10 Best Laptops for Website Design: Top Picks in 2024

My top pick for website design is the new MacBook Pro M3.

I picked this laptop because it features the brand-new M3 chip which is among the most advanced chips (if not the most advanced one) you can buy with a new GPU architecture and Dynamic Caching. It delivers an exceptional graphics performance for your creative web design projects.

Coupled with a 3K Liquid Retina XDR display delivering 1 billion colors, 600 nits of brightness, and an amazing 120 Hz refresh rate, this is the right laptop for graphic designers and web developers.

My second pick as the best graphic design laptop is the ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo, which features a 4K OLED screen with a secondary 4K touchscreen. The tilting secondary touchscreen with stylus support gives you full control over your creative applications plus it has its built-in optimized apps.

If you want to learn more, here are my top picks for the best laptops for website design.

What is the best laptop for website design?

• Best premium laptop for website design: Apple MacBook Pro
• Best creative laptop for web design: ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo
• Best value-for-money gaming laptop for web design: Lenovo Legion 5 Slim
• Best value-for-money laptop for web design: Apple MacBook Air M2
• Best OLED laptop for web design: Acer Swift 3 OLED
• Best versatile laptop for website design: Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2
• Best business laptop for website design: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon
• Best all-rounder for graphic designers: MSI Creator M16
• Best innovative gaming laptop for web design: ASUS ROG Strix G16
• Best underestimated gaming laptop for web design: Dell G15

1. Apple MacBook Pro M3 (14.2”)

Best premium laptop for website design

The new MacBook Pro comes with the M3 chip that delivers the greatest performance for graphic designers. The new M3 chip employs a new GPU architecture and Dynamic Caching, which translates into greater performance than previous models.

This model features an M3 Pro chip with a 12-core CPU (with 6 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores), an 18-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine, which can easily handle demanding video editing tasks and creative web development projects.

The 3K Liquid Retina XDR display with 600 nits, 1 billion colors, and an impressive 120 Hz refresh rate offers a luxurious working experience. The backlit Magic Keyboard and Touch ID combo provide a great typing experience and support late-night working sessions.

My favorite thing about the MacBook remains the awesome battery life: you can expect up to 18 hours of uninterrupted MacBook joy. While demanding tasks such as video editing, photo editing, 3D modeling, or running resource-intensive software will drop your battery life significantly, this laptop still can last for a full workday.

Finally, Apple improved the connectivity with three Thunderbolt ports, an HDMI port, and even an SDXC card slot. You can now connect your favorite MacBook to an external monitor, camera, and more. The Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 ensure that you will have a fast and reliable wireless connection, too.

Overall, the MacBook Pro M3 is my top pick for graphic designers.

Csaba’s Rating:

• Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Display: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Portability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Battery life: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What I like and dislike about the MacBook Pro M3:

2. ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo (15.6’’)

Best creative laptop for web design

The ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo is one of the best laptops for website design. You might think that the major selling point is the secondary touchscreen, which offers a so much bigger workspace and endless ways for multitasking. There’re, however, many other things under the hood.

This laptop has an excellent, high-resolution screen with OLED technology. It has amazing specs with incredible brightness (550 nits), a wide color gamut supporting 1 billion colors (100% DCI-P3), and a fast response time (0.2 ms). On top of that, it’s a touchscreen with a 93% screen-to-body ratio.

You can use your 4K secondary touchscreen AKA the ScreenPad Plus as a Control Panel, app launcher, or as a touchpad to give you full control over your creative applications. The ScreenPad has its built-in optimized apps and works with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Premiere, After Effects, and more. You can also use it for taking notes or sketching design ideas with the ASUS pen.

At the heart of this laptop, there is a 14-core Intel Core i7-12700H CPU with a 24 MB cache, along with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU with 8 GB video RAM. This combo will handle demanding graphics work such as video editing, photo editing, or running specific software.

All this superpower is packed into a stylish magnesium-aluminum alloy body that features the MIL-STD 810G military standard badge. Thanks to the ASUS ErgoLift hinge and the tilting design, the Zenbook Pro Duo is an ergonomic workstation with an ASUS active stylus pen, a detachable palm rest (both are included in the box), and a great keyboard.

The Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 deliver a great wireless experience, while the various ports offer ample connectivity for your creative workflow. You also get a Dolby Atmos stereo sound system, which is expected at this price range.

Let’s speak about the weaknesses.

The 720 p camera disappoints at this price just as the battery life. Despite the 92-Wh battery, you can expect some 5-6 hours of battery life, but running your secondary screen will finish your batteries earlier.

Overall, the ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo is among the best laptops you can buy for web design and development with battery life being the only bottleneck.

Csaba’s Rating:

• Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Display: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Portability: ⭐⭐⭐
• Battery life: ⭐⭐

What I like and dislike about the ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo:

3. Lenovo Legion 5 Slim (16’’)

Best value-for-money gaming laptop for web design

The Lenovo Legion 5 Slim is a powerhouse for website design and gaming. It’s powered by an octa-core AMD Ryzen 7 processor with sufficient cache size and clock speed, along with a dedicated GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card with 8 GB video memory. Combined with 64 GB of fast DDR5 RAM and 2 TB hard space, this laptop easily finds its way to every creator’s and gamer’s heart.

You get a large screen with a resolution of 2560 X 1600 and with great specs. It not only offers a wide color gamut, but it also comes with a high refresh rate.

The Lenovo Legion 5 Slim has a cool yet esthetic design, plus it comes with a 180-degree hinge to support your creative projects. The 4-zone RGB backlit keyboard will speak to gamers: it not only looks amazing but Lenovo is known for manufacturing great keyboards.

This laptop also has ample connectivity, featuring an array of USB ports, an HDMI port, and even an Ethernet port (R-45). The Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1 provide a great wireless connection.

Overall, I’m impressed by this configuration, design, and power. The only major weakness is the short battery life, which is not surprising for a gaming laptop.

Csaba’s Rating:

• Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Display: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Portability: ⭐⭐⭐
• Battery life: ⭐⭐

What I like and dislike about the Lenovo Legion 5 Slim:

4. Apple MacBook Air M2 (15.3’’)

Best value-for-money laptop for web design

While Apple’s MacBook Air often remains in the shadow of the big brother MacBook Pro, this laptop is a powerhouse for graphic designers and web developers. Equipped with Apple’s M2 chip, the MacBook Air leaves the competition in the dust.

It comes with an 8-core CPU, a 10-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine, which will serve you well with design work like video editing, creating animations, logos, and other visual elements of a website. Apple claims that the M2 chip is up to 35 percent faster compared to the M1 chip in terms of graphics performance. In fact, it can 15x your video editing performance.

The fanless design and the comfortable Magic Keyboard with Touch ID offer a quiet yet smooth working experience.

Let’s speak about the best of the best: screen real estate and wireless real estate.

The Apple MacBook Air M2 features a stunning 15-inch Liquid Retina display with 1 billion colors, incredible brightness (500 nits), and a high screen-to-body ratio. This screen is the queen to web designers and creative professionals with amazing color reproduction, vividness, and responsiveness.

Speaking of laptops, battery life is key for maximum productivity. It’s hard to beat the MacBooks here: with up to 18 hours of battery life, this laptop is an ideal choice for mobile graphic designers and creatives.

All in all, the MacBook Air M2 is one of the best laptops for website design. My only concern is about the 8 GB memory and the compromised connectivity.

Csaba’s Rating:

• Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Display: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Portability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Battery life: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What I like and dislike about the MacBook Air M2:

5. Acer Swift 3 OLED (14’’)

Best OLED laptop for web design

The Acer Swift 3 OLED is a thin, lightweight, and powerful laptop with an excellent 2.8K OLED screen.

It’s powered by a 14-core Intel Core i7-12700H processor, which clocks 4.7 GHz at max speed. Although it lacks a dedicated GeForce graphics card, the Intel Iris Xe Graphics along with 16 GB RAM will do the job for most of your creative work.

Screenwise, you can get your hands on a 2.8K OLED display with a wide color gamut (100% DCI-P3), a moderately high refresh rate (90 Hz), and great brightness (400 nits). This screen is perfectly optimized for design work with its beautiful and accurate colors and responsiveness.

The Killer Wi-Fi 6E, along with Bluetooth 5.2 delivers a smooth wireless experience but you won’t miss wired connectivity, either. The Acer Swift 3 comes with 4 USB ports plus an HDMI port to accommodate the needs of every website designer.

You also get a full HD camera, a fingerprint reader, a great backlit keyboard, and decent battery life. What I miss is a bit more battery capacity and a stronger GPU. Otherwise, the Acer Swift 3 OLED is among the top laptops for web design with its vibrant screen and compactness.

Csaba’s Rating:

• Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Display: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Portability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Battery life: ⭐⭐⭐

What I like and dislike about the Acer Swift 3 OLED:

6. Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 (14.4’’)

Best versatile laptop for website design

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio 2 is a solid laptop for creative professionals and web designers with an amazing battery life, a great screen, and versatile functionality.

Under the hood, you’ll find a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H processor along with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card. Combined with 32 GB blazing-fast DDR5 RAM and 1 TB SSD, you’ll have enough bandwidth for creating visuals, editing videos, and working with graphic design software.

Surface Laptop Studio 2 comes with a 14-inch PixelSense Flow touchscreen and Slim Pen support. The Surface Slim Pen nicely fits and charges under the keyboard. It can last for up to 15 hours on a single charge.

You can use the Studio as a laptop or tablet thanks to the versatile design, touchscreen, and Slim Pen support. The Full HD camera with Windows Hello 2.0 face authentication and the Dolby Atmos speakers will provide a great streaming experience.

This laptop comes with the latest wireless technology: the Wi-Fi 6E and the Bluetooth 5.3 provide a smooth wireless experience.

Unfortunately, you won’t find the Surface Slim Pen in the box, which is said for such a high-priced laptop. Also, I missed an HDMI port. Otherwise, the Surface laptop Studio 2 is a great laptop for web design and creative work.

Csaba’s Rating:

• Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Display: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Portability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Battery life: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

What I like and dislike about the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2:

7. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (14’’)

Best business laptop for website design

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon is a lightweight yet powerful business laptop with some great things under the hood. It’s powered by a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1355U CPU with 10 cores, 12 threads, and a 12 MB cache, which will offer enough power for creative projects. Unfortunately, it has an integrated Intel Iris Xe GPU, which can be a bottleneck for some folks who do intensive video editing or other graphics-intensive tasks. Otherwise, it’s a decent configuration with 32 GB of fast DDR5 memory and 1 TB SSD.

Screenwise, you get a 2.2K screen with a high color gamut (100% sRGB), which is always good for website design.

You won’t miss connectivity, either. This laptop comes with four USB ports of different generations, an HDMI port, and even a Kensington lock slot for maximum security. Equipped with a fingerprint reader, AI-based noise-canceling mics, a Full HD IR webcam with a privacy shutter, and Dolby Voice, you will get your hands on a future-proof and security-driven web design laptop.

If you don’t work with 3D graphics or other graphics-intensive tasks, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is one of the best laptops you can buy for website design and productivity.

Csaba’s Rating:

• Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Display: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Portability: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Battery life: ⭐⭐⭐

What I like and dislike about the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon:

8. MSI Creator M16 (16’’)

Best all-rounder for graphic designers

The MSI Creator M16 is one of the best laptops for website design with one caveat: battery life.

It features a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 series processor along with a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card. Coupled with 32 GB of RAM, you can rest assured that this laptop can handle the most demanding web development work, like rendering, photo editing, 3D graphics, and other visually demanding tasks.

Screenwise, you get a 16-inch QHD display with a 90% display ratio and a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut, which will give you accurate color reproduction for visual tasks. The 16:10 aspect ratio gives you 11% more extra room for your creative work than a 16:9 display would do. This becomes handy in Adobe applications.

Another strong point is the connectivity. This laptop has all the ports you will ever need as a graphic designer with multiple USB ports and an HDMI port. It even features an Ethernet port for fast and secure internet connection while the Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 bring great wireless experience to the table.

The MSI creator offers military-standard durability with a 180-degree hinge and a fingerprint reader for easy and secure logins.

Unfortunately, the 3-cell 53 Wh battery cannot support this powerhouse. You can expect a few hours of battery life only. If you’re good with a charging cable, however, the MSI Creator is an excellent laptop for web design.

Csaba’s Rating:

• Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Display: ⭐⭐⭐
• Portability: ⭐⭐⭐
• Battery life: ⭐⭐

What I like and dislike about the MSI Creator M16:

9. ASUS ROG Strix G16 (16”)

Best innovative gaming laptop for web design

The ASUS ROG Strix G16 is a well-established gaming laptop with great performance, thermal capabilities, and screen. Power is handled by a 14-core Intel Core i7-13650HX CPU and a GeForce RTX 4060 GPU.

The intelligent cooling system with liquid metal and Tri-Fan technology ensures that this laptop doesn’t get too warm under demanding tasks such as gaming or video editing. The NVIDIA Advanced Optimus automatically switches between GPU modes based on the task to optimize performance.

This laptop has a decent screen with a wide color gamut (100% sRGB), a high refresh rate (165 Hz), and an impressive screen-to-body ratio. This is an excellent setup for not only gamers but graphic designers.

Speaking of a gaming laptop, you won’t miss connectivity. There’re plenty of ports from USB-A to USB-C to Ethernet and HDMI. This model comes with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 for wireless connection.

What I missed was a bit more screen real estate (more pixel density), a better webcam, and more battery life.

Overall, the ASUS Rog Strix G16 is a great choice for website design if you’re looking for power and innovations.

Csaba’s Rating:

• Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Display: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Portability: ⭐⭐⭐
• Battery life: ⭐⭐⭐

What I like and dislike about ASUS ROG Strix G16:

10. Dell G15 (15.6‘’)

Best underestimated gaming laptop for web design

The Dell G15 is a highly underestimated gaming laptop with great capabilities for web designers. It has a retro design that encapsulates real power.

It’s powered by a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13650Hx processor with 14 cores, 20 threads, and a 24 MB cache, which clocks 4.9 GHz at max speed. Graphics are handled by an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU with 8 GB GDDR6 video RAM. This pure power comes with 16 GB of fast DDR5 memory and 1 TB of fast SSD storage that provides enough bandwidth for graphic design and web development projects.

The screen is one of the major selling points of this laptop computer. Dell G15 features a 15-inch Full HD panel with a 100% sRGB color gamut, a 165 Hz refresh rate, and a 3 ms response time. These specs will ring bells not only to gamers but also to graphic designers. Although the screen could have deserved a higher resolution, the great color accuracy and refresh rate will highly compensate for this shortcoming.

Speaking of a gaming laptop, this computer comes with an improved thermal design and a superior keyboard. The four-zone backlit keyboard with the Alienware Command Center brings everything to your fingerprints to quickly control overclocking, lighting, and so much more.

As you can expect from a gaming laptop, you get an array of ports from USB-A to USB-C to Ethernet and HDMI, while the Intel Wi-Fi 6 ensures a fast wireless experience.

As so often with gaming laptops, you have to sacrifice weight, battery life, and the webcam for power. Although a gaming laptop, the Dell G15 is certainly among the best laptops for website design with an impressive performance, great graphics capability, colorful screen, and ample connectivity.

Csaba’s Rating:

• Performance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Display: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
• Portability: ⭐⭐⭐
• Battery life: ⭐⭐⭐

What I like and dislike about Dell G15:

Best laptops for website design: FAQ

1. Are MacBooks better for website design than Windows laptops?

MacBooks often climb to the top of the lists, and not without a reason. The MacOS offers an easy-to-use yet robust and secure platform with powerful applications. MacBooks feature a solid build quality along with amazing Liquid Retina screens, excellent performance, and long battery life. Many Windows laptops, however, can offer comparable performance and specs. I recommend that you choose your laptop based on the platform (operating system) by considering compatibility with your favorite graphic design software (and other applications) and your personal preferences. MacBooks are also great for working seamlessly together with your Apple devices, plus they are easy to use, keep clean, and up to date.

2. Do I need a dedicated graphics card for web design?

Most integrated GPUs can handle basic graphic tasks such as creating visuals. A dedicated graphics card becomes important when you are engaging in more demanding graphics work. Video editing, creating animations, 3D modeling, or even photo editing can benefit from discrete graphics. And that’s why a gaming laptop or other creative laptops can suit a web designer.

3. How much RAM do I need for running web design applications?

Again, it all depends on your graphics work. 16 GB of RAM is a safe bet for multitasking and working with demanding software. However, a great CPU (and oftentimes a dedicated GPU) is equally important for your creative work. Having 32 GB of memory can be an overkill if you miss a powerful enough CPU to run your web design applications. It’s also a good idea to future-proof your laptop with enough memory and possibly get the latest DDR5 RAM.

4. What’s the ideal screen size for web design work?

It all depends on your personal preferences. If you work with an external monitor, you simply don’t need the screen real estate from your creative laptop. If you travel a lot or you want to use your laptop on the go, you might go for a 13 or 14-inch model. If you want an all-rounder, probably a 14 or 15-inch laptop is the sweet spot between portability and screen space. If you prefer a larger screen and don’t mind the extra heaviness, you can get a 16 or 17-inch laptop. Although screen size matters, the screen resolution, color accuracy, and response times are equally important to gain a great user experience.

To read more about the best laptops for increasing your productivity, check out my other guides:

• 10 Best Laptops for Taking Notes (with Note-taking Tips)
• 10 Best Budget Laptops for Video Editing in 2023
• 10 Best Budget Laptops for Coding & Programming (2023)

Best laptops for website design compared

Cover photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash