A week with the new M1 24" iMac (coming from a 27" iMac)

[petvas]

I have my new M1 pink/red 24" iMac since Monday and I wanted to post my impressions after almost a week of using it. First some things about my usage and what computer my new iMac replaced:
I am an IT Pro, mainly using my computer for Internet (research and fun), Mail, video and audio conferencing, productivity apps (iWork & MS Office), Citrix and MS Remote Desktop, Twitter, photos management and listening to PodCasts, watching YouTube videos, and also as an iTunes Server, a Caching server and a Time Machine Server.
I had a 2019 27" iMac with 6 Core i5 @ 3,7Ghz with 48GB of RAM, which of course I mostly enjoyed using, except for the times the fans went off..
For this kind of usage the new iMac is almost perfect. It is definitely faster in all those tasks compared to my old iMac. The display is smaller and that might be an issue for many that want a bigger display, but for me the 24" display is big enough and has the same quality as the 27" (I am talking about the glossy display, not the matte option which doesn't exist).
The first thing I did when I set up my new iMac was to disable True Tone, as it just destroys color accuracy..
Restoring my Time Machine backup was impressive. It took 6 minutes to restore 300GB of data and applications. I have to say though that I am using a Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 as a TimeMachine external disk, but the same backup was used to originally restore my Intel iMac and it took more than an hour to complete. 6 minutes compared to one hour!

The speakers are definitely not louder than the ones on the Intel iMac, but they sound clearer and better. I enjoy watching movies and YouTube videos on the new iMac. NetFlix on the new iMac supports 4K and I get HDR and Dolby Vision on my AppleTV app.

Everything I do on the iMac is fast and I have yet to experience a slow down, even in situations where I had around 10 MS Remote Desktop windows, and at least 15 apps running at the same time, including Safari with around 20 tabs..Even in these situations memory pressure is mostly on green, but sometimes it goes to yellow. My iMac has 16GB of RAM and I know that for my kind of usage 8GB would never be enough, but I doubt that I would experience any slowdowns, mainly because of the unified memory architecture of the Apple Silicon. It is really great. Apple can of course not beat the world of physics and if your usage scenario requires more than 16GB of RAM, then wait for the higher end models coming later this year.

The design of the new iMac is something I love. I like the white bezels a lot and they blend in really well in my work room, since I have white walls..I also like the pastel color in front. They help you concentrate on what is on the display, instead of looking at a stronger colored chin.
The chin doesn't bother me at all.

The pink color is great, I love especially the rear of the iMac which is red, but pink is really subtle and the whole combination looks really great.

Another important thing is the TouchID. I love it and it has changed the way I use my iMac.

Something I changed was idle time before going to sleep. It was set to 10 minutes and I set it to 2 hours (using pmset)

The fans are something I still have to hear. I even converted an mkv video to mp4 and I couldn't hear the fans..

I have to say that I am impressed and every time I go into my work room (where I spend a significant amount of time each day), my heart opens when I see my iMac.

Of course the new iMac isn't perfect and if there is one thing I would wish to have (even if I don't really need it) would be the ability to have 32GB of RAM.

The graphics card is also great for this kind of usage. I don't play any games on my iMac, I have a PS5 for that. Using expose is fluent and there is no stutter whatsoever when scrolling in Safari or other apps.

Would I buy a 27" pink iMac with the same specs? Maybe. The bigger display was sometimes too big for me, sometimes it felt quite right. I think that 24" is the sweet spot for me.

A last thing I want to mention is Rosetta. I have a few apps that need it and I would like to report how they work:

• Teams: This is a badly written app and made my 27" Intel iMac crawl, especially when using desktop sharing and video conferencing at the same time. This app is running under Rosetta and I was surprised to see that on my M1 iMac there is no lag, no fans going off, nothing. I am not saying that using Teams is great on the M1 iMac, but it is usable, better than on Intel Macs! The only drawback is that when starting the app it takes 3-4 seconds more than on an Intel Mac.
• Citrix WorkSpace: This app works very well on the M1 iMac and I notice no difference to the Intel Macs. Just the loading time which is longer by 1-2 seconds.
• SonicWall Mobile Connect: Another Intel app and it works great. No issues at all.
• WISO Steuer: This is a German app for creating your tax declaration here in Germany. It works well apart from the loading times which are definitely slower. I would say that the difference is noticeable, but it's ok. It takes 3-4 seconds more for the app to start.

I had zero compatibility issues so far, but I am also using a M1 MBP and I had already sorted some before getting the iMac.

Overall I would recommend the new iMac to almost everyone. This is a really great computer.

 

[Kirk]

Thank you for sharing! Eagerly awainting mine to arrive.

​

 

[Realityck]

The fans are something I still have to hear. I even converted an mkv video to mp4 and I couldn't hear the fans..

The graphics card is also great for this kind of usage. I don't play any games on my iMac, I have a PS5 for that. Using expose is fluent and there is no stutter whatsoever when scrolling in Safari or other apps.

I checked the speed playing Diablo 3 season 23 and saw the temps at times in the 70's with a little heat from the fans but never saw the fans go really any higher than their base speed. That goes for playing at GR120 level where there is a lot of sustained load with multiple packs of monsters to kill. Naturally lower levels was barely warm when feeling air exhaust. Just a different input from your broad feedback coverage. Mine is the same but Silver and I have yet to hear the fans!.

 

[glenthompson]

While I have a different use case my experience has been similar. I used to use a MBA connected to a Thunderbolt Display. The 27” display was just too tall for me to view easily. I much prefer the size of the 24” screen. I too have the red but I think it’s more of a rose gold then pink. I have a Trinity wedding band and the stand matches the rose gold in my ring perfectly.

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Thank you very informative.

 

[svish]

I have my new M1 pink/red 24" iMac since Monday and I wanted to post my impressions after almost a week of using it. First some things about my usage and what computer my new iMac replaced:
I am an IT Pro, mainly using my computer for Internet (research and fun), Mail, video and audio conferencing, productivity apps (iWork & MS Office), Citrix and MS Remote Desktop, Twitter, photos management and listening to PodCasts, watching YouTube videos, and also as an iTunes Server, a Caching server and a Time Machine Server.
I had a 2019 27" iMac with 6 Core i5 @ 3,7Ghz with 48GB of RAM, which of course I mostly enjoyed using, except for the times the fans went off..
For this kind of usage the new iMac is almost perfect. It is definitely faster in all those tasks compared to my old iMac. The display is smaller and that might be an issue for many that want a bigger display, but for me the 24" display is big enough and has the same quality as the 27" (I am talking about the glossy display, not the matte option which doesn't exist).
The first thing I did when I set up my new iMac was to disable True Tone, as it just destroys color accuracy..
Restoring my Time Machine backup was impressive. It took 6 minutes to restore 300GB of data and applications. I have to say though that I am using a Samsung X5 Thunderbolt 3 as a TimeMachine external disk, but the same backup was used to originally restore my Intel iMac and it took more than an hour to complete. 6 minutes compared to one hour!

The speakers are definitely not louder than the ones on the Intel iMac, but they sound clearer and better. I enjoy watching movies and YouTube videos on the new iMac. NetFlix on the new iMac supports 4K and I get HDR and Dolby Vision on my AppleTV app.

Everything I do on the iMac is fast and I have yet to experience a slow down, even in situations where I had around 10 MS Remote Desktop windows, and at least 15 apps running at the same time, including Safari with around 20 tabs..Even in these situations memory pressure is mostly on green, but sometimes it goes to yellow. My iMac has 16GB of RAM and I know that for my kind of usage 8GB would never be enough, but I doubt that I would experience any slowdowns, mainly because of the unified memory architecture of the Apple Silicon. It is really great. Apple can of course not beat the world of physics and if your usage scenario requires more than 16GB of RAM, then wait for the higher end models coming later this year.

The design of the new iMac is something I love. I like the white bezels a lot and they blend in really well in my work room, since I have white walls..I also like the pastel color in front. They help you concentrate on what is on the display, instead of looking at a stronger colored chin.
The chin doesn't bother me at all.

The pink color is great, I love especially the rear of the iMac which is red, but pink is really subtle and the whole combination looks really great.

Another important thing is the TouchID. I love it and it has changed the way I use my iMac.

Something I changed was idle time before going to sleep. It was set to 10 minutes and I set it to 2 hours (using pmset)

The fans are something I still have to hear. I even converted an mkv video to mp4 and I couldn't hear the fans..

I have to say that I am impressed and every time I go into my work room (where I spend a significant amount of time each day), my heart opens when I see my iMac.

Of course the new iMac isn't perfect and if there is one thing I would wish to have (even if I don't really need it) would be the ability to have 32GB of RAM.

The graphics card is also great for this kind of usage. I don't play any games on my iMac, I have a PS5 for that. Using expose is fluent and there is no stutter whatsoever when scrolling in Safari or other apps.

Would I buy a 27" pink iMac with the same specs? Maybe. The bigger display was sometimes too big for me, sometimes it felt quite right. I think that 24" is the sweet spot for me.

A last thing I want to mention is Rosetta. I have a few apps that need it and I would like to report how they work:

• Teams: This is a badly written app and made my 27" Intel iMac crawl, especially when using desktop sharing and video conferencing at the same time. This app is running under Rosetta and I was surprised to see that on my M1 iMac there is no lag, no fans going off, nothing. I am not saying that using Teams is great on the M1 iMac, but it is usable, better than on Intel Macs! The only drawback is that when starting the app it takes 3-4 seconds more than on an Intel Mac.
• Citrix WorkSpace: This app works very well on the M1 iMac and I notice no difference to the Intel Macs. Just the loading time which is longer by 1-2 seconds.
• SonicWall Mobile Connect: Another Intel app and it works great. No issues at all.
• WISO Steuer: This is a German app for creating your tax declaration here in Germany. It works well apart from the loading times which are definitely slower. I would say that the difference is noticeable, but it's ok. It takes 3-4 seconds more for the app to start.

I had zero compatibility issues so far, but I am also using a M1 MBP and I had already sorted some before getting the iMac.

Overall I would recommend the new iMac to almost everyone. This is a really great computer.

Thanks for sharing a detailed experience with the new iMac. Enjoy.

 

[Kiimora]

I have to say that I am impressed and every time I go into my work room (where I spend a significant amount of time each day), my heart opens when I see my iMac.

hoping to have this connection with my yellow 😊, whenever it arrives that is …

 

[za9ra22]

Having downsized from a 27 to the new (blue) 24-inch iMac, I'm not really sure how long I've been using it, because it just fits so well into my workflow that it seems like it's been on my desk for years.

But it has been just over a month, and I have to say this is an exceptional system. Not perfect, but exceptional.

It is used for video and photo editing, web design and updating, document development and production, development and authoring of training courses, technical authoring, network and server management, and information security. None of these are particularly demanding in their own right, but in combination have proven at times to be a fairly heavy load on the previous 2015 5K iMac.

The downside is that the 24-inch screen is just a tiny bit too small, so it has been necessary to somewhat better manage my workflows and habits, otherwise I end up with a bit of clutter. That said, with the 27-inch I sometimes ended up with a lot of clutter! And it is an easier screen to work with, in that I can see it all in one glance, rather than having to visually track across and up and down it. Less neck pain!

It is very fast and smooth to use, with no performance issues at all. By comparison, the old iMac had innumerable brief pauses and delays which I hadn't really noticed much, until they weren't there with the new one.

The speakers are a little disappointing. I wasn't expecting anything that great, but after using a HomePod for a couple of years or more now, I had hoped for a miracle with the speakers in the iMac, but while they are clear and , I think, acoustically accurate, they aren't stunning. They don't go all that loud, though that said, they also don't seem to be as distorted as the 27-inch iMac speakers were. They were louder, but tonally colored.

The camera (and signal processing) is really excellent. My workspace is not exactly the most evenly lit, so previous video meetings with the old iMac were a little disappointing in quality, but the new one gives far better, more evenly lit and less grainy results. The mics are also much better, and (I'm told) don't pick up ambient noise as much, which makes video calls a lot easier, and means that I can now hold all these meetings from my office, rather than having to move some of them to one of our conference rooms.

It would be easy to say that I am very pleased with it, and I am, but I already knew pretty much how it would perform from using an M1 MBA before I ordered it, so I wasn't surprised by how well it copes with the work I do. But using it for several hours a day, it has shown me some of the shortcomings of the old system. So it should, of course, it was 6 years old, so potentially a lot slower.

The 24-inch iMac certainly looks a lot better in real life than in the photos. And it physically and visually fits into my workspace rather better too - including the degree to which the light-grey bezels have reduced eye/visual fatigue by blending better with both screen inside them, and the room outside them.

My one real caveat is that I downsized from the 27 because it was just too big. The size of the screen and the bulky stand meant that I just couldn't get it far enough away from my seating position for it to be comfortable. But the 24-inch iMac's new hinge and stand, and the light bezels make me wonder if a 27-inch with otherwise the same industrial design wouldn't actually be better. But, not regretting the purchase in the slightest.

 

[petvas]

After using my 24" iMac for a week I don't miss the 27" display at all. I got used to it almost immediately and I find the size to be perfect for me. The 27" was always a bit too much for me. Answering the theoretical question if I would get a 27" iMac if it were designed the same? Maybe, but only if it also had 32GB of RAM, otherwise I am extremely happy with my iMac.
The camera is really very good, much better than the cameras in previous Macs, but that wasn't that difficult to achieve
I am going on vacation and I am already missing my iMac

 

[macsareveryinteresting]

I'm glad someone gave out their impressions. I was at Costco the other day and I tested it out. All I could really see was the speed. But still, I just wish that it could maybe have more memory and storage like the 27" iMac. But overall, it seems like a decent computer. I also kind of like that their bring back the colors from the beginning.

 

[4sallypat]

After using my 24" iMac for a week I don't miss the 27" display at all. I got used to it almost immediately and I find the size to be perfect for me. The 27" was always a bit too much for me. Answering the theoretical question if I would get a 27" iMac if it were designed the same? Maybe, but only if it also had 32GB of RAM, otherwise I am extremely happy with my iMac.
The camera is really very good, much better than the cameras in previous Macs, but that wasn't that difficult to achieve
I am going on vacation and I am already missing my iMac

Same here.
My M1 iMac has enough real estate for a comfortable all day use.

Funny, when I used Zoom with the built in HD FaceTime camera for the first time, I was shocked at how detailed I looked - didn't like it so I switched to my second external display: 24" 10 year old Apple Cinema Display's internal 720p camera....

 

[Lucas Curious]

Same here.
My M1 iMac has enough real estate for a comfortable all day use.

Funny, when I used Zoom with the built in HD FaceTime camera for the first time, I was shocked at how detailed I looked - didn't like it so I switched to my second external display: 24" 10 year old Apple Cinema Display's internal 720p camera....

You had that Silicon Valley 'Indian Denzel' realization with a female co-worker didn't you? Did she all of a sudden have a boyfriend when she saw you in 1080p?