4 Powerful and Affordable Laptops for Data Science, ML and DL in 2023
Best laptops for data science, machine learning and deep learning under $800. No MacBook included! See the reasons at the end
There are many necessary requirements for a perfect laptop for data science, ML and DL tasks:
- CPU performance
- GPU availability
- RAM size
- Reliability and durability
- Eye care display
- Portability
- Battery life
It is hard to find a laptop that meets all these requirements! But somehow, I managed to find 4 such laptops by browsing the internet. They are powerful and also affordable, available for under $800!
Let’s see the details of each laptop.
1. ASUS ZenBook Pro 15 OLED UM535QE Laptop
The ASUS ZenBook Pro 15 OLED UM535QE model is my #1 recommendation because it provides an excellent balance between performance and portability. It also has an eye-catching design.
There are two versions of this laptop — the AMD Ryzen series and the Intel series. The model UM535 refers to the AMD Ryzen series, the version that I recommend you to buy.
The most outstanding feature of this laptop is its OLED display which has TÜV Rheinland low blue light (hardware solution) certification. So, this eye-care display prevents your eyes from harmful blue light. It is important to have an eye-care display for your laptop as you spend hours of time in front of the laptop screen when writing code.
Its Ryzen 7 5800H CPU is powerful enough to handle almost any task. It has 8 physical cores and 16 threads. The higher the number of cores, the higher the performance you get by parallelizing computations across all available cores.
Its powerful GPU, NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti (4 GB) has 2560 CUDA cores which are extremely useful for running neural network models incredibly faster! The higher the number of CUDA cores, the higher the GPU performance you get.
This laptop comes with 16 GB onboard RAM which is enough to work with massive datasets and large neural network models.
This laptop comes with a blazing-fast PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD (512 GB) which boots and loads your apps in no time!
It has a 96 WHrs 6-cell Li-ion battery which will last more than 12 hours of lightweight tasks on a single charge!
Pros
- Portable: Slim and lightweight
- OLED eye-care display with 100% DCI-P3 color gamut
- 15.6-inch FHD touch display
- ASUS: A well-known brand for reliability and durability
- Excellent CPU and GPU performance
- Full keyboard with number pad
- 16 GB RAM for efficient multitasking
- PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD for blazing-fast speed
- Windows 11: Easy-to-use operating system
- Excellent battery life
- Excellent built quality with an aluminum chassis
- Comes with a 150 W charger that provides incredible charging speed
Cons
- Some models come with Wi-Fi 5 instead of Wi-Fi 6
- RAM upgrade not supported
- GPU memory may not be enough to run large deep learning models
Price: The price of this laptop varies significantly depending on the laptop's specifications. For the above specs, it is about $1100. However, it was available for $799 in the 2022 black Friday sale. So, you can wait for another price drop!
2. DELL Inspiron 16 5625 Laptop
The DELL Inspiron 16 5625 model is a budget laptop for data science-related tasks. It can be used for almost any machine-learning task. However, you should not buy this laptop if you’re going to run large deep learning models as this does not have an NVIDIA GPU. It only has AMD Radeon onboard graphics.
This laptop comes with a DELL ComfortView Plus display, a hardware-level low-blue light solution provided by DELL! It has been certified by TÜV Rheinland.
Its Ryzen 5 5625U 6-core/12-thread processor with Radeon graphics is very useful for multitasking.
This laptop comes with 8 GB RAM which may not be enough for heavy tasks. But the RAM is upgradable to 32 GB!
This laptop comes with a blazing-fast PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD (512 GB) which boots and loads your apps in no time!
This laptop has a 54 WHrs 4-cell Li-ion battery which has good battery life on a single charge.
Pros
- Portable: Slim and lightweight
- ComfortView Plus eye-care display with 100% sRGB color gamut
- 16-inch FHD plus touch display
- DELL: A well-known brand for reliability and durability
- Good CPU performance
- RAM can be upgradable to 32 GB
- PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD for blazing-fast speed
- Windows 11: Easy-to-use operating system
- Good battery life
- Excellent built quality with an aluminum chassis
Cons
- No discrete (separate) GPU
- The 65 W charger does not provide a good charging speed
- 8 GB RAM is not sufficient for heavy tasks
- No number pad on the keyboard
Price: This laptop with the above specs is available for $650. However, the price will vary significantly based on the specs you select during the purchase.
3. HP Victus 15 Gaming Laptop (15-fa0025nr)
The HP Victus 15-fa0025nr model also falls into the affordable laptops category. But, it provides outstanding performance regardless of its price.
Comes with an Intel Core i5–12500H 12-core/16-thread powerful processor and a powerful NVIDIA RTX 3050 (4 GB) graphics card!
The Intel Core i5–12500H processor has 4 performance cores and 8 efficient cores. Performance cores can handle heavier tasks while efficient cores have been designed to handle simple background tasks. A performance core can have up to 2 threads per core while an efficient core has only a single thread.
The NVIDIA RTX 3050 graphics card provides slightly low performance than its Ti (Titan) version.
This laptop comes with 8 GB RAM which may not be enough for heavy tasks. But the RAM is upgradable to 32 GB!
This laptop comes with a blazing-fast PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD (512 GB) which boots and loads your apps in no time!
This laptop has a 52.5 WHrs 3-cell Li-ion battery which has good battery life on a single charge.
Pros
- Portable: Slim and lightweight
- 15.6-inch FHD display
- Excellent CPU and GPU performance
- Full keyboard with number pad
- PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD for blazing-fast speed
- Windows 11: Easy-to-use operating system
- Good battery life
- RAM is upgradable to 32 GB
- Excellent built quality with an aluminum chassis
- Comes with a 150 W charger that provides incredible charging speed
Cons
- No eye-care feature comes with the display
- 8 GB RAM is not sufficient for heavy tasks
- There may be some reliability issues with the HP brand
Price: This laptop with the above specs is available for $685. However, the price will vary significantly based on the specs you select during the purchase.
4. ASUS TUF F17 Gaming Laptop (FX706HE)
This model is slightly an old laptop but still provides exceptional performance regardless of its price tag. This is the laptop I’m using right now and I have good experience with it.
Comes with an Intel Core i5–11260H 6-core/12-thread powerful processor and a powerful NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti (4 GB) graphics card!
The NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti GPU provides enough performance to run any machine learning and deep learning models. Here is an example of CatBoost GPU training which is much faster than its CPU training.
This laptop comes with 8 GB RAM which may not be enough for heavy tasks. But the RAM is easily upgradable to 32 GB!
This laptop comes with a blazing-fast PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD (512 GB) which boots and loads your apps in no time!
This laptop has a 48 WHrs 3-cell Li-ion battery which has good battery life on a single charge.
The military-grade standards provide exceptional durability for this laptop. I know it from my experience of using it.
The only downside of this laptop is its weight. It is too heavy to carry on.
This laptop has a dual fan and 5 copper tube cooling system. So, its thermal management is really good.
Pros
- The display is easy on the eyes
- 17.3-inch large FHD display
- ASUS: A well-known brand for reliability and durability
- Excellent CPU and GPU performance
- Full keyboard with number pad
- A nice-to-touch keyboard
- RAM is upgradable to 32 GB
- PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD for blazing-fast speed
- Windows 11: Easy-to-use operating system
- Good battery life
- Excellent built quality with an aluminum lid
- Comes with a 180 W charger that provides incredible charging speed
- Good thermal management with an efficient cooling system
Cons
- Not portable: Too heavy
- 8 GB RAM is not sufficient for heavy tasks
- GPU memory may not be enough to run large deep learning models
Price: I bought this laptop for $699 in the 2021 black Friday sale!
Conclusions
There is no perfect laptop that meets all your requirements!
You may now ask “Why don’t you recommend a MacBook Air or a MacBook Pro for data science-related tasks?” The answer is: Either MacBook Pro or Air does not provide enough GPU performance for its high price tag! But, the latest MacBook provides a higher CPU performance which is not enough for deep learning-related tasks.
- A high-performance laptop with a low price tag is excellent
- A low-performance laptop with a low price tag is OK
- A high-performance laptop with a high price tag is also OK
- But, a low-performance laptop with a high price tag should be avoided
Lastly, I have a little question: Which laptop do you currently use for your data science-related tasks? Let me know in the comment section.
See you in the next article. Happy learning to everyone!
Read next (recommended):
- 20 Necessary Requirements of a Perfect Laptop for Data Science and Machine Learning Tasks
- Why GPUs for Machine Learning and Deep Learning?
- Deep Learning Hardware Selection Guide for 2023
Rukshan Pramoditha 2023–01–12