Today we’re going to chat about the best laptops for instructional designers. Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

Who among us could forget the haunting opening lines of Italian poet Dante Alighieri’s epic poem, “Inferno”—“Midway upon the journey of freelancing, I found myself within a dark Best Buy where the straight way was lost.” Wow, harrowing. Visceral.

Much like Dante, you may be feeling a crushing amount of trepidation and despair at the thought of choosing a laptop as a freelance instructional designer.

Not only are there tons of options on the market, but you’re about to plop down a pretty penny on a small, rectangular robo-box that needs to house your life’s work and house it well! We’re getting sweaty just thinking about it!

Alright, we’ve done some deep breathing exercises and are ready to embark on our quest for a laptop. Turn that frown upside down, freelie! Abandon all MOPE, ye who enter here! Let’s do this!

Laptop Limbo

Before you get to shoppin’, you’ll need to answer a couple basic questions when it comes to your personal computing needs.

What stuff do I want to do? By now you probably have an idea of the types of projects you’ll be working on. Will you be storyboarding in PowerPoint? Creating simulations in Articulate? Making voice-over videos? The types of projects you’ll be doing will help you decide what kind of computer you need.

Am I an Apple or a Windows person? The next big decision you need to make before you choose the new love of your technological life is the operating system. You may have been a die-hard Mac or Windows fan in your former life, but hold your horses, sista. Depending on what work you’ll be doing, you may have to join the dark side for productivity’s sake!

Macs are pretty sleek…but expensive! All we ask is that you keep an open mind to get the computer that’ll work best for you in the long run and not just what all the cool kids are buying. WE HAVE A LOT TO OFFER TOO. That is…other brands…have a lot to offer too. That being said, if the Mac ticks all the boxes for you, then that’s ok too!

Get Greedy

Let’s talk about laptop “specs,” or specifications. We say “specs” for short, because we’re extremely well-versed in the goodest technology numbers and figures. And shapes? Here’s a quick rundown on what you want to pay attention to when shopping for a laptop. Know this stuff, and you’ll have your Best Buy salesperson all like, “Woah, is this person a regular Stephen Hawking or what?!”

Hard Drive Capacity- This one is pretty straightforward— it’s the amount of storage on a hard disk, measured in gigabytes and terabytes. If you’re using Rapid Authoring Tools (like Storyline or Captivate), you’ll want a hard drive capacity of 256GB or more. But, if you work in photo or video editing, you’re gonna need a bigger boat— think 500GB-1TB (that stands for Terabyte NOT Tuberculosis).

Memory (RAM)- If you’re like us, you assume RAM implies that there’s a male sheep working its tail off for you inside your laptop. Crazy story, guys—there ISN’T! We know. We were shocked too. A laptop’s RAM is crucial to how efficiently your machine runs since it’s used to store information for immediate use (ya know, like human memory).

For Office applications (Word, PowerPoint etc.), you’ll only need around 4GB of RAM. But, for meatier work like audio recording and editing, you’ll need 16GB or more.

Processor (CPU)- Your laptop’s Central Processing Unit is the brain of your laptop. It’s responsible for interpreting most of your laptop’s commands. It basically runs the computer, so it’s very important. You should only associate with VIP’s when you’re shopping for your laptop— very important processors. Working with a Rapid Authoring Tool? You’ll want a CPU that’s 2GHz (gigahertz) or higher. Photo editing? In that case, we’re talking 4-6 core processors!

Graphics Card- The graphics card in your laptop is responsible for creating and rendering all photos, videos and other graphics you see on your screen. As such, if you specialize in photo or video editing, you’ll want to make sure your new laptop has a pretty snazzy one— 300MHz (megahertz) or more!

For a more specific breakdown of specs as they tie to specialities, join us over at IDLance! You’ll find some truly tasty nuggets of information on the best laptops for instructional designers there!

Pay the Ferryman

Now it’s time to go forth with your list of dream laptop specs and drop the dough. We understand that this is likely one of the biggest purchases you’re going to make when you’re just starting out as a freelance instructional designer.

Places like Best Buy usually have interest free purchase programs and a price match guarantee. Take advantage of them! Did you know that November is a great time to buy tech (duh, Black Friday and Cyber Monday!)? There’s really no excuse to ever pay full price if you’re planning ahead!

If a new computer isn’t in your budget, check stores for refurbished (aka pre-loved) ones and do some googling to see tons of options. They’re usually just as functional as new ones and come with a guarantee if you do have any issues.

If you’re looking to jumpstart your search, a few laptop models we recommend checking out are the Microsoft Surface Pro, the MacBook Pro, and the Lenovo ThinkPad E15. Each one comes with its own price tag and set of pros and cons, so keep in mind everything we chatted about above (your speciality, budget, and OS preference) when doing your research.

A Match Made in Heaven

You’ve completed your epic quest for the laptop of your dreams! Congratulations, freelie! We understand it’s a lot to consider, but let this blog be your guide to the pearly gates of laptop paradise.