Presently got a 4 year old laptop with a core i3 processor. Just got a gopro and its seems to be struggling. Are macbooks air or pro better at editing or is it best to keep with a windows laptop? Any recommendations? Hoping to keep cheap as possible as use tablet for most other things.

A MacBook would be better than what you have, yes, but mainly because it is fairly high-end processor and memory etc. That’s why they are expensive.

Actually, if you have a new iPhone, that will probably cope better, too. Might be an option?

Rachel

So say I have a budget of approx £600 would I be better get a windows based laptop or a macbook air etc? I’m use to windows but happy to go macbook if its going to be better.

I’d go windows, especially at that price point.

I also just can’t get on with OSX. I’ve used my mums macbook air extensively and it takes me so long to do anything. Hateful operating system in my opinion but I know others like it…

Edit: for £600 you’ll get an excellent windows based laptop. If you want something tablety as well look at the surface 4. Brilliant device

OP you need £1000+ for a MacBook so at that budget its a Windows laptop. Video editing uses a lot of processor power and memory so tjensoec of the machine is important. You’ll get more for your money from a desk top if youndon’t need the portability. FYI a MacBook Air has a relatively low power procssor as its optimised for portability and longer battery life

I’ve got a half decent PC, and a half decent Mac. The easiest and smoothest basic GoPro editing (at least at 1080p) is on my iPad Air…

You can get a Mac less than £1k even more so in the sales but still more than your budget.

Well worth it though as them operating system is far better, if you have some apple products already then worth it even more.

However, they are expensive meaning you can get a lot of windows based laptop for the same price.

Just don’t get a macbook. Get an air or a pro if you go apple. The CPU in the macbook is a very low power/low performance chip. Much slower than your current i3. In fact only slightly quicker than my 8 year old macbook pro.

As for osx vs windows. I’ve had macs since system 6 and always preferred Mac OS. However it is starting to feel seriously dated compared to the newer versions of windows IMHO. Also seem to be hitting a few OS bugs where Win8 has been absolutely solid.

I edit plenty from my go pro on my windows dell inspiron, i5 plenty of ram and a good build (works) . Win 10 is a great os from my experience and it handles lots of stuff well.

Get a decent spec and build and it will last well, still using my i3 inspiron at 4 years old (former work ow personal)

I’ve a few laptops MB Air 13, MB Pro 15 and a Sony Vaio. The Sony and Air have similar specs but the Sony running windows 10 is faster and more stable. I’ve edited on Virb software without any real issues on all of them MB Pro is fastest but also has 4 times the memory of the others and an i7 compared to i5 in the others.
For the budget I wouldn’t stretch to a MB I would go for a well spec’d Windows laptop and probably a Dell or Lenovo.

I’m a mac fanboy, but I’ve been using a Lenovo X1 Carbon for some work I’ve been doing, and I’m very impressed with it. its an i7 with 8gb of ram, and handles video editing with ease. But I agree with Mike about the build – fill it with crapware and you’ll lose the performance.

A macbook pro maxed out with RAM would be nice though,

For sorting video at £600, a windows machine will be great.

Eldest_oab just bought a Cube with latest generation i7, 16mb RAM, good graphics card and full 450gb SSD, for £600. Proper powerhouse machine, only downside is it is heavy.