When Apple announced this month that Final Cut Pro is finally coming to iPad, tablet-toting creatives rejoiced at the news. Fans have been yearning to see the video editing tool make the jump from Mac to iPad for years, and along with music editor Logic Pro, it's available today. We've been testing Final Cut Pro our ahead of the official launch and are pleased to report that this is no 'Final Cut Lite' – it's the real deal.
With new touch interfaces, this fully-fledged version of the Final Cut Pro is already looking like game-changer for iPad users. And thanks to some nifty new iPad exclusive features, there are even areas where it already excels over its desktop counterpart. (Want to experience it for yourself? Check out the best iPad Pro deals available now.)
01. Pencil Hover
While Pencil Hover debuted with the new iPad models last October (check out our M2 iPad Pro review), it's finally coming into its own – and skimming through footage in Final Cut Pro feels like what the tech was made for. With Pencil Hover, users can quickly skim and preview footage without ever touching the screen, which could have a profound effect on workflow speed.
02. Live drawing
Also pretty mind-blowing is Live Drawing. With the Apple Pencil, users can draw anything on top of a video clip, from shapes to text – and have the animation of the actual strokes play at any desired speed. From lyric music videos to cooking tutorials, there's a ton of use-cases where animated text could come into its own.
03. Jog Wheel
Exclusive to the iPad version of Final Cut Pro, the brand new jog wheel lets users scrub through footage or trim and nudge clips. With the addition of the Apple Pencil, this software version (jog wheels have existed as separate hardware for a while) feels completely natural. The jog wheel allows a level of precision when scrubbing that feels far more detailed and precise than can be achieved with a trackpad or mouse – literally allowing the user to move frame-by-frame.
Final Cut Pro for iPad is available now for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (5th or 6th generation), 11‑inch iPad Pro (3rd or 4th generation) or iPad Air (5th generation) with iPadOS 16.4 or later. At £49/$49 per year or £4.99/$4.99 per month, it's also Apple's first subscription app. While this might be a turn-off for those who like to, you know, own their software, there's no denying that this is the way things are going now – and for iPad power users, those extra touch interfaces might easily make it worth it.
