1 Best Laptops for Cricut1.1 Introduction1.2 Minimum System Requirements2 Top 3 Laptops for Cricut [Reviews]2.1 Lenovo Flex 14 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop2.2 Microsoft Surface Go 2 Laptop2.3 CHUWI Hi10 X Laptop3 Final Words
Introduction
Have you always wondered how to make gorgeous cards on your own? Are you mesmerized by intricate paper flower designs? Chances are you’ve stumbled on to Cricut. With support for a lot of materials and the potential for accurate cutting and marking, it’s any home crafter’s dream. But to make sure your dreams are realized; you’re going to need the best laptop for cricut! To make the best use of Cricut, you need to use the Cricut Design Space. It’s a proprietary software where you can create designs of your own. A wide selection of images, designs, and text is available. There are also powerful features like setting the layout of the material and designing complex models. While the software is less demanding than alternative design spaces on the market, it still needs a capable machine to run at its best. You can totally use the program on your smartphone or tablet. But it will never be as good as using a laptop. The screen is far too small to efficiently work on. Some projects may require a larger screen real estate. Even if they don’t, having a big and beautiful screen still makes the work easier. On top of that, you’re also making bolder and more ambitious projects. These can take up a lot of space on your machine. Before you know it, you’ve run out of storage. Having a laptop with a good screen and ample storage will ensure you don’t have to worry about any of these problems. You can focus on creating beautiful designs and cards that can mesmerize anyone. I know what you’re thinking. The best laptop is a Mac, right? While they are great machines, the Cricut Design Space is known to glitch and crash when running on Macs! Thus, keeping your convenience in mind, we’ve picked out the best laptops that you can use for the Cricut Design Space. With these machines in your hand, you’ll be a wizard on the Design Space.
Minimum System Requirements
Source: Cricut System Requirements Page
Top 3 Laptops for Cricut [Reviews]
Lenovo Flex 14 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop
Lenovo has made great strides in the convertible laptop market. Their products offer great convenience and performance at a superb price. That’s why we’ve picked out the Lenovo Flex 14 2-in-1 Convertible Laptop. At the heart of this laptop is the AMD Ryzen 5 3500U. It is a 4-core, 8-thread processor with clock speeds up to 3.7 GHz and a cache of 4 MB. While the laptop scene is still dominated by Intel, current Ryzen processors offer great performance and power efficiency. The 3500U is one such processor. It has strong performance in multi-core workloads as well as respectable scores in single-thread benchmarks. You can expect to breeze past the UI and Cricut Design Space without any lag. It is a very efficient processor and can maintain peak performance for a long time. The processor also comes with an Integrated Graphics Solution. The Radeon Vega 8 Graphics on this chip is far better than any Intel offering in the same range. It can power moderate rendering workloads with ease. You can also play low-demanding titles on this laptop. The best thing about this machine is the display and 2-in-1 functionality. You get a bright and vivid Full HD Touchscreen display. It’s a treat to look at and you can be sure that your projects look beautiful on this screen. It’s also the right size for a convertible, striking a good balance between screen real estate and compactness. The touch experience is incredibly responsive and Microsoft has done a lot of work in optimizing Windows for it. The laptop also comes with an Active Pen for increased precision and usability. If you’re a budding digital artist or love to take notes on the go, this pen will come in handy. By flipping the display, you can easily switch to a conventional laptop setup, with the screen and a keyboard. The keys are satisfying to type on despite the keyboard’s constricted layout. The touchpad is fairly standard too. In terms of memory and storage, you’re looking at 8 gigabytes of fast DDR4 RAM and 256 gigabytes of NVMe SSD storage. While the RAM capacity isn’t future-proof enough, it is just fine for everyday use. It can handle all the memory requirements of Cricut Design Space without breaking a sweat. The storage, on the other hand, is a bit on the small side. You can perfectly store all your Cricut projects. Every image, asset, preset, and setting will load up at blazing fast speeds. However, the space will get eaten up quickly by other applications that you’ll install. It’s best to upgrade your storage later on. Lenovo has made a great looking device with the matte black finish. It makes the laptop look sleek and modern with an understated, almost stealthy look. As expected, the speakers on this thing aren’t great. But they’ll get the job done just fine as the sound clarity is good enough. Lenovo rates the battery life to last around 8 hours. A safer estimate is around 6 hours with mixed to heavy use. If you’re worried about security, there are a couple of useful features. The webcam has a physical block that keeps it covered. You also have a fingerprint sensor to biometrically authenticate and secure your device. The Flex 14 comes with Windows 10 right out of the box. The device has a nice array of ports. You get an HDMI port, a USB-C port to charge up your device, and multiple USB 3.1 inputs. Another great feature about this device is its portability. It has dimensions of 12.91 x 9.02 x 0.70 inches and weighs only 3.52 lbs. You can easily carry it around in your backpack and use it as a digital notepad. Thanks to smart cooling system, the device remains cool under most operations. The Lenovo Flex 14 is the perfect device if you want a compact, well-performer with touchscreen and pen functionality. With the wealth of convenience on offer, it’s hard to pass up on this deal.
Microsoft Surface Go 2 Laptop
Microsoft’s Surface Line of mobile computers have captivated consumers with their unique designs, stellar performance, and great build quality. With optimized operating systems and convenient features, these machines offer more than just good hardware. The Surface Go 2 is a great device that you should consider. At the onset, it’s important to note that the Surface Go 2 is a tablet that functions just like a laptop. While it doesn’t come with a keyboard or a pen out of the box, we think getting them is still worth it for the added functionality. For the experience you’ll get, it’s still an amazing deal. Powering the Surface Go 2 is an Intel Pentium Gold 4425Y processor with 2 cores, 4 threads, and clock speeds up to 1.7 GH. While these numbers may not look impressive on paper, the processor delivers surprisingly great performance. For the relatively minimal requirements of the Surface Go 2, the Pentium Gold is enough to power most of the applications you can throw at it without any significant lag. You can easily browse the web and engage in entry-level productivity workloads. The performance on offer is just enough to run Cricut Design Space smoothly without any hiccups. The integrated Intel HD Graphics 615 won’t blow your socks off, but it will provide a performance boost through hardware acceleration. You can even get some light gaming done if you are willing to drop down the visual settings. For a tablet that doubles as a laptop, this is great performance. You get a 10.5-inch Full HD touchscreen display with the Surface Go 2. Having a Full HD display on this device is amazing as the pixel density is excellent. You’ll get sharp images with good clarity and color reproduction. It has support for pen input, allowing you to take notes, draw, and doodle all you want. The Surface Pen is a wonderful piece of hardware with minimal latency, ensuring it feels almost like a real pen on paper. The accuracy is top-notch too.You can even fine-tune the tilt and angle of the pen, allowing you to use shading techniques in your work. Switching from the pen, the touch experience is similarly excellent. Microsoft has really optimized their UI to make it run smooth with fluid animations. It’s a blast to use this touchscreen. The Surface Go Signature Type Cover is another must-have. Not only does it protect your device from scratches, dirt, and fall damage, it also comes with a keyboard. They keyboard is fully backlit – which means you can use it in the dark. With one flip of the cover, you can transform this tablet into a full-blown laptop experience. You can write emails, articles, or even text your friends using the keyboard. The cover also comes with a trackpad should you need it. The rest of the internals are fairly standard. You’ll find 8 gigabytes of RAM and 128 gigabytes of SSD storage packed into the Surface Go 2. The RAM capacity is just fine for all your work, especially Cricut Design Space. While the storage seems less than ideal, it’s still more than enough for a tablet-laptop hybrid. For such a compact device, you can store a large number of Cricut projects that you can use on the fly. The battery life on the Surface Go 2 is solid. Microsoft rates it to last 10 hours. A good real-world approximation would be around 8 hours of mixed to heavy use. This is excellent battery backup for the level of performance and screen real estate you are getting. Apart from the impressive battery life, you get Full HD front and rear cameras. If you like taking pictures and recording high-quality video, these cameras will do the trick. You can even do video calls with crisp visual quality. The port selection is fairly standard. You get a USB-C for charging the device or data transfer and a USB 3.0 port. A standard 802.11ax wireless solution is used. More importantly, there is a headphone jack that you can use to connect your wired headsets. For many, this is a great feature to have. Being a Microsoft Product, the Surface Go 2 comes with Windows 10 out of the box. The grey finish on the device along with the black front serves a nice contrast and looks great. You can add covers of different colors to truly personalize your device. Coming in at just 1.2 lbs. and having dimensions of 0.33 x 9.65 x 6.9 inches, this is one of the most portable devices you can find right now. You can easily hold it up and use it for extended periods of time. It easily slots into most backpacks that you already own. With unbeatable convenience and great performance in such a small package, the Surface Go 2 is a highly compelling buy.
CHUWI Hi10 X Laptop
While Chuwi devices don’t have the brand recognition of something like Microsoft, they make compelling hardware at very competitive prices. One such device is the Chuwi Hi10 X 2-in-1 Tablet PC. The Hi10 X features a Gemini-Lake Intel Celeron N4100 processor with 4 cores, 4 threads, 4 megabytes of cache, and clock speeds up to 2.4 GHz. The great thing about this processor is that it has strong single-core and multi-core performance even though the memory latency is average. This means it can easily handle Cricut Design Space without any lag. Expect smooth performance on most of your daily tasks. Inside the chip is an Intel HD 600 graphics solution. Its performance is comparable to the one found on the Surface Go 2. So, you can expect similar mileage on that front. It’s good enough to boost performance when needed and you can do light gaming on the side. You’ll get 6 gigabytes of LPDDR4 RAM and 128 gigabytes of eMMC storage in this device. The RAM capacity is less than others on the list but it’s enough to run Cricut Design Space to its fullest potential. The software rarely uses more than 2-3 gigabytes of memory at a time. No matter how large your projects are, this device can handle its assets and files just fine. Where the Hi10 X loses a bit of ground is in the storage department. It has 128 gigabytes which is fairly standard for tablet-laptop hybrids at this range. However, the eMMC technology used is noticeably slower than SSD storage. That being said, it’s still faster than an HDD and the normal storage you get on smartphones. Its speeds are comparable to that of a mid-tier SATA SSD. The only difference is that it can’t sustain those speeds for long periods of time. The display on the Hi10 X is amazing to look at. It’s a 10.1-inch Full HD IPS display with gorgeous colors and great viewing angles. Whether it’s Netflix shows, movies, or your beautiful Cricut projects, you can expect a great experience. On top of the bright and colorful display, you also get touchscreen functionality and pen support. The touch experience is quite good but the pen is where things truly shine. With 4096 pressure points, the HiPen H7 is extremely responsive. Drawing, writing, or even navigating the UI is an absolute breeze with this pen. The latency is very low and the accuracy is top-notch. Budding artists and content creators will love this pen. A great feature that sets the Hi10 X apart is its detachable keyboard and stylus pen. You don’t have to pay extra to get these accessories, nor do you have to sacrifice on the tablet experience. By simply detaching these two off, you can use the device as a traditional tablet by drastically reducing its heft. Once you’re ready to use it as a laptop again, you can simply snap the keyboard and stylus on. It’s an underrated quality of life feature. The keyboard is nice to type on, if a little unremarkable and the trackpad is similarly average. The overall design of the Hi10 X is very eye-catching. It has a grey finish with a pitch-black screen, similar to the Microsoft Surface Go 2. However, the Hi10 X is thinner and sleeker with sharp corners and a shiny finish. The speakers, however, are mediocre at best. Despite its small size, the Hi10 X comes with a truly impressive range of ports. You get two USB-C ports for charging both the device and any other gadget you might have. There’s a single USB 3.0 port, a headphone jack, and an SD card reader. There is even a mini Display Port that you can use to hook up the Hi10 X to a larger display. The amount of options on offer is truly staggering at this range. Wireless features are great too. There is dual Wi-Fi and built-in Bluetooth 5.0 for all your wireless needs. For those all-important video calls and online classes, there’s also a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front camera. Windows 10 is pre-installed on this device. The Hi10 X is the most portable device on this list. Coming in at just 1.15 lbs. and dimensions of 14.2 x 9.8 x 3.5 inches, this is a device that you’ll have no problem carrying with you. It’s feather-light and super-thin. The battery life on the device is rated to last 6 hours according to Chuwi. A more accurate number would be around 4-5 hours. Chuwi’s Hi10 X is a great device for those looking to enter the tablet laptop sphere without splurging on extra accessories. It is extremely portable and has a great selection of ports.
Final Words
We’ve looked at three different devices as potential candidates for your purchase. All of them are sufficient for Cricut and its software. They offer a wide range of features without skimping on the performance. What you ultimately side with will depend on your priorities. If you’re looking for the maximum performance from a 2-in-1 device, then go for the Lenovo Flex 14. It has the fastest processor out of the bunch and its graphics performance is far better than any of its competitors. You also get access to the largest amount of fast SSD storage as well as 8 gigabytes of speedy RAM. While the device is less portable than the others, it’s a worthy tradeoff for the performance you’re getting. On the other hand, if ease of use and portability is your main priority, then the Surface Go 2 is the option for you. It has just the right amount of performance for Cricut without the heft of the Flex 14. While you have to buy accessories separately, it’s a good enough deal. You get a gorgeous touchscreen display and an unmatched Stylus Pen experience. On top of that, the battery life is excellent. If you’re not keen on spending the extra money on essential accessories, the Chuwi Hi10 X is a compelling purchase. It comes with everything you need to get up and running. With a detachable keyboard and stylus, you’re good to use it as a tablet and a laptop right out of the box. It is the most portable of the devices we reviewed and has an amazing display suited for multimedia consumption. However, the raw performance may be lacking when you run intensive applications. The lack of an SSD storage will make the UI “feel” less smooth than the other options. Finally, the battery life is also not impressive. All things considered; our vote goes to the Lenovo Flex 14. It offers the best performance out of the bunch and you don’t need to buy extra accessories even if you’re paying a little of a price premium. For the device’s no compromise approach to the 2-in-1 experience, it is highly recommended for Cricut and all your other needs.
