Best Music Laptop

Best Laptop For Music Students

Best Laptop for Music Students

Best Laptop For Music Students

If you’re a college student and have music as your major, or you’re just taking music because you love it and it gets your creative juices flowing, you’re going to need a laptop that can handle all things music as well as any other task you might need it to tackle.

I’ve written many articles on this website about the best laptops for music production, but music students often have some different requirements in a laptop, so in this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the best laptops specifically for music students.

Best Laptops For Music Students

Here’s a comparison table of what are, in my opinion, the best 6 laptops for music students. And below that, I’ll give you a more detailed review of each of them.

Image Name CPU RAM Storage Screen Size Check Price

ASUS VivoBook 15
10th Gen Intel Core i3 or i5
8GB
128GB or 512 GB
15.6 Inches (diagonally)

Acer Swift 3
AMD Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7
8GB or 16GB
256GB or 512GB
14 Inches (diagonally)

HP Pavilion x360
11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7
8GB
256GB
14 Inches (diagonally)

MacBook Air
8 Core Apple Silicon M1
8GB or 16GB
256GB, 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB
13 Inches (diagonally)

HP Spectre x360
10th Gen Intel Core i7-1065G7
16GB
512GB
13.3 Inches (diagonally)
LG Gram 16
11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7
16GB
1TB
16 Inches (diagonally)
Pros
Cons

The ASUS Vivobook 15 is quite an affordable laptop and the most affordable one on this list. So if you’re on a bit of a tighter budget (like students often are), this is probably going to be the one for you.

It’s not exactly the most powerful laptop ever, but it’s still decently capable and will be able to comfortably handle music production as long as you don’t have too much other stuff running in the background.

It has a 15.6 inch screen which is quite a good size and gives you a reasonable amount of space to work with.  But thanks to the thin bezels on the sides of the screen and the overall thin and light design of the laptop, it’s still quite portable and will be easy to carry around from class to class.

The battery life is quite good for a laptop of this price range and will give you about eight hours of regular use on a single charge, but it will go down a bit faster when working on music production which could be something to keep in mind.

And while the main basic necessities of the laptop are solid and reliable, it also has a few nice features like a fingerprint reader and backlit keyboard that just make using the laptop an even better experience.

It comes in Windows S mode which is not great, but it’s actually very easy to upgrade to Windows 10 home for free in just a few clicks so it’s really nothing to worry about.

The most affordable model comes with a 10th Gen Intel Core i3 processor which as I mentioned earlier is not hugely powerful but will still be able to handle music production without any real issues.

That being said, there is also a more expensive Core i5 variation which I would probably recommend upgrading to if you can afford it.

But overall, this is a great, budget friendly laptop with enough power to handle music production that will be a great option for any music student not wanting to spend thousands of dollars on a computer.

Want To Buy The ASUS VivoBook 15?

Pros
Cons

The Acer Swift 3 is a bit more expensive than the ASUS Vivobook, but you will get better performance and battery life from it so if you can afford to spend a bit more, it could be worth the higher price.

It has an AMD Ryzen 5 4500U processor which is still not the most powerful processor around, but it will be able to handle music production and other school work with no real issues.

And, for only about $20 more, you can upgrade to an AMD Ryzen 7 4700U which I would probably recommend doing as you’ll get an extra performance boost for basically the same price.

The screen is 14 inches which gives you a decent amount of room to work with and won’t feel too cramped. And being only 14 inches with thin bezels and the entire laptop being thin and light, it means you’ll be able to easily fit it in pretty much any bag you want and easily carry it from class to class.

The battery life is also better than the ASUS VivoBook with a full charge getting you about 14 hours of regular use. (More like 8 – 10 hours if you throw in some music production).

And it also has a fingerprint reader which is great for quickly unlocking your computer, and a backlit keyboard which can be very helpful if you often work in the dark.

The screen can’t get quite as bright as the screens in some other laptops so it might seem a little dim if you’re working under bright lights or near a window. But it’s not too dim and at least it is a matte screen so you won’t get any glare or reflection showing up.

So overall, if you’re looking for a reasonably affordable laptop that’s very portable and has enough power to easily handle music production and other school work, this is probably going to be the one for you.

Want To Buy The Acer Swift 3?

Pros
Cons

The HP Pavilion x360 is sort of the “next step up” in price from the Acer Swift 3, but it also has a more powerful processor and the cool ability to fold into a tablet.

It has an 11th Gen Intel Core i5 processor which gives you plenty of power for music production and anything else you want to do so there’s nothing to worry about there.

But what really sets this laptop apart from the others is that it has a touchscreen and a 360° hinge that allows the keyboard to flip around behind the screen so that you can use it as a tablet.

To be honest, I usually just prefer to use it as a regular laptop with the keyboard and trackpad, but if you’re someone who likes tablet convertibles like this you might have your uses for it.

Another bonus with the HP pavilion is that it has reasonably good sounding B&O branded speakers built in.

Obviously, these are still laptop speakers so they’re not exactly going to be good enough to replace a good set of headphones or external audio monitors, but they’re better than the speakers in most laptops and if you’re ever in a pinch and need to listen to something on the built in speakers, it won’t sound too bad.

Unfortunately, the HP Pavilion is a bit thicker and heavier than a lot of the other laptops on this list, so it’s not quite as easy to carry around. But really it’s still perfectly portable and without comparing it side by side with other laptops you probably wouldn’t even notice.

The battery life also isn’t quite as good as a lot of the others, technically it can last up to 8 hours if it’s just streaming video, but if you’re actually using it for a variety of different things including music production, you can probably expect more like about 5 – 6 hours.

This is still reasonable and should hopefully be able to get you through a full day without having to charge it, but it’s still not quite as long as some of the others which is just something you might want to keep in mind.

But overall, it is a really nice laptop with some cool features and plenty of power to handle music production for a fairly reasonable price, so if you don’t mind the few shortcomings I mentioned above, this could be the one for you.

Want To Buy The HP Pavilion x360?

Pros
Cons

If you’re someone who prefers MacBooks over Windows computers, the M1 MacBook Air is almost definitely going to be your best option.

The MacBook Air is actually Apple’s cheapest laptop, but thanks to the Apple made M1 processor it uses instead of the Intel processors it used to use, it is actually still very powerful and easily capable of handling music production.

Another big plus of the M1 processor is that it doesn’t really need cooling so the laptop actually doesn’t have any fans which means no annoying fan noise!

And the combination of Apple’s power efficient M1 processor and the rather large battery it has means it gets extremely good battery life of up to 18 hours on a single charge. So I can pretty confidently say that even with some music production, this laptop will easily last all day without you having to plug it in.

The only slight downside to the M1 processor is that because it’s so different from traditional Intel processors, all the apps you use have had to be re-engineered in order to run on it correctly.

And while all the most popular apps like Google Chrome have been updated for it and now run incredibly well on M1 Macs, a lot of music production apps have not yet been optimized so you could possibly face some issues there.

But I don’t consider this to be a problem because Apple has designed a cool software called Rosetta that will basically make old Intel apps work on the M1 Macs so all your favorite music production apps will keep working fairly well.

And I’m sure within another year or two all the best music production apps will be optimized for M1 Macs and then the M1 MacBook Air will become even better for music production.

Aside from the M1 processor, the M1 MacBook Air is also very thin and light which makes it nice and portable and easy to carry around, while still being very powerful.

And it’s just overall well built and has everything you’d expect from a Macbook in 2021.

So if you’re someone who prefers Mac OS, or even if you don’t really care which operating system you use, I can confidently say the M1 MacBook Air is an excellent choice for music students.

Want To Buy MacBook Air?

Check The Current Price:

(Affiliate Link)

Note: The button above only goes to the variant with 8GB RAM on Amazon, Click here for the 16GB option.

Pros
Cons

If you have a bit more money to spend on a new laptop and you’re after something more powerful and premium, the HP Spectre x360 could be the way to go.

It’s somewhat similar to the HP Pavilion in that it can fold arround into a tablet, but it has a much more premium look and feel and really feels like a high quality device to use.

It also has better performance than the HP Pavilion with a 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor that will effortlessly breeze through music production and any other task you throw at it.

And it has a huge 16GB of RAM as opposed to the 8GB of ram found in a lot of laptops on this list so you’ll be able to use heaps of different plugins in your favorite music productions apps while still having all kinds of other apps open in the background.

The battery life is really good as well! Giving you up to 22 hours of regular use on a full charge which means it’s pretty much guaranteed to last you all day without you needing to charge it.

The screen is only 13 inches which might feel a little cramped if you’re used to a bigger screen, but it’s still perfectly manageable and the smaller size makes it nice and easy to carry around all day.

It’s not the cheapest computer out there, but if you have a bit more money to spend and want a premium and powerful device, the HP Spectre x360 won’t disappoint.

Want To Buy The HP Spectre x360?

Pros
Cons

If you’d rather use a laptop with a much bigger screen to have plenty of room to work with, but you still need to be able to easily carry it around, the LG Gram 16 will be the one for you.

This laptop has actually won a Guinness World Record for the lightest 16-inch laptop in the world!

So even though its big screen means it’s fairly wide, this laptop’s thinness and extreme lightness mean that it’s still very easy and practical to carry around from class to class.

And you might think that a laptop this thin has to compromise on performance and battery life, but think again. Because with a very powerful 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of RAM, it will effortlessly breeze through music production and any other task you throw at it.

And while the battery life is not the best of all the laptops on this list, it’s still very good with apparently up to 19.5 hours of use on a single charge. (Although realistically it usually gets more like 10 hours which is still pretty good.)

Obviously, a laptop this good won’t come cheap, in fact, it’s actually the most expensive option on this list, but if you can afford it, you won’t be disappointed.

Want To Buy The LG Gram 16?

What Should You Look For In A Laptop For Music Majors?

If you’re a music student shopping for a new laptop, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind, so let’s take a look at some of the things you should consider.

Processor

Whenever you’re buying a new computer, it’s essential that you get one with a decent processor, and this is especially true for music students.

Music production can be quite demanding on your processor so if you get a computer with a processor that’s too weak, the whole experience will be slow and you’ll end up running into all kinds of problems.

Fortunately, all the laptops recommended on the list above have processors that will have no trouble handling the demands of music production, so if you choose one of them you’ll have nothing to worry about.

RAM

It is equally important to have a decent amount of RAM on your computer. In this day and age, I would definitely recommend you have at least 8GB of RAM, but ideally, 16GB would be even better.

SSD (Solid State Drive)

The SSD in a computer is what holds all the apps and files. This is commonly referred to as a hard drive because computers used to use hard drives. But SSDs are a much superior alternative to a traditional hard drive so most computers these days use SSDs.

Some cheap computers still use hard drives (commonly referred to as HDDs), but I would highly recommend you stay away from hard drives and only use SSDs as computers with SSDs will run much faster.

You’ll also need to choose how much space the SSD has, if you want to store all of your files on your computer and not use any cloud storage services or external hard drives, you’ll definitely want either 512GB or 1TB of storage.

But if you’re happy to store a lot of your files on a flash drive, a portable SSD, or a cloud storage service like Google Drive, 128GB or 256GB will be just fine.

Battery Life

laptop battery lifeBattery life isn’t normally a huge consideration for music production laptops, but if you’re a music student, you will likely often be in situations where it’s not very convenient to have your laptop plugged in.

So you are definitely going to want a laptop with decent battery life that will hopefully get you through the entire day without needing to be charged.

Portability

Another thing you’ll want to consider that is more specific to music students is the portability of the laptop. If you have to spend all day carrying it around from class to class, you’ll want to make sure it’s reasonably light and easy to carry.

And there you have it, whether you’re on a tight budget or able to spend a bit more, or whether you prefer Windows or Mac OS, hopefully, this article has helped you to choose the right laptop for you.

5 thoughts on “Best Laptop for Music Students”

  1. I got what you mean about the best music laptop, thanks for posting. Woah I am happy to find this article before college!

  2. I was trying to figure out what kind of a computer my child would need for her major in music, or if she even really needed to get one. I ran across this website and sent links for the first 3 computers to my IT in-laws. They agreed with your choices! So I selected one of the top three and it didn’t break the bank, which is a huge plus, as we are on a tight budget.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *