Those looking for the perfect video editing machine without robbing a bank should definitely consider the M4 MacBook Air. While some professionals may prefer a MacBook Pro for a couple of reasons, such as additional ports and an active cooling system, the M4 chipset within the Air is perfect for beginners and seasoned editors alike. To prove it, I ran some of my own video editing tests to see just how well the Air performs.
Hitting the Red Carpet: Introducing the M4 MacBook Air
Released in March 2025, the M4 MacBook Air can be the perfect machine for someone looking to take over Hollywood through video editing. It was a big deal when Apple first announced the M4 Air, as many were surprised to see such a powerful chipset in what is typically a “budget” product.
With a 10-core CPU featuring 4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores, an 8- or 10-core GPU (the $999 model can be upgraded to 10-core), hardware-accelerated ray tracing, 16-core Neural Engine, and 120GB/s memory bandwidth, the M4 chipset takes more knockouts than Rocky Balboa.
Of course, it’s not just a matter of the powerful CPU, because the MacBook Air also sports a rather impressive media engine. This includes hardware-accelerated ProRes, ProRes Raw, H.264 and HEVC for video compression, dedicated engines for video encoding and decoding, including ProRes and AV1 decoding. All of this goodness equates to some hard-hitting video production, processing and compressing.
Looking at the stats, is this the machine to take you somewhere over the rainbow? Let’s have a look.
Framing the Shot: Video Editing on MacBook
Look, Steven Spielberg, I am not. In fact, I wouldn’t even say I’m Ed Wood. However, that doesn’t mean I can’t take advantage of the fact that iMovie, Apple’s video editor, is included with virtually any Apple device that has a screen larger than the Watch. While it doesn’t nearly have as many features as, say, Final Cut Pro, it can still export video up to a 4K resolution, though for this experiment, I’m going for a big file size to further push the M4 CPU.
Exporting into iMovie, I went with a two-and-a-half-hour 720p video that was around 2.76GB in size. Unfortunately, 720p was the highest resolution video I had sitting around, but the sheer size of it made it seem fitting for this test. Importing the video was lightning quick, though there were some hiccups and lag at certain moments, likely due to pulling the video from iCloud.
Playing around with the video, my primary goal was to pull about thirty minutes from it and then export it from iMovie. With Quality set to High and using the Faster Compress option, iMovie exported my thirty-minute cut in under two minutes. It was honestly surprising just how fast the export process was, though obviously higher quality footage would take a bit longer.
While some may balk at the resolution of my chosen media, I found the MacBook Air’s abilities to handle video to be quite capable. Really, the big thing to remember is that higher quality footage may take longer to process. This adds extra time to your workflow, which you’ll want to factor in, but the more you strain your CPU, the more you’re going to deplete your battery.
Staying Focused: Things to Note
Something to remember about video editing is that there’s no one-size-fits-all for video editors. What one editor sees as a heavy workload, another might consider a typical Tuesday. This applies not just to the resolution of the video folks edit (4K, 8K, 1080p etc.), but to what tools editors may use while they work. For example, some may rely heavily on adding 3D graphics over traditional editing.
These potential issues put a heavy focus on the processor and RAM. For the CPU, the M4 is certainly going to leave you in good hands, and when looking at the RAM, the minimum 16GB with options to expand to 24 or 32GB gives you plenty of choices for your needs. More than likely, however, 16GB is going to do you just fine. You may also want to heavily consider your storage needs if you plan on editing a lot of video.
But There Are Two Factors to Consider
If you’re the type who is constantly editing video, there’s really only a couple of reasons to recommend going with a MacBook Pro over the Air. First, consider the port options available on each device. Concerning the MacBook Air vs. the Pro, the Air lacks a dedicated SD card slot as well as a dedicated HDMI port. In addition to having both, the Pro also has an extra USB-C port. Depending on your needs, this can be critical or something you can solve with a peripheral.
Another large determining factor would be the cooling system in the MacBook Air. Since it relies on passive cooling over a typical fan system, there is the potential that this will slow down certain things, such as exporting. For the vast majority of projects, it’s simply going to be a matter of time. The MacBook Air is going to complete virtually any task, but it may not do it as quickly as the Pro. For those with extremely tight deadlines, this can potentially be a dealbreaker.
Should the MacBook Air Get Greenlit?
If you’re a hardcore professional who needs things done yesterday, you may want to consider the MacBook Pro over the Air. The extra USB-C port, HDMI port, and SD card slot are a real boon, and active cooling will ensure everything stays fast as Lightning McQueen.
However, I feel the vast majority of users are going to have little issue with the capabilities of the MacBook Air. You may experience some hiccups when you’re really pushing your editing prowess to the limit, but these hiccups are likely to be small, infrequent, and won’t intrude on your production.
For such a low price, the M4 MacBook Air can be hard to beat, especially when deals have already begun to appear online. If you’re the type that’s already planning their Oscars acceptance speech or are simply looking to trim that super cool TikTok trend video you filmed, the M4 MacBook Air will be ready for you to say “Action”.