Buying Advice: MBP vs Mac Studio and MacBook Air for Photo and Video Editing

[mikey_photo]

I’m a long time Apple mobile product (iPad, iPhone, Watch) user but have always used Windows based PCs for photo and video editing (outside of normal productivity and media consumption.)

I’m looking for suggestions as to which of the below listed setups makes the most sense, and which you would choose for my use case. I know it’s a personal decision but figured hearing some other viewpoints would be helpful. Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond.

Use Case: Photography (raw file editing in PS and LR) and Video Editing (generally 4k with somewhat intensive effects/transitions/text and graphic overlay/color grading)

Programs Used: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Davinci Resolve

I use my desktop 99% of the time but do need a laptop several times a week and while traveling. My on-the-go laptop requirements is being able to load files into Lightroom to allow for client review/selection, PS work and basic video clip review and trimming/etc. in Davinci Resolve. All of my "heavy lifting" video editing is done at home on my desktop currently.

I would be using an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse regardless of which of the below listed options I go with. The MacBook Pro option would be used in clamshell mode when being used as a desktop.


Option A:
14” MacBook Pro M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 32GB/512GB - $2899

Total: $2899

Option B:
Mac Studio M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU/32GB/512GB - $1999
Refurbished MacBook Air Apple M1 Chip with 8‑Core CPU and 7‑Core GPU/8GB/256GB - $849

Total: $2848

Option C:
Mac Studio M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU/32GB/512GB - $1999
Refurbished MacBook Air Apple M1 Chip with 8‑Core CPU and 7‑Core GPU/16GB/256GB - $1019

Total: $3018


Apologies for being a bit verbose, but thanks again for taking the time to respond.

 

[PhoenixDown]

Id go with option A myself.

 

[jav6454]

Go with the MBP.

 

[tripleburst]

Option C seems to make most sense for me with your current workflow needs.

I would only do option A if it's 1TB. I can't have 512GB if it's my only computer.

 

[James_C]

I would definitely go for option A, but get a 1TB drive. Not only will you have more space for live projects, but the 1TB SSD’s are faster than the 512GB.

The MacBook Pro is just as quick as the Studio, but in a go anywhere package that means you don’t have to keep moving your assets between devices.

 

[thv]

If you are going to use an external display anyway and are fine with the 14" screen on the go I would go with A. But I agree that I would upgrade to 1TB, the $200 is definitely worth it imo. I had an iMac and a laptop with too small storage for all the assets I'd like to have and it was pretty annoying personally. Then again you know your needs better than us. If you're in the US I suggest looking at the education store (are you allowed to say this here lol)

 

[mikey_photo]

Awesome and I appreciate all the suggestions and am leaning towards that option. I’ll look to upgrade the ssd to 1TB as well. Thanks

 

[jav6454]

Awesome and I appreciate all the suggestions and am leaning towards that option. I’ll look to upgrade the ssd to 1TB as well. Thanks

Good choice. Did you stay with the 16GB of memory or upgrade?

 

[mikey_photo]

Good choice. Did you stay with the 16GB of memory or upgrade?

I ended up ordering the 14” MacBook Pro M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 32GB Ram, 1TB SSD. Since it looks like it's going to be a bit of a wait (late August) I might as well get in line. If I end up changing my mind and going a different direction, I can cancel easily enough.

 

[darngooddesign]

I’m a long time Apple mobile product (iPad, iPhone, Watch) user but have always used Windows based PCs for photo and video editing (outside of normal productivity and media consumption.)

I’m looking for suggestions as to which of the below listed setups makes the most sense, and which you would choose for my use case. I know it’s a personal decision but figured hearing some other viewpoints would be helpful. Thank you in advance for taking the time to respond.

Use Case: Photography (raw file editing in PS and LR) and Video Editing (generally 4k with somewhat intensive effects/transitions/text and graphic overlay/color grading)

Programs Used: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Davinci Resolve

I use my desktop 99% of the time but do need a laptop several times a week and while traveling. My on-the-go laptop requirements is being able to load files into Lightroom to allow for client review/selection, PS work and basic video clip review and trimming/etc. in Davinci Resolve. All of my "heavy lifting" video editing is done at home on my desktop currently.

I would be using an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse regardless of which of the below listed options I go with. The MacBook Pro option would be used in clamshell mode when being used as a desktop.


Option A:
14” MacBook Pro M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 32GB/512GB - $2899

Total: $2899

Option B:
Mac Studio M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU/32GB/512GB - $1999
Refurbished MacBook Air Apple M1 Chip with 8‑Core CPU and 7‑Core GPU/8GB/256GB - $849

Total: $2848

Option C:
Mac Studio M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU/32GB/512GB - $1999
Refurbished MacBook Air Apple M1 Chip with 8‑Core CPU and 7‑Core GPU/16GB/256GB - $1019

Total: $3018


Apologies for being a bit verbose, but thanks again for taking the time to respond.

Option A: Since you will want a nicer screen for your client presentations, and there are apps like Lunar and Vivid which let you increase the brightness to HDR-content levels if you are outside or in a bright room.

*edit* Just saw that you selected option 1.

 

[jav6454]

I ended up ordering the 14” MacBook Pro M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 32GB Ram, 1TB SSD. Since it looks like it's going to be a bit of a wait (late August) I might as well get in line. If I end up changing my mind and going a different direction, I can cancel easily enough.

Stick to that config. You'll be more than fine.

 

[ian87w]

Voted for option A. Your use case scenario is what the MacBook pro is designed for, a desktop replacement that can be mobile when required. Plus you don't have to worry about shuffling data between two machines.

 

[James_C]

I ended up ordering the 14” MacBook Pro M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 24-core GPU, 32GB Ram, 1TB SSD. Since it looks like it's going to be a bit of a wait (late August) I might as well get in line. If I end up changing my mind and going a different direction, I can cancel easily enough.

I know its a bit of a wait, but do post back your thoughts after you have used the MBP for a couple of weeks. Always interesting to hear someone's reaction after asking for advice Congratulations on the purchase, Hopefully it arrives quicker than stated lead-time.

 

[mikey_photo]

I know its a bit of a wait, but do post back your thoughts after you have used the MBP for a couple of weeks. Always interesting to hear someone's reaction after asking for advice Congratulations on the purchase, Hopefully it arrives quicker than stated lead-time.

Thanks and will do!

 

[SkyRom]

Hello Mikey,

I see above you ordered a strong M1 Max 14" MBP to 'get in line' as you said. Here are my thoughts on the scenario you presented. Keep in mind if I ask any questions, they aren't meant to pry... it's just what I would ask myself before buying hardware in this era of scarcity, inflation, and long waits.

1. What's your time worth? How many average views are you expecting to achieve with each video you produce? Are you creating products/videos/photos for the public on YouTube/other video platforms, or private client work through your organization/company? My point here is, if you're PewDiePie, the M1 Ultra Mac Studio 128gb 8TB pays for itself in less than one video. If you're doing professional work that is sent to private clients for their eyes only, overall render times may not matter so much as long as you have a lag-free timeline experience 99% of the time.

2. My concern with your three proposed options is they are drastically different in terms of battery life. The M1 MacBook Air can last 15-18 hours, while the M1 Max 14" MBP you ordered has been known to thermal throttle and cap out between 5-8 hrs especially under load. If you're editing flying cross country this is a significantly different experience.

3. Are you 100% against the Touch Bar? The M2 13.3" MBP just came out this week. Bezels don't seem to bother you too much if you're considering an M1 refurbished Air, and you mentioned only using one external monitor (perfect for M2 MBP or Air). If you're docking it with a monitor the Touch Bar doesn't even matter, and the M2 MBP will get 17-20 hours of battery life while achieving 85-90% of the performance of the M1 Pro chip.

4. If you're only going to get one device for everything you're currently trying to do, I would get a 16" MBP M1 Pro or Max with 32gb and at least 1TB SSD. It gets much better battery life than the 14" with the maximum legal battery size, has a bigger screen for productivity, and handles thermals while rendering better in the larger chassis. A 1TB 32gb RAM 16" MBP is $3,099 before any Veteran's, Business, or Education discounts.

5. It sounds like what you really want is a desktop for serious work and a laptop for light browsing and travel; consider which you need to upgrade more right now. The new M2 MacBook Air launches soon and you could get one with a binned 8-core CPU/GPU, 16gb RAM and 512 SSD for $1,599, or 8-core CPU/10-core GPU with 24 gb RAM and 1TB SSD for $2,099 with the 67-watt charger for fast-charging and use it as your primary device while you save up for a Studio or Mac Pro in the future.

6. One last option since they are always near and dear to my heart... the 2020 27" iMac is still one of the greatest computers ever made and can be found from lots of retailers at deep discounts. The 5K Retina screen and system can last 7-10 years or more and the RAM is user-upgradeable so you can just get one with 8gb and go from there. Being one of the last Intel-Mac machines, it would also give you the option to install Windows through Boot Camp for gaming or using the Adobe suite that way.

Apple has never given consumers more choices for the line of products available than right now, but it can be confusing and expensive. Choose wisely and good luck

 

[mikey_photo]

Hello Mikey,

I see above you ordered a strong M1 Max 14" MBP to 'get in line' as you said. Here are my thoughts on the scenario you presented. Keep in mind if I ask any questions, they aren't meant to pry... it's just what I would ask myself before buying hardware in this era of scarcity, inflation, and long waits.

1. What's your time worth? How many average views are you expecting to achieve with each video you produce? Are you creating products/videos/photos for the public on YouTube/other video platforms, or private client work through your organization/company? My point here is, if you're PewDiePie, the M1 Ultra Mac Studio 128gb 8TB pays for itself in less than one video. If you're doing professional work that is sent to private clients for their eyes only, overall render times may not matter so much as long as you have a lag-free timeline experience 99% of the time.

2. My concern with your three proposed options is they are drastically different in terms of battery life. The M1 MacBook Air can last 15-18 hours, while the M1 Max 14" MBP you ordered has been known to thermal throttle and cap out between 5-8 hrs especially under load. If you're editing flying cross country this is a significantly different experience.

3. Are you 100% against the Touch Bar? The M2 13.3" MBP just came out this week. Bezels don't seem to bother you too much if you're considering an M1 refurbished Air, and you mentioned only using one external monitor (perfect for M2 MBP or Air). If you're docking it with a monitor the Touch Bar doesn't even matter, and the M2 MBP will get 17-20 hours of battery life while achieving 85-90% of the performance of the M1 Pro chip.

4. If you're only going to get one device for everything you're currently trying to do, I would get a 16" MBP M1 Pro or Max with 32gb and at least 1TB SSD. It gets much better battery life than the 14" with the maximum legal battery size, has a bigger screen for productivity, and handles thermals while rendering better in the larger chassis. A 1TB 32gb RAM 16" MBP is $3,099 before any Veteran's, Business, or Education discounts.

5. It sounds like what you really want is a desktop for serious work and a laptop for light browsing and travel; consider which you need to upgrade more right now. The new M2 MacBook Air launches soon and you could get one with a binned 8-core CPU/GPU, 16gb RAM and 512 SSD for $1,599, or 8-core CPU/10-core GPU with 24 gb RAM and 1TB SSD for $2,099 with the 67-watt charger for fast-charging and use it as your primary device while you save up for a Studio or Mac Pro in the future.

6. One last option since they are always near and dear to my heart... the 2020 27" iMac is still one of the greatest computers ever made and can be found from lots of retailers at deep discounts. The 5K Retina screen and system can last 7-10 years or more and the RAM is user-upgradeable so you can just get one with 8gb and go from there. Being one of the last Intel-Mac machines, it would also give you the option to install Windows through Boot Camp for gaming or using the Adobe suite that way.

Apple has never given consumers more choices for the line of products available than right now, but it can be confusing and expensive. Choose wisely and good luck

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to provide an in-depth response. I think you bring up quite a few of the points I've been trying to work through. I'll try and address each of them below.

1. What's your time worth? How many average views are you expecting to achieve with each video you produce? Are you creating products/videos/photos for the public on YouTube/other video platforms, or private client work through your organization/company? My point here is, if you're PewDiePie, the M1 Ultra Mac Studio 128gb 8TB pays for itself in less than one video. If you're doing professional work that is sent to private clients for their eyes only, overall render times may not matter so much as long as you have a lag-free timeline experience 99% of the time.

The vast majority of my video work is corporate/commercial video. Primarily creating talking head, marketing, HR and training content for internal use in midsize corporate environments. Most of the reviews seems to focus on being a "youtuber" and a bit more social media focused. That really isn't my thing and it's not exactly an apples to apples (pun intended) comparison, but obviously pretty similiar.

Render times don't matter as much as the overall editing experience. They are acceptable on my current pc editing desktop. The workflow experience while editing (timeline performance, scrubbing, playback after adding transitions, color grades, etc.) in Davinci Resolve is what matters most to me. I work primarily in a 4k editing environment, but will be moving to 8k files (still rendered in 4k) in the not too distant future.

The bolded above is exactly on point and what matters most to me.

As far as my photography system requirements... I've found that if my system handles my video requirements, it's a walk in the park on the photography side.

2. My concern with your three proposed options is they are drastically different in terms of battery life. The M1 MacBook Air can last 15-18 hours, while the M1 Max 14" MBP you ordered has been known to thermal throttle and cap out between 5-8 hrs especially under load. If you're editing flying cross country this is a significantly different experience.

In my current workflow, the vast majority of my "on location" requirements from a laptop is being able to download content for onsite client review/selection, some basic clip prep/clean up in Davinci Resolve, and basic LR and PS editing. The vast majority of the time I do have access to power and the ability to plug in, but not always. Of course I have found myself sitting in an airport bar working from my laptop while waiting on delayed flights or during layovers.

The laptop (as a tool) for me is mostly for all the prep work necessary before sending files to my NAS and doing the heavy lifting post production work on my desktop machine. This pretty much allows me to arrive home and have files ready on my network.

3. Are you 100% against the Touch Bar? The M2 13.3" MBP just came out this week. Bezels don't seem to bother you too much if you're considering an M1 refurbished Air, and you mentioned only using one external monitor (perfect for M2 MBP or Air). If you're docking it with a monitor the Touch Bar doesn't even matter, and the M2 MBP will get 17-20 hours of battery life while achieving 85-90% of the performance of the M1 Pro chip.

I'm not for or against the Touch Bar. From the research I've done and reviews I've read, it does appear to be a pretty polarizing topic. In a windows environment I do use function keys but I have no experience with the Touch Bar at all.

Docking the laptop would be a requirement for me going with option A above. Currently I'm using 2 monitors but will be moving to a single monitor in my new setup. Outside of the external monitor, keyboard and mouse I will also need access to Blackmagic Mini Panel, external drives, audio interface and reference monitors.

5. It sounds like what you really want is a desktop for serious work and a laptop for light browsing and travel; consider which you need to upgrade more right now. The new M2 MacBook Air launches soon and you could get one with a binned 8-core CPU/GPU, 16gb RAM and 512 SSD for $1,599, or 8-core CPU/10-core GPU with 24 gb RAM and 1TB SSD for $2,099 with the 67-watt charger for fast-charging and use it as your primary device while you save up for a Studio or Mac Pro in the future.

I do like having a desktop setup for more serious work. It's the way I've been doing it for probably the last twenty years and is just what I'm used to. I really like the idea of it being a static working environment and having an independent laptop that goes along with my gear for the uses discussed above. At the same time, I'm open to a different way of doing things and figure since I'm moving to a totally new OS... no time like the present.

Options B and C is why I was primarily thinking that the base spec Mac Studio with the Max chip (10-core CPU, 24-core GPU) with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage would fill that desktop/workstation role nicely.

I was thinking of getting a base spec Air to fill my mobile needs and to keep everything in the same ecosystem. My current Windows laptop is filling my mobile needs, but just barely.

6. One last option since they are always near and dear to my heart... the 2020 27" iMac is still one of the greatest computers ever made and can be found from lots of retailers at deep discounts. The 5K Retina screen and system can last 7-10 years or more and the RAM is user-upgradeable so you can just get one with 8gb and go from there. Being one of the last Intel-Mac machines, it would also give you the option to install Windows through Boot Camp for gaming or using the Adobe suite that way.

I was also considering going this route but thought it wise to go with the apple silicon models. I do like user upgradable RAM and the love the 27" iMac screen. My main concerns is the overall graphics performance and the encode/decode media engines for some codecs.

 

[theluggage]

I do like having a desktop setup for more serious work. It's the way I've been doing it for probably the last twenty years and is just what I'm used to. I really like the idea of it being a static working environment and having an independent laptop that goes along with my gear for the uses discussed above.

I think this is one area where Apple Silicon has been a game changer for the Mac range (in mostly, but not entirely, positive ways): it has drastically narrowed the performance gap between laptops and desktops, so if you've got any justification for portability it's probably a no-brainer to go for the laptop. The "Studio Max" may still have an edge over the MBP Max thanks to its better thermals, plus it's got more ports - but that is a very modest advantage c.f. the days where Intel Mac desktops were using a different class of processors altogether. The "less positive" aspect is that it's no longer cheaper to add RAM and internal storage to a Mac desktop than a laptop...

The only thing that really bothers me about the MBPs vs. the Studio is the soldered-in SSD on the former. While the SSD should last the lifetime of the machine it is subject to "wear" in a way that other solid state components aren't and just. shouldn't. be. soldered. in. period. Although the SSD on the Studio isn't currently user-upgradeable at least it can potentially be replaced by an Apple service person without junking the whole logic board (and hopefully Apple will deliver on their promise of a DIY spare parts service for Macs).