PRO
Minuscule footprint
Colourful, bright display
Performance
CON
Could sound better
SPECIFICATION
8-core CPU
8-core GPU
16GB unified memory
512GB storage
From A$ 2,499
This has been 14 years in the making, it should be exciting to see a redesigned iMac but the harshest of critics aren’t convinced. Their points are valid because it only performs just as well as the M1 Mac Mini and the iMac could have gone chinless if it hadn’t been so ridiculously thin. Throwback colours are playful, a proper webcam installed and what I’m looking forward to most is how it’d sound with six speakers living inside.
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Go for silver and it will blend in anywhere but if you got a colour palette going on, any of the other six should be of service. After years of Apple products, the unboxing aspect still adds to the experience. And as usual, they are well made with aluminium cutouts that are millimetre precise. No instructions were needed as everything’s plug and play and all is done within minutes. Having no branding apart from its back (only seen by the wall) makes the all-new iMac cool.
The best thing about moving from one Mac to another is Time Machine. It basically transplants your previous computer’s software to the new one so there’s no need for data moving, downloading and installing programs. It took about 15 minutes for all this to be done and the two cooling fans were inaudible throughout. Even for me, nothing nerve wracking as the whole process was seamless.
I was worried that 24 inches would not be enough screen real estate but it actually is unless you are used to multiple screens for work. That aside, image is crisp and things can go seriously bright. As for the sound department, it sounds inferior to a 5K iMac which is a letdown. Stereo separation can be heard, middle and upper registers are at best, average muddled by lumpy bass. Ultimately, the promise of bringing the cinema to your home is far from being delivered.
16GB of RAM was selected in this configuration for that tiny bit of future proofing and it is just nice to tick boxes. Having seen tests done on the base machine, there’s slight performance differences between them and should you or should you not upgrade solely comes down to how much are you willing to spend on a home computer.
At around A$ 2000, it wouldn’t stick as a bargain but take an identical Mac mini to go with a monitor, the 2021 iMac does look like good value. Plus it comes with a webcam, speakers on top of peripherals like keyboard and mouse. And on the point where it should look out of this world, chin and bezel-less. We can only guess whether the folks at Apple got lazy or deliberately done to continue the iMac lineage. Whatever it may be, last year’s iMac still looks pretty good.
No longer having to key in the password thanks to Touch ID is to be expected in the all-new iMac. Nothing groundbreaking because it is today’s tech retailing at competitive prices which isn’t fashionably Apple. That could be the very reason why people aren’t satisfied as the company is usually at the forefront of cutting edge technology. Let’s just not forget there’s a price to pay for the best of the best.