Absolutely blazing speed for editing photographs compared to the 7 year old iMac I replaced with this. The i9 8-core processor is so fast that it opens Lightroom in 8 seconds. The keyboard has a perfect feel and the Space Gray is a beautiful design. Very happy with it and the screen size is big enough to be a desktop replacement. My only complaint is battery life, which seems to be about 5 hours for editing photos. If you are just answering emails and looking at the web, it lasts a lot longer. Until the Apple-based chips start shipping, this is the best there is.