27" iMac... too huge?

[zoran]

Yesterday i went to see the new 27"iMac and frankly i was shocked by the size, size matter but this one i think its way too big. At work i have a 23" lcd and i think its ok, but the 27" seems too huge, especially since its so close to the user. I think its beyond me, but then again, i cant understand what was apple thinking when it released this huge iMac? Might it be a reason -that i cant figure out- for releasing sutch a monster?

[miles01110]

Because for some people more screen real estate -> productivity increase? Others might enjoy watching movies on a larger screen. Doesn't seem like much of a mystery to me :confused:

[TMRaven]

The general public have been wanting the next generation intel nehalem quad-cores in the iMacs. Given apple's love for slim form-factors, it would be impossible to run such hot cpus in 24 inch iMacs. Apple needed an extra bit of space to separate the gpu and cpu while providing bigger heatsinks-- and oh boy did they!

I have a 27 inch and I don't find its screen big at all. Before this computer I was using a 20 inch G5 iMac for 6 years.

[IndustrialSpace]

The future consists of watching more TV movies and other media on a nice large computer screen. Apple is leading the way to this, too via itunes.

Also, the longer you own it and work on it, the smaller it looks/feels. You'll get used to it.

[talmy]

I've got my 27" iMac next to a second display -- 20" with a 4:3 aspect ratio. You can't have too many pixels, as far as I'm concerned. It's only too big if it doesn't fit on your desk.

[zoran]

(this question is for all with a 27" iMac)
what is the max width of your desk?
and how close are do you sit towards your imac?

[talmy]

(this question is for all with a 27" iMac)
what is the max width of your desk?
and how close are do you sit towards your imac?

60" wide and I sit back 22-24" from the screens.

[angemon89]

I think it's perfect. I really want one but can't justify the purchase cause I need a MacBook for its portability. But every time I'm in the apple store I always seem to find my way over to the iMac table and drool a bit.

[xSPRINTERx]

Na, I was a bit worried about it taking over the kitchen where it lives. Its perfect, even the Mrs is happy with it.

[zoran]

60" wide and I sit back 22-24" from the screens.
when i say width i dont mean lenght, but the small dimension of your desk

[mystikjoe]

Na, I was a bit worried about it taking over the kitchen where it lives. Its perfect, even the Mrs is happy with it.

i tried to put it in kitchen and it wouldn't fit under my cabinets. the thing is a monster but that's what's so cool about it.

[IndustrialSpace]

(this question is for all with a 27" iMac)
what is the max width of your desk?
and how close are do you sit towards your imac?

You don't have to use the entire screen when "computering." Use only what you need, but its awesome for watching movies and videos - of course, you may have to sit further away.

Also, think of it as "reserve" space for when you need a larger screen to view something in one piece.

[xSPRINTERx]

i tried to put it in kitchen and it wouldn't fit under my cabinets. the thing is a monster but that's what's so cool about it.

I got a nice corner unit for it to sit on. Can keep an eye on the kids then as well:rolleyes::rolleyes:

[Mr. Moo]

I love my 27" iMac. I got it two weeks ago and it is fantastic. I sit about 2 feet away and it's right at my eye-height. Very comfortable, and I can do many tasks at once. I have the i5 version.

[TMRaven]

(this question is for all with a 27" iMac)
what is the max width of your desk?
and how close are do you sit towards your imac?
My desk is a standard 4 foot long oldschool herman miller.
My face is on average around 2-3 feet away from the screen.


As for screen real-estate, I usually find myself using either all of it or most of it-- with quite a comfortable amount of empty space on either left or right side. Now I can appreciate my bg wallpaper more. Often times I find myself putting 2 full-size safari windows next to each other very comfortably.

I rather watch movies on my Samsung in the living room. I have a ps3 to power the blu-ray movies, and quite frankly the samsung is native resolution of 1080p, so it looks really good-- you can only get so much quality from 720p iTunes movies on a 1440p screen.

I do however, love the 1440p screen for gaming. Starcraft2 and dirt2 look fantastic when in the 2560x1440 native resolution. The gpu is pretty decent too, so not really any framerate issues at all.

[MacHamster68]

for me its just too big on a desk , its something for the living room in place of a tv and sitting on a couch at least 10 feet away then the screens size might be comfortable ,honestly i think the 21.5 is far better as monitor on a desk .

but the size race is not over yet, i guess soon we will see something beyond 30" for the iMac which then will dwarf everything else maybe a dual i7 setup ,just for the people who cant have enough processing power to play their games

but i honestly think its better to have multiple smaller screens then one big one
so if i one day would be desperate enough to buy a intel Mac i would go for 2 x21.5 iMacs each with second display (hp does a 21.5 monitor nearly the same design too) all together cost about the same price as one i7 iMac

[Sir Cecil]

For everyday computing, the screen is way too large. Using one window, there's so much extra light blasting you from both sides, it's headache-inducing.
For movies or games it's great of course, but in those cases one is usually sitting further back than when one is doing standard computer tasks.
The 24" Apple Cinema Display is much more comfortable to view in my opinion, having used both for extended periods of time.

[Xtremehkr]

I got used to it fairly quickly. I started with a G3 iMac which had a 14" CRT, I sat pretty close to the screen when I was using that one. I waited a long time and upgraded to a G5 iMac with a 20" screen, that was a huge improvement. I waited an even longer period of time and upgraded to a 27" i7. The i7 sits all the way at the back of my desk now and the only complaint I have is that I am constantly enlarging the font so that I can read the text on websites I visit.

I can't imagine how much bigger the screens can get without the iMac becoming prohibitively heavy.

I can barely imagine what it might be like looking at a 50" screen 10 years from now.

[Transporteur]

but the size race is not over yet, i guess soon we will see something beyond 30" for the iMac which then will dwarf everything else maybe a dual i7 setup ,just for the people who cant have enough processing power to play their games


Dual i7 is already there. It's called Mac Pro dual Quad.
Dual processors requires XEON DP parts, which are workstation products.
The iMac does, and definitely will ever use consumer parts, simply because of their price.

So no dual processors for the iMac.
I can, however, see a 30" screen in the iMac of 2012 or so. And I hope to see a 32" Cinema Display this year!

There is no such thing as too big. You simply have to get used to it. People here are running triple 30" screens!

[gb1631]

I love my iMac 27" i7! I do not find it to big at all. That said I don't do a lot of work on mine either. The usual e-mail, surfing the net, military forums, movies, etc.

As for work, I do have MS Office 2008, for Spread sheets, Word and Power Point as well as a few Bento 3 databases.

30" or beyond? Maybe 30" but I don't think I would need to go any bigger!

I've been using Macs since 1986 with varying screen sizes and I really do enjoy the size, speed and clarity of this iMac i7! :D :apple:

[ChrisA]

.. i cant understand what was apple thinking when it released this huge iMac? Might it be a reason -that i cant figure out- for releasing sutch a monster?


Have you ever used any of Apple's Pro Apps. Logic, FCP both take up a HUGE amount of screen space. I used Logic and I could fill a 30" LCD easy.

[natewsmith]

Dude!

I love my 27" iMac WAY MORE than I loved my 24" iMac!

I love how bright it is and haven't looked back!

[GermanSuplex]

I don't have a positive or negative opinion on the screen size, but I have often thought it was a bit overkill for my tastes. I don't do much but use iTunes and browse the web though, so I don't know.

I just bought a Mac Mini and thought about buying a new display, but am happy with my 4 year old 1024x768 4:3 LCD monitor :D. So I just paid $25 for the mini-DVD to VGA adapter and called it a day.

[Ping Guo]

The 27" is good for a dorm room, or a studio apartment where the owner will be using it as an all-around display for movies and gaming as well as computer chores.

For somebody who already has a big flat screen in their living room, I really don't see the point. It looks vaguely ridiculous sitting in an office. Like the owner is overcompensating for something. :p Actually it makes me feel the same way as when I see somebody (non-military) driving a hummer, or a Ford Excursion with no passengers.

Maybe it's from living for years in Asia and Europe. I dunno, there's a certain elegance to things that are well-proportioned and don't take up too much space or scream "look at me", but manage serve their purpose beautifully. Aside from movies, in what situations are users finding the 21.5" screen to be too small?

Before anybody chimes in with "I absolutely need two 30 inch ACDs side by side to do my digital editing work", let me just say fine, you need the real estate. But I don't think this is the case with the majority of users.

[natewsmith]

Well I had a 24" iMac. Got it in Sept of 07 when they came out with the newly redesigned Aluminum. It lasted a while before I had LCD burn in problems and Apple replaced the whole computer pretty much trying to fix the problem.

Well they decided enough was enough and gave me a replacement 27" because it was still under Apple Care. So I decided to why not pay a little out of pocket for an OUTSTANDING machine since I could at the time.

I can't wait to fully max out my Memory for 16GB! HAHA

[fruitpunch.ben]

The future consists of watching more TV movies and other media on a nice large computer screen. Apple is leading the way to this, too via itunes.

Also, the longer you own it and work on it, the smaller it looks/feels. You'll get used to it.

+1

The first couple days i used it i was wowed by the size.
Now i look at it and it just looks normal size. If it had a size 3 or 4 inches bigger it wouldn't matter to me.
Besides I watch movies on it all the time, then it's the bigger the better
I love having 3 windows open next to each other. I can fit 3 word documents at 150% next to each other. It is brilliant for productivity.

[MacHamster68]

another thing that annoys me they had always been good in color matching at apple , seems they lost there sense of taste ,black and brushed alloy iMac ..and a alloy keyboard with white keys and a white and silver magic mouse:eek: ,that doesn't fit together ...apple please a alloy keyboard with black keys and a black silver magic mouse would fit far better to the new iMacs at least if apple wants me to get one one day a new iMac ...but changing the glass surround to white would be easier i guess and would not involve me buying a new mousepad ,new router ,new desklamp ,new telephones ,new ashtray too :eek: everything here is color coded in white silver /alloy and a black and silver iMac would look totally out of place and because its so huge i cant ignore the not matching colors :(

[wysinawyg]

For those saying its too large, yes it is a bit silly for reading MacRumors on.

But then thats not why you should buy a 27" iMac.

Start up Aperture and having the menu list down the side, the reel of photos at the bottom and the currently selected photo large enough to properly see - priceless.

Messing around trying to sort out best settings for Handbrake, Terminal window with test encode running, Safari open with the Handbrake forums, text edit with the log of settings I've been trying, Automator with my Batch Encode workflow open - all full size, no messing around with expose or having to select the windows just all the windows open full size for my eyes to flick around.

Proper work means a pair of documents open full size next to each other for comparison etc.

Is any of this necessary, not really. Does it make it quicker and more pleasant to use, certainly.

The only issue I have is I wish the text size was more easily globally adjustable as it is on the small side, although something you adjust to.

[cb31]

Too large for normal desktop usage for me, my 21.5 is perfect. Having said that if there is an app that you need large screen real-estate then it may be better, it will just look huge on your desk. In the shop the 21.5 looks tiny but is actually quite big in a residential environment.

[ascender]

You get used to the screen size and its good for watching movies fullscreen, or being able to have a few different windows open at the same time.

A lot of people have been saying its too big, but I've seen some pictures of 27" iMacs on some crazily small desks, their owners must nearly be touching the screen with their nose in some cases.....

[drummerlondonw3]

if you cant see the need then it would probably be too big for you

if you do work in graphics/video then the screen can really never be too big.

if you are doing word processing then even the largest MBP could be too big!

[bmullemeister]

I changed from 20 to 27 inch and it's great for business applications
iPhoto is a pleasure to work with and the added SD Card slot helps getting things done in one step
The best I find is viewing videos/movies/eyeTV
Internet surfing ...wow....Games especially Call for Duty 4....awesome
In many cases I have two spreadsheets going side by side..so easy to copy and paste
Can highly recommend upsizing

[MacHamster68]

i can have even 4 spreadsheets open at once , one on each iMac g3 and one on the eMac and one on the monitor connected to the eMac and i can easy drag and drop things from one to the other as they are all within my network ,
so no problem there
i also can have 4 different websites open at once if i need to that is .
i can watch a film on fullscreen on the monitor while opening 2 websites and doing spreadsheets on the eMac and as my monitor is also a lcd tv i can watch tv while doing some cutting with final cut on the eMac and opening photoshop on one iMac g3 and looking ebay on the other iMac g3 .

so thats what i call multi tasking with fun :D

but i dont do anything apart from the spreadsheets and some other office staff for a living

i just prefer 4 smaller screens instead of one big one, and the + side of this setup is if one computer should fail for whatever reason the other 2 are still working :D and another +, i have spare parts for all eventualities ready and it needs me only a hour to fix one of them
so if i would have a 27" iMac instead , if it breaks down for whatever reason i would have no computer at all,and dont say it wont happen ,just read the forum and you get a idea about the 27" iMacs reliability and because its under warranty i can not even fix it myself that would mean in the worst case just before a weekend no computer for 4 or more days

[bsk]

My partner has promised me one for my birthday (roll on July) as I could never afford one. While I don't think it would be an advantage for everyday work, we will finally be able to lie in bed & watch films in their proper aspect ratio at a size we can actually see what is going on. Goodbye 19" screen.

[Kallel00]

The screen isn't too big after 3 weeks of using mine I wouldnt ever want to go smaller again. I wear glasses and I have no problems with the smaller pixels or eyestrain. It makes photos look so much better too.