Best Laptop for Cricut: What Do You Need to Run Your Machine?

You will need a device of some sort to run your machine whether that is a laptop, desktop computer, or mobile device. So, what is the best laptop for Cricut? What requirements are there for a computer to run your Cricut machine? Do you need a computer or is a mobile device okay? Let's dive in and find out!

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Laptops that will work: (PLEASE check the requirements above before purchasing especially if you are watching this video at a later date!)

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0:00 Introduction
0:20 Why do you need a device
0:38 Why not a mobile device
1:19 Computer requirements
4:36 MAC requirements
6:10 iPhone/iPad requirements
6:50 Android requirements
7:14 Changing requirements
7:49 Wrap up

[ErinL]

This happened to me. I have a iPad Air 5 I bought a year before I got a cricut maker. I never use a computer so my old MacBook Pro is efficient enough for the two times a year I might need a computer to do something. But it was too old to run design space.

Had no idea the iPad version of design space was so limited. Bought all the attachments for my maker 3 like the foil and knife blade only to discover I couldn’t use them with my iPad.

So yesterday after watching a ton of videos I just decided to go out to Best Buy and get the new MacBook Pro M3.

I have to say it’s sooo much better than using cricut design space on the iPad. The iPad version would crash a lot especially if I had a bunch of duplicates of something. It was also so slow. And it had nothing to do with my iPad or WiFi it was just the poorly designed app. For the most part it was bearable in the beginning until I started doing a lot more advanced things.

I obviously didn’t NEED to buy a $1600 MacBook just for design space… even though I did… but that was just my preference.

[Louisianagirl_]

Thank you Angie for this video. This information is something that people do not even think about and then wonder why their machine is not working properly. Please take care.

[bernadettefitzgerald]

Love your tutorials, so well explained. keep up the good work

[danawatts]

Excellent Description...of exactly what's needed here to begin.
WOW!
Th Ankh You

[tewmuch]

Thanks for being so clear and thorough in your explanations !!! Be Blessed..!!

[tranisemixson]

Thank you! This was very helpful. I just got my machine and was struggling so bad

[nikkm]

Thanks, I love your page you are so straight forward and it’s refreshing

[patgodwin]

Thanks Angie, I have an Apple tablet, and plan to buy a laptop because I can’t make some of the cards because of my tablet.

[Tammfam]

Thank you!! I have been using an iPad mini and my iPhone. Ready to buy a laptop for more features!!

[honeydailey]

Thank you so much i needed this. I was doing it from my phone and i was not able to do much of anything. You are god sent

[oricle]

Thanks for this, Angie! Very informative. There is so much information out there that it can get very confusing so it's nice to have it in one place. Thanks and have a great day!

[angelanash]

Angie, thank you, thank you for explaing this Valuable much needed information!!
👍👍

[jabaiitaylor]

Thanks Angie, this is great information especially for a beginner Cricut user like myself!

[carmensol]

Thank you Angie! I just ordered my laptop! I saved, and saved money and finally I have enough to get it, I ll be waiting for it!

[paulracemusic]

Angie, here are some Windows comments. Though Design Space will run on an I3 or lower pc with 4 gig of memory, I recommend at least an I5 with 8gig of memory if you don't want to wait around for your screen to refresh. And I recommend a 1 terrabyte HD unless you aren't going to run any other graphics software on your PC, in which you'll get away with a 500g drive for quite a while.

Just as important is having backup - get a 128 or 256gb thumb drive, and back all your work files up periodically. If your HD dies, you can always reinstall your software, but your work files could be lost forever. (And don't count on the Cloud, even Cricut's Cloud - their policies change all the time. In fact, I save any .svg files I download or create even after I've imported the into Design Space, just as an additional safeguard.

Not that everyone NEEDS a "juiced" system, but if you plan to use the computer for other things, or hope that it suits your needs for a few years, then DON'T buy the minimum. And NEVER neglect backups.

[marlenenicholl]

Great show Angie - I hope many see this - I hear so many ask these questions - the other thing is they are always asking “what printer to buy”

[bfc]

Thanks for an informative video! I saw it too late and found out the hard way when trying to use the knife blade on my iPhone and then iPad with no success…

[queenwarriorspirit]

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! This video was so helpful, clear and informative!!!

[michaelh]

Found your video very informative. Thanks. However, don't know if this has been mentioned before but just a note that I thought you said the minimum internet speed you should have for your Cricut machine is like 2-3 megabytes download speed. Internet speed is often very confusing as it's not stated in terms of Megabytes/ per second but rather in terms of Megabits/ per sec. A Megabit is only 1/8 of a Megabyte. So as you can see if you needed 2-3 Megabytes/sec of internet speed you would actually have to have 8x 2-3 Megabits of speed or 16-24 Megabits of internet speed.

[LisaSmith-qtfr]

This is incredibly helpful, thank you!!