Final Cut Pro on MBA 15

[tommyparadise]

So exploring the feasability of running a macbook air 15 for travel purposes. Have a m1 max studio at office. I really like the form factor and the screen is all good for me. One area I’m interested in is 4k video editing (5 min videos max) on the road. I find my M1 ipad pro does fine with luma fusion and 4k footage, so if that’s any indication of the basic 4k projects I do, I’m wondering if an M2 air 15 (24gb/ram) would handle this, even if just starting the project to be finished off later.

Video editing isn’t my primary activity in work but rather a sometimes part of broader profession that demands lots of chrome tabs, writing, emails etc.

Keen on anyone’s thoughts on final cut pro in MBA15?

 

[Backstreet]

The M2 Air, even the base model with 8GB RAM, can absolutely edit 4K footage. Any computer with Apple Silicon can edit 4K footage, in fact. Even the M1 Air 13" can, and that machine can be had for $500 used / $750 on Amazon.

 

[funwithstuff]

The M2, M1 Pro and M1 Max chips all have accelerated hardware encode and decode on board, so if you're not doing a not of effects (where the extra GPU power of the Pro and Max chips would shine) then the Air will do just fine. If you have any issues you can always move to a proxy workflow, but it should be good.

You'll likely want to use an external SSD for storage, and make sure to turn Background Rendering off to save space. If you want to learn FCP more generally, please check out my book (in my signature, newly in its 2nd Edition).

 

[tommyparadise]

Thanks for the replies so far.

That's useful - my video projects are very basic for businesses/corporate application and usually just cutting together nicely shot/audio with minimal grading, but just a few titles and some music. Am already looking at the Samsung 4tb rugged SSD external as my option there.