During l’evento speciale “Spring Loaded” Apple unveiled the new ones at the end of April, among other things iMac 24 with M1 processor. The iMacs with 24-inch screen, which have been on pre-order for days and will arrive next Friday 21 May, stand out, beyond the hardware equipment and the new lighter design, for the vividness of the colors. Seven (three of which are available only for the high-end version) made with a very refined industrial process that makes them unique objects in the panorama of the computer sector in general and of all-in-ones in particular.
The iMac is once again a “furnishing” object, as it was originally with the model designed by Jony Ive and presented by Steve Jobs on May 7, 1998. For four years they revolutionized the market with annual and then six-monthly collections, incremental improvements of the hardware specifications but above all of new and more and more adventurous colors and transparencies. The success of the original iMac was such that it saved Apple, just back under the control of Steve Jobs, from the economic shallows of the 1990s. Even today the company is in the middle of an important transition, with the transition from Intel processors to the “homemade” Apple Silicon ones, of which M1 is the first and so far the only one on the market. We tried the new iMac 24 and it convinced us: it is light and powerful, suitable for many uses, professional or consumer. And it has one more surprising advantage over its Windows competition: it’s a nice, colorful computer.
Ultra-thin packaging
If it is true that elegance can be seen from the details, Apple amazes already starting from the box with which the new iMac arrives. The company, which is demonstrating with consistency a sensitivity to the environment above the industry average, it has designed a totally recyclable paper and cardboard package, with internal shock absorbers in folded paper to avoid damage to the computer and at the same time not having to resort to plastics or other materials that absorb shocks. Pleasant and intuitive to open, the packaging in our opinion adds a touch of class with the handle, made of natural and recyclable materials, which is the same color as the computer. Coordinating colors is the real leitmotiv of this generation of iMacs, as we will see. Finally, inside the box, the real computer, the power supply with built-in Ethernet socket, the Magic Keyboard wireless keyboard with Touch ID sensor, the Magic Mouse and the Magic Trackapd, all three of the same color.
How it looks
Installation is simple: just connect the power cable – this time with a very firm proprietary magnetic coupling – to the back of the computer, plug it in and press the power button. Impossible to go wrong, because it is the only button on the device, located on the back together with the four Usb-C sockets (two Thunderbolt 4 and two Usb-C 3) and the mini audio jack on the right side because the plug is too deep compared to the shell of 1.1 cm. The dimensions of the computer are very small: the 24-inch screen is housed in a 46.1 by 54.7 cm frame with a 14.7 cm bracket for a total weight of just under 4.5 kg.
The first thing to strike is the coloring, in our case bright yellow which seems almost gold depending on the light (blue, green, pink and silver are also available for all versions and yellow, orange and purple only for the top models orderable online). Setting up a Mac from scratch today takes just under 5 minutes and a total of seven screens. Here, too, we appreciate the attention to detail by Apple: every time the Mac icon appears in the system specifications, it is an iMac of the same color as the model under test. And even the desktop background is customized in yellow, thanks to a little trick that, however, has a great effect.
At the base of the 4.5K Retina screen, which is surrounded by a one-centimeter white frame, is the “chin” of the computer, which contains the electronics, the speakers (six, very powerful, four of which for low in counterphase to eliminate vibrations), the two microscopic fans, which we have never heard running, and no apple logo, present instead in generous dimensions on the back.
How does it work
In recent months we have already tried other computers with M1 processor: i Mac mini e i PowerBook laptops. The performance does not change: the two versions with 8 cores for the CPU and 7 or 8 cores for the GPU (plus 16 for the Neural Engine) and the 8 Giga of shared Ram are similar, if not slightly better than those of the Mac mini, thanks to a higher thermal with two fans and a vertical position. But the differences are minimal and testify to the goodness of Apple’s first processor for Mac, versatile enough to be used indifferently in a tablet (the new iPad Pro), in two laptops (MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13) and in two computers desk (Mac mini and this iMac 24), with prices ranging from 899 (iPad Pro) to 1949 (most powerful iMac 24 in the list) but exceeding three thousand euros for a full optional iMac. It is the real secret ingredient and it convinces us, as it had convinced us in the other computers that use it.
We used the iMac for ten days, with consistent high-level performance in everything we did: work, leisure, gaming, movies and TV shows with the main streaming services (Apple TV +, Netflix, Disney + and Prime Video) , music with Apple Music and especially YouTube, and the dozens of other activities that are done every day in front of the computer. The iMac has the flexibility of a computer equipped with a structured and rich operating system like macOS Big Sur, but an ease of use comparable to a tablet. We’ve only used USB-C sockets occasionally, and having four seems like a luxury. The cable supplied to charge the keyboard, trackpad and mouse (with a fabric protection, obviously yellow) has a lightning connector, so it can also be used for the iPhone. In general, the user experience of the iMac is fluid and very comfortable. Despite being far smaller than the living room TV (43-inch 4K) we did eventually watch some streaming content on the screen, which is surprisingly good, as was the audio.
After the processor and the simply spectacular rendering of the 500 nits screen with 11.3 million pixels, the thing that has struck us and our interlocutors the most in the endless video conferences of these times of pandemic, however, is the new video camera. With the 1080p FaceTime HD version powered by the M1 chip, Apple is finally able to give a much higher quality to video conferences. Used with Facetime, Teams, Zoom and Meet, the camera amazed all our remote interlocutors for the clear leap in quality compared to those incorporated in other Macs and in all PCs. Too bad that the confidentiality agreement with Apple has so far prevented us from unraveling the mystery. There was the catch: the camera is really good.
Curiosity
The Magic Keyboard of the top models is equipped with the Touch ID sensor (available as an option for the other models) and the convenience is truly remarkable. You authenticate in a fraction of a second, you can download software and make payments without having to enter the password and you can also change the user simply by using the person’s fingerprint (in this case it takes just under two minutes to switch). Using it made our testing much smoother, like on a MacBook or iPad or iPhone. We also verified that the keyboard is compatible with a Mac mini M1 and it’s a shame Apple doesn’t offer it (for now) as a stand-alone product. For the rest, the mechanics are identical to the previous Magic Keyboard, but the edges are smoothed and the multimedia part of the function keys is now aligned with that of the iPad keyboards.
Price and competitors
The iMac in minimum configuration costs 1499 (M1 with 8 core CPU, 7 core GPU, 8 Gb of memory and 256 of storage, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, no Gigabit Ethernet in the power supply, no Touch ID in the keyboard. higher, which has a processor with 8/8 cores, same specifications and in addition two more USB-C ports, Ethernet and Touch ID in the keyboard, which costs 1,719. It has relatively little storage memory, but can be expanded with Thunderbolt external drives ( there are very fast and compact ones) or you can choose the 1,949 euro version, identical but with 512 GB of archive. The top version (16 GB of Ram and 2 TB of archive, plus extended Touch ID keyboard) costs 3,030 euro, a price that seems excessive for this class of computer. The competition of the all-in-ones in the Windows world is much more expensive (Surface Studio) or designed for much more “light” workstations (Hp, Lenovo, Acer Apple has an optimal price positioning and equipment, thanks above all to the proprietary processor.
What we like
The design is very nice: the slimming and color care has made the iMac 24 a unique object and also easily transportable for example at home (it weighs only 4.5 kg). The screen is perfect for normal use, but external displays can be connected via Thunderbolt if desired. The rendering of the audio, the microphones and above all the FaceTime HD camera convinced us a lot. The iMac is back to basics and makes the most of the power and small footprint of M1 processors in an excellent way. Let’s not forget that this is the “small” (it inherits the commercial space of the iMac 21.5 of which it maintains the measurements of the body) but it does much more than one might expect.
What we don’t like
A few non-decisive things: that there is no side port for SD Card cards (it would have been very convenient for those who work with videos and photos), that there is no Face ID for authentication and that some colors are only available on higher models .