Welp MagazineThe best Cricut for you is a decision you’ve already made – but Cricut’s Design Space needs a brilliant Cricut-friendly laptop to get the most out of your digital craft machine. Cricuts are the game-changing digital die-cutting tech that’s taken the craft world by storm, powering through paper, vinyl, and even balsa wood, fabric or cork with the right cutting blades.
Contrary to popular belief, the best laptop for Cricut makers is neither the most powerful top-of-the-range supercomputer or the cheapest machine you can scrape by with! In order to get the optimum functionality out of most Cricuts, you need a laptop with a very particular set of skills. From portable 2-in-1 tablet PCs to iOS beauties to your new Windows old-reliable, take a look at our list below and find the best laptop for Cricut makers like you.
Product Comparison Table: Best Laptop for Cricut
| Title | Price | Rating (Amazon) | Best in class | Buy | |
 | ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo OLED | $$$$ | 4.5 stars | Best Display | Amazon |
 | Dell XPS 15 | $$$ | 5 stars | Best Windows | Amazon |
 | Acer Aspire 5 Slim | $ | 4.5 stars | Best Budget | Amazon |
 | Microsoft Surface Pro 9 2-in-1 Tablet PC | $$$ | 5 stars | Best Tablet PC | Amazon |
 | Apple 2023 MacBook Pro | $$$$ | 4.5 stars | Best Overall | Amazon |
ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo OLED
ASUS promises Zenbook Pro Duo OLED will be the ‘laptop of tomorrow’. It’s packed with brilliant components, including Intel’s Core i9-11900H processor, making it run like a knife through butter even while multitasking. Is this future-tech overkill for a Cricut machine? We don’t think so: for the reason of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU graphics card.
The Zenbook Pro Duo OLED presented us with the most beautiful graphics experience calmly, efficiently, and with zero fuss. The blacks are true and the colours are vivid on the elegant supersized 4K OLED HDR touchscreen, which is ideal for creative projects where detail is paramount. The ‘Duo’ part of the name refers to the ASUS ScreenPad Plus secondary 4K display – a brand-new tilting design that turns the pen-compatible touchscreen into a Wacom-style digital sketchbook! The pen’s even included.
Pros
- OLED 4K HDR touchscreen
- Best graphics on the market
- Pen and carry-case included
Cons
- Hefty price tag
Verdict
We won’t pretend the ASUS Zenbook Pro Duo OLED is one of our best laptops for Cricut makers because it’s affordable; we chose this laptop because the graphics and display technology took our creativity to the next level as makers. Spending a little bit more can get you a device that offers so much more than the basic level, kickstarting your potential as a maker.The Zenbook’s fab display and processing power lets you try out new more CPU-intensive design software like CAD applications, and all facets of the Adobe Creative Suite.
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Dell XPS 15
As a creative person, you’re probably sick of hearing that Macs are always the best laptops for makers. For this reason we’ve gone out of our way to present on our list of best laptops for Cricut a tried-and-true Windows 11 PC: the Dell XPS 15.
All the features you’d expect from a PC are here, and they lend themselves beautifully to creative work with your Cricut. An 12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H processor kicks out smooth performance, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 GPUs facilitate fancy graphic details like ray-tracing and AI-powered video editing for the multidisciplinary artist. It’s not all about the Dell XPS’s insides though. The display makes projects look great. Integrated Eyesafe display technology reduces blue light so you can work late into the night, and the anti-reflective screen with superior 500-nit intensity works in even the brightest space.
Pros
- Bright and beautiful eye-safe display
- Peak performance
- Ideal for small businesses
Cons
- No touchscreen
Verdict
The Dell XPS 15 is our best laptop for Cricut makers who prefer Windows, but it’s equally our best laptop for Cricut makers who run a small business. The Dell XPS provides peak performance while running even demanding creative programs alongside other tasks like social media and internet browsing. No need to use an additional computer for admin tasks. If you and your Cricut run an online business like an Etsy store, this is the one for you.
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Acer Aspire 5 Slim
Not every maker can afford the best laptop for Cricut regardless of price, so we’ve picked out the Acer Aspire 5 Slim as our best pocket-friendly option. It may not have the graphical or processing power of the previous two maker-friendly laptops, but the Acer Aspire 5 slim gave us more than enough to work (and play) with.
The specs are impressive for the price: AMD Ryzen 3 3200U Dual-Core Processor, AMD Radeon Vega 3 Mobile Graphics, and a decent 4GB of memory. In terms of actually using the thing, this letter-and-number salad translates into a solid machine that works well for just about every demand of the average beginner or hobbyist Cricut user. Lastly, with up to 7.5 hours battery life and a lightweight chassis, this portable laptop matches up beautifully with the Cricut Joy.
Pros
- Value for money
- Matches well with Cricut Joy
- Lightweight and portable
Cons
- Struggles with more demanding software
- Graphics didn’t wow us
Verdict
Money should never be a barrier to creativity, and that’s why we chose the Acer Aspire 5 Slim as our best laptop for Cricut if you’re on a budget. Who knows, this little wonder might be the first baby step you make to set you on the way to starting your own crafting empire. Thank us when you’re a millionaire – or when you’re just having a load of fun crafting!
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Microsoft Surface Pro 9 2-in-1 Tablet PC
A lot of creatives nowadays draw digitally, and none more than those who use digital machines like Cricuts. For those techy types, we present the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 2-in-1 Tablet PC, our best laptop for Cricut users looking for a PC-Tablet hybrid.
The Surface really offers the best of both worlds. Designs look beautiful on the practically edge-to-edge touchscreen display, and tactile signals mean that it feels like pen-and-paper when you’re sketching on it with the compatible Surface Slim Pen 2. These features mean that it functions beautifully as a tablet, but the Surface combines this with laptop-level performance: Intel Evo (12th Gen) processing delivers uber-fast performance, boosted by a Neural Processing Unit. The built-in kickstand is a bonus.
Pros
- All the benefits of a tablet with laptop performance
- Gorgeous touchscreen display
- Built-in kickstand
Cons
- Slim Pen 2 and accessories sold separately
Verdict
Literally our only complaint about the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 2-in-1 Tablet PC is having to buy the accessories separately; we really struggled to find something negative to say! Hybrid tablet PCs are a dream to work with when you need the best laptop for Cricut, and we think this is the best one you can get on the market today.
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Apple 2023 MacBook Pro
It’s annoying to have to admit it, but the legendary MacBook Pro is truly the greatest overall laptop for makers – and it’s no different when you’re using your Cricut. The 2023 MacBook Pro is purpose-built to make pro apps run lightning-fast, including Cricut Design Space, Adobe Creative Cloud, Xcode, Affinity Designer, Microsoft 365 and any other design app for iOS. The impeccable wireless and Bluetooth connectivity is also ideal for Cricuts.
Words can’t describe the difference between a regular LED or even OLED and Apple’s incredible 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display. We mentioned nits before: the brightest PC we found offered 500 less than this Macbook’s 1000+ nits. New innovations like Extreme Dynamic Range and pro-reference mode mean that this laptop can both present your designs on-screen exactly as they’ll look when they pop out your Cricut, and allow you to carry around your lightweight MacBook as a hyper-realistic digital portfolio. You can’t argue with that.
Pros
- Trademark Apple high-performance
- Stunning Liquid Retina display
- Super connectivity
Cons
- No touchscreen
- Hefty price tag
Verdict
You might be asking why we selected the Apple 2023 MacBook Pro as our best laptop for Cricut and not the Apple 2022 or even ‘21 Macbook Pro. The reason for this is not just that the 2023 MacBook Pro is newer (or shinier). The 2023 Pro provides for the same price point a .2 inch increase in display size, Touch ID, and the long-awaited Holy Grail of MacBook users… longer, now all-day, battery life.
