The 5 Best Laptops for Emulators in 2022

As we all know, the IT professional is at the peak in this new era of technology. Whether you are a game developer or app developer, you will need an emulator to work on. But to run these development programs and software effortlessly, you will need one of the best laptops for emulators. 

These laptops require a special kind of configuration. Everything from a powerful processor to solid storage capacity, good graphics, and sufficient RAM is essential in these devices.

Therefore, if you want to run an emulator on your laptop, make sure that it ticks all the boxes. Or else you will not get the performance you can expect from the best programming laptops.

In this article, we will discuss some of the best laptops for emulators that you can use to develop your games and for your IT work. But first, it is important for you to know what an emulator is if you are hearing about it for the first time. 

What Is An Emulator?

If you are from the programming or IT industry we are sure you already know what an emulator is. But in case you are just starting and have no idea, we are here to help. An emulator can be described as a computer program that allows a host system to imitate or replicate the capabilities of a remote computer. 

It is mostly used by game developers and people who work in the IT department. It is pretty in demand, and many industries are using emulators on a daily basis. Playing videos games is another one of its most common uses. You can use it to develop programs and operate several different operating systems on your device. 

Can Laptops Run Emulators?

The computer processor is an integral part of any laptop, as it helps run most of its functions and decides how quickly tasks will be processed. There are only a few processors that can handle emulators. Fortunately, there are five options on our list that do so well. The best laptop for the dolphin emulator is Dell XPS 15, which has four physical cores running at 2.6 GHz per core and 16 GB RAM. 

While it’s not ideal to use with more advanced games, such as Skyrim or Fallout 4, due to their extensive size and requirement for a good graphics card, the dolphin emulator runs smoothly without any lag when using multiple instances simultaneously!

What Is The Best Laptop For Emulators?

The best laptop for emulators should have plenty of memory, long battery life, and at least one graphics card. For example, if you are going to be playing PlayStation 1 games (highly recommended), then you will need a laptop with at least 512GB of RAM—but preferably more like 1TB or more.

With any luck, you’ll be able to find such a high-end machine on sale; they tend to get pretty expensive after all. At first glance, it may seem like there aren’t many options out there when it comes to finding laptops with Nvidia graphics cards, but fear not!

There are ways around that limitation: most computer manufacturers sell workstation laptops that contain dedicated Nvidia Quadro GPUs specifically designed for professional use in video editing and animation.

Can a laptop emulate PS2?

You bet it can. And GameCube, N64, and the original Xbox. And a bunch of other stuff. There are plenty of laptops out there capable of running emulators, but they’re probably not what you think of when you think of laptops.

Instead, your best bet is to find a gaming-centric laptop—ones that pack beefy specs alongside specialized gaming features like high-refresh-rate displays and programmable macro keys make for fantastic emulation machines on a stick. With that said, there are also plenty of non-gaming laptops out there capable of doing double duty as emulation boxes as well if you know where to look!

Can laptops run Dolphin emulators?

In a word, yes. But as with everything else, there are some catches and limitations that you should know about. First off, unless you have a high-end gaming laptop made by Alienware or similar companies, your laptop will have an integrated video card that’s primarily good for running simple games like solitaire.

But don’t worry—Dolphin is much more demanding than solitaire. There are three primary things to look at when trying to figure out whether or not your laptop can run Dolphin: how powerful is it? How many dedicated VRAM does it have? And does it support OpenGL 3.0 or newer?

The 5 Best Laptops for Emulators in 2022

ASUS ZenBook Flip 14

Specification

• Processor: Intel Core i7-8565U Quad-Core
• RAM: 8GB
• Storage: 256 GB

Design and Body

The Flip 14 is a thin and light laptop, which measures 12.8 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches and weighs only 2.38 pounds, making it one of the best laptops for emulation if portability is your main concern. It features a premium aluminum body with a sturdy hinge that opens to 360 degrees to make switching between traditional laptop mode and tablet mode easy.

This 2-in-1 laptop is not only portable and has a classy look to it, but also you will get enough connectivity ports on it. These ports include an audio jack, two USB Type-A ports, an HDMI port, an SD card reader, and a USB Type-C 3.1 port. But unfortunately, you will not get a Thunderbolt 3 port on this laptop which is a disappointment for some of Asus’s customers. 

Features and Performance

The ASUS ZenBook Flip 14 is one of our favorite 2-in-1 laptops. It’s lightweight, comes with a touchscreen, and packs plenty of power inside. Couple that with its excellent build quality, and what you have is a powerful laptop that can be used as both a workstation and entertainment device. 

The ZenBook Flip 14 comes with plenty of power thanks to its 8th generation Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. It also has a battery life of up to 10 hours, so you can keep gaming, programming, or surfing the web all day long. 

The laptop’s performance is excellent thanks to its Nvidia GeForce MX150 graphics card, which provides it with top-notch graphic quality. The display appears vibrant and clear, and you can use it for anything from programming, graphic designing, or video editing. 

Its slim design means it slips easily into your bag while offering more than enough power to run apps such as Photoshop or emulators at high speed without any lag or hiccups.

Dell XPS 15 (9570)

Specification

• Processor: Intel Core i7-8750H 6-core
• RAM: 32GB
• Storage: 1TB

Design and Body

Powering through every emulator on your list has never been easier than with Dell’s XPS 15. Boasting a high performance, it’s easy to see why Dell was voted Best Laptops for Emulation by industry influencers. Featuring an aluminum lid and a weight of 3.9 pounds, Dell XPS 15 is a pretty portable device.

Throw it in your bag, and you are good to go. You will also get a couple of ports in this device, including two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an SD card reader, a USB Type-A port, and an audio jack. Unfortunately, you will not get an HDMI port with this device. 

Moreover, its 15 inches almost no bezel screen is one of the best features of this device. Vibrant enough and gives you all the space on the screen as the bezels rarely are taking up any of that space which is impressive. 

Features and Performance

The Dell XPS 15 is one of Dell’s best laptops ever, thanks to its stunning Infinity Edge display, which maximizes screen real estate without taking up a lot of room. It’s got an i7-8750H processor and can be outfitted with up to 32GB of RAM. 

Battery life is solid for gaming, it will last for 10 hours, and under a heavy workload, battery life will get around 8 hours which is still adequate. Even better, it can support Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Max-Q graphics, which means you can play some newer games at lower settings without sacrificing much performance. 

Besides beings used for programming, this laptop can be used as a gaming laptop as well. Furthermore, you will get secondary storage of 1TB, and to your luck, this is an upgradable laptop. This means you can upgrade its storage capacity to up to 2TB SSD, which is beyond remarkable and will provide you with the best possible experience. 

HP Spectre x360 15

Specification

• Processor: Intel Core i7-8550U
• RAM: 16GB
• Storage: 1TB

Design and Body

With its slim and sleek body, the HP Spectre x360 15 is one of those laptops you will love to carry with you as it weighs only 4.4 pounds. It is not the most lightweight or slimmest laptop, but this will count as a portable one.

Moreover, it has a total height of 0.69 inches, a width of 13.8 inches, and a depth of 9.9 inches, making it perfect to take anywhere, even if you are traveling. The ports that you will find on this aluminum body include a Thunderbolt 3 port, a USB 3 port, an HDMI port, and an audio jack.

This classy laptop comes with anti-glare treatment on its lid, and fortunately, it does not catch many fingerprints either. It features a touch-sensitive display, but to our surprise, you will not get a stylus with this one. 

Features and Performance

The HP Spectre x360 15 is one of two high-end gaming laptops from Intel’s new 8th generation. With a starting price of just under $1000, it’s aimed at people who want power without sacrificing portability.

Plus, this laptop is thinner and lighter than comparable gaming laptops like Asus’ ROG Zephyrus GX501 and Alienware’s 17 R4. The goal here was to create a powerful laptop with less heft, and so far, we think they succeeded.

While it doesn’t quite live up to its promise of being ultraportable due to its bulkiness, it’s still one of the best portable laptops for emulation. Additionally, with a 1 TB SSD and 16 GB RAM, you will get a pretty decent speed on this laptop.

However, you can go for the lower configuration version if you are short on budget as this is an upgradable laptop. Lastly, the laptop features an average battery life of around 6 hours which is just fine as, under heavy workload, it will reduce up to 4 hours. 

Razer Blade 15

Specification

• Processor: Intel i7-8750H
• RAM: 16 GB
• Storage: 256 GB

Design and Body

The Razer Blade 15 is thinner than most best laptops for emulators you’ll see these days. At just 0.66 inches thick, it’s also very light, weighing just 4.5 pounds (2kg). With an aluminum body, this laptop is a tablet with a keyboard attached.

The sleek body and compact dimensions make it an ideal device to tote around and use on the go. Moreover, for you, the laptop offers a bunch of connectivity options. These options include three USB Type-A ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, an HDMI port, and an audio jack.

Features and Performance

Now that we’ve taken a look at Razer’s latest 15-inch laptop: let’s talk about what makes it so great. The Razer Blade 15 comes equipped with an Intel i7-8750H and NVIDIA RTX 3070 GPU. This combo is powerful enough to run all of your favorite PC games on high settings without breaking a sweat.

Plus, the display quality you will get is remarkable. While also being thin and light enough to take with you on the go if you want to game on a bigger screen or play an emulator or two. As long as you don’t mind lugging around all of your equipment, you can do almost anything with the Razer Blade 15.

With a reliable 16 GB RAM and a 256 GB SSD, the laptop runs pretty smoothly, giving you the perfect experience, you would expect from one of the best laptops for emulators. Unfortunately, with all these amazing configurations, you will get a battery life of around 4 hours which is not even near enough. Thus, that is one of the major drawbacks of this powerful device.

Lenovo Yoga C930

Specification

• Processor: Intel Core i7 processor
• RAM: 16GB
• Storage: 256 GB

Design and Body

Unlike last year’s model, The Yoga C930 is now a lot thinner and a fair bit lighter. But unlike most ultrabooks, it has an OLED display instead of an IPS one, which means there’s no bezel. I like how slim it is and how nice it looks and feels. 

Lenovo has done a very good job with building quality laptops in recent years, and they’ve only gotten better with time. This laptop features a gunmetal finish on its lid fully made up of aluminum. Weighing only 3.0 pounds, this 2-in-1 laptop does not lack in giving off pretty classy aesthetics. 

It also comes with a stylus slot which always comes in handy. Along with that, you will also get a USB 3.1 port, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, and an audio jack. There is no HDMI port, so keep that in mind while buying this device. 

Features and Performance

As the best laptop for the dolphin emulator, Lenovo Yoga C930 has more than enough power to emulate games like Zelda: The Wind Waker and Dragon Ball Xenoverse. This best laptop has a 2.5GHz Intel Core i7-8550U processor, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, 256GB SSD storage, and Intel UHD graphics 620. 

You’ll be able to play any emulation game you want on it just keep in mind that the display quality will be a bit dim. Moreover, you will get a battery life of around 8 hours on this almost adequate device. 

You can work for a good 5-6 hours on this device before having to charge it. The touchscreen is pretty responsive, and the stylus plays the part of being helpful as always. So you will face no problem using this laptop as a tablet either. 

Conclusion

Choosing a great laptop might not be as easy as it seems, but with a little research, you can figure out what kind of laptop to get. As far as emulation goes, you’ll want a high-performance system that’s also portable.

The good news is there are some really excellent options of the best laptops for emulators out there; all you have to do is know where to look. If you go into your search knowing what features are most important to you, chances are good that whatever your final decision is will be exactly what you’re looking for—and at a price point that won’t break your bank account.