With Apple’s recent announcement of the first 8-core MacBook Pro, photographers and other digital creatives everywhere (especially those who already reside in the Apple ecosystem) likely broke into a collective happy dance. Why? According to Apple, “MacBook Pro now delivers two times faster performance than a quad-core MacBook Pro and 40 percent more performance than a 6-core MacBook Pro, making it the fastest Mac notebook ever.”

Photographers, video editors, musicians, coders, and others working in the digital realm stand to benefit from the upgrade. Apple notes that “Photographers can apply complex edits and filters up to 75 percent faster in Photoshop” while video editors who use Final Cut Pro X can edit “up to 11 simultaneous multi-cam streams of 4K video.” And the list goes on with how other creatives will save time editing music, coding software, and more. With the extra time made available with the faster processor, digital creatives can spend more time creating and less time waiting for their hardware to catch up with their software, so long as the laptop delivers as promised.

Here are some of this speedy laptop’s noteworthy specs:

  • Price: $2,799
  • 2.3 GHz Intel Core i9 Eight-Core Processor
  • 15.4″ 2880 x 1800 Retina Display
  • AMD Radeon Pro 560X GPU (4GB GDDR5)
  • True Tone Technology
  • Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac) | Bluetooth 5.0
  • 4 x Thunderbolt 3 (USB Type-C) Ports
  • Apple T-2 Security Chip
  • macOS Mojave
  • And more…

Although we haven’t tested this computer hands-on, the specs and early reports would suggest that photographers who’ve been on the fence about crossing over into Apple territory, this laptop makes a strong argument to make the transition. You can read Apple’s full release statement here.

Where do you stand on Apple products? Are you looking forward to and/or considering purchasing this notebook? We’ve published issues we’ve had with previous iterations of the MacBook Pro. Here’s hoping this one lives up to the hype and delivers above and beyond expectations.

The Apple 15.4″ MacBook Pro with Touch Bar (available in Silver or Space Grey) is available now for pre-order.