Out of these 4 laptops, which one would you choose?

Apr 6, 2021
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I'm looking for a laptop for video editing (premiere pro) and sound design (adobe audition). I'm going to create videos like this: [link removed]

Budget: <$1,500
Weight: As light as possible. I'll be carrying this with me every day.
Specs: It needs to be able to edit in premiere pro without any lag.
Other: It needs to be Windows (not Mac)

These are the 4 options that I'm debating between:
  1. ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14
  2. Razer Blade Stealth 13
  3. MSI GS66 Stealth
  4. ASUS Vivobook K571
Which laptop would you pick and why? Or would you choose another laptop not listed here?

Thank you for all the help!
 
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Honestly you’re gonna struggle with the premiere pro. For the budget the best option is switching to final cut and getting a Mac. Plus if you’re wanting to use the laptop heavily on windows you need to be plugged into the wall anyway
 
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The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 from your list looks the most compelling to me. Honestly it'll be tough to beat for the price on a light laptop. Even heavy laptops within your budget won't get much better.
https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/asus-rog-zephyrus-g14

Pros
  • Good weight to performance ratio
  • Fastest multi-core CPU
  • 1TB SSD NVMe
  • Tie on best GPU
  • above average display (sRGB and brightness)
  • Excellent battery life at 11hrs average user usage (nearly double what you'd expect in it's class)
  • You've got enough money left to bump the RAM to 32GB (which is really where you should be starting out with for video editing, more for really heavy editing)
  • HDMI 2.0b
  • USB 3.1 Gen 2 with power delivery and Displayport. Making it great for USB 3.1 Gen 2 charging docks.


The real cons I see for video.
  • RAM is less than I'd like. But you've got enough money left to go to at least 32GB.
  • Screen is only 1080p. I'd want 4K for modern video editing. But that's not realistic in your budget.
  • 1TB may sound like a lot. But it isn't if you're going to be doing a lot of video editing on the go. Especially if it is 4K or higher. Not that you're going to beat 1TB NVMe in your budget.
  • No Thunderbolt ports.

Definitely nice for video editing without going to a workstation. Although lag free seems unrealistic. Even a $50K workstation will have some sort of lag when editing video.

As for the RAM. From what I can tell it has 16GB soldered and one available slot. This should add the other 16GB. Plus allow for dual channel operation. Which will help Ryzen CPU performance. I'd get the laptop first and check the RAM slots first to be sure you don't need 2x16GB.
https://www.crucial.com/memory/ddr4/ct16g4sfra32a/ct18649410
 
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I have a Zephyrus G14 and I use it to regularly to play games. So far I have no qualms with it though the particular unit I have has some quirks (not sure if this is a problem with the lineup itself). On a note about RAM, 8GB is soldered, the other 8GB is on an actual SO-DIMM module.

As an aside, its bigger brother, the G15, looks equally compelling. It also has another M.2 slot, though it looks like it only has one RAM slot as well (meaning half that it comes with is soldered)
 
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Johnson Mike

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May 4, 2016
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Typing this reply from a G14. Have been using it for work, gaming and video editing since last 6 months. I use Davinci to edit videos though and have never used Premiere Pro on mine, but it's gonna run just as fine. The battery life with everyday productivity tasks is really great, easily lasts a day for me and I always plug it to power source when I am gaming or editing. I miss Thunderbolt though because my last laptop had it and backlighting on the keyboard is also bad.
 
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masterviper

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The Zephyrus G14 is your best bet for multimedia on the go.

Just remember you cannot use it I'm clamshell mode and it has 8gb soldered so dual channel max for the laptop is 16gb. Upgrading the memory does no good on this laptop.