As an Amazon Associate ProRec.com earns from qualifying purchases. Any links that take you to products are affiliate links, and we may earn a commission if you make a purchase. We appreciate your support.
All text and image links lead to Amazon unless stated otherwise. All product scores are based on ProRec’s in-house scoring model
| Thumbnail | Rekordbox Laptops | ProRec Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 | 8.6 | Check Price on Amazon | |
 | 8.4 | Check Price on Amazon | |
 | 8.1 | Check Price on Amazon |
Introduction
If you’ve worked with DJing software such as Serato or Virtual DJ, you’ll know that barring a few use cases, you don’t really need a powerful machine, which also holds true for Rekordbox. While individual components are pretty straightforward, things can get a bit tricky when you factor in port selection, DPC latency, portability, the choice of platform, and an invariable swathe of other considerations that go into buying a laptop that will serve as a reliable companion through crucial gigs.
Recommended Read: Best Laptop for Making Beats
When choosing the best laptop for RekordBox, you’ll want to first determine your use case. If you’re planning to get into more CPU-heavy applications such as live stem separation and neural mixing, you should aim for more processing power than if you’re just mixing tracks. Broadly speaking, any M-series Apple silicon or an Intel Core i5/AMD Ryzen 5, or above will do the trick.
Rekordbox isn’t as intense, so you can get away with a budget machine such as an HP with 8GB of RAM, however, 16GB is ideal if you don’t want the device to get sluggish over time, especially when loading stems. As for storage, unless you want to wait for your libraries to load every time you open them, you’ll want to steer clear of mechanical drives. Additionally, we recommend running the Rekordbox music database off of an external drive so you can easily move your library to another machine if needed.
Form factor and durability are just as important as the physical specs since you’re often going to be lugging the device around in tight spaces. Macs have somewhat of an advantage when it comes to build quality, and while Windows machines don’t always have the same durable construction, you do have more form factors and the option of replacing any parts you want.
Apart from hardware, whichever device you choose will have to be optimized for the best experience. This includes prioritizing background processors for scheduling, terminating any unnecessary background services, removing bloatware, and turning off auto-updates before your gig so you don’t run the risk of rebooting mid-performance.
If you’re a video DJ or want to start adding some visualizations, you’ll want to make sure your device has a decent graphics card and a color accurate display large enough to comfortably work on. Additionally, for both audio or video DJing, you’ll want to ensure the LatencyMon DPC latency test for the device scores as low as possible so your sound and videos don’t skip during playback.
Finally, if you’re working with a deck or controller, you’ll want the right ports for your peripherals. While you can expand connectivity with a USB hub, most audio devices can have unwanted noise unless you connect them to your laptop directly, so it’s best to get the ports you need upfront.
Best Laptop For Rekordbox Reviews
All text and image links lead to Amazon unless stated otherwise. All product scores are based on ProRec’s in-house scoring model
Apple’s M2 MacBook Air comes equipped with both an 8-core CPU and GPU, along with a 16-core neural engine. The addition of an extra core over the previous M1 model lets it perform up to 18% faster across the board, and while the specs are excessive for DJing alone, they’re certainly nice to have.
With a few hours of 4-channel mixing on a DDJ-1000/FLX10 setup across a few sessions, the M2 Air ran everything without any issues. We did get the odd hiccups when switching between performance and export modes, and saw some freezing whenever we switched the audio output. However, that is more so an issue with Rekordbox’s optimization than with the MacBook Air.
While the onboard GPU is serviceable, you won’t be able to do very demanding video mixing on it – however, there are external solutions such as e-GPUs to make up for it.
Despite the passive cooling, the M2 Air didn’t get remotely warm for us through our 8 hour sessions. There is a case to be made for DJing outdoors however, especially in hotter climates. If you’re planning on doing a gig out in the sun, you’ll want to arrange for shade and a fan to keep your equipment cool.
The 16GB of onboard RAM is more than enough to run two decks with 3-4 minutes of songs, and even holds up well with upwards of 4 decks with long pre-mixed songs without disabling background processes.
While the memory is perfect for a Rekordbox mixing setup, the onboard 512GB SSD might run out depending on how large your song library is. A collection of audio files around 1000 songs can easily take up 12GB of space depending on quality. Unless you’re planning on keeping your library to a set number of tracks, you’ll want to consider an external drive.
The M2 Pro’s 13.6-inch P3-enabled 2560 x 1664 LED display is great for a portable rig, but we found ourselves struggling with workspace when using DVS and mixing with multiple decks. Luckily, the higher resolution meant we could scale the display lower for more real-estate when needed. Additionally, with 500 nits of brightness, the device doesn’t suffer from low visibility when DJing outdoors.
With a frame measuring 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches and a weight of 2.7 pounds, the M2 MacBook Pro is easy to maneuver around one-handed, and its smaller footprint fits it snugly in any booth. The Air also has a remarkable battery, which lasts 4 hour gigs comfortably with charge to spare. Moreover, if you don’t use a powerbank, the magnetic MagSafe cable reduces some risk of equipment damage.
In terms of connectivity, the MacBook Air offers 2x Thunderbolt ports, 1x MagSafe charging port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is pretty bare, even for portable laptops. We found ourselves having to dock the device in exclusively when working, and had to carry around an external hub for a mixer connection. If you don’t have one lying around, this is an additional expense you’ll have to account for.
As with most Apple products, the build quality is exceptional, and the device is rugged enough to be used in crowded clubs and festivals. When playing back audio, the device doesn’t suffer from any DPC related latency either.
The M2 Air also has a solid DAC, which comes in handy when you want to tweak tracks with a pair of headphones without plugging into an interface. Additionally, the keys are comfortable to work on with decent travel, the Touch ID is fairly responsive, and the 1080p webcam is great for a device this size.
Overall, the MacBook Air is probably overkill for most Rekordbox applications, but is nonetheless an amazing DJing machine with its fantastic set of fleshed-out features and remarkable build quality.
M2 MacBook Air Benefits
The M2 Air’s performance on 4-channel mixing is exceptionally stable, with no visible freezing throughout our sessions.
The battery life is remarkable, which works out great for outdoor gigs.
With 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, storing song libraries and running multi-deck setups is responsive.
M2 MacBook Air Drawbacks
With just two Thunderbolt ports, you don’t get a lot of ports left over after connecting decks, though a hub solves that issue somewhat.
With a fanless setup, you run the risk of some overheating during outdoor gigs, but a cooling pad or fan will keep temperatures in check.
When working with DVS and multiple decks, the 13-inch screen can feel limiting, however, it can be solved with an external monitor.
All text and image links lead to Amazon unless stated otherwise. All product scores are based on ProRec’s in-house scoring model
While it isn’t Dell’s flagship lineup, the Inspiron line of products offer great value, which holds true for the Latitude 9420 as well. The device comes with an Intel Core i7-1185G7 with 4 cores and 8 threads clocked at 3.0GHz which boosts to 4.8GHz under load. Compared to the previous Latitude 9410, the newer one is 37.5% faster in multicore performance, however, it lags behind the M2 MacBook Air by 54.5%.
The increase in multicore performance goes a long way, especially on applications such as multi-channel pitch lock, multi-FX, and even comes in handy when live streaming with Rekordbox. Analyzing tracks didn’t take us very long, and we were able to multitask quite well with VoiceMeeter Banana. This isn’t anywhere near the processing power of the M2 Air, but we didn’t need the extra performance overhead anyway.
However, the device does heat up under heavy use, and the fans can get pretty loud – which is something to account for if you’re going to use it for recording. For outdoor gigs, you’ll want to consider setting up in shade with a cooling pad to avoid freezing and crashing from overheating. Additionally, you don’t get a dedicated graphics card, so video mixing won’t be possible.
For the best stability, we recommend running maintenance now and then, removing bloatware, switching unused services and programs when on gigs, and keeping Windows updated.
With 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM, we didn’t have to wait extra seconds to have stems load, and mixing with song filters and cue points only took about 40% off the total memory. In our experience, there isn’t much audio processing you can’t do on Rekordbox with the Latitude’s capacity.
While we did manage with the given 512GB of SSD storage, it will require refreshing and deleting old data to have room for more in the long run. This is more important if you work with uncompressed lossless files – with a high bitrate, you can easily fill up gigabytes off your SSD with a large enough library so you might want to look into upgrading down the line.
The Latitude 9420’s 14-inch 1920 x 1200 WUXGA display looks really good – the color is great with 100% sRGB coverage, 500 nits of brightness for comfortable outdoor usage, and no visible backlight bleeding. If you’re spending hours mixing a track, it might as well be on one that is pleasant to work on, especially with blue light filtering with ComfortView Plus.
Measuring 8.5 x 12.2 x 0.55 inches and weighing 2.93 pounds, the Latitude 9420 is reasonably compact and easy to carry around. With audio playback and light mixing, we got about 5 hours on the balanced preset, but that can easily be cut down to 3 depending on the load. The silver lining here is that the charger does get the battery to 80% in 40 minutes when you do need to top up.
The Latitude does offer more ports than the MacBook Air, housing 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 1x HDMI 2.0 port, 1x MicroSD card slot, a security lock, and a universal audio jack. This covers the bulk of our Rekordbox gear (controller, external drive, peripherals) and can always be expanded with a hub when necessary.
The frame itself feels sturdy, despite the depressible backplate and flex on the cover and keyboard. The trackpad is decent, and the keys themselves are soft and comfortable, so we didn’t feel fatigued when typing. The IR camera is a great addition as well, however, the 720p webcam has some issues with white balancing. In terms of privacy, you do get an electro-mechanical shutter for the webcam.
Unlike most Dell laptops, the DPC latency is impressive as well, measuring 502μs on LatencyMon – which reflects in our stutter-free experience throughout testing.
All in all, Dell’s Latitude 9420 ticks some crucial boxes for any Rekordbox machine, and you can expect a good DJing experience with its respectable CPU and decent port selection.
Dell Latitude 9420 Benefits
With 16GB of RAM the Latitude has no issues with loading stems or mixing with song filters and cue points.
The Latitude performs well in applications such as multi-channel pitch locks, FX, and analyzing tracks with its i7 processor.
The display is excellent to work on with 100% sRGB coverage and blue light filtering.
Dell Latitude 9420 Drawbacks
The device does heat up somewhat especially when used outdoors, so you will need a cooling solution for Djing outdoors.
With only around 5 hours of battery life, the Dell Latitude is better off being used plugged in.
The build quality does show in its depressible back cover, but it isn’t a deal-breaker if it’s used with care.
All text and image links lead to Amazon unless stated otherwise. All product scores are based on ProRec’s in-house scoring model
Lenovo’s ThinkPad P15v Gen 3 comes with a hexa-core AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 6650H clocked at 3.3GHz with boost up to 4.5GHz. Compared to its 2nd gen counterpart, it performs up to 20% better on multicore applications. It also stacks up well against both the M2 MacBook Air and the Latitude 9420, performing 5.8% and 63.6% faster than each respectively.
The ThinkPad does much better than its competition across the board. Our tests with 4-channel controllers with DVS and a bunch of effects did nothing to bog it down, and with the onboard AMD Radeon 660M graphics, 1080p video mixing works pretty well. Since AMD isn’t as broadly supported by Rekordbox, we did get a bit of freezing when messing with waveforms during larger 8 hour sets. This should be much smoother in future Rekordbox optimization updates.
The more likely factor to bog down performance is the thermal design. The fans are definitely audible and pretty much always running and always warm to the touch. We didn’t get any noticeable issues with throttling, however, you will definitely need external cooling solutions for outdoor gigs when it’s hot outside.
Alternatively, some of the newer Rekordbox updates have caused some freezes when moving tracks around and other issues with Beatgrid analysis, so you could experiment with an older version for more stability.
With the ThinkPad’s 16GB of system memory, we didn’t have any issues with mixing and even live streaming. One notable issue here is that you can get sets with noticeable memory leak, especially with Windows 11. To fix it, we recommend disabling DVS, Lyric, Video, and Lighting functions when they’re not in use.
The 512GB SSD is sufficient, however, we recommend moving music and databases to an external drive whenever possible. This allows us to use Rekordbox across devices with the same libraries, playlists, tags, hot cues, etc. when away from a deck, and offers some safety in case your laptop fails.
In terms of the display, the ThinkPad offers a 15.6-inch 1080p FHD display with 100% sRGB coverage. The brightness is serviceable with 300 nits, but it does get difficult to work on when outdoors, even with the anti-glare. While the screen is large enough to multitask with, there is the option of hiding the pad/platter for extra real-estate.
The chassis measures 14.43 x 9.84 x 0.89 inches and weighs 4.98 pounds which can take some getting used to if you’re used to slimmer modern laptops. Testing with a few live sets, we got up to 7 hours of uptime at medium-low brightness. This is better than the Latitude, but the lack of a USB-C charging option means that it can’t be topped up with a powerbank.
The ThinkPad P15v has an exceptionally good port selection, offering 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 port, 1x USB 4 port, 1x HDMI 2.1 port, 1x SD card reader, 1x Ethernet port, 1x AC power connector, 1x Security keyhole, and a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack. Suffice it to say we didn’t have any issues connecting our decks, controllers, and other equipment, although carrying around the heavy charging brick can get tedious.
As with most ThinkPads despite the use of plastic, the build quality is quite sturdy. The lid holds up well to flexing, although the keyboard does give somewhat. The keys feel amazing to type on, however, the placement is off-centered, which was a bit disorientating when typing. The front webcam is decent enough, and the 404.1μs DPC latency is an upgrade from both its predecessor and the Dell.
If you’re looking for a no-nonsense laptop that has great performance, more ports than you’ll need, and more upgradability than most modern laptops, the Lenovo ThinkPad P15v Gen 3 is a phenomenal choice.
Lenovo ThinkPad P15v Gen 3 Benefits
The ThinkPad performs exceptionally well with DVS and multi-channel controllers with ease.
With an AMD Radeon 660M onboard, the ThinkPad has some capacity for 1080p video mixing.
The ThinkPad’s 404.1μs DPC latency makes sure there are no stutters when mixing and playing back tracks, and its varied ports can fit in a lot of equipment.
Lenovo ThinkPad P15v Gen 3 Drawbacks
The ThinkPad struggles somewhat with heat, running warm in most situations, however, there are easy cooling solutions to counter it.
With 300 nits of brightness on offer, outdoor gigs can be difficult, especially under the sun.
The ThinkPad is bulky as far as modern laptops go, however, the added upgradability more than makes up for it.
Verdict
Based on our scoring model, the categories with the most variance are Price to Performance, Connectivity, and Additional Features. In terms of value, all three products offer a lot of bang for your buck, but the ThinkPad does noticeably better than the Dell Latitude and the M2 Air when analyzing stems with a lot of effects, despite being much cheaper than the latter. However, the focus on performance does mean it has less features on offer, which is something Apple’s offering does much better, except on ports, where it lacks the most.
The ThinkPad P15v does well on a number of metrics. Not only does it thoroughly beat the Dell Latitude in performance, it also pulls ahead of the M2 Air by a slim margin. In terms of connectivity, both the Latitude and the ThinkPad offer more ports than the frugal dual Thunderbolt setup on the MacBook, which ranks last in that category. The one area that the ThinkPad struggles with is in its feature set, which is significantly lacking compared to a more well-rounded DJing device such as the M2 Air, though it does sport good latency numbers.
The MacBook Air is the most expensive option on this list, and it’s by far the best built machine of the three with an exceptional display, great battery life, low DPC latency, a fanless design, and more features that earn it the top spot in that category. Despite having the same amount of RAM as both the Latitude and ThinkPad, the M2 Air’s more efficient design ends up giving it an advantage which reflects in its overall score. The Latitude also ends up being neck-and-neck with the MacBook and the ThinkPad as far as storage goes, with the added advantage of upgradability.
Looking at the numbers, the best laptop for Rekordbox is the Lenovo ThinkPad P15v Gen 3 with a total of 8.6 points. While it is by slim margins, the ThinkPad has a lot more performance on offer than even the massively more expensive M2 Air despite similar storage and RAM. The Lenovo also has the most varied port selection of all three products so you don’t have to carry around hubs and dongles to plug controllers in. The build quality is sturdy enough to survive crowded gigs, and with a decent battery and some potential for upgrades in the future.
If you’re looking for a solid Rekordbox driver for your DJing needs, the Lenovo ThinkPad P15v Gen 3 is a no-brainer!
![Best Lenovo Laptop for Music Production [2023 Reviewed]](https://ProRec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Lenovo-Logo-PNG-File-180x180.png "Best Lenovo Laptop for Music Production [2023 Reviewed]"){kind=logo}
![Best Laptop with JBL Speakers + Alternatives [2024]](https://ProRec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/JBL-180x180.png "Best Laptop with JBL Speakers + Alternatives [2024]")
![Best MacBook for Pro Tools (Pro & Air) M1 M2 [2023 Reviewed]](https://ProRec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Pro-Tools-180x180.png "Best MacBook for Pro Tools (Pro & Air) M1 M2 [2023 Reviewed]")
![Best Laptop for Serato DJ Software [2023 Reviewed]](https://ProRec.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Serato-DJ-180x180.jpg "Best Laptop for Serato DJ Software [2023 Reviewed]")
