The 6 Best 4K Laptops – Visual Clarity, Photo And Movie Editing

Since 4K-resolution screens became a thing on Notebooks in 2014, their worth was up for discussion. At the time there, was not much advantage outside picture editing, with very little 4K content accessible and applications that could not scale correctly for a higher resolution.

And then there were also the more significant hardware requirements to play video or games in 4K, so that you were not just paying to get a great display, but for pricier parts too.

A lot of this is different now, as costs have been reduced, and content can be found on all manner of streaming sites; elsewhere support has also been enhanced.

Nonetheless, there are lots of skeptics out there who are not buying into having more pixels on a notebook. If you are one of these people, we have put together a list of the best 4K laptops and why you may want to move to 4K with your next purchase (and one important factor you may want to consider too).

There are far more games that support premium 4K play today than there were in 2014. Even though you'll still require a powerful laptop to play them quickly at the correct resolution, what you will get is a fantastic, immersive viewing experience.

Are you going to miss out on anything by playing full HD? More than likely no, but HD won’t create those amazingly sharp details that you get while playing on your best 4K laptop.

I've yet to encounter a present 4K notebook that didn't make regular tasks have an extra sheen to them. All those additional pixels make for flatter, smoother text and images.

Additionally, because most essential programs' ports can scale nowadays without coming out bad, you can really appreciate having the higher resolution. On more prominent notebook displays, the higher resolution also means more space for applications’ user interfaces.

Authentic color support is critical for retouching and using a 4K screen for picture editing is essential for analyzing the beautiful details of high-resolution pictures.

But while a 4K resolution is a beginning point, you're going to want to start looking for the screen's pixel density: The higher it is, the greater detail you will be afforded when editing.

Back in 2014, many customers did not have access to a camera powerful enough to take advantage of 4K. Nowadays, most premium smartphones can take 4K, together with DSLR, interchangeable lenses and smaller video cameras such as Go Pros, you have a wealth of options at your disposal.

And if you are going to take any photos in 4K, then you may wish to actually view such content in that resolution.

It's also worth mentioning that if you are doing CAD or desktop engineering for example, the additional pixels on the best 4k laptop can make all the difference.

Maybe it's because you want a touchscreen, the best-looking images, the processing muscle or other qualities that will provide you with enough tech to last into the future. Or perhaps it's just the layout you are after.

Whatever the reason for going 4K, sometimes the only means to get exactly what you need is to really go all out for a ‘premium’ laptop model, which nowadays usually means a 4K screen.

Something such as Razer's Blade Pro, for example, has a fantastic layout and top-notch images, however, you can access it with a 3,840 x 2,160-pixel touchscreen – a fantastic combination indeed.

OK, this plays to the advertising of high-res notebook displays, but a beautiful high-resolution screen can be something that simply is impressive to look at.

You don’t need to tell everyone of course, but if someone is wowed by the crispness of your display or is really enjoying the sharpness of your pictures, there is no reason to shy away from pointing out it is 4K.  

Although there is a wealth of reasons to invest in 4K, one thing we have to point out is the caveat when it comes to dealing with battery life. It is unlikely you are going to do any activities for a huge amount of time with any notebook computer anyway; however, higher-resolution panels can really set a hurt on battery runtime.

According to our tests, Dell's XPS 13 (equipped with its QHD touchscreen) only runs for about 8 hours. If you opt for just the HD version, you’ll get over 10.5 hours of battery life. It is the same for the HP Spectre x360, which we found had 8 hours with the 4K version, but up to 16 hours with a standard HD screen.

You should probably take the price into consideration too. There are many more 4K Panels available today than there were in 2014.

While that has pushed down the price somewhat, 4K laptops definitely require you to put down a little more change for them. For many people, a complete HD notebook display delivers the ideal balance between clarity, power, and cost.

The XPS 13 9370 is a fantastic option for the best 4K laptop, but the HP Spectre x360 is better for more people because of the intuitive design.

Dell's XPS 15 is fantastic for photography, and the Precision 5520 is an excellent workstation. All of our picks have their good and bad points – it’s up to you to pick!