29/04/2026 3:16 pm
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My old Dell is literally dying every time I open Illustrator and it takes forever to render anything. I only have about 800 bucks to spend before classes start in two weeks and honestly Im just over it. What is the best laptop for a design student that wont lag on me constantly?
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29/04/2026 3:16 pm
The Apple MacBook Air M1 8GB RAM 256GB SSD is a solid choice under 800. It handles Illustrator well.
- Use student discounts
- Stick with Apple Silicon It works great.
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29/04/2026 3:40 pm
Just saw this. @Reply #1 - good point! though 8GB RAM is honestly a bottleneck for rendering. Over the years I've found that dedicated GPUs save way more time.
- ASUS Vivobook 16X K3605 Intel Core i5-12450H RTX 3050 16GB RAM for the GPU boost.
- Acer Swift Go 14 SFG14-71 Intel Core i7-13700H 16GB RAM for the color accurate OLED. The Acer is way better for design color work. Dont settle for 8GB on Windows, itll crawl.
