9+ Best Laptop For Data Science 2022 | Detailed Guide & Products Overview

Are you a Data Scientist and need a good laptop for your work? Let’s see the best laptops for Data Science, for professionals or students of Information Sciences, which will make work much more comfortable and productive.

Best Laptop For Data Science

As a data scientist, you must handle a large amount of data, collect it, analyze it, and interpret it in the way that is most beneficial to a business. When handling such large quantities, you also need an efficiently running laptop to make work easier. Statistical analysis requires a lot of computing power, be it a laptop or a PC.

Data Science and Machine Learning

Data Science and Machine Learning are growing at an astronomical rate and companies are now looking for professionals who can examine that gold mine found in data and help them make quick business decisions efficiently. The number of jobs for all US data professionals has increased by an impressive number.

What is Data Science?

People have been trying to define data science for over a decade, Hugh Conway in 2010 offered an answer with this Venn diagram consisting of three circles: mathematics and statistics, subject matter expertise (domain knowledge to abstract and calculate), and hacking skills. Basically, if you can do all three, you already have a great deal of knowledge in the field of data science:

Data science is a concept used to address big data and includes data cleansing, preparation, and analysis. A data scientist collects data from multiple sources and applies machine learning, predictive analytics, and sentiment analysis to extract critical information from collected data sets. They understand data from a business point of view and can provide accurate insights and predictions that can be used to drive critical business decisions.

Big data and data science, data analysis needs computing power

As a data scientist, you must deal with a large amount of data, collect it, analyze it and interpret it, in the way that is most beneficial for a company. When handling such large quantities, you also need a laptop that works efficiently, making work easier. Statistical analysis needs a lot of computing power, be it a laptop or a PC.

The software data analysis, such as statistical software IBM SPSS or Statistics, requires a minimum of RAM for smooth operation in a moderate amount of data. The larger the size of the data you handle, the better hardware you will need. A good laptop with the right high-end hardware will help you deal with more data, without hanging up or giving you waiting times.

Best Laptop For Data Science |Comparison Table 2022

Here is a list of highly sophisticated laptops with excellent configurations that you can refer to for a better choice:

Prices and images pulled from the Amazon Product Advertising API on:

Best Laptop For Data Science | 2022 Products Overview

Product Overview:

The Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop is a powerful and feature-packed device designed to meet the needs of gamers and power users. The laptop is equipped with a 9th Generation Intel Core i5-9300H Processor, which can deliver clock speeds of up to 4.1 GHz. The processor is paired with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Graphics card that features 4GB of dedicated GDDR5 VRAM, which can handle demanding games and multimedia applications with ease.

The laptop has a 15.6-inch Full HD Widescreen IPS LED-backlit display that delivers vibrant colors and sharp visuals. The screen is ideal for gaming and multimedia applications, and it features a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. The laptop comes with 8GB of DDR4 2666MHz Memory and a 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD, which provides ample storage space and fast data transfer speeds. The laptop also features two PCIe M.2 slots, one of which is open for easy upgrades, and an available hard drive bay.

The laptop is equipped with an Intel Wireless Wi-Fi 6 AX200 802.11ax module that provides reliable and fast wireless connectivity. It also has a 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port) for wired connectivity. The laptop comes with a backlit keyboard that provides comfortable and precise typing even in low-light conditions. It also features Acer Cool Boost technology, which utilizes twin fans and dual exhaust ports to keep the laptop cool during intensive workloads.

Product Overview:

The Dell XPS 13 9360 is a high-performance laptop designed for people who value portability, reliability, and style. It features a 13.3-inch Full HD anti-glare InfinityEdge touchscreen display that offers stunning visuals and is perfect for both work and entertainment. The display is also touch-enabled, allowing you to interact with your content in new and intuitive ways.

The laptop is powered by a 7th generation Intel Core i5-7200U processor, which is a dual-core processor with a base clock speed of 2.5 GHz and a boost clock speed of 3.1 GHz. It is paired with 8GB of 2133 MHz LPDDR3 SDRAM, which ensures smooth multitasking and fast data access. The 128 GB M.2 SATA SSD provides ample storage space for your documents, media files, and other data.

The Dell XPS 13 9360 is built for connectivity and features a range of ports, including USB 3.0, USB-C, Thunderbolt 3 via USB Type-C, and an SD card reader. The laptop also comes with Wi-Fi 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.1, which enable you to connect to the internet and other devices wirelessly.

The laptop runs on Windows 10 Home (64-bit), which is a user-friendly and feature-rich operating system that is optimized for modern hardware. The operating system comes with a range of built-in apps, including Microsoft Edge, Cortana, and the Windows Store.

The Dell XPS 13 9360 also comes with a built-in webcam, which is perfect for video conferencing and online meetings. The laptop has a sleek and stylish design, with a silver and carbon fiber finish that is both durable and attractive. It is also lightweight and easy to carry, making it a great choice for people who are always on the go.

In summary, the Dell XPS 13 9360 is a powerful, reliable, and stylish laptop that is perfect for both personal and professional use. Its high-end features and specifications make it a great choice for people who demand the best performance and connectivity from their devices.

Product Overview:

The Apple 2020 MacBook Air Laptop with the M1 chip is a highly capable and efficient device that is designed to meet the needs of professionals and enthusiasts alike. The device features a 13.3-inch Retina display that provides high-quality visuals and sharp, clear text for an immersive experience. It has a backlit keyboard that allows for easy typing even in low-light conditions, and a FaceTime HD camera for high-quality video conferencing.

The MacBook Air is available in a Gold color and has a storage capacity of 256GB. It runs on the Mac OS operating system, which is known for its ease of use and reliability. The device is powered by the Apple M1 chip, which is an 8-core CPU that delivers up to 3.5x faster performance than the previous generation while using way less power.

The MacBook Air has 8GB of unified memory that makes the entire system speedy and responsive. This enables the device to support memory-intensive tasks such as multitab browsing and opening large graphic files quickly and easily. The device also features an integrated graphics card that enhances visual performance and enables users to take on professional-quality editing and action-packed gaming with ease.

One of the standout features of the MacBook Air is its long battery life. With up to 18 hours of battery life, users can go longer than ever before without needing to recharge their device. The MacBook Air also has a fanless design, which means it stays cool and runs quietly even when handling intense workloads.

The MacBook Air is designed to be easy to learn and set up, and is intuitive to use. It is packed with apps that can be used right out of the box, and is compatible with all existing apps including Adobe Creative Cloud, Microsoft 365, and Google Drive. Additionally, users can use their favorite iPhone and iPad apps directly on macOS, making it easy to work across devices.

Product Overview:

The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15 is a laptop designed for entertainment, multitasking, and privacy. It is powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 3 3250U processor with Radeon Vega 3 graphics, offering incredible bandwidth for getting more done faster in several applications at once. The multi-core processing power of the AMD processor is suitable for everyday tasks like web browsing, video streaming, and document editing. The laptop comes with 128 GB SSD M.2 NVMe storage and 4 GB DDR4 memory, ensuring fast boot-up times and smooth operation.

The laptop features a 15.6" HD (1366 x 768) screen with narrow side bezels, delivering great visuals and crystal-clear sound for entertainment. The Doby Audio enhances the audio experience for music and movies. The laptop runs on Windows 10 in S mode, offering a streamlined and secure operating system. With S mode, the user can only download apps from the Microsoft Store, ensuring maximum security.

The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15 features a physical shutter on the webcam, ensuring the user's privacy and peace of mind when not in use. Additionally, the laptop is equipped with 2x2 Wi-Fi 5 (802. 11 ac/ac(LC)) and Bluetooth 4.1, ensuring fast and reliable connectivity. The laptop comes with a webcam with a microphone, allowing for video conferencing and online meetings.

The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15 is available in Business Black color and weighs 4.07 lbs. The laptop features 3 USB ports, HDMI, and an SD card reader, providing sufficient connectivity options. The laptop is also available with an additional laptop bag for easy transportation.

Product Overview:

The OEM Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 Laptop is a high-performance machine designed for business and personal use. This laptop boasts a 14-inch FHD IPS display with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. It is powered by an Intel Quad Core i5-1135G7 processor, which can achieve a clock speed of up to 4.2 GHz and comes with 8MB of cache.

The ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 comes with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of NVMe storage, making it perfect for handling multiple tasks and running demanding applications. It features an Intel Iris Xe Graphics card that functions as UHD Graphics, providing users with crystal-clear visuals.

This laptop has a range of features that enhance its functionality. It comes with a fingerprint reader and backlit keyboard for added security and convenience. The ThinkPad T14 Gen 2 also features Intel WiFi-6 AX201 11ax, 2x2 + Bluetooth 5.2, making it easy to connect to the internet and other devices.

The laptop runs on Windows 11 Pro, which is optimized for productivity and comes with a range of features that make it easier to work with. The laptop comes with a 3-year Lenovo warranty and a 3-year Oemgenuine Limited Warranty, providing users with peace of mind.

Product Overview:

The MSI GS66 Stealth 10SGS-036 is a high-end gaming and entertainment laptop that boasts powerful performance, a large amount of storage, and a sleek design. This renewed product has been professionally inspected and tested by Amazon-qualified suppliers to ensure that it works and looks like new, with limited to no signs of wear. It comes with a 90-day warranty and is eligible for a replacement or refund within 90 days of receipt if the customer is not satisfied.

The laptop features a 15.6-inch full HD display with a 300Hz refresh rate for smooth visuals, making it an ideal choice for gamers who demand high-performance displays. The screen also has a resolution of 1920x1080, which provides crisp and clear images. The laptop is equipped with Wi-Fi 6 AX201 Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.1, and Ethernet LAN (RJ-45), allowing users to connect to the internet through multiple means.

The MSI GS66 Stealth 10SGS-036 is powered by a 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10750H hexa-core processor, with a clock speed of 2.60GHz that can go up to 5GHz with Turbo Boost technology. It has 12MB cache and six cores, which allows for a smooth and fast computing experience. The laptop is equipped with an NVIDIA RTX 2080 SUPER Max-Q 8GB GDDR6 Graphics card, which provides stunning visuals and can handle even the most demanding games.

Product Overview:

The Apple MacBook Pro with M1 chip is a 13-inch laptop designed for high performance and efficient productivity. The laptop comes in Space Gray and Silver colors and has a storage capacity of 256GB or 512GB. The laptop is also Climate Pledge Friendly, meaning that it is environmentally conscious and designed to reduce its impact on the planet.

The M1 chip, designed by Apple, powers the MacBook Pro, providing a significant improvement in CPU, GPU, and machine learning performance. The 8-core CPU allows users to complete their workflows up to 2.8 times faster than before, while the 8-core GPU delivers up to 5 times faster graphics for graphics-intensive apps and games. The 16-core Neural Engine provides advanced machine learning capabilities, making the laptop ideal for data science and other AI-related tasks.

The laptop features 8GB of unified memory, allowing users to complete their tasks fast and fluidly. The Superfast SSD storage allows apps and files to launch instantly, saving valuable time. The active cooling system sustains incredible performance, ensuring that the laptop runs smoothly, even during demanding workloads.

The laptop has a 13.3-inch Retina display with 500 nits of brightness, providing vibrant colors and incredible image detail. The FaceTime HD camera with an advanced image signal processor makes video calls clearer and sharper than ever before.

One of the most remarkable features of this MacBook Pro is the battery life. It can last up to 20 hours on a single charge, the longest ever in a Mac, allowing users to stay productive all day long.

In summary, the Apple MacBook Pro with M1 chip is a high-performance laptop that delivers fast and efficient performance. With its advanced features and long battery life, it is ideal for professionals who need to work on demanding tasks for extended periods.

Product Overview:

The ASUS ROG Strix G15 (2022) Gaming Laptop is a powerful and high-performance machine designed for gamers and professionals alike. This laptop features a 15.6-inch Full HD 1920x1080 IPS-Type Display with a 300Hz refresh rate, providing an immersive gaming experience with smooth and fluid visuals.

The laptop is powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 7 5800H Processor, which has a base clock speed of 3.2 GHz and can boost up to 4.4 GHz. This processor is capable of handling complex tasks and demanding games with ease. It has a 16M Cache, which allows for faster processing and improved system performance.

The graphics on this laptop are handled by the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti 4GB GDDR6 with ROG Boost, which offers impressive gaming performance and can handle demanding games at high settings with ease. This graphics card has a powerful ray-tracing performance, allowing for more realistic lighting and reflections in games.

The laptop comes with 16GB DDR4 3200MHz RAM and a 1TB PCIe SSD, providing fast boot and load times, as well as ample storage space for games, media, and other files. The laptop also has an RGB keyboard, which allows for customization of the keyboard backlighting.

Product Overview:

The ASUS ZenBook 15 Ultra-Slim Laptop, model number UX535LI-XH77T, is a powerful and innovative laptop designed for professionals and power users who demand high performance and versatility in their computing devices. It features a 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080 pixels) touch display with ultra-narrow bezels, providing an immersive and expansive visual experience. The display is powered by an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti graphics coprocessor, which is capable of handling demanding graphical tasks, such as video editing and gaming.

Under the hood, the laptop is equipped with an Intel Core i7-10750H processor, which is a high-performance CPU with six cores and 12 threads. It has a clock speed of 2.6 GHz, which can be boosted up to 5.0 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost technology. The processor is paired with 16 GB of DDR4 RAM, which ensures smooth multitasking and fast application loading times. The laptop also comes with a 1 TB SSD, which provides ample storage space and fast read and write speeds.

One of the standout features of the ASUS ZenBook 15 is its innovative ScreenPad 2.0. This is a 5.65-inch interactive touchscreen trackpad that provides a secondary display for multitasking and productivity. The ScreenPad can be used for a wide range of functions, including app switching, handwriting, and numeric data entry. It can also be customized with various apps and widgets to suit the user's needs.

Specifications that a laptop for Data Science should have

The general motto for data analysis is:

"With larger data sets, you get more insights."

Unfortunately, that also translates to a higher demand for hardware resources. So what is a good setup to start with for someone who is working with data science?

RAM memory required

RAM is the most important thing for data science because it is the main bottleneck with large data sets. Things speed up by an order of magnitude when all your processing is in memory or RAM. A 16GB RAM is ideal, but this is not always available on laptops under $ 600.

One piece of advice: Don't go below 8GB!

Disk or SSD drives

The second factor is the hard drive. An SSD will make a huge difference, a cheap SSD will be 2-3 times faster than a normal hard drive. A good SSD will be 4-5 times faster.

CPU

Processing power is always good, but storage speed or RAM will most likely bog you down.

There is no point in being able to do a million calculations per second if your hard drive can only provide up to 1000 data per second.

After maximizing these, spend the rest of your budget on a "modern" CPU, not necessarily a fast "CPU", because they are all fast today. Note that, unlike RAM and storage, these cannot be upgraded, so try to get the fastest you can afford.

Graphics card (GPU)

If you work with a deep neural network or just NN (parallel computing), get the graphics card with as many CUDA Cores / Shaders as you can. NVIDIA or AMD, not Intel HD cards.

Keyboard

It is not always possible to get an excellent keyboard with all the mentioned computing advantages. So if you're going to type a lot, get an external keyboard and mouse/trackball.

My recommendation is to make sure they are ergonomic - RSI and tendonitis are unpleasant.

Display

Minimum 14-15 inches. You'll probably end up getting into more powerful machines at some point, so the actual status screen/interface becomes very important as well.

Ports

Another advantage is making sure your laptop has a Thunderbolt (USB Type-C) port so you can transfer data to/from external drives at blazing-fast speeds. Most of today's laptops have one.

OSX

Mac vs. Windows vs. Linux: Depends on the industry/company you work for or your personal preferences. But I would recommend opting for a laptop that can support a Linux-flavored operating system ostensibly like a Lenovo / MacBook.

A Linux-flavored operating system (Windows doesn't connect well and requires a lot of extras to accommodate a typical workflow that ends up in the cloud) may at some point become your default operating system.

There is no best laptop for data analysis as such. In fact, any laptop would be good for analytics purposes if you do all your computing in the cloud.

Therefore, this section will mainly focus on those who are trying to do as much computing as possible on their new equipment and this, in turn, depends on the type of software they use and also the type of data analysis.

I'll start with the basics for those just starting out in the field, perhaps using Lynda.com or learning the tools themselves. If you are not a beginner and plan to do all your data analysis at home, just skip to the hardware section.

Doing data analysis
There are two ways to perform data analysis: using the cloud or with your own platform.

A) The cloud: recommended for learning data analysis

Using the cloud means renting IT services from big companies like Amazon. Basically, you are leaving all computing/processing to your huge groups of computers.

If you go for a good cloud environment with an AWS subscription, you'll get access to EMR multi-machine clusters on-demand at hourly rates. You will also have access to its other data stores like ElasticSearch and Redshift etc.

All you need at home is a basic laptop or desktop PC with 4-8GB of RAM and a decent internet connection (1Mbps). This will not only save you a lot of money but also time.

Other specs to consider when going this route are a long battery life (so you can do this on the go as well), a multi-core CPU (so you can multitask smoothly), and maybe a backlit keyboard for work at night.

B) Building a platform at home

Building an in-house platform for "big data analytics" is quite challenging. Laptops are out of the question. You will need several machines with:

• Multi-core processors (8-core AMDs are cheaper)
• Minimum of 16 GB of RAM per machine
• Storage drives in RAID configurations

On the other hand, if you are on a budget and still would like to build a cluster at home, you can always go for a used server setup:

• Check the listings on Amazon, Ebay or any other e-commerce site
• Post on social media and ask if anyone sells their old server

Software and Specifications

Just saying statistical analysis doesn't tell you exactly what you're going to need in a laptop. So in this section, I'm going to briefly go over the most widely used software in Data Analytics and talk about the specs that you should focus on.

Students

If you are a student, you will probably end up using a combination of the following programs/languages:

• R
• Python
• SAS
• SPSS
• Stata
• Tableau
• RStudio
• Rapid Miner
• MatLab

For that, you will only need a laptop with a decent workspace (keyboard + screen), as today's modern laptops have enough CPU and RAM for all these basic languages ​​and software. Any laptop with + 2.5 GHz and 2 cores + 8GB RAM should make working with all of that a breeze.

Also, what will not be necessary is big data processing. Universities have many servers and things for that.

Installing modules / extensions

What will be a real hassle is having the ecosystem fully installed and running on your machine. Both R and Python have dozens of modules that you can install for Data Science, none of which are easy to install.

There are guides everywhere, but it is also a matter of luck, sometimes it can be easy depending on your operating system and how exactly you install each one.

If you can't support a Linux system, I would recommend a MacBook, any would be fine, even older models as they still have their software up to date.

Professionals

The software is pretty much the same, perhaps with the addition of RStudio, Rapid Miner, Spotfire, and most importantly, Hadoop. The latter implies, of course, the use of data sets in the GB range.

I would say that there are three types of data scientists depending on the problem they want to solve: volume, speed, or variety.

If you are a data scientist of the volume or speed type, the best laptop platform to go for is a laptop that allows you to easily connect to the cloud environments described above.

If you work frequently in the third V, several problems. You will benefit much more from an expensive laptop (relatively speaking).

Machine learning

And if you work with machine learning algorithms, then, as you probably know, you will get better results with more and more data, this translates to algorithms that need both CPU and memory. If you plan to do your data analysis on your laptop, then focus on CPU and memory.

If you use R and especially the RevoScaleR package, you can go as far as you need with more cores even from your GPU. So pay close attention to the CPU / Memory / GPU sections.

R

Dealing with long data sets with R is also easier with more cores. Getting more cores can help too, but only up to a point. R itself can generally only use one kernel at a time internally.

Also, for many data analysis problems, the bottlenecks are disk I / O and RAM speed, so efficient use of more than 4-8 cores on basic hardware can be difficult.

Hadoop

A common approach is to use a sample from the large data set, a large sample that can fit in memory. With Hadoop, you can now run many exploratory data analysis tasks on entire data sets, without sampling.

Just write a map reduction job, a PIG or HIVE script, run it directly in Hadoop on the full dataset, and get the results right on your laptop.

In many cases, machine learning algorithms perform best when they have more data to learn, particularly for techniques such as clustering, outlier detection, and product recommendations.

Historically, large data sets were either unavailable or too expensive to acquire and store, so machine learning professionals had to find innovative ways to improve models with fairly limited data sets.

With Hadoop as the platform that provides linearly scalable storage and processing power, you can now store ALL your data in RAW format and use the entire data set to create better and more accurate models.

Python / Pandas

Data Analysis - Using pandas to read CSV and Excel files, clean, filter, partition, aggregate and summarize data, and produce simple charts

Similarly, if your application requires joining large tables with billions of rows to create feature vectors for each data object, HIVE or PIG are very useful and efficient for this task.

Training a heavy neural network can be out of the reach of any laptop, as doing a large repeated measures analysis (variance/covariance matrix explodes exponentially)

All the answers are great.

Pay close attention to those sections.

Most machine learning algorithms are CPU intensive and memory intensive. Look for the Intel Core i7 processor, which is currently the best processor and the 4-core is ideal when you have to take advantage of the thread for large data sets. Remember that I am also talking about data manipulation work along with computing.