[Jeremy Jacobs]

Hello iMore!
For the last few weeks I've been debating the model and upgrades of the MacBook Pro that I plan on upgrading to. I'm a fairly active photographer, typically working with 20-30 mb RAW Camera files.
As of now, I'm looking at the 13" Touch Bar i5 2.9 GHz model with 16gb of RAM and 256 GB storage (I typically move all of my photos onto an external drive so storage isn't much of a concern). I've never worked with a MacBook before; is the 13" model sufficiently powerful for a good bit of work in Lightroom and Photoshop? Furthermore, is the upgrade to the i7 (dual-core) processor worth it? Finally, for those who have the touch bar model, how's your battery life? The reviews have got me concerned.

[firedept10]

That configuration should work fine for you. The only way you would need an i7 is if you were rendering large video files. But for you plans an i5 will more than handle it. You plan on keeping your files external which will help. The SSD will be the biggest help for you. 16GB RAM is more than enough. I can not give you an opinion on the touch bar as I do not have one.

[Matty]

Hello iMore!
For the last few weeks I've been debating the model and upgrades of the MacBook Pro that I plan on upgrading to. I'm a fairly active photographer, typically working with 20-30 mb RAW Camera files.
As of now, I'm looking at the 13" Touch Bar i5 2.9 GHz model with 16gb of RAM and 256 GB storage (I typically move all of my photos onto an external drive so storage isn't much of a concern). I've never worked with a MacBook before;

is the 13" model sufficiently powerful for a good bit of work in Lightroom and Photoshop?

Furthermore, is the upgrade to the i7 (dual-core) processor worth it?

Finally, for those who have the touch bar model, how's your battery life? The reviews have got me concerned.

1) Yes, it should be sufficiently powerful to work with Lightroom and photoshop. (2.9 Ghz i5)

2) The upgraded processor (i7) won't help you that much. It might shave off a couple seconds here and there. But you most likely won't notice a difference unless you time things.

3) Battery life... i cant give personal experience but from what I've read it doesn't live up to Apple's "10 hours" in real world usage. If you browsing the web (using safari) and watching videos. you should be able to get 8+ hours no problem. But if you working with applications, don't be alarmed if you see 6 hours.

Once again, this is just from what I've read and shouldn't be taken as a personal expereince.

[Jeremy Jacobs]

Thanks for your help guys!