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Mac Pro will finally ship in December

Apple's pro-grade Mac has been tweaked since its debut at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference back in June.

Roger Cheng Former Executive Editor / Head of News
Roger Cheng (he/him/his) was the executive editor in charge of CNET News, managing everything from daily breaking news to in-depth investigative packages. Prior to this, he was on the telecommunications beat and wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal for nearly a decade and got his start writing and laying out pages at a local paper in Southern California. He's a devoted Trojan alum and thinks sleep is the perfect -- if unattainable -- hobby for a parent.
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  • SABEW Best in Business 2011 Award for Breaking News Coverage, Eddie Award in 2020 for 5G coverage, runner-up National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Award for culture analysis.
Roger Cheng
2 min read
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The Mac Pro is a beast of a computer. 

James Martin/CNET

The super-pricey, super-powerful Mac Pro is finally coming to market -- even if it's later than anyone expected. And Apple is throwing in some extras to make good on its delayed launch. 

Apple will release the Mac Pro in December. It didn't provide a more specific launch day or say when customers would be able to preorder the flagship desktop computer.

The new Mac Pro, which starts at $5,999, represents the first major upgrade of the device since 2013 and is Apple's attempt to win back creative professionals who've fled to more powerful Windows machines. The company has spent the year revamping its lineup for pros, which included a new 16-inch MacBook Pro with a redesigned keyboard, better battery and improved speakers. CNET Editor Scott Stein says it's not quite like the old-school MacBook keyboard in his first take. "Think of the new MacBook Pro keyboard as a happy medium between the two," he says. 

Apple's marketing chief, Phil Schiller, talked about the professional market with CNET. 

Watch this: Apple unveils all-new Mac Pro

The Mac Pro, along with its $5,000 6K Pro Display XDR monitor "accessory," stole the show during Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in June. 

Since its debut, Apple made a few tweaks. There's now an 8-terabyte solid-state drive option for the Mac Pro, with twice as much memory as previously stated. The Mac Pro will now be able to handle six simultaneous streams of 8K video, twice the number promised at WWDC

That's a lot of horsepower and far more than the average person would need. But the Mac Pro is designed for power users in the special effects business or other industries that requires a massive amount of power for things like image or video rendering. 

They'll just have to wait a little longer than expected.

Apple Mac Pro: Expensive, sleek and definitely not for grating cheese

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