When it comes to DJing, there is no better equipment than a laptop. A computer is what you use for your music production and DJing, so you must get a good one.
But, due to the plethora of options in the market, it's hard to get the best from the rest. The laptop is a technical thing, so if you make a mistake, it's a mess and a big investment will be lost, so choosing the best laptop for DJing is important.
To ease it for you, we have selected some of the top models that will help you kick-start your career. More so, there are some heavy-budget laptops for some master players.
So, without wasting time, let’s get started!
How We Choose The Best Laptop For DJing for You
Our product selection criterion is a bit complex. Starting, we select a product and start researching it. After that, we look out its benchmarks, and all in all, we check out the customer reviews.
This way, the process moves to our thought process. There, we pick up to 20 products and then filter them according to the ratings and benchmarks plus performance.
If a laptop is performing well, we list it at the top, and if there’s a clash between two laptops like Apple M1 Air or Acer Swift 3, we compare them side-by-side. We prioritize a product that wins there and name it our top pick.
We hope you find your next favorite thing from the list below! We selected each product with care and thought. Some may have been sent to us for review but all opinions in this article are ours- we know that's why Techi-Becky Reviews was created so readers could get an honest opinion on anything they were curious about online without having worry if it would be negative or not helpful towards their needs because every single piece of content submitted goes through rigorous scrutiny by professional editors who only publish items backed up by research evidence when possible.FYI — Techi-Becky Reviews may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page if you decide to buy something (that's how we stay in business) Thanks for reading!!!
Becky’s Choice:
The latest generation MacBook Pro—which uses Apple’s new M1 Pro or M1 Max chips (depending on how you spec up the machine when purchasing)—offers a noticeable boost in performance compared to earlier models.
Although you could certainly get by with less power, this is far more than a DJ would ever need. And the price reflects that—it starts at around $2,000/£1,900.
However, if you want a machine that will do everything for you—from mixing music to creating visuals that enhance your performances—this could be the right choice.
More so, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M1 Max is also packed with other benefits, including an increased number of ports—there are three Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports along with separate HDMI and SDXC card slots. Plus, even the base model’s SSD storage can be expanded all the way up to 8TB.
Techi- FunFacts
The M1 Pro and the Pro Max feature processors that are up to 70 percent faster than those in the previous model, Apple's M1.
The M1 Pro's GPU is up to twice as fast as the previous model and supports a memory bandwidth of 200GB/s. The M1 Max has four times faster graphics performance than its predecessor, reaching 400GB/s in some benchmarks.
All in all, it contains Liquid Retina XDR displays—miniature LED screens that are capable of sustaining up to 1,000 nits brightness and can reach peak values as high as 1,600 nits. Additionally, the screen's contrast ratio is a whopping one-million:1.
The 14-inch MacBook Pro has a resolution of 3024 by 1964 pixels and the 16-inch model has a resolution of 3456 by 2134.
The M1 Pro and M1 Max chips, which are more energy-efficient than previous generations of processors, offers a much-improved battery life. The 14-inch model lasts for up to 17 hours when DJing, and producing beats and up to 11 hours while surfing the web.
Ultimately, the 14-inch MacBook Pro is thinner than ever, with narrower bezels on the top and sides, it will fit on a DJ desk corner easily. Also, it has a notch at the top for the camera. Its keyboard is black instead of white. And it has more room for your fingers to spread out when you're typing or using multitouch gestures like pinch-to-zoom and rotate.
And there are ports (or rather, "Thunderbolt 3 USB Type C") at both ends so that no matter which way you plug stuff in — well, okay probably mostly if people still use traditional plugs—it'll work just fine.
Becky’s Choice:
The M1 MacBook Air is a sleek and elegant computer that has Apple's trademark simple design.
The design of the new machine has not changed significantly since its predecessor, so you get a light laptop with tapered edges that looks as good as almost any other notebook PC on the market.
So far, so good—but the real test is how it performs in music production. To find out, we used a benchmarking tool called Logic Benchmark that's available on Music-Prod (to download it for yourself). And, after the test, Becky found that it's a capable machine and the best laptop for DJing.
Techi- FunFacts:
The new Apple M1 Air comes with an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, and 16-core neural engine. It can be configured with up to 16GB RAM, and up to 2TB SSD storage; it also has a 13.3" Retina Display which works in tandem with True Tone technology.
Furthermore, the dimensions of the MacBook Air (M1, 2020)—are 0.16–0.63 x 11.97 x 8.36 inches (0.41–1.61×30). inch and weight of 2 pounds—are virtually identical to those of both 2019 models, which is marginally lighter at 1 pound 12 ounces; it's also very close in every way to the 2018 edition that was just 0 .03 lbs heavier than today’s machine…
Moreover, the MacBook Air’s 13.3-inch display boasts a Retina resolution of 2560 x 1600 and 400 nits of brightness—much like its predecessors.
True Tone is on, and its colors are accurate, but the display can't compare with the workhorse MacBook Pro or iPad Pro—its brightness isn’t as strong. Yet this screen still looks great: it's just not quite as bright and vibrant
All in all, it’s a suitable workhorse when you want to edit audio or video files on the go.
Becky’s Choice:
The Razer Blade 13 laptop is powerful enough to run DJ software, making it an excellent choice for aspiring DJs.
The laptop features an Intel Core i7-8550U processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q graphics card, giving it a lot of power for DJs.
Also, this DJs machine features 16 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD, giving it plenty of memory and storage. The 15.6″ display has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, which is ideal for DJing because it gives you plenty of room to work with when mixing in software like Serato DJ Pro or Virtual DJ.
All in all, it comes with a convenient design, making it easy to carry around parties and clubs without hassle. However, the frequent overheating issues during our long-term tests made this one less of an option for us. But, you can get a cooling pad to overcome this issue.
Techi- FunFacts:
The Razer Blade Stealth 13 has a clean, polished design with green accents on its USB-A ports and smooth lines for comfortable handling. The machine’s thin profile makes it feel more like a tablet than other machines, even when closed.
In fact, its a perfect companion for producing music and playing multiple tracks with highs and lows—thanks to its 120Hz screen, which displays high frame rates beautifully!
The Razer Blade Stealth 13 comes in a number of configurations, but ours has an Intel i7-1165G7 CPU and 16GB of RAM. The 512GB SSD drive is also included; graphics power on this model comes from Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1650 Ti.
Aside from this, it is unique among gaming laptops: it has two USB-C ports and can charge your laptop using Thunderbolt 4 technology. It ensures you are always ready to deliver top-notch performance.
To extend the Razer Blade's graphics capabilities, an external GPU can be connected by plugging it into any of its USB-C ports. Just make sure to run a cable from that port to your monitor and you’ll have eGPU capabilities!
Becky’s Choice:
Aluminum casing, great keyboard, superb touchpad — the laptop's design is plain lovely. The screen may not be as vibrant or sharp as some other models on the market, but most people will notice its high brightness and resolution over color quality any day.
The Surface Laptop 4 is a gorgeous laptop that’s simple and elegant. It's lightweight, portable, and great for everyday use—you can rely on it to power through all your DJing tasks!
Its high-quality display and comfortable keyboard make the most boring tasks a breeze to accomplish. Aside from this, these machines come with Intel or AMD chips and 8GB of RAM, giving you all the power you need to run major DJ software.
Your main concern when shopping for a laptop is its hard drive space—the cheaper models have only 128 gigabytes of storage, which will fill up quickly with music files.
As a universal fact, Microsoft’s devices have solid construction, a stylish design, and are pleasingly lightweight. Although the I/O options aren't extensive (there are both USB-C and USB-A ports here), there's also a separate Surface Connect port for added versatility.
Techi- FunFacts:
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 4 can handle pretty much anything you’d throw at it in the course of an average workday.
Our review unit’s 16GB of RAM and 11th Gen Intel i7 CPU gave it enough power to handle as many basic tasks as we could throw at it.
Surprisingly, you can play games on it, edit videos and photos, create music, and even just surf the web. The only thing we couldn’t do is run a full-blown virtual machine (VM). But then again, this isn’t aimed at developers or power users anyway; it’s simply an all-around solid laptop for everyday tasks.
Down the road, the Surface Laptop 4 is a powerful piece of equipment that can handle any music editing job you throw at it. We were able to run the latest version of Ableton Live with no problems at all.
And if you need some extra power for video editing, there’s always Lightworks. This is a laptop that can handle just about anything you throw at it and still have enough juice left over for gaming.
This time around Microsoft claims the AMD-equipped 13.5 Surface Laptop 4 can last up to 19 hours on a charge, while the Intel variant is advertised as lasting up to 17 hours.
Becky’s Choice
Acer's ultrabook, which is often referred to as a Windows alternative to the MacBook Air, can be compared fairly with Apple's early models (pre-M1). Like Apple’s portable PCs and laptops, these have impressive hardware specs that belie their small size.
The most significant difference lies in price – the Swift 3 offers a variety of configurations with 11th generation Intel chips, between 8GB and 16GB RAM, and upwards of 256 gigabytes of memory storage.
More so, the inclusion of a varied mix of ports—USB-C/Thunderbolt 4, USB 3, and HDMI—makes the Surface Book 2 more versatile than Apple's new MacBook Pro.
While the display and sound quality of this machine are not as nice as those you would find on an Apple computer, they will not hinder your performance in any way while performing on stage.
Techi- FunFacts:
Ultimately, the Swift 3 feels well-constructed, and the display panel is firmly attached to the keyboard deck. Unlike Asus’ Vivobook line or lower-end Dell Inspiron laptops, it does not feel flimsy in any way when you handle it roughly.
The processor is a 5th-generation AMD Ryzen 5, with six cores and twelve threads The Swift 3's high benchmark scores are due to its superior processing power: it has six cores, compared with the standard two or three offered by most other laptops.
The Swift 3 boasts 8GB of DDR4 RAM, which worked well for tasks like having multiple Chrome tabs open with media playing in the Spotify app and preparing a track in 320KBs in most music production software.
Under the hoodÇ, it also sports Radeon Vega 7 integrated graphics that won’t be able to run AAA titles at max settings. However, you will get decent frame rates in most games. And, if a computer is best at gaming, it means it can handle other computing tasks as well.
The Swift 3 will last about eleven hours in our battery test. That's an hour-and-a-half shy of what Acer claims it can go for, but you should still be able to use a laptop like this without worrying too much about running out of juice while on the road or at home and away from chargers.
The Best Laptop for DJing Buying Guide:
CPU:
The processor of the laptop matters for DJing. A fast processor will make your music sound good and you won’t experience any lag between effects, samples, or beats.
Intel i7 is the best processor for DJing because it has 8 cores which means that all 8 cores can be used at any time during processing to make sure that everything runs smoothly.
It also has hyperthreading technology which means that each core can have 2 threads running at once instead of just one thread (like Intel i5) or none at all (like Intel Pentium). This allows more power from this chip so it will run faster than its competitors when doing things like loading songs onto USB drives etcetera.
Intel i5 is another great option because it has 4 cores but only uses half as much power per clock cycle as compared with an equivalent model made by AMD/AMD+.
However, if you want higher performance than what's offered by these two processors then go with the AMD Ryzen Threadripper series which comes in an 8-core variant too!
High-Resolution Display:
The best laptop for DJing can have a screen that's 1080p or higher, which means it has 1920x1080 pixels. That's the standard resolution for most laptops, but you can also get professional models with 4K (3840x2160) pixels and up to 8K (7680x4320).
SD beats HDD any day.
SSD is faster than HDD and is much more reliable than HDD. It also has a smaller footprint than an HDD and therefore takes up less space on your desk or in your bag.
But there's more: SSDs are more expensive than HDDs (though prices have come down recently), but also more durable and power efficient.
For example, you can expect an 8GB RAM laptop with a 256GB SSD drive to last about 10 years before going bad on you (if you take good care of it).
Get an audio interface if you want to make music and DJ together.
If you want to make music and DJ together, an audio interface is a must.
An audio interface connects your audio equipment to your laptop so that you can play live instruments, vocals, and more. It also allows for external speakers or headphones for the sound quality of both the performance and what's being played back on stage (or in this case: turntables) to be as good as possible at any given moment.
If there's one thing that sets DJing apart from other forms of entertainment like playing video games or watching movies or TV shows it's that it requires two people. One who controls what happens on stage while another person uses their set-up which involves mixing different sounds into something new altogether!
Reliable Battery Life:
If you're going to be traveling with your laptop, then the battery life is important. You'll want to be able to get through a full day without having to plug it in every time you sit down at your desk.
If you're using the computer for more than an hour at a time, then it's also important that the battery can last through multiple sessions without needing recharging.
Choose a portable and lightweight device, but not thin ones:
You should avoid getting a laptop that is too thick or heavy because they are both bad for your health while you’re on the road.
While it might seem counterintuitive to choose a thinner device over something heavier, there are several reasons why this may be true. For example: if the battery inside your laptop breaks down during production time or when traveling from venue to venue – there will be no way of charging it up again!
And if your device gets stolen by someone else at nightclub – does anyone really want their music locked away until Monday morning? By choosing lightweight laptops instead of bulky ones (like my own), I can make sure that my equipment doesn't get damaged during filming sessions or gigs at clubs across town!
Best Laptops For DJing- FAQs
Why do you need a laptop to DJ?
A laptop is very useful for DJs. This is because it allows you to have all your music files on one device, which makes it easier for you to access them when you need them.
It also means that you can connect your laptop with your turntables and mixer so that you can use them as well.
How much RAM do I need for a DJ laptop?
You can use up to 16 GB of RAM in your laptop, but it's best to stick with at least 8 GB of RAM.
The main reason for this is that you can often find cheaper laptops with less RAM than the ones with more. If you buy a $300 laptop, chances are it will have 4 GB or less of RAM. If you buy one that costs $800, it's likely to have 8 GB or more.
You also need enough RAM if you want your computer to multitask smoothly and run multiple apps at once.
Is i5 or i7 Better for Music Production?
The best way to determine which CPU you should use is by looking at the average speed of your current setup. If your system is only able to handle a single core at 2GHz, then upgrading to an i5 will offer very little benefit.
If you have a system that can handle multiple cores at 3GHz, then an i7 may be a better option. The more cores used, the more time each core has to work on something else, so your overall performance will increase.
Best Laptop for DJing for You
DJing is a great way to have fun and make some money on the side. But, you need the right equipment to do it well. We’ve shown you the best laptop for DJing, so now it’s time to get shopping! Remember, this computer will be your workhorse, so make sure to choose one that fits your budget and needs. Thanks for reading, and happy mixing! Don't forget to tap the GREEN button to make your selection.
Thanks for Techin-In
Becky.
