How to Choose a Laptop for Art Students

Whether you are studying art or have a teenager who is taking art classes, getting the right tools is essential.  These days, digital art is becoming more popular, and many art students find that they need a good laptop in order to complete their program successfully. When choosing the best laptop for art students, there are a few key factors that you should look out for including drawing and art creation, reliability and durability, price, web browsing, word processing, and all-round performance.

Touch Screen Laptops

Whether you are looking for laptops from Lenovo for your own art or are buying one for your child or teen, whether or not the laptop has a touch screen might be something worth considering. While you don’t necessarily need a touch screen laptop for art since you can get drawing pads that connect to the computer, they can be useful for making the drawing experience easier and can improve work speed and quality. An alternative to getting a touch screen laptop for art would be to get a regular laptop and connect it to a drawing tablet or an iPad with a screen for work.

Pen Accuracy

If you want to get a laptop with a touch screen for art, then it’s important to check the pen accuracy before you make the purchase. Ideally, you should get a laptop that has realistic pressure sensitivity and minimal lag. This can be difficult to gauge before you buy since accuracy isn’t usually included in the specs and marketing for touch screen laptops. The best thing to do is find out if there is any way that you can try out the laptop before you buy and look at recent reviews to find out more about what other users have to say about it.

Pen Pressure Sensitivity

Most touch screen laptops that are ideal for creating art will come with a pressure sensitive stylus, or you can purchase your own separately. Getting a stylus is essential if you want to be able to use your laptop to work in a way that accurately mimics working with a pen and paper. Pressure sensitivity is usually shown in levels that are typically measured in the range of two to eight thousand. Lower levels are usually ideal for home use, but if you want to use the laptop for professional art, a higher range might be a better option since it offers more drawing control.

Other Laptop Specs

The minimum specs that you will need for your laptop will depend on the software that you want to use on it. For example, if you plan to use Photoshop, which is popular with artists, you should opt for a laptop with a 2Ghz or faster multicore processor, at least 8GB RAM, and a GPU with DirectX12 support and 2GB GPU memory. You should also consider a screen with at least 1280×800 display resolution.

Whether you’re taking art classes or want to help your child with school or extracurricular art classes, getting the right laptop can make a huge difference.