Laptop for Writers in 2024
The main characteristics to look for in a laptop for a writer is its typing comfort and battery life. With a good keyboard, you can type for long hours and with long battery life, you can write anywhere you want and a lightweight laptop to travel and work on the go like drafting a book while enjoying the beach view.
Design: Always prefer a light weight laptop even if you work mainly indoors. A thin and travel friendly design is good for both indoors and outdoors.
Display: Having a good display is a must for writers. As you constantly stare at the laptop screen, having a minimum full HD LED display is recommended. If you want the best quality display, go for Macbook Air models as they are the best laptops for writers in my opinion.
Processor: A writer laptop doesn't need much performance, any laptop with Intel i3, i5 or i7, AMD Ryzen 5 or above will give better performance. Even refurbished writer laptops with at least i5 processor are powerful enough for writing purposes.
Even writing softwares like Scrivener doesn't need much performance. But having a powerful processor will have an advantage while opening applications, opening many browser pages while researching and for multi tasking purposes.
If you want to use a laptop for both writing and heavy usage, go for lightweight gaming laptops.
RAM: 8GB of RAM is adequate for current applications. Even when browsing with many opened tabs, running MS Office or similar application for drafting etc, 8 GB is sufficient.
Storage: Even 256GB is sufficient for writers but having at least 512 GB is advisable. Only buy a laptop with an SSD because sometimes people only see the storage capacity and not the storage type.
Graphics: There is no need for any graphic cards, integrated GPU is more than enough for display purposes. If you want a laptop for writing and other purposes like gaming, video editing, mobile app development etc, having an external graphics card is needed like in gaming laptops.
Ports: Having USB ports with a HDMI port is a good combination for a writer laptop because you can use it with an external monitor whenever needed. Having minimal ports like we see in Apple MacBook Air is also sufficient but an external hub is needed..
Battery Life: This is the main spec to consider while buying even a cheap writer laptop. A laptop which gives a minimum of 8 Hours of battery power is recommended.
Lets see my few recommendations for writing laptops.
This is the best laptop for a writer. A thin model with very long battery life. The model which I mentioned here is a starting model with 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display, Apple's M3 Chip which can handle even the heaviest tasks easily, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage. The best thing is that this model has a backlit keyboard.
If you want to invest in buying good tech for writing, you should definitely buy the Apple MacBook Air model. Even older generation models are better but stick with models above 2020.
This is a cheap laptop for a writer. A new model in ASUS Vivobook Go series which is packed with features suitable for budget oriented writers. This is not a lightweight laptop and can be used as an everyday laptop.
This laptop is under $500(at the time of writing this post) features 15.6 Inch FHD 60Hz NanoEdge display, AMD Ryzen 3 7320U Processor, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD storage and the best part is that this model comes with fast charging, charges 60% in 49 Minutes, very durable with Military grade standards and comes with an ASUS ErgoSense keyboard for better typing.
This is for people who don't use storage much other than saving written documents. If you have budget to extend budget and wanting to buy this model, tt is advisable to buy ASUS Vivobook Go (E1504FA-AS54) model as it comes with 512GB of storage. Buy the 512GB model only if you like this model's features. If not, go with the laptop mentioned below.
This is an everyday laptop for writers. Best value for money and have decent specifications which is suitable for most of the normal users. This is not a lightweight laptop.
A budget friendly and powerful laptop for a writer which features a 15.6 Inch Full HD display, AMD Ryzen 5 5500U processor, 8GB DDR4 RAM and 512GB SSD storage. Best part is it gives around 10 Hours of battery life but in general usage, we can expect around 7 to 8 hours of battery life.
Other features to consider are fast charging (rapid charge), USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports and an awesome design.
Conclusion
So, to choose a writer laptop, one should keep focus on battery life for a single charge, light weight and has to have at least 8 GB RAM. Other specs are personal preference. Above mentioned laptops are a few models which are budget friendly(at the time of writing this post) and best suitable for writers.