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Ultimately, the Mac mini is recommended for serious video production, whereas the iPad suits H.264, H.265 and ProRes users. The first part of our review has shown some disadvantages of the iPad Pro over using the Mac mini Pro for DaVinci Resolve 19, in particular when it comes to memory management of the limited 16 GB of RAM. Well, Apple should know their hardware better than anybody else (even if they tend to demo new hardware with Blackmagic software too).
So, we have a closer look at FCP-X on either device this time and then, a second look at the fresh version 20 of DaVinci Resolve (DR for short). Finally, we’ll try to reach a final verdict regarding the usefulness of the iPad Pro and the Mac mini Pro for video professionals.
Video sources
This time, we run the software under Sequoia 15.5 on the Mac mini and iPadOS 18.5 on the tablet. Not much has changed regarding compatibility of the tablet software with raw video formats. Neither DR 20 nor FCP-X (2.2.1) accept any professional sources, like Canon, Sony, or Red. With one notable exception: either one is reading their own family’s RAW.
DR for iPad can handle BRAW, and FCP-X does Apple’s ProRes RAW. The latter is even supported by specialised hardware in the M4 Pro. Under MacOS, DR is reading clips from just about every camera in general use, while FCP-X is quite limited. Canon RAW at least is accepted by Apple’s Compressor for conversion, but neither Sony’s OCN nor Nikon’s R3D is read. So, you may need to run DR too, just for conversions (the free version should suffice).
While BRAW Toolbox by Chris Hocking makes FCP-X compatible with BRAW under MacOS, no such solution is available for the iPad. Blackmagic (BM for short) still refuses to support ProRes RAW in DR version 20. Consequently, we can’t directly compare speed and reliability of these in the two video apps. For a detailed comparison, there’s an excellent article by Adam Wilt.
There’s also no widely established benchmark for either app on the tablet, like Puget Systems’ one for DR (now on MacOS too) or the one by Team2Films (T2F for short) we used last time. Instead, we have layered several clips in ProRes RAW and also tried some very high resolution sources from BM’s new cinema cameras after conversion to ProRes 422 HQ.
Stability and speed
Of course, we were most curious about the stability with the limited RAM of 16 GB, the maximum you can get in the iPadPro. In DR, with the converted T2F benchmark on the iPad (see here), version 20 crashed just like 19, so no news here. But we didn’t get any such crash in FCP-X, even if trying with insane source resolutions. The worst was a 12K ProRes clip stacked in a small, rotated picture over a 17K (!) clip in an UHD timeline.
This gave us an out-of-memory error even with the integrated RAM technology of Apple silicon when trying to play it back. Nevertheless, we could render this timeline into H.265 without stalls or artefacts. Even 17K alone worked in UHD, but playback was not 100% smooth. Obviously, Apple knows very well how to handle such challenges.
Three clips of ProRes RAW stacked for picture-in-picture played without any hiccups, of course, and rendered just as fast as non-RAW clips. For comparison, we moved the projects to the Mac mini too. As you may expect, the poor thing with just 24 GB of RAM went into massive swapping to SSD with 17K in a 17K timeline (!) under DR, but didn’t crash.
Trying 17K, cut into an 8K timeline in DR 20 with 5 simple color correction nodes (two of them with a Power Window) played at 17 to 18 fps. 8K output is getting rendered with massive swapping, but no stall. FCP-X is also showing swapping with a 17K source, but a bit less than DR on the Mac mini Pro. Rendering to UHD in H.265 was nearly twice as fast than on the iPad with FCP-X.
Finally, they don’t force you to have the sources on internal storage any more (which was a limitation we critisized in our first review). Any good SSD with a known good cable will do now, so you don’t need to pay their massive premium for 2 TB. Unfortunately, you’ll still need to go for 1 TB to get 16 GB of RAM in the tablet. The Mac mini Pro is available with up to 64 GB and you can still choose any size for the internal SSD.
Multicam
While both DR and FCP-X offer multicam editing of recorded footage, only FCP-X on the iPad can do it with up to four wireless live streams as highly compressed proxies. This function is limited to sources running Final Cut Camera (free), so you’ll have to stay in the Apple ecosphere with iPhones or other iPads. But with the remarkable quality of recent iPhones (see here), you’ll have the smallest live studio one can imagine today.
To avoid misunderstandings: switching does not send a live stream out into the world. But, of course, FCP-X can be used to correct edits or add effects after live recording. For full quality, you’ll need to transfer the clips from the phones to the iPad after recording. But you can start editing immediately, based on the proxies, while the transfer happens in the background.
The whole experience with Live Multicam in FCP-X is really smooth, with step-by-step instructions and the ease of use you’d expect from Apple (there’s a free tutorial by Ripple Training). Live Multicam supports the full potential of these cameras, including log or HDR recording and the ProRes codec with recent models. You can even control camera settings remotely.
BM is offering live switching possibilities too with their ATEM line of products, and recording an editable version for DR while going out live. This is not limited to their own cameras, but you’ll need more gear to lug around. Wiring up a studio with ATEM or anything comparable is considerably more complex and expensive than the iPad’s Live Multicam, but needed for professional broadcasting.
Screens
All of this is supported by the excellent screen of the iPad Pro with impressive contrast by a tandem OLED. You can get very quite close to the established standards with its reference modes. And we shouldn’t blame Apple for issues with shifts of color and contrast on other devices and software – it’s a general lack of standards in the industry. The iPad will recognise the tags for different modes and switch accordingly (read here for further details and adjustments).
Other uses
We’ve already had a close look at the iPad for monitoring with CineMon (see here). It’s out of beta now, working very well on the iPad Pro and getting faster and more efficient with every update. The author is even planning a record function. We made one weird observation, though: the capture interface for HDMI input with the best balance of image quality, price and size is the Acasis VC-003 (see here).
But it doesn’t work the same way under iPadOS as it did in our review under MacOS. While we could choose 4:2:2 for color subsampling on the Mac, there are only two versions of 4:2:0 on the tablet. OTOH, we couldn’t get 24 or 25 fps on the Mac, while the iPad offers a broader range of all usual frame rates, even including the ones for NTSC.
This is not a bug in CineMon, since other software like CamX shows the same limitations and options. The drivers for the UVC standard used for such devices are part of the OS, so these differences seem to point to Apple’s responsibility.
The Fairlight page is still not officially supported by DR 20 on the iPad. While you can activate that page by your own key settings via the usual hack by option-command-k, you can’t yet rely on its stability. But Apple offers their very capable audio app called Logic Pro for the iPad as well. And then, there are all the possibilities of the touch screen, which are not only used for intuitive operation of FCP-X, but even more so for artwork with Apple’s Pencil Pro.
Conclusion
Both the iPad M4 and the Mac mini M4 Pro are very capable devices, and have been very reliable in our tests if not overwhelmed by insane resolutions. But which one is the right choice?
I’d recommend the Mac mini (or any of its bigger brothers) for DaVinci Resolve if you have to work with sources like the high-end cameras from Arri, Blackmagic, Canon, Red/Nikon or Sony. Needing conversion of your footage before editing on the iPad is just too tedious. This would also be an argument against Final Cut Pro. Another feature you’ll be missing is the new keyframe editor in DR 20. Even worse, the old one is gone on the iPad.
Of course, if you want an integrated keyboard and screen, one of the MacBooks M4 will do just as well. But don’t get any Mac with only the basic RAM if you have source resolutions beyond 4K/UHD, rather get as much as you can afford. You can rather save on internal storage, which will never suffice for professional video production anyway.
But if your camera is recording one of the flavours of H.264 or H.265 or ProRes RAW, the iPad is a serious alternative. Today, a log recording in 10 bit 4:2:2 with a good data rate can give you nearly as much flexibility and quality as the raw recordings. You can cover full post-production for these formats on the tablet, and get the additional possibilities of drawing on the screen with the Pencil Pro if you are an artist.
