an extremely slim laptop with a sophisticated design. It has a shiny silver color, which gives it a metallic look. This laptop weighs only 3.8 pounds, which makes it lightweight and portable. The Acer Aspire 5 can be easily carried anywhere you go, especially if you are a freelancer who likes to travel with work.

The Acer Aspire 5 has an 8th Gen Intel Core i5-8265U processor. This powerful processor can handle anything you request. Apart from doing your freelance work, you can play light computer games on it. This laptop comes with a built-in Intel UHD Graphics 620 for running photo editing softwares. You can experience amazing visuals with this laptop.

The display screen of the Acer Aspire 5 is 15.6 inches long. It has a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. The high-resolution screen of the Aspire 5 offers a good viewing experience with its vibrant colors. This laptop offers a large keyboard, which is ideal for freelance content writers. You get a comfortable and smooth typing experience with this laptop. The touchpad of this laptop is wide enough, which allows you to make finger impressions efficiently.

The Acer Aspire 5 comes with an 8 GB DDR4 Memory, which is massive for quickly doing your routine computing tasks. It also has a 256GB Solid State Drive (SSD), which greatly increases the performance of this laptop. Having an SSD will lessen the loading time of your computer applications and will increase the overall speed of the laptop.

You get a USB 3.1, USB type C, and an HDMI on the side of the laptop. This laptop has a long average battery life of 9.5 hours, which can last for an entire day. The Acer Aspire 5 is a high-performance budget-friendly laptop that is worth buying.

One of the most noticeable things about this laptop is the fingerprint reader located on the touchpad. It gives you secure access to your computer and adds a level of protection to your machine. The Acer Aspire 5 comes with several ports for better connectivity.

6. Lenovo Thinkpad T470 – Best for Freelancer Writers

The Lenovo Thinkpad T470 is quite an affordable laptop for not just students, as well as those who work in the business field. This is a mid-size laptop and can be carried easily. It has a simple and minimalist design and a long battery life, which makes it great for writers. The Thinkpad T470 has a 14 inches HD display screen and a screen resolution of 1366×768 pixels. The screen size and resolution are ideal for people who dont do much heavy work on their laptops.

This laptop weighs around 3.48 pounds, which makes it a lightweight laptop and hence offers good portability. The Lenovo Thinkpad T470 has an Intel Core i5-7200U processor, which provides good processing power for performing daily work. It has an 8GB RAM with a 256 GB SSD, which allows for fast performance. As a result, you don’t have to wait for the system to boot up or the applications to load. It performs all tasks quickly and efficiently.

The Lenovo Thinkpad T470 comes with a built-in fingerprint reader. So, now you dont have to go through the trouble of remembering your password. You can unlock your laptop device with just a single touch. This laptop offers a 6 cell battery which has immensely increased the battery life. Once charged, you can work on this laptop for up to 13 hours.

This laptop is made of solid material, making it extremely durable. It does not break easily and will survive for a long time. It comes with the built-in Intel HD Graphics 520 for providing amazing visuals when playing games or watching movies.

The Lenovo Thinkpad T470 offers a great typing experience with its super comfortable keys. It offers a decent size touchpad so that you don’t have to squeeze in your fingers when moving the cursor on the screen. This laptop has Windows 10 pre-installed, and you can start working on it right away. This is a fast and good performance laptop for freelance writers, and you should consider buying it due to its amazing performance capabilities.

7. 2018 Dell XPS 13 9360 Ultrabook – Best for Freelance Work

The Dell XPS 13 is an amazing laptop for doing your daily freelance work. This laptop has an attractive design and a strong build, which makes it long-lasting. The lid and the bottom of the XPS 13 are made with firm aluminum, which gives it in a shiny look. It is a lightweight laptop weighing around 2.78 pounds and comes in two colors; silver and rose gold.

This laptop has the 8th Generation Intel Quad-Core i7-8550U processor for quickly handling complex tasks. With such a powerful processor, you can efficiently do video and photo editing. The Dell XPS 13 comes with an 8GB RAM and a 256GB SSD for fast processing and better performance.

The Dell XPS 13 has a 13.3 inches Infinity touch screen display for better navigation. With a high screen resolution of 3200×1800 pixels, you get fantastic visuals and bright colors. The keyboard of the laptop has smooth backlit keys for easy typing and better visibility at night.

This laptop comes with a 4-cell Lithium-ion battery which can last up to 15 hours when doing web browsing. Hence, this laptop offers a long battery life, and you can do your work effectively without having to worry about charging it.

The Dell XPS 13 has an audio jack, an SD card reader, 2 USB 3.0 ports, and a Thunderbolt 3. It comes with a 64-bit Windows 10 and several ports mentioned above. The Dell XPS 13 is an amazing laptop for day to day work and provides good performance when doing routine tasks.

How to Pick the Best Laptops for Freelancers?

As a freelancer buying a new laptop can be a bit tricky as there is a large number of brands manufacturing quality laptops. Laptop computers come in different sizes and performance capabilities and hence different price ranges. These brands aim to facilitate all customers by making laptops suitable for everyone.

What kind of work you do as a freelancer?

It is important to consider your work before buying a laptop because some freelances do light content writing work that does not require heavy laptop specifications while others do heavy game development, which needs a powerful processor.

So when you are looking for a laptop, first consider your need. If you are a content writer, a programmer, or a graphics designer or a video editor, you need a laptop best able to support your work. The essential thing that a content writer looks for in a laptop is a good keyboard that offers comfortable typing. A graphics designer or a video editor looks for a high-performance graphics card that offers amazing visuals. And lastly, programmers and website developers should look for a powerful processor that can handle heavy softwares which runs smoothly on it. Explained down below are things that you should look for in a laptop.

Processor

The most common laptop processor brands are Intel and AMD. Both are equally good and offer different processors for different laptops. Powerful processors offer fast processing and allow you to run large and heavy softwares such as Photoshop and Final Cut Pro. So, if you do video editing freelance work, then look for the Core i7 processors as they are fast and can run powerful softwares smoothly.

Portability

As a freelancer, you could be anywhere in the world and still able to do your work. For this reason, you must have a laptop that is lightweight and easy to carry. The lighter the laptop, the easier it will be to travel with it. Laptop manufactures are coming up with lightweight laptops to give you easy portability. So if you dont do complex work on your laptop, then you should consider lightweight laptops.

Display Screen

Game developers and graphic designers usually go for big viewing displays so that they are better able to see everything in action. The screen length of laptops varies from 13 inches up to 17 inches. If you use your laptop for doing routine tasks and web surfing, then a mid-size display will be great for you. Quality display screens have a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels, so go for a laptop that offers a good high resolution.

Battery

Battery life is another important attribute of a laptop that requires special consideration. Having to constantly plug-in the charger of your laptop can be extremely annoying if it does not offer a long battery life. Therefore, it is necessary to go with a laptop that offers at least 8 hours of average battery life. Programmers spend a lot of their time in front of a laptop screen when coding or trying to fix a bug. So, as a freelance programmer, look for a laptop that offers a long battery life. And if you are a blogger, then a 6 hours battery life is enough for you.

Conclusion

So, this was a detailed review of some of the best laptops for freelancers looking to improve their performance. All the above-reviewed laptops have amazing performance capabilities and specifications for the kind of work they are made to do. Our pick from the reviewed laptops is the Dell XPS 9570. The XPS 9570 is a high-performance laptop that offers amazing visuals and fast processing. With this laptop, you can easily do video editing as a freelance editor. This is an incredibly fast laptop that is ideal for doing freelance graphic design work.

• For game developers and website developers, we recommend the 16 inches Apple MacBook Pro. This laptop is ideal for programmers who require fast processing and high-speed graphics processor. You can be extremely productive when using this laptop.

This article also explains a detailed buying guide that can help you to get a laptop that best suits your needs and capabilities. We hope that you found this article useful, and if that is the case, then do share it with your friends who are just starting their freelancing career and are in grave need of a new laptop.