Streaming is more popular than ever, and whether it's Twitch, YouTube, Trovo, Facebook, or somewhere else entirely, one thing is a staple of a good stream. You have to have a decent PC to encode it and to hook up your webcam and microphone. Fortunately, that doesn't mean having some huge desktop rig; you can get a top-notch laptop for your streaming, too. And ultimately we recommend the Razer Blade 15, which tops our list of best laptops for streamers.
The Razer Blade 15 is the best gaming laptop you can buy, though that doesn't necessarily qualify it for streaming. Fortunately, content creators are a focus for Razer, and the Blade 15 is the perfect laptop for both gaming and streaming.
Part of that is down to its design. It's hardly an Ultrabook, but as far as gaming laptops go it's slim, fairly light, and extremely well designed. It won't consume much space either in your bag or on your desk, getting easily out of the way when you need it to.
Streaming does demand some decent hardware, though, and the Razer Blade 15 has that in spades. Even the entry-level model uses some of Intel's best processors and all models come with a capable NVIDIA GPU. At the higher end, you're getting an RTX 3080, but even lower down you can take advantage of NVENC encoding, which is important for streaming.
The Razer Blade 15 also has upgradeable DDR5 RAM and storage, so it's a laptop you can rely on for years to come. And with Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, you can run a single cable from the laptop and hook up all of your external hardware.
Acer has made good gaming laptops in the past, but it's fair to say that in most cases you were still buying something that screamed "GAMER!" with a large, thick chassis, aggressive styling, and plenty of red. The Acer Predator Triton 300 SE couldn't be further from that.
In many regards, it's like the Razer Blade 15. It isn't Ultrabook slim, but for a gaming laptop, it's sleek, thin, and quite sophisticated looking. Even the logo on the lid is small and tucked into a corner. It's a little smaller than most gaming laptops at 14 inches, but even so, you get up to an NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU, an Intel H-Series CPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and upgradeable SSD storage. With these specs, you have flexibility and plenty of streaming power, including the latest NVENC encoder.
Acer also added a fingerprint scanner to work with Windows Hello for added security, the keyboard font is tasteful, and it doesn't cost the same as a small moon. There are plenty of reasons to make this your streaming laptop of choice.
Dell makes some of the best Windows laptops that money can buy, but gamers and streamers might automatically lean towards the company's gaming arm, Alienware. But that would mean missing out on something truly special, like the Dell XPS 15. This 15-inch Ultrabook is essentially a larger, more powerful version of Dell's iconic XPS 13. And while that does make it a bit less compact, the added size certainly isn't going to waste.
Inside an XPS 15 you can get up to the latest Intel Core i9 CPU, an NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti, 64GB of DDR5 RAM, and as much SSD storage as you could ever need for VODs and clips of your antics. You also get Thunderbolt 4 for top-notch peripheral connectivity, and stunning display options, too.
It's a mobile workstation in every sense of the word, though it's also quite expensive, especially if you're chasing the Intel Core i9 or that NVENC-loaded GPU. Still, you could do a lot worse with your money.
The words "value" and "OLED" haven't traditionally gone together when it comes to buying laptops, but ASUS is ripping up the rulebook on that. Besides a commitment to OLED displays for its higher-end laptops, the more mid-tier, wallet-friendly VivoBook lineup is also feeling the love.
The ASUS VivoBook Pro OLED is a quite remarkable blend of attractive price, powerful hardware, and a stunning OLED display. The panel might not feature too much while streaming, but when you're doing other related activities like making thumbnails or editing videos, it'll really shine.
The VivoBook Pro also boasts options for dedicated NVIDIA graphics alongside an 11th Gen Intel H-Series processor. Not MX graphics, either; this has the laptop NVIDIA GTX 1650 or RTX 3050. And that means NVENC, which will enhance the quality and stability of your stream.
Bottom line
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Just because the top streamers are using a pair of heavy-duty desktop machines to push out their broadcasts to the world doesn't mean this is how everyone has to do it. It's not only possible to stream using a laptop, but with any of these, you'll have a great-looking stream.
It all comes down to the hardware, and while laptop CPUs really are quite strong nowadays, the best use of resources to stream will be grabbing something with a recent NVIDIA GPU and using the dedicated NVENC encoder. This leaves much more of your system resources alone for other tasks as and when required.
Our top suggestion is the Razer Blade 15 thanks to its incredibly wide range of powerful hardware specs, great design, and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. It's very pricey, but if you have the budget, you can build the ultimate mobile battlestation. Both the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE and the Dell XPS 15 are great alternative options if you want something in the mid-range, while the ASUS VivoBook Pro 14 OLED is a surprisingly capable budget-friendly option that comes with a beautiful display and a solid amount of horsepower under the hood.
