The best Mac for video editing

What's the best Mac for video editing? Well, that depends on what you're looking for. If you have a heavy, full-time workload as a professional video editor, you'll probably want the most powerful and up-to-date Mac you can buy. If your needs are more modest, though, something a little more affordable will suffice. So it's really about balancing price with performance, and below we've gathered together options that all offer great value, for different levels of use.

We've tested every single Mac on this list, and benchmarked them for specific video-editing workflows, evaluating the range to find the top picks for each type of user. With MacBooks, we've included 16-inch versions as standard, because we know having more screen real estate is always better for video editing tasks. But you can always go for the smaller versions if you're more interested in portability.

Performing our own tests on video download and upload speeds and rendering is only part of the process, as we've also taken on feedback from our contributors on how it is living and working with each machine to gauge their strengths and weaknesses. For more options, check out our pick of the best laptops for video editing, which include Windows laptops.

Erlingur Einarsson

Erlingur writes and edits reviews for an endless stream of laptops. He knows power, performance, display and battery life (the key components for a good video editing laptop). So he is perfectly placed to handpick machines for this list, and advise on who they're best suited to.

Black Friday 2024

MacBooks are probably the Apple products with some of the best discounts this Black Friday and Cyber Monday, and we're seeing deals with up to $400 off including discounts on the latest MacBook Pro M4 models too. Take a look at the deals below...

Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024): was US$1,599 now US$1,399 at Amazon

Save $200: We're surprised to see discounts on the new M4 MacBook Pro, especially an impressive $200 price cut, given that it was only released this month. This model has 16GB of RAM, plus 512GB of SSD storage.

View Deal

Apple MacBook Air 15 (M3, 2024): was US$1,299 now US$1,044 at Amazon

Save $255: Also released this year was the M3-equipped MacBook Air, which we gave a glowing 4.5-star review for its solid performance and battery life. This model has 16GB of RAM, plus 256GB of SSD storage.

View Deal

Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2024): was US$1,599 now US$1,199 at Amazon

Save $400: Amazon also has a Black Friday discount on the M3 version of the MacBook Pro, with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage.

View Deal

Quick list

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Best Mac for video editing

What you need to know: This powerful desktop Mac will make mincemeat of anything you can throw at it. In fact, we gave it a rare five-star review after trialling it for video editing. You can hook it up to a high-level monitor of your own, too (it supports up to eight 4K displays, six 6K displays or three 8K displays running at 60Hz). So although it is aimed at the prosumer market, is certainly adequate enough for video editing professionals who need something powerful to see them through even the toughest creative project.

Design: Its minimalist design is simple on the outside: a single aluminium structure, measuring just 7.7 x 7.7 inches and 3.7 inches deep. So if you’re tight on space, you don’t need to worry about finding room for it. With front-facing ports, charging devices or plugging in your camera is super easy.

Performance: Based on our testing, we agree with Apple's claim it's the most powerful desktop unit ever released. In our benchmark tests, it performed exceptionally well across the board, with a Geekbench 6 score of 2,646 for single-core workloads and 21,735 for multi-core workloads. It also transcoded a 12-minute 4K video to 1080p in just over two minutes.

Price: At the time of writing, the Mac Studio costs from $1,999 / £2,099 from Apple, although we found ones at third-party retailers in the UK as cheap as £1887.49 (Laptops Direct).

Read more: Mac Studio M2 Ultra review

Our expert says

Our expert says

Rachael Penn

Sitting between the iMac and the Mac Pro, this machine offers high performance in a small package. While it makes light work of the most intense tasks and is exceptionally good when multitasking, the specs are overkill for the average user, marking this out as a professional-use-only monster.

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Best MacBook for video editing

What you need to know: Apple's M3 MacBook Pro is a powerhouse for video editing at high level. Our benchmark tests found it could be a replacement for a desktop machine – timelines are responsive even when working in 8K or multicam, and it showed no sign of lag when multi tasking.

Design: The M3 Pro is nearly identical to the M2 Pro (number one on our list). The biggest difference is the liquid retina XDR display, featuring promotion and pro reference. In our tests, this provided excellent colour accuracy, brightness and contrast.

Performance: Because of its power and glorious display, we had to select this as the best overall Mac for video editing work – but bear in mind you might not need that whack of power. With its emphasis on calculating and rendering 3D scenes, the M3 Max offers benefits to those making animations and 3D effects. But if these areas are outside your remit, a MacBook M2 Pro (number one on our list) is all you need.

Battery: We were pleasantly surprised at managing to get 10 hours of intense Cinema 4D work out of the MacBook Pro before the battery ran out.

Price: At time of writing, the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 costs from £2,999 / $2,899 from Apple, although we found ones at third-party retailers as cheap as $1,879.99 in the USA (Amazon) and £2,339.97 in the UK (Laptops Direct).

Read more: Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 review

Our expert says

Our expert says

Rob Redman

The Macbook Pro M3 Max takes a significant step up over its older siblings, with a large leap in performance and a beautiful display in a sleek package. The MacBook Pro M3 Max could well be the best portable computer for you.

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Best value Mac

What you need to know: Numbers 1 and 2 on our list are very expensive. But the truth is, you don't need to spend that much. This machine should be powerful enough for most video editors, and though it was beaten out by the M3 Max in all our tests, you will likely be more than satisfied with the performance of the M2 Pro. So as long as you can find it at a significantly lower price than the M3 Pro (keep reading for more on that), it could be a better value pick.

Design: This MacBook is gorgeous to look at, and provide a generous helping of ports – one HDMI, three Thunderbolt 4, an SDXC card slot, an audio jack and one MagSafe 3. The keyboard is wonderfully tactile and easy to type on, while the generously sized trackpad is very nice too.

Performance: We road-tested this laptop with an M2 Pro chip, 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD, and its performance was lightning fast. We benchmarked with DaVinci Resolve, exporting an effects-laden video in record time, and transcoding an hour of 4K video in Handbrake equally quickly. The display has top-notch colour accuracy, equalling the M3 model in its ability to deliver up to 1,000 nits of sustained, full-screen brightness, and 1,600 nits of peak brightness (the average is 500).

Battery life: This MacBook boasts an all-day battery life of 22 hours; a claim that it stood up to in our tests.

Price: At time of writing, the lowest prices we found the Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M2, 2023) was $2,149.95 in the US (Amazon) and £1,879.97 in the UK (Laptops Direct). That's not much of a saving in the UK, and actually more expensive than the M3 in the States. However, we're confident that the M2 will pop up at cheaper prices in the future.

Read more: Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M2, 2023) review

Our expert says

Our expert says

Rob Mead-Green

The Liquid Retina display is one of the brightest and best of any laptop, and now has micro LED backlighting. There are various ports and 22 hours of battery life. What's not to like?

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Best value desktop Mac for video editing

What you need to know: Packing an astonishing amount of power at a brilliant price, the new Mac mini (M2 Pro, 2023) is one of the best money can buy. As is stands, the entry-level M2 mini is less than half the price of a MacBook Pro, but has exactly the same chip, RAM and SSD. So if you're looking for a lot of power at an affordable price, this is a great pick.

Design: The Apple Mac mini (M2 Pro, 2023) maintains a similar design to its predecessors, featuring a compact, aluminum cube form factor. Its sleek aluminum finish provides a modern and durable look, while its compact size makes it ideal for various setups, from small home offices to professional studios.

Performance: The Mac mini (M2, 2023) is very, very fast, and fully viable as a professional creator's main workstation. Our testing showed that the Mac mini (M2 Pro, 2023) can run several highly demanding apps, including Cinema 4D, After Effects, 3DS Max and Premiere Pro simultaneously with ease. At one point I was editing 8K video footage in Premiere Pro, while simultaneously running Photoshop, Freeform and an obscene amount of browser tabs and it didn't even flinch.

Price: At time of writing, the Mac mini (M2 Pro, 2023) cost from $599 / £649 from Apple, although we found ones at third-party retailiers as cheap as $494.01 in the US (Amazon) and £584.98 in the UK (Amazon).

Read more: Apple Mac mini (M2 Pro, 2023) review

Our expert says

Our expert says

Kerrie Hughes

Packing an incredible amount of power, at a brilliant price, the Mac mini (M2, 2023) remains one of, if not the, best small form factor PCs money can buy.

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Best portable Mac for video editing

What you need to know: The MacBook Air M3 will handle most of the video editing tasks you throw at it, as long as you're not a heavy, studio-quality professional-level video editor. And it's much more affordable than the Pro M3, making it a great choice if you don't need all that power and would rather save some money. Video editors should note, though, that it can only support two displays at a time.

Design: Like the M2 Air, the M3 features a completely flat design, and the overall effect is that of a much thinner profile. Apple has adopted the controversial 'notch' above the display, sticking the 1080p FaceTime camera into a protrusion that slightly interrupts the menu bar. The design also includes tiny bezels around the display.

Performance: The MacBook Air range may be cheaper than Apple's MacBook Pro range, but it gives up very little to its desktop cousins in terms of performance. Our tests found that this MacBook offered very impressive performance, which means it should handle the majority of video editing tasks very well indeed.

Battery life: The battery in our review model performed admirably, and if you’re working eight-hour days it might last for two of them. Apple claims a battery life of up to 18 hours, and while that’s clearly a best-case scenario, getting 15 hours out of the Air isn’t out of the question if you’re using it lightly.

Price: At time of writing, the MacBook Air (M3) costs from $1,099 / £1,099 from Apple.

Read more: MacBook Air (M3) review

Our expert says

Our expert says

Ian Evenden

The M3 Air’s battery life is exceptional, it’s completely silent in use, thin and light, and with a 15-inch screen it’s big enough for most uses. The M3 Air is a serious laptop for any creative pro, but it is perhaps starting to look like it’s falling behind in the innovation stakes.

Best budget portable Mac for video editing

What you need to know: As it's been superseded by the MacBook Air M3, the MacBook M2 is no longer the latest in this light and portable range. But it's impressive nonetheless, and given that you can probably find one for a cheaper price than the M3, it could offer excellent value.

Design: This laptop comes with a beautiful aluminium finish and an almost bezel-less screen with this redesign. It's thinner and light too. The 13.6-inch model, for instance, is just 11mm thick and weighs only 2.7 pounds. Our reviewer found it an excellent keyboard to type on, with full-size function keys.

Performance: Our reviewer found performance to be very much on par with the slightly more expensive 2022 MacBook Pro 13-inch when running the same configuration of the M2, according to benchmark scores in Cinebench R23 – although it can heat up more quickly as it lacks a fan. We also found that the M2 Neural Engine did a great job of handling basic video editing. The screen's bright too, at 500 nits, and supports the P3 colour gamut like the MacBook Pros, with support for one billion colours.

Battery life: This model's battery life isn't bad at all. We looped a 1080p video for 16 hours – five hours longer than on the previous MacBook Air.

Price: At time of writing, the MacBook Air (M2) cost from $999 / £999 from Apple, although we found it as cheap as $799 in the US (Best Buy) and £899.97 in the UK (Laptops Direct).

Read more: MacBook Air (M2) review

Our expert says

Our expert says

Matt Hanson

There’s no doubt that the MacBook Air (M2, 2022) is a fantastic laptop. It's thin, light and looks fantastic, and the larger, brighter, screen will be welcomed by anyone looking to use this laptop for creative work.

Also tested

MacBook Pro M1 Max 2021: An affordable whack of power
Sure, it isn't new. In fact it's two iterations old. But the MacBook Pro M1 Max 2021 offers more than enough power to handle most video editing tasks with ease, and you'll get a great price on it nowadays. The 16-inch screen is glorious, too. Apple doesn't make it anymore, so you'll need to sniff one out from a third-party retailer.
Creative Bloq score: 5/5

See our MacBook Pro 16-inch M1 review here

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What we look for in Macs for video editing

We look for several things when looking at MacBooks to include in our list. We don't assume that the newer macs are always better, and we examine all the features of each Mac, considering who they are best suited to. We'll also take budget into account, particularly as when newer MacBooks come out the older ones are often discounted.

Of course, we're also looking at the technology in each machine, and look at the processor of each MacBook, considering which chip each contains as well as what that actually means for video editors as well as its number of graphics cores.

We're also looking at the specs on offer, such as the RAM and storage available, as we know that video editors will want as much storage and power as possible.

Elsewhere, we look at the design of each machine, although they are all quite similar, as well as display so you can view your creations in all their glory.

How to choose the best Macs for video editing

When choosing the best Mac for your video editing work, there are a number of things to consider – from how powerful the processor is through to its memory and display size and quality. All of these considerations are factored into our tests in order to help you select the best one for your projects:

Processor: Look for a Mac with a powerful processor, preferably something from Apple's M2 or M3 chip ranges, which come in Pro and Max iterations. A more powerful processor will handle video-editing tasks faster and more efficiently. M1 chips are also more than powerful enough and getting cheaper with more frequent discounts. If you're working on a tighter budget, look for an M1-based machine from a third party seller.

Graphics card: These days, Macs don't come with discrete graphics cards. Instead, the graphics processor is built right into the chip itself. Look out for graphics core counts when shopping around: the M2 Ultra comes with 60 graphics cores, which will result in much better performance than the eight cores on the vanilla M2.

RAM: Apple silicon chips use what the company calls a 'unified memory architecture, which means the CPU and GPU can share a common memory pool. In layman's terms, this means 8GB of unified memory should perform better than 8GB of regular memory. Still, it's a good idea to choose a Mac with at least 16GB of RAM, as video editing software can be memory-intensive. If you're planning to work on more complex video projects or 4K footage, consider getting a Mac with 32GB or 64GB of RAM.

Storage: Video editing requires a lot of storage, so look for a Mac with a large SSD. Consider getting a Mac with at least 512GB of storage, or even 1TB or more if you plan to work on larger projects.

Display: A high-quality display is essential for video editing. Look for a Mac with a Retina display that offers high resolution and colour accuracy. If you're getting a Mac without a display, such as a Mac mini, you'll need to buy a monitor as well. Thankfully, our guide to the best monitors for video editing will help you find one that's ideal for your needs.

Software: Consider the video editing software you plan to use and ensure it is compatible with the Mac you choose.

Budget: Macs can be expensive, so take your budget into account and choose a Mac that offers the best balance of performance and features within your means. A MacBook Pro might have more power, but maybe a MacBook Air will do everything you need. Consult our MacBook Pro vs MacBook Air guide to find out all the differences between the two models.

How we test the best Mac for video editing

We rate the best Macs for video editing by testing the machines with the leading software for this task, benchmarking on speed and capability. Each laptop or desktop is put through the same benchmark tests when reviewing them – and add extra tasks for candidates for video editing. See below for more detail on how we benchmark and rate the hardware, or find out more on our how we test laptops, PCs and workstations page.

• GPU: We use 3DMark's benchmark test, which tries out the graphics processor through 3D modelling and video game physics tests.
• CPU: Geekbench 5 measures the system's multi-core and single-core thoroughput, and Maxon's Cinebench R20 determines the hyperthreading capabilities. We run each of these three times.
• Battery: We use the PCMark 10 battery life test, and perform 'in use' tests like continuous video playback or tasks like video editing.
• For video editing: We test the smoothness and speed of video editing using applications like Da Vinci Resolve and Adobe After Effects, editing with multiple streams whilst using the browser tabs and even playing YouTube videos.

We appreciate that not all video editors are working with heavy duty, studio-quality footage. Many content creators – for social media, for example – won't need the highest specs or newest model, which is why we've included older Macs and the MacBook Air as well.

As with all of our buying guides, we consider the affordability and availability, covering a range of price points. Next, we look at the performance and components, weighing up the processors and graphics card power alongside the RAM and storage.

Lastly, we consider practical and design elements; how light is it and how easy would it be to stow away for editing-on-the go? Is it an eyesore (unheard of in Apple-land), does it have any further assistive features?

If you're also looking for a MacBook for other purposes, see our guide to the best MacBook for programming.

FAQs