Tested Apple iMac 24in

You and hues army

Combining the might of Apple’s M1 chip with an array of striking new colour options, is the latest iMac the desktop powerhouse you need?

from R25 000 / istore.co.za

The original iMac was revolutionary in 1998, but in recent years Apple’s all-inone desktop has become stale. The innards kept pace with modern demands, but it’s been a decade since they did anything close to daring with the design.

With this latest revamp, Apple is being daring again – and on multiple fronts. The 2021 model arrives in an explosion of colour that recalls the lineup of the original iMac G3 so memorably soundtracked by the Rolling Stones’ She’s a Rainbow.

And more importantly, the computer has been refreshed… inside and out. A floating screen with a chin on a sturdy hinge might be familiar, but the Apple logo is gone and – apart from the silver option – plain metal shades have been replaced by subtle yet luminescent hues of blue, green, pink, yellow, orange and purple.

Concerns about the white bezel being a distraction are soon dismissed, although the prominent webcam dot does irritate and you might have to prop it on a book since the screen height can’t be adjusted.

Side-on, it’s thin. Around the back, the colours are scorchingly vibrant. It echoes the iPad, and looks impressive next to the familiar 27in iMac. This feels like a computer that wants to be in living spaces, not just offices… which is just as well, the way work life is going.

Apple calls this a 24in model but the display is 23.5in across the diagonal. Still, it’s superb, packing in more pixels than larger 4K screens: this is a 4.5K display, with 4480x2520 pixels at 218ppi. It’s bright and colour-accurate, thanks to P3 and True Tone tech.

2 Square way to heaven

In use, it looks wonderful. Even at around half brightness, photos, videos and games look the part; ramp it up to full and the colours get seriously rich. That said, despite Apple’s infatuation with curved corners, these four are ruthlessly square.

3 My sweet board

Input devices come in matching colours – the keys on our purple keyboard stood out nicely. It’s a shame Apple hasn’t used an inverted ‘T’ for the arrow keys, but Touch ID works perfectly, with a larger target for your digits than the tiny one on a MacBook.

4 When the chip comes in

This is the first iMac since 2006 to eschew ‘Intel inside’, instead being driven by Apple’s own M1 chip. In performance terms, our 8-core review unit with 8GB of RAM blew away a 2018 MacBook Pro. Benchmarks put it on the same footing as the M1 MacBook Pro.

5 Appers’ delight

M1-optimised apps range from nippy to stupidly fast. Pixelmator Pro’s machine-learning smarts in particular continue to wow, but we had no issues running Photoshop, Logic, Korg Gadget and a bunch of games. Remember, that’s with only 8GB of RAM.

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24 hours with the Apple iMac 24in Good Meh Evil The cheaper model also omits the two USB 3 ports and Touch ID.We knew the display would be great, but these speakers really boom. We like the purple. First impressions are this is a stunning visual overhaul.It’s annoying not being able to adjust the screen vertically. Good to have Touch ID on the keyboard – with a nice big button.We’ve said this before, but wow, this M1 chip is just blazingly fast.USB-A and HDMI are absent and there’s no SD card slot either.But there is a headphone port – and handily, it’s on the side.The base model has a 7-core GPU, not 8-core, and fewer colour options.

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Even manyproswon’tfeellimited when editingvideo,photosoraudio. SpecthisthingupandR25000soon turnstooverR32800.Ah,Apple…Getting the fans to spin up and make noise is nigh-on impossible.Hard to imagine this Mac struggling with anything bar high-endgames.The absence of Center Stage and Face ID is a big miss, though.

Techspecs

Screen 23.5in 4480x2520 Retina Processor M1 RAM 8/16GB Storage 256GB-2TB SSD OS macOS Big Sur Connectivity Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, 3.5mm headphone, 2x Thunderbolt 3 (USB 4), 2x USB 3 (8-core GPU model only) Dimensions 547x461x 147mm, 4.46kg (8-core 4.48kg)

Return of th’ iMac

Once you’ve finished drooling over those slick new finishes, remember it’s what’s inside that counts…

■ Blowin’ in the chinned

Why does the iMac even have a chin? It houses the Mac’s brains, fans and sound system. Maybe Apple could have stuck all that behind the display, but that would have messed up the design. ■ The giga picture

Apple’s M1 architecture does interesting things with memory usage: 8GB of RAM on an Intel Mac wouldn’t be much, but here it feels mighty. That said, it’s a shame you can’t upgrade the RAM later.

■ Cool for chats

The 1080p FaceTime HD camera is an improvement, albeit from a low bar. It lacks the Center Stage subject-tracking smarts coming to the iPad Pro (see p74), but makes you look good on web chats. ■ Homeward sound

The six-speaker system supports Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos. We ramped them up to max, fired up ear-monstering tunes in Apple Music and were thrown by the bass and soundstage depth.

The design works, the M1’s oomph is welcome and it’s whisper-quiet. Should you buy one? If you have an ageing 21.5in iMac, it’s obvious… but even owners of 27in iMacs will often find the M1 kicks their machine’s face off. Some might want to wait for what Apple’s cooking up in the pro space, but if you don’t mind a smaller display this iMac is no slouch.