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Click to EnlargeEditing Laptop Buyer's Guide
Imagine hopping a plane in New York with your raw footage on your laptop and arriving in London with a fully-edited video several hours later. It could happen...
Laptops have largely replaced desktop PCs for most applications, and they're becoming increasingly more popular for video editing as well. The reasons for this are pretty self-evident: they're very affordable, they're portable, they're powerful and they're versatile. But if you're considering a laptop for your video-editing chores, there are a few things you'll want to look for prior to parting with your hard-earned bucks. After all, you want to make sure the laptop you buy is up to the tasks you intend to give it, right?
Muscle & Hustle
Essentially, what this means is power and speed - two qualities you'll want plenty of in any laptop you intend to use for video work. The muscle - or power - end of things comes with a combination of fast CPU speed and lots of RAM to handle the processing chores; you can't have too much of either when it comes to video.
You'll want to get a laptop with a powerful processor, such as an Intel Core Duo, AMD Athlon 64 X2 or AMD Turion X2. The operating systems of choice are Windows XP (still a tried-and-true favorite of many), Windows Vista and Mac OS X (and remember, you can run Windows on a Mac, too).
The RAM complement should be at least 1GB, with 2GB (or more) being even better. If the laptop you're considering comes with only 1GB of RAM, factor in the cost of upgrading the RAM as part of the total purchase price, and be sure to get the fastest RAM chips the machine can handle for the quickest processing response time.
For HD editing you're going to need the extra muscle of higher clock speed and as much memory as possible. And, of course, if you're working in HD or Blu-ray Disc, you'll need all the extra muscle and hustle you can get, since these extended formats will tax even the most robust of systems.
The Ins & Outs
You'll want (and need) an IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port on the machine, so you can connect your camcorder to the laptop for video downloading, as well as for export to tape or transmitting to other DV devices. You'll also want to have several (4 is good, 5 or 6 is better) USB ports for connecting peripherals, such as external hard drives, printers, card readers and such. And, of course, these ports should be USB 2.0-compliant for the fastest throughput. A port for connecting an external monitor is also advantageous (more on this a bit later), as is an SVGA output - this adds to the flexibility of video options you have, especially if you want to display your work on an SVGA output device, such as a TV monitor.
Video Resolution
While most of today's laptops support a maximum video resolution of 1280x800 pixels, some of the higher-end video software packages (e.g., Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium) require 1280x1024 resolution with 32-bit video. If the laptop's built-in screen can't support this resolution, make sure that it can support it if you connect an external monitor; otherwise you won't be able to run the more robust video editing and production applications. As far as the built-in LCD screen goes, a 14" screen is the bare minimum, with 15.4" or even 17" screens being more attractive.
Storage Space & Speed
The hard drive is another area of concern for video editing. You'll want a drive spinning at a speed of 7200rpm or faster, with a minimum of 80GB of storage space. Once again, more is better, with hard drive capacities of 160GB or greater becoming more usual.
