Pound for pound, Apple Silicon beats anything in its category. Not only is it faster than its competition, but it also consumes less power. Whether you need a powerhouse machine with the M1 Pro or M1 Max, or you're looking for a light and portable Macbook Air with the new M2 chip, the options below will save you a few hundred bucks.
While it's not much, every penny counts when you're making movies on a budget.
MacBook Pro with M1 Pro Chip (Late 2021)
MacBook Pro with M1 Pro (Late 2021)
- Apple M1 Pro 10-Core Chip
- 16GB Unified RAM | 1TB SSD
- 14.2" 3024 x 1964 Liquid Retina XDR Screen
- 14-Core GPU | 16-Core Neural Engine
- Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) | Bluetooth 5.0
- Thunderbolt 4 | HDMI | MagSafe 3
- SDXC Slot | FaceTime HD 1080p Camera
- Backlit Magic Keyboard
- Force Touch Trackpad | Touch ID Sensor
Built for all types of creatives, including developers, photographers, filmmakers, 3D artists, and music producers, this 14.2" MacBook Pro with M1 Pro is a killer mobile workstation. The system features the Apple M1 Pro 10-Core Chip, a 14-Core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. This kind of power and performance can handle any professional workflow, with few exceptions.
The 14.2" Liquid Retina XDR display features a 3024 x 1964 resolution, 1,000 nits of sustained brightness, 1,600 nits of peak brightness for HDR content, and P3 color gamut support. You're also saving around $400. That can get you a pretty solid prime lens, a few years of Adobe Creative Cloud, or the full suite of programs to complement FCPX.
MacBook Pro with M1 Max (Late 2021)
MacBook Pro with M1 Max (Late 2021)
- Apple M1 Max 10-Core Chip
- 64GB Unified RAM | 4TB SSD
- 16.2" 3456x2234 Liquid Retina XDR Screen
- 32-Core GPU | 16-Core Neural Engine
- Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) | Bluetooth 5.0
- Thunderbolt 4 | HDMI | MagSafe 3
- SDXC Slot | FaceTime HD 1080p Camera
- Backlit Magic Keyboard
- Force Touch Trackpad | Touch ID Sensor
If you need a little extra power, this Macbook Pro with M1 Max levels up any workflow needs you may have. It features a 10-Core Chip, a whopping 32-core GPU, and a 4TB SSD. The Liquid Retina XDR display is bumped up to 16.2" and features a 3456 x 2234 resolution, as well as the same 1,000 nits of sustained brightness and 1,600 nits of peak brightness for HDR. You also get the same P3 color gamut support.
If you're the creative who thought the M1 Pro machine wasn't powerful enough, this Macbook with M1 Max should do the trick. You're also saving $600, which is about a full year's worth of Adobe Creative Cloud.
MacBook Air with M2
MacBook Air with M2 (Late 2022)
- Apple M2 8-Core Chip
- 8GB Unified RAM | 256GB SSD
- 13.6" 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina Display
- 8-Core GPU | 16-Core Neural Engine
- Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) | Bluetooth 5.0
- Thunderbolt 3
- FaceTime Full HD 1080p Camera
- Backlit Magic Keyboard
- Force Touch Trackpad | Touch ID Sensor
However, if you need a super light machine, this 13.6" MacBook Air is feather-light. It's been redesigned and features Apple's new M2 chip, which has many improvements over its predecessor, the M1. The Apple M2 integrates the CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, I/O, and more into a single system on a chip (SoC), this time utilizing 2nd-Gen 5nm process technology. The 8-Core CPU and 8-core GPU are faster this time around and should tackle short bursts with minimal heat build-up.
The M2 also features 100 GB/s memory bandwidth, which will see file transfers happen before you can even blink. Finally, the new chip has a next-gen media engine and a powerful ProRes video engine for hardware-accelerated encode and decode. This means the M2 can play back more 4K and 8K streams.
While it's not the powerhouse of the above two machines, the MacBook Air M2 is a great machine for quick jobs on the go.
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