So you want the best cheap drawing laptop with pen , but you don't have a lot of cash to spend. That's fair enough. There are a million brands and models out there, and it can get pretty overwhelming trying to find what's going to give you the best value for your money. It doesn't help that the majority of reviews online aren't written by people with a background in art, so they don't know what to look for.
I'm here to help you, with a list of what I consider the best drawing laptops available right now. You don't need to spend an arm and a leg on one of these – they're faster than you might think! Just follow my advice and we'll have you drawing in no time.
No matter which laptop you pick, you will need a pen. I'm not going to go into buying pens in this article, but you can use any USB-capable digital drawing tablet with most laptops. Just make sure they all support the same type of pressure sensitivity!
Screen Size
If you are planning to draw professionally, consider getting a high-resolution display. High resolutions will give the best detail and the clearest, most naturalistic looking images.
I have got some cheap 120hz laptop monitor that I can use with my Wacom tablet, it makes drawing feel so much better.
The optimal size is 15 inches or larger. 13 inches should only be chosen if can't afford anything else. If you're getting a laptop with an SSD the screen resolution should be 1920 x 1080 or above.
CPU/GPU
Graphics processor units (GPUs) are the same thing as graphics cards for PCs, they provide additional graphical power beyond what your laptop's central processing unit (CPU) can handle on its own. Combined with a good CPU, this combination will have enough horsepower to do some very impressive things with your laptop.
For drawing, you don't need one of those high end Intel i7 processors, getting a laptop with an Intel i5 or AMD Ryzen will be more than enough. Since laptops don't have as much as cooling as desktops, I recommend you go with AMD instead of Intel.
A graphics card isn't necessary for digital drawing unless you're doing 3D modeling and animation, but if you want one for gaming, get one that's not too powerful so you won't have to spend all your money on it.
Graphics drivers
If you're buying a new laptop , chances are the graphics drivers will be adequate. However, if you're using an older or less popular brand of tablet and/or pen that may not be up to date and fully supported, then having good graphics drivers is even more important.
Targus drawing laptops for example are very popular but their graphics drivers aren't updated frequently enough. Wacom tech is the best tech on the market right now, you need at least 500mbps transfer speed to run wacom tech properly.
RAM
4GB of RAM is all you need, 8GB would be better if you can afford it. If your laptop only has 2GB of RAM you're going to have major lag in your work, and that's going to make for a very unpleasant experience when all you want to do is draw.
Battery life
Most cheap drawing laptops have poor battery life, from 1 to 4 hours on a full charge. 8+ hours is ideal. If your going to be out and about a lot, you may want a laptop with a removable battery that can swap in a fully charged spare.
Operating System
Which operating system you use will depend on what kind of drawing you plan on doing. If it's digital painting, then Windows 10 is the best choice. If it's more of a hobby or you want to play video games on your drawing laptop, I recommend Linux Ubuntu. You can also run Mac OS X Yosemite with Boot Camp if you want to go with Apple.
Ports
Make sure the ports are USB 3.0 for Wacom tablets. If you get a 4K display, make sure it has DisplayPort so you can drive the extra pixels! Most recent laptops have USB 3.0 ports but if yours doesn't, consider buying a cheap card for your laptop to give it more USB 3.0 ports at least until you can afford an adapter that allows you to use USB 3.0 with the older ports (most cards can be used on its host computer as an adapter).
Price
If you're using Linux, then there's no shortage of cheap laptops that still work pretty well. Windows is a little harder to come by unless you're prepared to go really old and off the beaten path. Macs, on the other hand, are expensive and not really worth it. For these reasons, I recommend that you get a PC laptop with Windows 10 for digital drawing.
Storage
Since most drawing apps and software like Maya or 3ds Max files are big, make sure you get a laptop with an SSD (solid state drive), which generally means higher prices for storage space; but they are much faster than traditional hard drives.
SSD is optimal for drawing because there's no moving parts so your PC is quieter and drawing apps and games perform better. Most laptops now come with SSD; if not, you can buy an adapter to fit a regular hard drive in your laptop or buy a desktop and use your laptop as a drawing tablet monitor (desktop has more power than laptop).
Weight & Portability
If you plan on moving around a lot or want to take your laptop with you when you're drawing, then get a thin and light laptop. Just make sure it's not too thin otherwise the keyboard will be really bad, I recommend going for a laptop that is 3/4 inches thick at largest.
Brand
There are only a few laptop brands that I recommend. Asus, Acer, Toshiba, MSI are the most notable ones. Avoid HP/Dell/Apple laptops if possible since their drivers aren't updated enough for wacom tech.