M1 Macbook Air for Photographers and Videographers

As all know M1 macs have turned the tables everywhere. When comes to photographers, we use Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop up to 90 percent of the time. These two software work very well on the M1 macs.

M1 MacBook Air Specifications

Processor: M1 Apple Silicon with 8 core CPU and 7 core GPU

RAM: 8GB/16GB

Storage : 256GB/512GB/1TB/2TB

Screen: Retina display

Rest is all unimportant for photographers and videographers

M1 MacBook Air for Photographers

Lightroom and Photoshop Performance

As a photographer, we look for better performance in Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe RAW. This M1 Macbook Air performs in a different level. I have used Intel macs for more than 10 years and this M1 Macbook Air gave an outstanding performance on all these photo editing software.

Phenomenal Retina Display

The Retina Display is phenomenal and gorgeous. every picture is displayed with the most accurate colors as shot. This makes editing look more natural and outstanding. I have been using these M1 Macbook Air for more than a month and have edited around 500 pictures in Lightroom like a breeze.

Lasting Battery

For the normal daily Lightroom edits, I was able to work for 8 hours with around 50% brightness in a bright day-lit room. The battery life is outstanding because of the M1 chip that uses RISC and it consumes very less power.

Noiseless

For a deep level of concentration, noise is the primary enemy. This M1 MacBook Air makes ZERO noise because it has NO Fan, it has passive cooling which makes it completely silent. This silence supports you in a big way while you are trying to concentrate. My Intel-mac sounds like Vaccum cleaners when I start Lightroom.

Other Features

Price

With all the above-said features and improvements the base model comes with 8 GB RAM and 256 GB Storage at £999, which is very reasonable for the apple brand value.

M1 MacBook Air on Video Editing

I tried to install DaVinci resolve and Blackmagic has released ver.17, it works like butter smooth. Blackmagic has released the DaVinci Resolve for M1 macs. I tried editing a 4K footage in M1 MacBook Air, its unbelievable that the M1 chip handles it very smoothly.

I edited a 5 min video with 15 tracks of video and 12 tracks of audio, the m1 MacBook Air handled it very smoothly and there were no skip frames. 

Video exporting was also great, it did not lack anywhere. I exported a 4K Video and it took 3 min to export a 6 min 4K video with multiple layers of Colour grade, Noise reduction, and Effects.

Recommended External Storage SSD Options

1. Samsung T5 1 TB USB 3.1 Gen 2

2. SanDisk Extreme Pro 1TB Portable SSD

3. Crucial CT1000X8SSD9 X8 1 TB Portable SSD

4. RAVPower Portable External SSD Pro, 1TB 

5. Sabrent Rocket Pro 1TB USB 3.2

Limitation

It does not throttle but brings down the clock speed of the processor when the temperature reaches 95-degree celsius, of course, what do you expect a fanless machine to do? Apple has done this to prevent the processor from toasting, but the expected performance is delivered while maintaining the CPU temperature below 100 degrees celsius. This is brilliant Apple.

Features to IMPROVE APPLE

1. The keyboard backlight is not working unless you login, so you cannot see the keys in the dark before login.
2. Only 2 Thunderbolt 3 ports are available, A USB 3.1 / HDMI / SD Card slot could be more helpful.
3. 512 GB could be a minimum storage option
4. Upgradable m.2 slot could be another good addition at least. - Cannot carry an external SSD always.

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