Mid-Range Laptop Recommendations for Vegas Pro 23 (Travel Use)

nigel-phillips wrote on 1/13/2026, 12:17 PM

Hi everyone,

I’ve been using Vegas Pro for years, now I have the Pro 23 on a desktop PC, but I’m now looking to move to a laptop-based setup as I plan to live abroad and continue working while traveling.

I’m not looking for a high-end or gaming-class machine—just a reliable mid-range laptop that can run Vegas Pro smoothly for professional editing. Stability and performance are more important to me than cutting-edge features.

One key requirement is reliable support for an external monitor via HDMI, USB-C, or DisplayPort, as I depend on a dual-screen workflow. Dual-screen laptops are currently outside my budget (unless there are affordable options worth considering), so I’m ideally looking for a standard laptop that pairs well with a portable external monitor of similar size.

If anyone can recommend suitable laptop models, minimum specs (CPU/GPU/RAM), or share real-world experience running Vegas Pro on the road, I’d really appreciate your input.

Thanks in advance for your time and advice.

Comments

wjauch wrote on 1/13/2026, 12:45 PM

FWIW I bought this a week ago, I did add a second internal NVME drive. https://www.costco.com/p/-/lenovo-legion-5i-16-gaming-laptop-intel-core-ultra-9-275hx-geforce-rtx-5060-wqxga-2560x1600-windows-11-home-32gb-ram-1tb-ssd/4000380973?langId=-1

Runs Vegas 23 very nicely. There is a HDMI output, I haven't used it as yet.

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 1/13/2026, 1:13 PM

@nigel-phillips I can vouch for the performance of @wjauch's machine suggestion. I'm traveling with a Nuc which isn't a laptop but has the refresh of same processor/igpu and it's close to the performance of the 11900k desktop I left at home.

nigel-phillips wrote on 1/13/2026, 1:20 PM

@nigel-phillips I can vouch for the performance of @wjauch's machine suggestion. I'm traveling with a Nuc which isn't a laptop but has the refresh of same processor/igpu and it's close to the performance of the 11900k desktop I left at home.

 

nigel-phillips wrote on 1/13/2026, 1:21 PM

Now that's something to look into, question - can you use 2 monitors with a Nuc?

Howard-Vigorita wrote on 1/13/2026, 1:50 PM

Mine has 2 hdmi + 2 dp but I only use a single monitor myself. Looks like the laptop has an hdmi out which might support dual monitor (laptop screen + monitor) editing if Windows sees them both.