iPad 2 Beats MacBook Pro in iMovie Speed Tests

AppAdvice has performed several iMovie speed tests comparing the iPad 2 to 10 Mac devices including the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac Pro, and iPad 1.

They tested the time it took to copy a movie to the device, the time it took to encode an unedited 2 minute movie to 720p, and the time it took to encode an edited movie to 720p.

In the first test, the same 2 minute video was imported into iMovie on all the devices. Surprisingly, the iPad 2 smoked even the Mac Pro taking only 25.5 seconds to import the clip. The Mac Pro took 56.5 seconds and the fastest MacBook Pro took 1 minute 12.5 seconds.



In the second test, the iPad 2 smoked the other devices yet again encoding an unedited 2 minute clip to 720p in 1 minute 56 seconds. The Mac Pro took 2 minutes and 15 seconds and the fastest MacBook Pro took 2 minutes and 20 seconds.


Finally, the iPad 2 performed well on its last test as well. It came in third place just behind the Mac Pro and the fastest MacBook Pro. This time the two minute video was encoded after adding a title overlay, music in the background, and a start and finish image. The iPad 2 finished encoding in 2 minutes 5 seconds; whereas, the Mac Pro took 1 minute 48 seconds and the MacBook Pro took 2 minutes.


We were shocked by these findings. The question we wanted to answer is this: If I am going to be shooting video on the road, what portable machine do I bring to edit/encode videos? We think the answer is pretty clear. For most people, the iPad 2 has more than enough power for editing and encoding videos on the road. Yes, the edits you can do on the iPad are simpler, but they are sufficient for most of us.

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