M1 Air Performance | Lightroom & Premiere 

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for sharing! Especially if it's your main creative computer, swapping is probably the play. I had a 16" for work that I never used Lightroom on but I think if I consolidate to one machine in the future I would probably be looking at an M1 16" or a Razer Blade 15.

Those are very different price points so I'm curious on the budget. It sounds like you might want to wait for the new 16"

@@DanYosua ok ..Thanks for your answer

@@Revolution90 Sure, I would just be especially careful with the imac pro as I think that likely won't get replaced according to rumors and macbuyers

@@DanYosua o right !..amm I want a good laptop or Pc that can run after effects smoothly..Because we all know that AE is one of the softwares that are HUNGRY for ram consummation ..So if a pc or LP runs Ae perfectley it can runs other sof. Perfectly too..and thank you..You are great man!

I think you can get away with it but I would raise the caution that if you are buying this as your primary machine for content creation or otherwise, bumping up to a higher end model should give you some longevity and help you manage multiple apps. I was looking at some of the iPads before deciding, but preferred the keyboard, and knew this would run my everyday apps smoothly - and having it for LR/PS was a bonus, especially in the future when I can pack this effortlessly on a trip. If you're hoping to have to have relatively snappy performance for the next 3-4 years for content, I would bump up the specs a bit. If you're not in LR every single day, don't mind a bit of slowness on a heavy edit, aren't exporting very large batches of photos... the base will probably will be decent for 2-3 years I would think.

@@DanYosua thank you so much for writing back. Since I'll not be doing it on daily basis & photography is just a hobby... What I hear... 8gb should work for me. Actually this is going to be a move from windows to mac. So it's anyway a bit expensive & I don't want to break my budget further. Though I agree with you longevity point.

@@atir006 On nice! In that case I think this is a great one to start with. This is my second Mac and they hold up a long time. Obviously at some point they won't do the heavy lifting, but I find they can be used much longer than most PCs in their final years for the mundane usage. Enjoy it!

RAM seems to make a pretty big difference in the CC apps... they're nice and hungry for it. That said, with the M1 line, it's not quite accurate to think of the 8gb performance in the new Air like 8gb with the older intel chips. I can't quite speak intelligently to the technical difference why that is, but the M1 stuff is the real deal. For what it is, the Air handles way more than I thought it should. Especially with a handful of native apps (think: messages, slack, discord, podcasts, notes, Whatsapp) all running in addition to anything you have open in, say, Chrome. But when it comes to the Adobe apps, I think you're maxing out at one or two depending on what else you're running. I notice it slow down if I had LR/PS open simultaneously. Then when you start breaking out the clone/brush in LR, or importing/exporting large batches... it might be slower than what you're used to. I'm gonna record an faq follow-up this weekend, and will try to illustrate some of that lag I have experienced when that happens. Generally, if I'm only in LR, I'm not feeling too bogged down. The workflow seems fast enough - neither blazing fast nor painfully slow.

​@@DanYosua I got your point where the more ram you have the best it is for Adobe apps. Photoshop is now natively supported by the M1 ship since yesterday. Maybe you can try out if LR/PS or large batches export still slow down the machine after the update. My workflow will be like : Lightroom and Photoshop with some chrome apps opened in the background, Messages, Discord, Podcast, Music. I think it's ok for me if it's not blazing fast, but I don't want it to stutter or lag, I want it to be consistent. Also, I'm not doing it for a living, or everyday photo editing, so I don't mind losing some seconds of export. 16 GB of ram might be the safe buy, but I'm highly considering the value for the money for my investment. The fact is I can get the base MacBook Pro M1 with 8 GB of ram 100€ cheaper on Amazon at 1349€. Where the 16 GB ram with 256 GB storage model cost 1679€ on Apple's website. I just have to figure it out if 8 GB is enough for my workflow and for the future since I want to keep it for at least 5/6 years.

@@alexalucard1611 Oh sweet, didn't realize that was updated yesterday. Maybe I'll spend a bit more time with it after updating before a vid. IMO if you want to keep it 5-6 years, you almost certainly need to go 16gb.

@@DanYosua Thanks for your advice 👍 I will go for the 16GB of ram model then. Can't wait to see your testing this weekend. Peace ✌️

Sorry I missed this. Yes, I have the latest update installed for Premiere Pro. I typically save my video work for my PC with a dedicated graphics card, however. I will do more of the simplistic exports on the M1 - one 1080p track with audio for video podcasts, compiling short 1080p or 4k clips, etc. My pc handles these youtube videos (4k a-roll with 4k b-roll/motion graphics) better. You could probably do it on the air if forced, but you'll want to create proxies and export times won't be great. For video-first shooters I think you want the mac mini or one of the new pros that are hopefully coming out this fall.

I would go MPB in that case if this is your main editing computer. Especially if you're like me and you like to do your culling in LR. Also, if you don't need the laptop form factor, I've heard great things about the Mac Mini. If you want some more internal storage I think you can spec that to 16gb ram and 1tb ssd for $1300

That's a tough call. Generally, I would say that if this will be your main machine and you need it around for several years, it's probably best to stretch/save for 16gb pro (unless you need the extreme portability). But keep in mind - I haven't spent a ton of time in Lightroom on this model yet and definitely haven't compared to the m1 pro hands on.

I'm a student and I don't think I will be video editing as of now. I wanna know the RAM usage on your M1 Air on daily basis. Does it slow down after using for several hours?

Not at all yet. I usually have Messages, WhatsApp, Chrome, Slack, Discord, Spotify/Podcasts, Trello App open and it's still flying around. Important to note - this isn't my primary content creation machine and it's why I opted for the base. I would say if you plan on using LR/PS daily, bump up to 16gb

I *deliberately* bought this as I needed a mobile machine and this is what I could comfortably afford at the time. I'm pretty clear in the video that I plan to use my desktop pc for heavier tasks when I can. But I often used the Air for the types of tasks shown here over the two years that I used it. And because of the screen, used LR almost exclusively on the Air for those years. Not to punish myself, but because it was the power I could afford on the go. You might not find these types of videos useful, but there are plenty of people interested in seeing how base models stack up to real world tasks, whether they are built specifically to handle those tasks or whether completing them will be a struggle. Perhaps out of curiosity or perhaps a buying decision. Lol, glad you got the fan joke at least 😜

It’s “dawgs”

excuse me some of us are actually dogs

did you hear that too? he called me a 'dog'. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

If you're looking at your main device then I would probably look at the pro line but as time goes on we're going to get closer and closer to the 14" release. Seems like that will probably be sometime between July-Oct?? If it were me looking for a main mac, right now, that would be the one I would be looking for. If you can't wait with the job, maybe an air could get you by and you could resell if it wasn't cutting it? I've never had a personal windows laptop, but have looked at the Razer Blades several times. In a lot of their lineup you're going to end up paying a bit extra for higher refresh rates that you won't fully utilize unless you also are gaming, but you can get what appears to be some pretty solid specs for $1.5-2k.

I'm working on a quick follow-up vid after more extensive use.. I think if you plan to have two or more of these open at once and running you want more than 8gb ram and probably a pro (either a 13" or wait for 14"). It handles decent in LR and PS separately, ok in PR (more on the 1080p side), but my main take away is still this: if you need a daily, content creation machine, especially for paid work, this Air is a great companion but not best suited as a main computer.

Installing the Premiere Pro beta now, I can re-export and check timing.

5m 22s, down a minute from what it took when I recorded!

Note, the M2 just dropped! So you can get some more power out of their new take on the slim form factor. But depending on what you select, these can now get pricey fast.

bit confused on the question... 😔 I think the M1 Mac Mini probably out performs this, that would have been my first choice if I didn't need the laptop for portability.