Best answer: The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme is a great laptop for video editing, especially if you connect an external GPU (eGPU) to a Thunderbolt 3 port for additional graphics processing.
- Versatile Notebook: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (From $2,459 at Lenovo)
- Best eGPU for video editing: Razer Core X (From $300 at Amazon)
ThinkPad X1 Extreme is powerful enough for video editing
The ThinkPad X1 Extreme was designed with serious workloads like video editing in mind, starting with a 9th Gen Intel Core i5-9300H processor. To get the most out of the notebook (and to make your life a little easier when putting together clips on the go) you'll want to kit the ThinkPad X1 Extreme out with the Intel Core i7-9850H.
The CPU isn't the only important component to consider when buying a laptop. Luckily, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme doesn't disappoint with the RAM and GPU. For RAM, you can configure up to 64GB DDR4 2666 MHz and a NVIDIA GTX 1650 can be installed to handle graphics processing. This dedicated GPU is adequate for video editing, though it won't match desktop (or better mobile) GPUs in terms of performance.
To sweeten the deal is the choice of a brilliant 4K display that will make everything displayed on-screen pop and allow you to have more screen real estate to play with.
Add an eGPU if you need more performance
Should you find that your ThinkPad X1 Extreme struggles with GPU-intensive tasks, you may want to look into hooking up an eGPU enclosure and GPU combo to provide additional headroom in the graphics department. For video editing, you'll want to go with the best CPU you can have with this laptop, and pairing the six-core Intel Core i7 up with an RTX GPU would be a wonderful experience.
It's also an ideal setup if you want to do a little gaming on the side. Depending on your available budget, you can install a budget-friendly AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT or go all out with an RTX 2080 Ti if you want the best possible GPU and have the money to spend for it. Just make sure you can stretch to cover both the enclosure and the GPU.
The Razer Core X is a great eGPU enclosure that would work just fine with either GPU we recommend.
Versatile Notebook
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (Gen 2)
A powerful laptop with dedicated graphics
The ThinkPad X1 Extreme is a premium laptop with top-of-the-range features. The laptop can come equipped with up to a 9th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and dedicated NVIDIA GTX 1650 GPU. These specs are great for video editing, but if you need some extra horsepower you may want to consider an eGPU.
Even More GPU Power
Razer Core X
Rock-solid chassis with awesome GPU support
You can throw a powerful NVIDIA RTX or AMD Radeon RX GPU inside this enclosure, thanks to the internal 650W PSU. This amount of performance could totally transform the experience on the Dell XPS 15.