Powerful video editing laptop, MacBook Pro M4?

[singlecoil]

I expect to be doing quite a bit of video editing soon, and I would like to be able to do it with a laptop so as to give me an element of portability. According to Apple their M series chips are worth the extra, up til now I've always had PCs. Should I change?

[GetCarter]

singlecoil said:

I expect to be doing quite a bit of video editing soon, and I would like to be able to do it with a laptop so as to give me an element of portability. According to Apple their M series chips are worth the extra, up til now I've always had PCs. Should I change?

They are blisteringly fast. Need decent amounts of RAM of course. I used to render vid on fast PCs, These days it's seconds.

This thread will inevitably turn into a PC v Mac argument. They nearly always do. All I would say is that for 40 years in music and video industry, 90% of pro studios use Macs.... but PCs are cheaper... but Macs are sexier... but... etc etc

Good luck.

[StevieBee]

Yep. Macs are the way to go on this.

You'll struggle find many pro video production firms or editors (of which I'm one) using anything other than a Mac. This isn't just a brand or tradition thing - they are tangibly better at processing and handling image and sound based content. For this reason an entire eco-system of plug in and add ons have been created that are designed for Mac but adapted for PC.

95% of the time, it doesn't matter. A equally matched PC will get the job done. But for the 5% it doesn't, you'll curse not getting the Mac.

[Magnum 475]

I’m still using an M1 Pro for 4k video editing. It’s stunningly fast, never gets warm, works fine with “only” 16GB RAM. And it still goes all day on a single charge. I’ve not felt the need to change to a later model, because the M1 is still amazingly capable at handling any workload I can throw at it.

[dogbucket]

StevieBee said:

You'll struggle find many pro video production firms or editors (of which I'm one) using anything other than a Mac. T

I dont know about that, Avid is pretty much Windows only unless you just want it standalone. I agree that Sound and Music production is completely Mac.

But for the purposes of a laptop form factor we only issue Macbooks with Adobe to our production staff.

[AB]

Pro M5 is out but not in 'Pro' and 'Max' configs just yet as far as I know.

I use an M4 Max w/48gb unified memory and nothing is too much for it. I can't imagine ever needing anything faster. It's astonishing really.

[mikef]

If you’re not set on particular non-linear editing software, Apple’s Final Cut Pro is brilliant and of course Mac-only