The best laptops for fashion designers and students

Want to kickstart the next big fashion trend? You’ll need the right laptop! Whether you’re a fashion design student or style enthusiast, the right tech lets you get creative with design software, draw digital sketches of your ideas and collab with other designers.

What software do fashion designers use?

There’s so much fashion design software out there that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. If we were you, we’d start off with the ever-popular Adobe Suite. It has everything you need to bring your creative concepts to life, from Illustrator and InDesign to good old Photoshop.

Want to see what your designs would look like on a real model? 3D CAD software can do just that. This advanced software lets you render, style and colour your designs into realistic-looking digital concepts (and honestly, it’s pretty cool). But to utilise all this incredible tech, you’ll need a laptop with the specs to match. That’s where we come in.

Features to look for when choosing a laptop for fashion design:

You’ll need a laptop with serious power to get the most out of fashion design software. Plus, you’ll want a crisp, sharp screen to enhance those runway-ready details. Watch out for:

Processing power – get the best from Adobe Illustrator and InDesign with an Intel Core i5 or i7 processor.
RAM – the more RAM your computer has, the smoother intensive Adobe applications will run. 16GB is ideal for that.
Screen resolution – see more detail and work more accurately with a high-resolution, colour-accurate screen.
Touchscreen – got an idea in mind that needs to be put on the page? Scroll, zoom and draw with a touchscreen Windows laptop.
Graphics – look for Intel Iris graphics (at a minimum) or a NVIDIA GeForce graphics card.
SSD storage – thin, lightweight hard drives that make software and projects launch faster. 256GB or above gives you space for all your projects.

The best tablets for fashion illustration

Looking for the best tablet for fashion design? There’s loads of helpful tech out there for fashion designers, including graphics tablets like the dedicated Wacom. These connect to your laptop and let you draw directly into programs like Adobe Illustrator.

If you want more of an all-rounder tablet, an iPad with the right spec is one of the best tablets for fashion design and illustration. Plus, with iPad apps for fashion designers like Procreate, it’s never been easier to unleash your inner fashion guru.

The best laptop for fashion designers

1. For indecisive influencers

If you can’t decide between a laptop or tablet, our range of 2-in-1 laptops have you covered. You can use them as a traditional laptop, or flip them around for a tablet experience – complete with a stylus to sketch out your best ideas. Winner.

We’d recommend the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360. It’s got a speedy Intel 12th gen i7 processor and 16GB RAM, but its standout feature is really that funky 360 hinge. One minute you’ve got a fully-functioning, powerful laptop, and the next you’ve got a Full HD AMOLED tablet, complete with an S-Pen stylus for precise control. It’s perfect for sketching out new fashion concepts and getting creative with rich colour and inky blacks.

2. For fashionistas on the move

If you’re a fashion design student, you’ll want a device to bring along to lectures, workshops and the campus café. Fashion stops for no one, after all.

The ultra-slim Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 ProX is perfect taking on the go. From editing mood boards to digital art, the crisp 3K PureSight IPS display brings out the finer details of your clothing creations. It’s super colour-accurate too, so no worrying about choosing the wrong shade.

3. For multi-tasking moguls

Watching a runway show whilst scanning your mood board? Researching fabrics whilst studying the latest trends? If you’re the type of creative who draws inspiration from multiple sources at once, you’ll want a laptop that can keep up.

The Asus Zenbook 14 Duo is made for effortless multitasking. It features a full-width Full HD secondary touchscreen that works seamlessly with the main screen, so you’ve got endless ways to optimise your latest fashion project. It’s got all the power you need to run intensive programs too, and you can run apps on your main screen and the ScreenPad Plus simultaneously.