The wait is over folks. Apple officially announced the long awaited update to their iMac line of desktop computers. I know a handful of customers that have been waiting patiently for these machines and I for one can say that Apple did not disappoint.
The new iMac is now 40% less in volume than its previous version and a significant amount lighter for both the 21.5 and 27 inch sizes. To account for this reduction in size Apple had to remove the optical drive and redesign how they assemble the iMac screen. These innovations make the iMac at it’s thinnest – 5mm. As you move to center mass, the iMac bows out allowing room for a 2.7 GHz Intel i5 processor, 8GB of memory a NVIDIA graphics processor and a traditional hard drive. Some of you might be thinking – traditional hard drive, really Apple? Well Apple also gives customers the option of buying flash storage on their iMac or this thing Apple has dubbed Fusion Drive.
Without going into crazy detail about what a Fusion Drive actually is it simply combines a solid state drive with a hard drive. This gives users a balance of speed and capacity at a reasonable price. It is true that Seagate has a hybrid drive which at first glance looks similar to the Fusion Drive but the support for optimal use of the hybrid drive with Apple seems to have been lacking. We can rest assured that Apple will have full support for their Fusion Drive.
So it’s thinner, it’s lighter (not that you’ll be carrying it any farther than from your car to your home), it’s more powerful and it’s faster. After analyzing almost every component of the new iMac and you’ll see how everything has been changed for the better, everything except for the price.
I suppose that in order to pay for that new technique of fusing the screen together Apple had to up the starting price of the iMac to $1299. Now that isn’t a huge jump, only $100 from the old version but I’d be reluctant to say that is an improvement. Regardless I like what Apple has done here. The new iMac looks sleek and has a number of much needed upgrades. I for one would need to think long and hard about what else I could have asked for in an iMac update.
Apple says that the 21.5-inch iMac will be available in November and the 27-inch will be available in December. I know we will be working as hard as we can to get these iMacs into our retail stores for you to see in person. Until then give us a call or go online to ask us any questions you might have about the new iMac.