Graphic design and photography students are required to purchase an Apple 16” MacBook Pro laptop computer with the following specifications for the fall of 2026:
- Apple M5Pro Chip
- 18-core CPU
- 20-core GPU
- 48GB Unified Memory
- 1TB SSD storage
- 16-core Neural Engine
- 16-inch Liquid Retina XDR display²
- Three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI port, SDXC card slot, headphone jack, MagSafe 3 port
- Magic Keyboard with Touch ID
- Force Touch Trackpad
- 140W USB-C Power Adaptor
*Note: Apple will often upgrade some of these specs as new models are released.
You may purchase the computer independently or through The College Laptop Program (Select Visual Communications in the top menu). If you are buying it independently, please ask for an educational discount.
Note: If you own a Mac Laptop, your existing solid-state or hard drive storage should be at least 512 TB to accommodate Adobe Creative Cloud software's software and processing requirements. You may need to archive existing files to free up hard drive space. Please consider the hard drive recommendations below.
Recommended Additional Warranty if Purchasing on Your Own
- AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro
Solid State Drives
A portable solid-state drive is required for use in the Mac labs and for working with large files. We recommend a portable solid-state drive of at least one terabyte. The interface should be USB-C/ Thunderbolt 4.
Recommended Brands:
- Samsung 1TB or 2TB T7 Shield Portable SSD (This past year, the cost of these drives has more than doubled. Another option is the traditional hard drive shown below, which costs one-third less. The transfer speeds are slower, but these are a viable option to save money.)
- 1 or 2 TB USBc 3.2 SSD with a port and cable rated for 10Gbps speeds.
Highly Recommended: Cloud Backup Service
A cloud-based backup service automatically backs up your computers and external drives. The College recommends Crash Plan, which offers students a discount and unlimited storage.
Media card Readers for Photo Transfers
If you are going to start with an older MacBook Computer, not the one listed above, these sometimes do not have a media card reader for transferring photographs onto your computer from the camera. If you have a laptop without a media card reader, we recommend the following media card reader: SanDisk Extreme Pro SD Card USB Type-C Reader (for USB C ports on Computers).
Note: An SD card reader is the most common type of media card reader. If your camera has a different kind of media card, such as a CF or CFexpress Card, you will need a reader specific to these media cards.
Required Software
- Adobe Creative Cloud for Students (for Mac)
Note: Endicott College provides this software for Graphic Design and Photography majors at the beginning of the Fall Semester - Microsoft Office 365 for Students (for Mac) Note: Endicott provides this software for free to all active students.
Contact
For further information please contact:
Monica Hamilton at mhamilto@endicott.edu