5.3k Video editing, big libraries with MBA 13" 1TB 24GB?

[GooseInTheCaboose]

I take lots of short drone videos recreationally in 5.3k and edit them for subject tracking correction by cropping, colors, combining them with transitions etc. While I do a lot of it all the videos are less than 3 minutes, most of them are less than 1 minute! Many are just 10-30 second snapshots.

I also take a lot of Olympus RAW shots of birds etc I like to edit in LR mainly bringing out shadows etc.

My photo/video library is BIG so I view them etc off external SSDs.

I would love the 14" mbp but honestly carrying it around is very annoying. I love how portable the 13" air is.

My question is: can I get all this editing done on the newest 13" air without slowdowns, throttling, lagging when scrubbing or editing etc creating headaches? I would configure with 24gb ram, prolly 1tb ssd to be safe but will store stuff externally anyway

Will the video experience be silky smooth or very choppy and annoying making work difficult?

Will it heat up a lot and require me to take breaks if I am working through a lot of different vids in a row?

Is the setup above a sensible choice for my hobby?

I also do academic work/study which is more text based, im sure that it is proly fine for that. More my hobby I am concerned with

 

[bellflyer14]

For videos that short, the air with at least 16gb memory will do just fine. I'd argue that the 24gb wouldn't really be necessary, but if you want the extra headroom, go for it. I truly think 16/512 is the sweet spot for value on the mba. Guy on YouTube, I think techodyssey or something similar, just did a video about editing and exporting use a base 8/256 mba and he was thrilled. He wanted something to take on the road to get work done when he was not at home using his m3 Max 16"

 

[1BadManVan]

should be more than fine for that usage, plenty of reviews out there showing these do fantastic at video and photo editing. especially in short bursts like that. They cool down very quickly as well, so while they heat up quick, they cool down just as fast in between

 

[loby]

I got M3 MacBook Air with 24GB of RAM and 2TB storage.

I got it primarily for carrying around as a lighter alternative and a secondary laptop for video editing (and general usage) when needed (have a 16" MacBook Pro 2021 for the main video work).

Macbook Pro will do everything faster of course, but MacBook Air will handle the footage and workflow is not hindered without a fan. Export at time will take longer of course (and some other tasks) as the CPU will throttle down, but it can handle video editing ok, especially what you will be doing.

If you can afford the 24GB of RAM it helps, but 16GB will due. I maxed out my MacBook Air because I had the extra $ at the time and wanted the headroom.

 

[StoneJack]

I take lots of short drone videos recreationally in 5.3k and edit them for subject tracking correction by cropping, colors, combining them with transitions etc. While I do a lot of it all the videos are less than 3 minutes, most of them are less than 1 minute! Many are just 10-30 second snapshots.

I also take a lot of Olympus RAW shots of birds etc I like to edit in LR mainly bringing out shadows etc.

My photo/video library is BIG so I view them etc off external SSDs.

I would love the 14" mbp but honestly carrying it around is very annoying. I love how portable the 13" air is.

My question is: can I get all this editing done on the newest 13" air without slowdowns, throttling, lagging when scrubbing or editing etc creating headaches? I would configure with 24gb ram, prolly 1tb ssd to be safe but will store stuff externally anyway

Will the video experience be silky smooth or very choppy and annoying making work difficult?

Will it heat up a lot and require me to take breaks if I am working through a lot of different vids in a row?

Is the setup above a sensible choice for my hobby?

I also do academic work/study which is more text based, im sure that it is proly fine for that. More my hobby I am concerned with

In short, yes, you can edit it, generally silky smoothly, but however, it may depend on type of drone video files. MBA would be able to do to it well.