Your laptop should be able to handle everything you throw at it. After all, who wants to buy a whole bunch of devices? So to reader asusdeluxedual, who wrote in asking about a laptop they could use for both 4K video editing and their gaming hobby, I say, get you a laptop who can do both.
Our reader's desired price is around $2,000, and they want recommendations and spec help. So let's dig in.
I don't usually start with a screen as an important feature, but in this case, the display is critical. Many gamers, myself included, would opt for a 1080p display in a gaming notebook. Few games can run at the best settings in 4K, even with a powerful GPU like the GTX 1080, and some of those displays have faster refresh rates, going up to 144Hz. But in this case, asusdeluxedual needs a 4K screen. Sure, you can edit 4K video on a 1080p screen, but you'll want to watch it in full resolution. So, a 4K display it is.
Now, we've established before that you can use a gaming laptop for video editing. The argument for getting a workstation is that the Quadro lineup of graphics cards are certified for use with creative apps, but that doesn't mean Nvidia's GeForce GTX gaming cards won't get the job done. And if you want to use your machine for both video editing and gaming, you'll probably be better off with a gaming notebook, which will have the power for editing and the software and features for gaming.
MORE: The Best Gaming Laptops
Other features you'll want include a ton of storage to fit both raw video and a bunch of games, and enough RAM to power through intensive activities. To come up with a suggestion, I researched some gaming laptops with 4K displays. Your alternative is to get a 4K monitor and not worry about the display on the laptop, but for now, I'm assuming you want to use the laptop on its own.
Coming one cent short of asusdeluxedual's budget, the HP Omen 17 sells for $1,999.99 with an Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q, 16GB of RAM, a 17-inch 4K display, a 1TB and 7,200-rpm HDD, and a 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD. To save some money, you can get less storage (or keep games and files on external storage). Finding a 4K gaming laptop in asusdeluxedual's price range was a challenge, and I didn't find anything else that truly fit the bill.
But lots of other options are simply out of that price range. The 4K Razer Blade Pro, MSI Titan Pro and many others are well over $2,500 and often over $3,000.
Right now, asusdeluxedual's options are limited, but that will change. Tech companies are in the midst of releasing notebooks with Intel's 8th Gen "Coffee Lake" H-series chips, which will mean a slew of new gaming notebooks, some with 4K screens. So, if asusdeluxedual can wait a few months, they may have more options.
But now that asusdeluxedual knows their specs, and even has something they can get if they can't wait. But as Coffee Lake comes to more gaming laptops, there will be entire new lineups to consider. Waiting for Coffee Lake will also give asusdeluxedual time to save to get all of the features they really need for both gaming and editing.
Credit: Laptop Mag
