The requirements for the best laptops for Cricut are fairly minimal: the software isn’t hugely demanding, and you don’t need an intimidating gaming machine to create and cut your designs. That said, there are a few features Cricut designers should look out for, such as decent screens, portability if you like to craft on the go, and extra memory and processing power for multitasking.
We’ve put the latest laptops through their paces with Cricut Design Space and highlighted the ones that made the cut. Our top pick is the Lenovo Ideapad 5 2-in-1, which is a portable and practical powerhouse for crafting at home and elsewhere.
If you want to take your Cricut work to the next level, check out the best laptops for graphic design.
The best laptop for Cricut overall
Five-second review: This versatile laptop couldn’t be better for Cricut, landing in the exact perfect middle ground between high-end 2-in-1s and budget clamshells.
Pricing: Starting around $879 / £849 for a 512GB hard drive, the IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 delivers great value. However, it’s worth spending a bit more to get additional storage space.
Design and build: Lenovo’s sturdy 360-degree hinge is the star here, allowing you to prop up the laptop in tent mode next to your Cricut machine. The 14-inch 16:10 touchscreen provides generous vertical headroom for Design Space canvas menus. The inclusion of two full-size USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, and a microSD card reader means you won't need to juggle dongles. At around 1.5kg (3.5 lbs), it is a little on the heavier side, but it's a small price to pay for such a solid build.
Performance: Powered by modern multi-core processors paired with high-speed 16GB LPDDR5X memory, the IdeaPad 5 2-in-1 handles Cricut Design Space, Canva, and 2D vector apps such as Inkscape effortlessly. Multi-layered SVG files load quickly, and positioning design elements with your fingers feels natural and precise. Battery life easily covers 10 to 11 hours of real-world use, ensuring you won't be reaching for an adapter when you're knee-deep in a design sesh.
The best budget laptop for Cricut
Five-second review: While this laptop came out in 2022, it’s utterly solid and more than meets the demands of Cricut Design Space with the power to run vector apps such as Inkscape as well.
Pricing: Retailing between $399–$499 / £380–£450, the Aspire 5 doesn’t break the bank and allows beginner crafters to establish a full Cricut setup for less than $1,000 / £1,000.
Design and build: With an understated silver and black plastic body, the Aspire 5 keeps it simple. At 1.45kg, it's lightweight enough to carry between rooms or take to workshops. The 14-inch 1080p display is surrounded by thicker bezels and doesn't offer the highest peak brightness or colour accuracy, but it provides plenty of screen space. Connectivity is a plus: full-sized USB-A ports, HDMI, Ethernet, and USB-C mean you can plug in all your cutting machines, flash drives, and external monitors.
Performance: Powered by an 11th Gen Intel Core i5 CPU with 8GB RAM, the Aspire 5 handles everyday tasks and Cricut Design Space without issue. Battery life clocks in at just under 6 hours in our testing, so you’ll need to plug in for all-day crafting sessions.
Read more: Acer Aspire 5 (2022) review
The best mid-price laptop for Cricut
Five-second review: This laptop is perfect for Cricut users who want a large screen at a mid-range price — and it’s built with over 70% recycled materials in its chassis
Price: At $999 / £999, the Aspire Vero 16 represents good value. Whilst you could find laptops with more powerful discrete graphics at this price point, the Vero's combination of a large 16-inch display, decent battery life, sustainable construction, and versatile connectivity makes it an appealing choice.
Design: The Aspire Vero 16 is very distinctive with its textured grey 'Iron' finish made from recycled plastic and bio-based oyster shell materials. The keyboard lifts slightly when you open the screen, creating a more comfortable typing angle for long Design Space sessions. The 16-inch IPS display offers a resolution of 1920 x 1200, providing ample workspace for managing complex Cricut projects, but it remains reasonably portable at 1.8kg.
Performance: In our testing, the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor handled Design Space admirably. The 16GB of RAM proved adequate for running Design Space alongside web browsers and design applications like Inkscape or Canva. The IPS screen, whilst not OLED, delivers good brightness and colour accuracy, ensuring your designs are accurate before cutting. The USB4 ports are particularly useful, offering fast data transfer when working with large design files or connecting to external storage. Battery life exceeded 11 hours in our tests.
Learn more: Acer Aspire Vero 16 review
The best laptop for Cricut for portability
Five-second review: The Microsoft Surface Pro 12 is a lightweight, versatile tablet-laptop hybrid running full Windows 11. It's ideal for Cricut users who need maximum portability and the flexibility to work anywhere.
Pricing: Starting at £799 / $799.99, the Surface Pro 12 appears competitively priced, but it's important to note that the keyboard case ($249 / £249) and stylus are sold separately, which can significantly increase the total cost. However, for Cricut users who prioritise portability and touchscreen functionality, the base package offers good value.
Design and build: At just 686g, the Surface Pro 12 is remarkably portable – you'll barely notice it in your bag alongside your Cricut supplies. The 12-inch touchscreen with its 3:2 aspect ratio provides a good workspace for Design Space, and the 90Hz refresh rate makes scrolling and manipulating designs feel smooth and responsive. The two USB-C ports handle charging, video output, and data transfer, and the 12MP rear camera is useful for photographing materials or finished projects.
Performance: In our testing, the Snapdragon X Plus processor handled Cricut Design Space admirably, and the touchscreen proved particularly useful for selecting and moving elements in Design Space. The bright screen ensures your designs look accurate whether you're working indoors or near windows. Battery life exceeded 14 hours in our tests, so you can easily work through multiple crafting sessions or an entire day at a craft fair without needing to recharge.
Learn more: Microsoft Surface Pro 12 review
The best touchscreen laptop for Cricut
Five-second review: The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI is a gorgeous, hyper-portable laptop that weighs in at just under 1kg. It handles Cricut work, graphic design and light creative tasks with ease, and its nigh-on 14-hour battery life means it'll last a full day of making.
Pricing: The Acer Swift Edge 14 AI retails at $1,199 / £1,399, though it can be found for less at major retailers. That's a premium ask for a machine with integrated graphics, but the combination of sub-1kg portability, a class-leading 3K OLED touchscreen and capable all-day performance justifies the cost for makers who need to work on the move.
Design and build: Built from a high-grade magnesium-aluminium alloy, the Swift Edge 14 AI achieves a remarkable balance of lightness and durability. The 14-inch 3K OLED display is a clear highlight, with a Corning Gorilla Matte Pro anti-glare treatment that makes it far more usable in brightly lit environments than typical glossy OLED panels. The touchscreen is responsive and accurate for Design Space use, and port selection is generous.
Performance: The Intel Core Ultra 9 288V CPU handles Cricut Design Space effortlessly, including complex multi-layer projects. For photo editing, the high single-core performance (up to 5.1GHz) delivers excellent responsiveness, and its AI acceleration via the 48-TOPS NPU adds useful speed to AI-powered tools. The integrated Intel Arc 140V GPU is capable for 2D design, light video editing and basic 3D work, though it won't match discrete GPU laptops for demanding production tasks.
Read more: Acer Swift Edge 14 AI review
The best large laptop for Cricut
Five-second review: With its large 16-inch touchscreen and sturdy 360-degree hinge, The Dell 16 Plus 2-in-1 is ideal for Cricut users who want to switch between laptop mode for design work and tent mode for presenting projects or following tutorials whilst crafting.
Pricing: The Dell 16 Plus 2-in-1 starts under £1,000 / $1,000 for the base model, with the higher-spec version (featuring 32GB RAM and a 2.5K Mini-LED screen) priced at £1,299 / $1,399. For Cricut users, the upgraded model represents excellent value.
Design and build: Dell's build quality is evident throughout: there's no flex in the body or lid, which is crucial when you're flipping between laptop, tent, and tablet modes. The 360-degree hinge is impressively sturdy, holding the screen firmly in whatever position you choose, whether you're working at your desk or propping it up in tent mode to follow a Cricut tutorial whilst cutting. The 16-inch Mini-LED touchscreen is the standout feature. However, portability is compromised by the device's 2.05kg weight, making it less suitable for frequent travellers.
Performance: In our testing, the Dell 16 Plus 2-in-1 handled Cricut Design Space with ease, allowing us to work on complex projects with multiple layers without any lag.The 32GB RAM configuration proved particularly useful when multitasking between design software, reference materials, and Cricut's various tools. Battery life came in at just under 9 hours in our tests, which should see you through a full day of crafting.
Learn more: Dell 16 Plus 2-in-1 review
How to choose the best laptop for Cricut
What's the best laptop for Cricut Explore Air 2, Cricut Maker 3, Cricut Explore 3, and other Cricut machines? The good news is that the minimum requirements are met by a wide range of Windows laptops and MacBooks, including many budget models. If you're really short of cash, be aware that you don't actually need a laptop to run Cricut's Design Space. You can use a smartphone or tablet instead.
However, there are two reasons why you might want to go for one of the more expensive laptops on the market. Firstly, because it’s going to provide a better computing experience in general. And secondly, because some of the more advanced Cricut features, such as Offset, are not supported with the minimum system requirements but require higher system specs, such as Windows 10 64-bit. Higher specs may also be needed if you do design work in other software, such as Illustrator, or if you make videos to promote your craft business.
How we test
Laptops are complex and extremely varied, so numerous capabilities need to be tested, prodded and assessed. Cricut isn't the most demanding application, but a good screen is still important, with brightness, contrast, colour coverage and pixel density all on the list.
Touch responsiveness including support for input pens is also key, with the number of pressure levels supported always an important factor. Next up we assess overall form factor, portability and build quality, which in this context means everything from conventional clamshell laptops to 2-in-1s and tablet convertibles with detachable keyboards and even foldable laptops.
You absolutely don't need an epic 16-core CPU or powerful graphics chip for Cricut, but we test laptops to ensure a decent baseline of both GPU and processor performance.
Connectivity is another key element for any laptop, which means looking out for features like Thunderbolt tom ensure plnty of bandwidth, USB-C for univrsal connectivity and the specification of wireless interfaces. Good battery life is of course always desirable for any portable drawing device.
We also assess ergonomics, build and usability, including keyboard quality, chassis rigidity, trackpad response and more to build up a practical picture of how well a laptop performs in the real world rather than merely benchmarks. That said, we do run a series of benchmark tests on all laptops we get in for review, which will be different based on the intended use for them. All the laptops in this guide have been run through the following tests (provided the OS is compatible for each one):
• Cinebench R23/2024 - this assesses the performance of a computer's CPU and GPU using real-world 3D rendering tasks
• Geekbench 5/6 - this tests the CPU's processing power, both by using a single core for a single task at a time as well as all the CPU's core to see its ability to multitask
• PCMark 10 - this test assesses a computer’s ability to run all everyday tasks from web browsing to digital content creation, testing app launch speeds, 3D rendering and even battery life
FAQs
What kind of laptop do you need for a Cricut?
Cricut recommends at least an Intel Core i3 or AMD equivalent, 4GB of RAM and 2GB of free storage, but in practice you'll want more headroom for a smooth experience. We'd suggest 8GB of RAM as a comfortable minimum for running Design Space alongside a browser and basic design tools, with 16GB recommended if you work on complex multi-layer projects or use additional software like Illustrator or Canva. A display with good colour accuracy is worth prioritising, since the colours you see on screen should match your finished cuts as closely as possible.
Do Chromebooks work with Cricut?
Yes, you can use a Cricut with a Chromebook via the Cricut Design Space Android app, available from the Google Play Store. It supports most core features, though some advanced functionality available in the full Windows or Mac desktop version may be limited or absent. For simple to mid-complexity projects (cutting shapes, working with pre-made designs and basic text work) a Chromebook works well. If you rely heavily on importing complex SVG files or advanced Design Space features, a Windows or Mac laptop will give you the most complete experience.
Do I need a touchscreen laptop for Cricut?
A touchscreen isn't essential for Cricut work, but it can make working in Design Space more intuitive, particularly for selecting, resizing and repositioning design elements. If you do opt for a touchscreen, a 2-in-1 that can fold into tent mode is especially useful for following along with tutorials while you cut. That said, the vast majority of Cricut users work perfectly well with a standard laptop and trackpad, and display quality and processing power will have a greater impact on your day-to-day experience than touchscreen capability.
