How to choose a Surface laptop for video editing

Video and graphics editing are some of the most resource-heavy tasks for a laptop. From storage space to CPU strength to screen resolution, you’ll want a well-rounded device to enable your greatest productivity and creativity.

The Surface family of laptops and tablets has what it takes to stand up to your most intensive work. Here’s what to look for when shopping for the best laptop for video editing.

What makes a great laptop for video editing?

Whether you’re a professional in Hollywood, creating a student film for college classes, or working with footage for social media, you have different needs for your specific video footage. These are features to consider paired with laptops that excel in each area:

Heavy-duty processing power

Processing power is the most important factor in determining which Surface laptop to choose. When working with extensive, high-definition imagery, you’ll want the smoothest experience possible, so you won’t get bogged or shut down in the middle of tasks. One great choice to keep your work speed up is the Surface Laptop 5 with the latest 12ᵗʰ Gen Intel® Coreᵀᴹ processor.

Dedicated graphics card to handle maximum demand

Some Surface devices feature integrated graphics cards from Intel®, which are not only powerful enough to handle multiple displays and tasks, but they’re also designed to save battery life. However, a separate and dedicated graphics card is the most powerful solution for handling high-resolution video, as it won’t be limited by its CPU’s processing power. With its NVIDIA® GeForce RTX® 3060 Laptop GPU, the Surface Studio 2+ is a desktop that can handle advanced video rendering as well as the latest Xbox games — because as it turns out, a smooth gaming experience also translates to high-performing graphics.

Vivid screen technology for graphical precision

It goes without saying that video editing and graphics work requires a screen that can output millions of colors. On the Surface Pro 9, the 13” PixelSense™ touchscreen stretches from edge to edge, meaning that not a single pixel is compromised by space limitations. Featuring 2880 X 1920 (267 PPI) resolution, a high 1200:1 contrast ratio, and Dolby Vision IQ integration, you’ll be able to focus on the details. Plus, touchscreen functionality and a Surface Slim Pen 2 add more intuitive ways to work.

Terabytes worth of storage solutions

Video files take up tons of room on your hard drive. Gigabytes used to be the standard for storage, but a terabyte (1,000 gigabytes!) is more commonly today’s metric. Fortunately, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 can be optioned with up to 2TB of storage space, all within a reliable and quiet solid-state drive. The quad-core Intel® Core i7 CPU paired with NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050 Ti graphics technology are ideal companions to all this cavernous digital space. Need even more room? Consider a Surface Dock 2 with multiple USB-C ports to transfer files quickly to your external hard drives. You can also browse through Surface storage options to learn about the storage capabilities of each device.

A strong connection to the cloud

Whether you’re shooting on location or working from your favorite coffee shop, you’ll want constant access to your project files, as well as the reassurance of regular backups. Surface devices come ready for Microsoft Cloud and OneDrive personal cloud storage, also allowing you to collaborate on files with your colleagues. Many Surface laptops can be optioned with 5G as well because a strong cloud network is only as strong as its connection.

Ready to start editing and sharing your videos? Find the right Surface device for you, and get those videos made!