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2022 Mini-LED iMac Pro Could Launch in June
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This rumor is mainly about iMac Pro, not the standard 27-inch iMac. Should Apple offer both 27-inch iMac and 27-inch iMac Pro, I am betting mini-LED (liquid retina XDR) would be reserved only on the pro model.
According to Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, Apple's 27-inch standalone mini-LED display will retail at about half the cost of Pro Display XDR, or around $2,499. So for 27-inch iMac Pro, $1,999 (14-inch MacBook Pro) + $2,499 (standalone display) = $4,498.
I am perplexed as to how Apple can squeeze in so many more local dimming zones while cutting the price in half for only 30% reduction in screen real estate. I guess it's all about the manufacturing yield?
For 27-inch iMac, Apple will likely reuse standard 5K LCD panel, and perhaps M2 (rumored for June availability). So it should be able to maintain the previous $1,799 starting price.
There was no new hardware at WWDC in 2020 or 2021.
Comparing virtual WWDCs to pre-pandemic events is iffy. At an in-person conference, Apple would have thousands of developers eager to get hands-on with hardware following the announcement. At a virtual conference, it wouldn’t.
Are developers more likely to pay attention to an Apple hardware announcement because it coincides with WWDC? To put it another way, are they more likely to miss the announcement if it doesn’t coincide with WWDC? Probably not. The only real benefit to announcing at WWDC would be if the new hardware contains some feature developers have to specifically code for.
And it would be a very weird marketing decision to launch an M2 MBP or Air alongside an M1 Pro/Max iMac Pro. Apple would never do that and would just wait until fall to launch M2, even if it were ready.
All the leakers have indicated that the iMac Pro will start around $2,000, not $5,000.
29 sounds good.. the issue for me isn’t more real estate being bad, but the bigger the monitor the farther apart the dock and menu bar.. you can up cursor speed but it's still ground to cover and more to take in visually
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The current 27" model starts at $1,799.. That price point with 16GB/512GB the entry-level standard is possible. But the iMac Pro started at $5k.. depending on the depth of the rebrand - is it in name only? or is the 24" close enough to the 27" in screen space that they're making the 27+" premium? - I could see $2500 to start..
So you stopped reading at that paragraph and totally missed …
”the iMac is expected to feature a redesigned look”
Why "save" the 27 iMac unveiling to show developers? You want to show it to consumers.
You might consider keeping that Intel iMac just to play legacy games and do everything else on a new, much faster AS iMAC.
I also have this same 2x 27" display combo and really appreciate the matching panels with my home power setup. My dream pandemic WFH setup.
The following details are definitely overkill and borderline on bragging, not my intent: but in anticipating a lot more travel this year I decided to also get an M1 Pro 16" a few months ago and it was great having it as my daily driver for the nearly 7 weeks I was away. (Using my Pro as a second screen with Sidecar and trying out Universal Control on the tail end as the beta dropped.) The other ~7 week period I was away this fall I had driven, so I actually brought my iMac along plus an older 13" MacBook I had at the time. It was nice to have the screen real estate, but wasn't practical for working from certain accommodations / bringing on certain legs of travel. Fearing theft and wanting extra vehicle space, I left the Mac with family in the area for some of the time. (Mostly I was staying with extended family, so it was great to have while settled in with them.)
Back at home now with Universal Control (UC) I have an interesting hybrid setup: the MacBook is just floating next to one of the 27" displays on a stand. From that one I can run my Apple Silicon-only apps easily (like Yahoo Finance) and use the nicer portrait blur for Zoom calls. The LG 27" gets paired up with whichever is doing more heavy lifting that day. UC certainly makes working between various combos of these devices much more seamless than my old attempts at KVM.
I really mentioned this to share: both machines are smooth as butter compared to previous (decently spec'd) Macs I've worked on. And the M1 Pro does it with a lot less fan noise and available memory. It is a great machine!
Eventually I may sell the 2020 27" iMac if it isn't getting enough love with more time away, but I do appreciate having the best "screens" for the job which suit the environment I am currently working in. For the time being the 0%@46mo financing I got on the MacBook made for a relatively light hit on the wallet up front, so I decided to a more complex Mac mix for now and will see where I end up longer term.
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Unrelated, I wonder what they'll do with the 32-inch XDR if rumours are true. I'd imagine if a 27+ iMac comes out with Mini LED specs too close to that model (and a superior number of dimming zones) it'll make for much tougher value differentiation between the two products given the big jump in $$$.
You need to look at the price range of the overall 27” iMac and (mostly) forget about the older iMac Pro. That iMac Pro was fitted with a Xeon and was meant to replace the Mac Pro before they switched directions and brought out the current Mac Pro. After that they never touched the iMac Pro. In this case, “Pro” is likely to just mean the larger iMac. This new 27” iMac (Pro?) will likely get the M1 Pro/Max SOCs. It is unclear if it will ever get the 2x or 4x CPUs that are speculated for the Mac Pro.
The current 27” iMac starts at $1800. With a mini-LED display they will probably need to raise that base price but they can’t raise it so much that no one buys it. $5999 would just scare people away. Look at the MBP. The new mini-LED MBP is only a few hundred dollars more than the previous Intel MBP. A new 27” iMac would probably only start a little more than a 16” MBP.
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I still think the Hero hardware product will be the Mac Mini, loaded with all to the max and add more Ram later,with outlets for extra displays and other that are not in 24” iMacs.
So it’s a Mac mini and a display of your choice.
So it’s a Mac mini and a display of your choice.
I can only guess here, but perhaps it is due to the cost of the control logic for so many units. Or perhaps that many units would generate too much heat? The TCL 8-Series 65" is said to have a claimed 1000 zones with 25,000 LEDs and this is said to be significantly more than any other 65" television - even ones costing many multiples more. If a 13" iPad Pro or 16" MacBook Pro can have 10,000 LEDs. one would think a 65" TV could have 40,000 or more, yet even 25,000 is said to be exceptional and unique.
I could see Mini-LED, like Nano-Textured Glass, being an option. However, I could also see Apple just making it standard and adding in the extra couple hundred dollars to the base price.
The Pro Display XDR does not use Mini-LED for it's 576 local dimming zones. I am presuming they are all custom parts to support the performance and that very likely contributes to the expense and why it needs active cooling with all those crevices in the aluminum backplane to improve thermal conduction.
Moving to Mini-LED likely reduces the power draw and heat generation so Apple could probably go with a solid aluminum back and drop the fans (or need far less). And using more "off-the-shelf" components would likely be much cheaper.
Agreed that we will see the current 5K panel, just now mated to a Mini-LED backlight instead of the current Edge-Lit one.
True, but I remain convinced that the 14" and 16" MacBook Pros were intended to launch at WWDC 2021 and were delayed until Fall due to supply chain constraints (which then pushed back everything else to March-June).
Apple totally does announce hardware at WWDC when it suits them. Usually it is the more developer focused systems like a MBP or Mac Pro.
Apple WWDC 2021: History of hardware at WWDC - A look back at the most important hardware launches
Apple WWDC 2021: This event is the company's annual showcase of new software features coming to its products and has launched important Apple hardware in earlier events. Ahead of WWDC 2021, take a look at the history of hardware at WWDC and what was launched then.
tech.hindustantimes.com
This year, their launch schedule is so influenced by their desire to complete the AS transition and impacted by supply chain disruptions that they may be forced to announce new models when they can rather than when they wish.
While there has been one rumor / claim that Apple wanted to keep the price closer to the $2000 of the current base Intel iMacs, I really believe that Apple will position the base model of this machine against a 16GB/512GB iMac with an i7 and a 5500XT and that configurations is $2499.
Yes, Apple will save money not paying Intel and AMD for CPUs and GPUs, but there is still the higher cost of RAM (at Apple margins) and the new case and Mini-LED which would make $1799/$1999 impossible (from a margin standpoint).
Probably not. None of the Intel Macs are capable of running Windows 11 without some hackery due to the TPM requirements. I don't see that changing moving forward.
If this was a Pro, could they make it thicker to allow everything to be behind the screen? This would make it as thick as the XDR display with a thin bezel and no chin. And maybe it could then double as a true external monitor?
*Throws Apple Card at screen.
Seriously take my money apple. M1 Max in a 27” frame with mini led is a day one buy for me.
Seriously take my money apple. M1 Max in a 27” frame with mini led is a day one buy for me.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Windows 10 upgrades will work for probably the life of that iMac. Best guess (backed with some logic based on past Windows OS upkeep) is at least 2028.
The 27-in iMac was introduced in 2009, we deserve something larger by now, so if this new beast is a maximum of 27-in then I'm just not interested.