I have a 2010 iMac 27 which I use to watch videos when I'm spinning. It's a rather flexible television set. It can be used as a monitor in a pinch too. I'm fine doing the same with a newer iMac that I can also use as a computer.
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.
Am I the only one who prefers the Studio to an iMac?
- Thread starter Ryand123
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I have a 2010 iMac 27 which I use to watch videos when I'm spinning. It's a rather flexible television set. It can be used as a monitor in a pinch too. I'm fine doing the same with a newer iMac that I can also use as a computer.
Actually my computers have always been media centers. My Mac Studio runs through my Yamaha AVR.
The iMac 27 was a cheap solution to a single-use video player solution and the remote control is nice.
I am mulling over the same thing myself - what next when my iMac does kick the bucket. Currently, I am looking at the Mac mini with the pro chip, but I am not sure about the display. The 27" Apple monitor looks amazing, but yes, so very expensive.
On paper, yes, that seems to be the case, but my experience is that even after 6 years, there doesn't seem to be a monitor in the market that's objectively better than the 5k display my 5k iMac shipped with.
The only downside is that when the time does come to finally retire my 2017 5k iMac (which could be anywhere between this year to a couple more years), the monitor will have to go with it. I can't reuse it as a display for say, another Mac mini or Mac Studio, but it's been an amazing 6 years of using that glorious 27" screen for work thus far.
Go OLED. Look absolutely amazing, and the technology is advancing, and fast. Once you've used an OLED monitor, you'll never go back to IPS.
“Guaranteed”? Let’s see how this pans out.
I think so. Last Intel iMac refresh (Aug-2020), 24" M1 iMac (May-2021), failed 27" iMac design repurposed as Studio Display (March-2022), TSMC launching 3nm production (June-2022). All the parts should come together now. They know what to do for more than 24 months. It's about time.
I like having a desktop machine without a monitor. I spend most of my time programming and browsing the web so I don't need high-end monitors but I do need three of them, so going with the Mac Studio means I can cheap out on the monitors. I just wish I had gone with the 1TB SSD model instead of the 512GB model.
I have an external 500 GB and an external 2 TB and plan to replace them both with a 4 TB external when prices come down a little more.
Well, you'll need a webcam for video conferencing - and many of those have perfectly good built-in microphones. If you've got a USB-C display then its one lead from the Studio to the display and one lead from the display's downstream USB to the webcam. There are also plenty of USB-C, DisplayPort and HDMI displays with built-in speakers that are good enough for video conferencing or hearing voices on YouTube. But, yeah, the iMac (and presumably the Studio Display) is the only thing I've seen with speakers built into a display that you'd want to listen to music etc. on.
If we're talking about a computer as powerful/expensive as the Mac Studio or the old, higher-end Intel iMacs, a lot of buyers will want them for prosumer video/audio. While the iMac speakers and mics may be really impressive for something built in to a display, that's a very, very low bar and a half-decent pair of external speakers or a desktop mic will blow them out of the water. If you listen to a lot of music or watch TV/movies, you'll often want something better. If you do any amount of video/audio production beyond casual youtubing then you'll pretty much need monitor speakers, the right microphone for the job (properly isolated from the desk) and probably an external audio interface to connect them.
I agree that the Studio Display is expensive and lacks some features you'd expect at that price (a decent stand, detachable mains lead, additional video inputs, after-market VESA mounting), but its worth remembering that a Mac Studio + Studio Display costs about the same as the old i9 iMac with 32GB of RAM, which would have been the comparable system. Personally, I welcome the ability to have a pair of matched 4K displays for less than the price of a single 5k Studio Display.
I currently run with 3 Dell Ultrasharp 4k monitors at 27 inches and I like those but I shop for Intel iMac 27s on Craigslist to get the benefits of an AIO on the desktop. There's also a bug in one of the programs that I use where it doesn't support 4 monitors so I need to run it on another computer anyways. Right now I'm using an M1 mini for that other program but a 2020 iMac 27 would be fine as well.
You think so is not the same as guaranteed. If you need the power that the Studio brings to the table and can justify the expense is is a no brainer.
I pretty much think "no guaranteed" that you will see a M2 iMac 24 maybe late this year and maybe an M3 iMac the following year. At the end of this year we shall see who is closer to the truth.
I loved the iMac. I have two 27" iMacs, a 2012 which runs a suite of legacy Mac apps and basically functions as a glorified jukebox with my iTunes, as well as movies. Then I have a 2020 which mostly boots into Windows 10. In my opinion it is the best computer design, not for everyone, but for me. I've been building PCs since before Pentium came out, and I didn't mind moving to an all-in-one. They never gave me much fuss.
The 24" model does not fill the void, even if they bump it up to an M2. As far as I can see, Apple have re-positioned the iMac back to where it was when it launched, a fun entry-level consumer desktop with only one model. There were many times in the 2010s when the 27" iMac was the most powerful Mac model, a far cry from this.
I would've been perfectly content to upgrade to a new high-end AS iMac, but I'm starting to think it's not happening. I have an M1 Mac mini, which I am hoping to upgrade to something better. Hopefully the Studio gets an update as I would prefer it, but the highest-end mini they have now is appealing. I can deal with the loss of the all-in-one, but I will miss it. Had a good run with the iMacs.
The 24" model does not fill the void, even if they bump it up to an M2. As far as I can see, Apple have re-positioned the iMac back to where it was when it launched, a fun entry-level consumer desktop with only one model. There were many times in the 2010s when the 27" iMac was the most powerful Mac model, a far cry from this.
I would've been perfectly content to upgrade to a new high-end AS iMac, but I'm starting to think it's not happening. I have an M1 Mac mini, which I am hoping to upgrade to something better. Hopefully the Studio gets an update as I would prefer it, but the highest-end mini they have now is appealing. I can deal with the loss of the all-in-one, but I will miss it. Had a good run with the iMacs.
The guarantee was on the return of the larger iMac. That the 24-inch iMac will be upgraded with faster silicon is not even worth debating, of course it will.
Really not sure if you're understanding my point. I don't dispute that Apple Silicon is part of what makes it great. And the small form factor and Apple Silicon can't be distinguished because I believe the efficient processor has a lot do with WHY you can have a powerful desktop tower in such a small form factor. So I think you're pointing to a distinction without a difference.
And I'm not sure what's so crazy about saying that the small form factor is part of why an AIO is not as needed as it was when towers were huge, heavy, desk hogs.
"Guaranteed", you say? Is this Tim Cook's burner account? I'm not so sure about that. I feel like Apple has been trying to tell us ever since the day they launched the Studio that the large iMac is dead for good but people don't want to listen.
It was SSD only, not Fusion.
It's hilarious that you think Apple wouldn't do something because it's not good value for the customer. We're talking about the same company that released a $1,000 monitor stand, right? The same company that released $550 bluetooth headphones? That company?
You are such a narcissist.
Nothing is hilarious about what I said. What could be hilarious is your desire to create a thread to justify a purchase decision in front of others and then become passive-aggressive to every person that responds to you. What a good use for a Mac Studio and Apple Studio Display.
If your iMac had only a PCIe SSD, then I do not believe your claims unless you were to elaborate what version of macOS you were running, and what your workflow was that could possibly cause "stuttering and lag". Don't bother explaining. Go and argue with someone else.
When people say things like "You're wrong on so many accounts, that I've got to pick which one to rebuttal or else this text will get way too long" you don't expect me to push back a little with some passive aggressiveness? That's why God created the Internet!
Narcissist? Because I'm arguing against the continued validity of the all in one computer in 2023? If you think that's narcissistic, I could give you a lot more where that came from.
When people say things like "You're wrong on so many accounts, that I've got to pick which one to rebuttal or else this text will get way too long" you don't expect me to push back a little with some passive aggressiveness? That's why God created the Internet!
Narcissist? Because I'm arguing against the continued validity of the all in one computer in 2023? If you think that's narcissistic, I could give you a lot more where that came from.
I think that you meant to reply to a different post as I work fairly hard to avoid name-calling.
For me it will always be the monitor issue. I realize the monitors on iMac's are really good but you are stuck with it's technology. I am looking at a new monitor for my Mac Studio. My present one is a 2017 model and not 4K. If this was a iMac I would be looking at replacing it with another iMac, a perfectly good computer just needing an updated monitor.
That's actually a bonus for me.
There are lots of people that feel that way which results in really great prices in the used market.
I use multimonitor systems and often multiple systems. So I can use an old iMac for office stuff and enjoy the great screen while running CPU-intensive stuff on the Studio. If I need to run something with a lot of RAM, like Linux and Windows virtual machines, I can do that too.
The 27" iMac's 5K monitor really is quite nice. I would never pay as much as a 5K monitor costs, especially Apple's unless it had a computer with it.
. I really don't like the look of anything less than a 5K monitor when running MacOS either.I also have a Mac Studio and a Windows PC hooked up to a Samsung 4K monitor, I almost never use them except for remotely from my iMac.
But there is still the cable clutter and config problems. Even just choosing a monitor is a hassle. When you know if you want a VA, IPS or OLED panel; matt or glossy finish, flat or curved, USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4 alternative mode and power delivery of at least 60 watts, vesa mount or swivel arm stand. Then there are still dozens of settings within the OSD menu and you don't even get good speakers.
Apple Silicon increased the energy efficiency and shrunk the form factor of both AIOs and separate towers, but the reason for why you chose one over the other are still the same. Intel based AIOs just got even more undesirable.
But indeed, they didn't. They never made an on-stage announcement and they only said the 27-inch Intel iMac is discontinued. As a company who wants to sell the stuff they have on offer now, they'd much rather prefer to not preannounce Macs, which will only go on sale next year. The Mac Pro teasing is the exception from the rule. You will only know that they've been working on a large iMac on the very day it goes on sale.