The 5 Best Laptops for Video Editing and Gaming Under 1000
Whether you’re a professional video editor or a passionate gamer, you need a laptop that can keep up with your demands. But with so many options on the market, it can be hard to know where to start your search. Here are the five best laptops for video editing and gaming under 1000.
A laptop under $1,000 that’s great for video editing and gaming sounds too good to be true, but it’s not.
This blog post showcases different top name brands of gaming laptops with different features. Let’s get started.
1. Lenovo Legion 5 Gaming Laptop
Armed with powerful hardware that can handle both video editing and any video game you throw at it.
The Lenovo Legion 5 comes with a high-performance AMD Ryzen 7 5800H processor as well as 16GBs of RAM. This alone gives your laptop the power multitask many programs at once as well as make your video editing rendering be as smooth as possible.
On the gaming side, this laptop comes with a GeForce RTX 3050Ti allowing you to run just about any game of your choosing on the highest settings. without sacrificing performance and frames.
This laptop has a whole stack of neat features such as coming with Windows 11 Home edition installed, giving you access to the latest OS software.
It has an RGB backlit keyboard which you can customize to your liking.
This laptop also has a pair of speakers, if you don’t feel like using any gaming headsets.
Also comes with a built-in webcam with a shutter for privacy. You can use the webcam for Discord and Zoom meetings, as well as recording yourself if you want to create and edit your own YouTube videos and streams.
Overall, this laptop has everything you need to get started with gaming and video editing. The only downside is the small storage of 512GB, any gamer and video editor knows you’re going to need a lot more storage than that overtime.
Consider purchasing external storage for extra games and another place to save and backup your video projects.
Pros:
- Amazing specs make this laptop great for video editing and gaming
- Comes with many extra features like Windows 11, webcam, RGB keyboard, and more
- Includes a free 3-month trial of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, giving you access to hundreds of games
Cons:
- Limited storage, might have to purchase external storage!
2. GIGABYTE G5 KD
This particular laptop just barely meets our criteria of being under $1000. If the price is a bit too much there is a cheaper model instead that you buy.
Click this link to compare the two laptops.
This the same model gaming laptop, which is why it doesn’t get its own section in this blog post. It is still worth mentioning, that having options is always a good thing.
The main difference between these two laptops is their graphical capabilities. The one we just linked comes with an RTX 3050 while the laptop we linked originally has an RTX 3060.
The difference between these two GPUs is quite significant, with the 3060 giving you a much higher performance than the 3050.
That being said, both laptops will be a solid option for gaming and video editing.
The GIGABYTE laptop comes with an Intel Core i5 processor, a solid processor that will handle any task you send its way.
Other than this difference the specs are mostly the same as the previous laptop. In other words, you can’t go wrong.
Pros:
- Two different models to choose from, both solid for gaming laptops and video editing
- Comes with 16GBs of RAM with additional space for upgrades
- Has added cooling technology
Cons:
- Limited storage
- Keyboard isn’t RGB
- Poor battery life when not connected to an outlet
3. Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop
Another laptop that just barely makes our budget threshold of 1000 dollars. The Acer Nitro has 3 different customization options, but we’re going to recommend the exact one we linked.
The reason for that is simple, it has what the previous laptops we have listed lack: storage.
This laptop has 1TB (1000GBs) of storage, that’s almost double the storage capacity of the previous laptops.
Gamers and Video editors can value the storage space of a laptop, they know that while even 1TB of storage might seem like a lot, it can quickly be filled up.
Other than the nice storage this laptop features an Intel Core i5 processor, RTX 3050, a 144Hz 1080p display, 16GBs of RAM, and Acer’s CoolBoost technology.
This technology adjusts your fan speed when your laptop is under heavy pressure to keep the temperatures nice and cool.
Overall, we have a great gaming laptop that can also take on your video editing projects without any issues.
Pros:
- Almost 2x the storage of the previous laptops
- Acer CoolBoost technology automatically adjusts fan speeds to keep your system cool
- Comes with extra accessories like a mousepad, USB extensions, and more
- Specs-wise, it is similar to the other laptops, giving you the same power for gaming and editing
Cons:
- No RGB keyboard
4. ASUS TUF VR Ready Gaming Laptop
Just so we’re on the same page, all the laptops listed here are all good if you intend to use VR. It just so happens that “VR Ready Gaming” was part of this laptop’s title.
That being said, we have another laptop that just barely makes the mark of being under 1000 dollars. The ASUS TUF gaming laptop (is it supposed to be like Ford tough?) comes with a powerful version of the Intel Core i5 processor.
Giving it lightning speeds across 12 threads for maximum multitasking performance. Also comes with a GeForce RTX 3050 to run any game you want.
To enhance your viewing experience the monitor has a 144Hz, did we mention that this will give you an advantage when it comes to gaming?
Also has 16GBs of RAM, but unfortunately suffers from limited storage yet again.
Since it is a “VR Ready” gaming laptop, it does come with a DisplayPort and few others for plugging all your external devices.
Overall, while the power of this laptop is very impressive for the price range, we have yet another laptop limited by its storage.
Pros:
- Powerful specs make it great for gaming and video editing
- Comes with a DisplayPort for VR headsets
- Can be upgraded to have much more RAM and store (at an increased cost of course)
Cons:
- Limited storage space
5. MSI GF63 Premium Gaming Laptop
Topping off our list is a “premium” gaming laptop from MSI, we’re not quite sure what makes this laptop “premium”.
It has similar specs to previous laptops except for the GPU, it uses a NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1650, an older GPU model, but it’s still solid. Just don’t expect to run something like Elden Ring at the highest settings.
If you plan on playing something like Fortnite this can handle that and most popular games with great performance and quality.
It does come with a 1TB SSD for plenty of storage, you can pick from a wide array of RAM and storage options when checking out the store page.
Just be aware of the price change and availability when doing so, for example, 32GBs of RAM and 2TBs of storage put the price well over 1000 dollars.
Oh, as an added bonus it does come with a microfiber cloth to keep your monitor clean. Nice bonus I guess.
Pros:
- Lots of customization options for storage and RAM
- Can run the most popular games and video editing software
- Comes with a free cloth for cleaning! (yay?)
- Can be upgraded to Windows 11
Cons:
- Not sure what makes it “premium”
- GPU is a lot weaker compared to other options
FAQ:
1. Why do so many laptops have limited storage?
Unfortunately, that is just how laptops in general are designed. At this price range, companies have to skimp somewhere and many choose to do so with the storage.
Fortunately, external storage is cheap and plentiful. Check out this external storage by Seagate.
Seagate Portable 1TB External Hard Drive
If you want a laptop that doesn’t skimp on any of its parts you will have to look at increasing your budget laptop budget. Laptops around the 1500 or even 2000 dollar price range don’t fall short in any aspect usually.
2. Why use a Gaming Laptop for Video Editing?
Video editing software in general uses a lot of PC resources, especially when rendering your final product. Gaming laptops in general tend to have high performance when it comes to multitasking and handling heavy applications.
That is because gaming usually uses a PC’s resources heavily, and video editing is the same. This is why a good gaming laptop can be used as a laptop for editing.
3. Why use a Laptop for both Video Games and Editing?
YouTube and Twitch are very popular platforms that feature video game content. Specifically, if you decide you want to start a gaming-related YouTube channel, you’ll want a laptop that can do both easily.
This also means the laptop can be great for streaming if you were interested in making that type of content as well.
4. Would a Desktop be Better Than a Laptop?
When it comes to gaming and video editing a desktop would be better. This is because laptops have a limited battery life, especially when putting them under heavy pressure from gaming, video editing, or both.
Even a store page that claims that a laptop has a long life is misleading, many users will be surprised how fast a laptop’s battery can drain when doing heavy tasks for only a few hours.
But we also understand that not every can have the luxury of a desktop when they are on the move a lot. Perhaps you travel a lot or just can’t be in one place for too, that’s why having laptops like these can be important.
5. If you Had to Choose a Laptop from this List Which One Would You Pick?
If I was in the market for laptop like this, I would go either with the:
Lenovo Legion 5 for its decent specs and amazing processor. To supplement its lack of storage I would consider buying an external hard drive. A Seagate 1TB external hard drive would be more than enough.
If you don’t like the idea of having to buy a separate storage unit, then I would go for the Acer Nitro 5 since it comes with a 1TB hard drive.
6. Why do Games and Video Editors Need a lot of Storage Space?
If you are new to both gaming or video editing or both then you will learn quickly how fast you can use up your storage.
Video games have been increasing in size over the years, with games like Warzone taking up almost 100GBs already. For those of you that settle with the 512GB SSDs in these laptops that’s already almost 1/5 of your storage taken by one game.
Elden Ring is yet another popular game that will take up 50GB of space.
Games like Skyrim or Fallout, while not too big on their own have massive modding communities and that can add up fast if you like to use a ton of different mods.
You can see that it’s not hard to easily use up your laptop’s storage rather quickly.
Combine this with the fact that you want to video edit and that storage space is looking pretty small. Video editing takes considerably less storage than gaming, however it adds up as you edit more videos over time.
It’s not uncommon for video editors to work on several projects at once, and to keep plenty of background footage (B-Roll). While one or two video projects won’t overload your hard drive, but what happens later down the line when you have 10, 20, or even 30 videos you want to work with. And all the b-roll and extra footage associated with those videos.
That is why storage space is important for both gamers and video editors alike.
Conclusion: The Best Laptops for Gaming and Video Editing Under 1000
Well, we hope that this blog post was informative in some way about the power and types of laptops you can purchase for this price range.
You might have noticed we commented that many of these laptops are very similar to each and have the same specs, this is simply what is available at this price range.
If you were disappointed with the lack of power and storage, consider expanding your budget to 1500 or even 2000 for better laptop options.
We also have more blog posts with even more laptop recommendations as well as other electronics like headphones and keyboards. If you are interested in reading, check them out below.
Finally, thanks for reading, we appreciate your time. If you have any questions, feel like we forgot something, or just want to say Hi, feel free to leave a comment down below.
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