Redesigned 24” iMac Unveiled by Apple
Apple delivered an impressive and really packed event on Tuesday in Cupertino. This Apple Event was like an hourly TV show that included several important announcements such as the new iMac, new iPad Pro, a new purple colour for the iPhone 12, new Apple TV 4K, AirTag, Apple Card Family & Apple Podcast Subscriptions. We also learned that iOS 14.5, that allows you to unlock your iPhone while wearing a mask if you own an Apple Watch, will be released next week.
The announcement of the new iMacs was probably the most important update from the Spring Loaded keynote. Apple decided to continue its transition to its Apple Silicon future with a totally new iMac built around the new M1 chip. This is actually no exaggeration. The new ARM architecture allowed Apple to minimise the internal space required to place all the components of the new iMac which is now 11.5mm thin. It’s actually so thin that the area behind the display has room almost for nothing more and most of the internals are located on the bottom bezel of the iMac.
Image Credit: Apple
The new square-shaped iMac is available in green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue or silver colour. It has a 4.5K Retina Display (resolution at 4480 x 2520 pixels) and P3 Wide Colour Gamut Support. Brightness remains at 500 nits which is the same as the 4K 21.5” iMac.
The bezels around the display are now white and thinner. However, the thick bottom bezel remains and has no Apple logo on the front anymore. We also get colour matching accessories: Magic Keyboard, mouse and trackpad. Magic Keyboard now has keys for Spotlight, Dictation, Do Not Disturb, and emoji. There is also a version with TouchID on the Magic Keyboard.
Apple upgraded the webcam which is now 1080p and uses a larger sensor that captures more light which results in higher quality video and FaceTime calls in combination with the ISP of the M1 chip. Studio quality mics and six new speakers are present in the new iMac, which is definitely a great improvement and highly welcomed in the new hybrid workspace era that we live in. Moreover, if you are consuming content that supports Dolby Atmos you get the experience of Spatial Audio
On the aluminium back, there is a new braided power cable that attaches magnetically on the back of the iMac and is also colour matching Apple’s new all-in-one desktop computer. The base model comes with 2 Thunderbolt / USB-C ports on the back while the more advance version features two USB 3 ports and a Gigabit Ethernet port (configurable on the base version). Both versions include a 3.5 mm headphone jack on the side.
The base model iMac starts at $1,299, features an M1 chip with a 7-core GPU and can be configured with up to 16GBs RAM and 1TB of storage. The 4-Port version ($1,499) includes an 8-core GPU and up to 2TBs of storage. The Magic Keyboard on the latter is also featuring TouchID which doesn’t come as a standard on the base model.
You can compare the 2 new different versions of the iMac by clicking this link on Apple’s website.
You will be able to order the new iMacs on April 30 which will be available at the second half of May.
So what’s your opinion on the new iMacs?
