It's been a week since the new M1 silicon Macs were announced. The reviews are starting to come in, so we thought we would list the ones we thought had done a good job.
You will find two types of reviews of the the new M1 powered Macs on YouTube. Those who have actually had 'hands on' a machine and those who have scrabbled together a review from all the available information already published.
As we are now seeing more of the former, it seems that the new machines with Apple silicon are performing better than most people expected. A lot better in fact.
We did have to smile today reading a review of the M1 Macs that criticised the performance of Premiere running under Rosetta 2. It doesn't come as a surprise that the author's business is supplying custom configured PCs to run the Adobe apps. They are worried, for they can see people asking why can a laptop perform so well compared to their desktops. Will they follow-up the article with another review once Premiere has been updated?
We also have to remind everyone how there were very vocal attackers of the Mac platform that said 'Apple has abandoned the pro' or 'Apple machines are over-priced and underpowered' and we can't forget Throttlegate!
How things have changed.
We will also know more tomorrow (Thursday) when Apple presents FCP 10.5 running on the new Macs to the audience attending the FCPX Global Virtual Summit. You can still register to hear from Apple directly.
So here's a collection of the video reviews that we have watched. Some very interesting numbers and performance benchmarks. As it is pointed out, this is the first iteration of the new silicon and it has been put into the lower range of Macs first.
We start with this video from Dave Lee, who gives a very balanced view.
Max Yuryev always does good product reviews, this is no exception. He tries out Final Cut Pro on a new M1 MacBook Air. See if you can watch the whole video without smiling!
Although this isn't a test of a M1 equipped Mac, this video from The Tech Chap is well worth a watch. Why? Because it features two Apple VPs, Bob Borcher, Apple VP Worldwide Product Marketing and Tim Millet, Apple VP Platform Architecture. Did they give a hint about FCP's future at around the 18 minute mark?
Matthew Moniz has tested the new M1 Mac and he doesn't hold back with his thoughts. He also doesn't use one of those 'stupid faced' YouTube thumbnails that seem to be de rigueur these days. Is there a competition on YouTube to see how shocked you can look whilst holding a piece of tech in your hands?
We are also including this review on the M1 MacBook Air by Sara Dietschy (Slightly surprised face thumbnail!) as she goes through he process of downloading and using the common image processing & video apps. Spoiler alert: The optimised Final Cut Pro easily wins over Adobe Premiere even if the icon is the one before the one before!
The last video is included because Oliver Peters kindly shot us a link. Lee Zavitz uses Final Cut Pro on the new M1 Mac Mini. He's impressed.
Also worth a read-
Yeah, Apple’s M1 MacBook Pro is powerful, but it’s the battery life that will blow you away. (Lots of great benchmark comparisons & FCP export test)
The M1 Macs- Daring Fireball - Worth a read just for the last footnote.
Steve Jobs’s last gambit: Apple’s M1 Chip Conversation with three of Apple's VPs including Craig Federighi (Interesting comment about looking three years into the future).
I am the Editor-in-Chief of FCP.co and have run the website since its inception ten years ago.
I have also worked as a broadcast and corporate editor for over 30 years, starting on one inch tape, working through many formats, right up to today's NLEs.
Under the name Idustrial Revolution, I have written and sold plugins for Final Cut Pro for 13 years.
I was made a Freeman of Lichfield through The Worshipful Company of Smiths (established 1601). Though I haven't yet tried to herd a flock of sheep through the city centre!
Current Editing
2020 has been busy, the beginning of the year was finishing off a new property series (cut on FCP) for Channel 4 called The Great House Giveaway. I also designed and built the majority of the graphics as Motion templates. It has been a great success and the shows grabbed more viewers in the 4pm weekday slot than any previous strand. It has been recommissioned by C4 for 60 episodes, including prime-time versions and five themed programmes. The shows have also been nominated for a 2021 BAFTA.
Although both were postponed to later in the year, I worked again on ITV's coverage of the Tour de France and La Vuelta. 2020 was my 25th year of editing the TdF and my 20th year as lead editor. The Tour was the first broadcast show to adopt FCPX working for multiple editors on shared storage.
BBC's Snooker has played a big part in my life, I've been editing tournament coverage since 1997. I'm proud to be part of a very creative team that has pioneered many new ideas and workflows that are now industry standard in sports' production. This is currently an Adobe Premiere edit.
Covid cancelled some of the regular corporate events that I edit such as trade shows & events. I was lucky however to edit, from home, on projects for Amazon Kindle, Amazon Black Friday, Mastercard and very proud to have helped local charitable trust Kendall & Wall secure lottery funding.
As for software, my weapon of choice is Final Cut Pro and Motion, but I also have a good knowledge and broadcast credits with Adobe Premiere Pro, MOGRT design and Photoshop.
Plugin Design & Development
I'm the creative force behind Idustrial Revolution, one of the oldest Final Cut Pro plugin developers. It hosts a range of commercial and free plugins on the site. One free plugin was downloaded over a thousand times within 24 hours of release.
I also take on custom work, whether it is adapting an existing plugin for a special use or designing new plugins for clients from scratch. Having a good knowledge of editing allows me to build-in flexibility and more importantly, usability.
FCP.co
Now in its 10th year and 4th redesign, running FCP.co has given me knowledge on how to run a large CMS- you are currently reading my bio from the database! Although it sounds corny, I am pretty well up on social media trends & techniques, especially in the video sector. The recent Covid restrictions has enabled live FCP.co shows online. This involves managing a Zoom Webinar through Restream.io to YouTube and Facebook.
The Future
I'm always open to new ideas and opportunities, so please get in touch at editor (at) fcp.co. I've judged film competitions, presented workflow techniques to international audiences and come up with ideas for TV shows and software programs!
