Same as I.
And to be honest I am glued to the desk anyway with my macbook pro. The idea was nice to be "mobile" but I can't work outside.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
21.5-Inch iMac Availability Dwindling at Apple Stores
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
And to be honest I am glued to the desk anyway with my macbook pro. The idea was nice to be "mobile" but I can't work outside.
You'd be a fool to buy an iMac right now, I've been waiting to see what is coming with the bigger iMac to replace my 27" late 2012.
You can get the current 21.5“ iMac with 32GB of RAM and a Vega 20. I don’t know if even an M1X will be able to match this at the Moment so I think they might do it like they do with the MacBook Pro and keep the „bigger“ intel models around.
I think Apple’s done with HDDs in iMacs now. This whole redesign has been held back for Apple Silicon, why would they hobble this “homegrown” iMac with old tech? They’re more likely to raise the price than to decontent the base model.
It's logical to expect M1X to have 4 Thunderbolt ports, 32Gb RAM option, more Graphics and Compute Cores - just based purely on what they have to do to replace the MacBook Pro 16. Let's see what happens if you're worried.
Absolutely agree with that, if they were going to raise entry prices they'd keep the 1080p 21.5" model around because Intel aren't discontinuing the CPU unlike all the Coffee Lake CPUs in the 2019 Retina 21.5" iMacs and the 2018 Mac mini.
For instance, 2 SKUs with M1 CPU to match the upper 2 21.5" SKUs. And then 2 SKUs with M1X starting with more RAM, storage, 4 full speed Thunderbolt ports, and compute/graphics cores to replace the lower 27" SKUs. Apple would keep the top SKU Intel 27" until 2022 when an iMac Pro replacement appears.
Let's just say for the sake of argument that Apple want to introduce colours to SKUs, I think all models could have 4 USB-C ports but maybe the lower SKUs have only 2 of them as Thunderbolt. That way the entire iMac range uses the same panel (24" 4.6K), uses the same 4 USB-C ports (same body shell), and just uses 2 different SoCs - just having 5 colours to choose from. This would allow Apple to discount certain colours at third party retailers just like has happened at Amazon over the last few weeks for certain iPads and iPhones.
So in effect, Apple keep a 21.5" and 27" Intel model for a few more months, third party retailers get to shift old Intel models for a while longer until the parts run out.
So currently, we'd have $1299 and $1499 for an M1 iMac, let's say it has 2 full speed Thunderbolt 3 ports (as well as 2 USB-C ports and the usual USB-A ports and Ethernet and starts with 8Gb RAM and 256Gb SSD and the upper model is 8Gb RAM and 512Gb SSD. BTO options would look like what you can get with the MacBook Pro (16Gb RAM and 2Tb SSD).
And follow that with $1799 and $1999 for an M1X iMac, let's say it has 4 full speed Thunderbolt 4 ports and starts with 16Gb RAM and 512Gb SSD and the upper model is 16Gb RAM and 1Tb SSD. BTO options may include upwards of 64Gb RAM, 8Tb SSD, and 10Gig Ethernet - the same package of options would be available for the Mac mini super SKUs, MacBook Pro 14" (replacing the 13" upper SKUs) and 16".
And I've said for a while that a 24" model allows Apple to optionally create a new pricing scheme if they don't wish to keep using the existing price points for the Intel models. But Apple could still offer the 21.5" base model, perhaps even slashing $100 off with the intention of discontinuing it next year when the transition is complete. Similarly, they could keep the top SKU 27" iMac around until 2022 when Apple could conceivably have launched M2 and M2X in time for a high end full decked out iMac Pro with bigger screen to sit alongside the Mac Pro flagship.
it makes perfectly sense for them to add FaceID as Biometric authentication for Apple Pay etc (the current iMacs lack this)
The new 24” base model almost certainly get the M1, all 24” are likely to get it.
Vega 20 runs ~25% faster on OpenCL and Metal benchmarks than the M1’s GPU. The Vega was a BTO option, with the base 560X running about 98% of the M1 GPU. I suspect that an up-clocked M1 (~4.0GHz) with the same 8 GPU cores would close the gap to the Vega 20 on a new 24” iMac. I don’t expect the M1X tomorrow, which will disappoint many here, but I don’t think Apple has it ready to go. The emphasis on the new iMac will be Core i7 power in a fuel sipping CPU with a thin, elegant chassis and a brilliant 4.6K HDR display. PLUS COLORS!!! Anything else is going to be gravy. The expectations by some for this first redesigned model are a bit unrealistic and I expect the dual griping after the event, of Apple even intros the iMac tomorrow, which I don’t think it will.
In that way, releasing M1 only would cover just the 21.5" models, and the Vega 20 is a $350 BTO option - not really cost effective when that extra money could get users into a 27" iMac instead.
If Apple were just moving appropriate iMacs to M1 they could easily just remove the 21.5" models which will soon be out of Coffee Lake CPUs with Intel discontinuing them.
I'd like to think that M1X Macs would be coming sooner than October though because that would impact the remaining Intel MacBooks, the Mac mini and likely the 27" iMac too.
It would be weird if an M1X iMac were to be released months after the 24" M1 if it used the same size display.
Just putting down my predictions here for the record, for what it's worth:
- Apple will offer versions of the "small" iMac model with both the M1 and also a better chip (M1X or whatever) with more CPU and/or CPU cores (not just upclocked).
- Both versions will be introduced at the same time
And thus ends my career in Apple prognostication.
I am somewhat crushed by the lack of upgraded CPU in the new iMac. *Really* disappointed. Also unhappy about the lack of SD card but I can deal with that.
I mean, the M1 will still be a big upgrade to my existing 2013 iMac, but it won't be the future-proof machine I was hoping for.
Patience... the machine you are waiting for is M1X. I guess it’s time for repeating all the “this is the low end version” arguments from the Macbook Air...And thus ends my career in Apple prognostication.
I am somewhat crushed by the lack of upgraded CPU in the new iMac. *Really* disappointed. Also unhappy about the lack of SD card but I can deal with that.
I mean, the M1 will still be a big upgrade to my existing 2013 iMac, but it won't be the future-proof machine I was hoping for.
It doesn't look like this iMac was designed for a larger SOC, with more memory slots. There seems to be just barely enough room for the laptop-sized motherboard that's in there.
In other words, I don't foresee an M1x version of this iMac coming soon. Ugh there I go prognosticating again, which means the opposite will happen.
But it seems possible that the 24" iMac (now just called "iMac", apparently) is now a low-end machine, all the good stuff will be reserved for the larger one. And the larger one might well be called the iMac Pro, as Marco speculated on Twitter. That makes a lot of sense to me.
But still disappointing. I wanted better in the smaller iMac, even though the M1 is very good.