Apple Discontinues 27-Inch iMac

[macsteve27]

There's definitely a gap in the lineup here. One thing I haven't seen anyone comment on yet is the graphic performance gap. Right now for apple silicon mac desktops there are only entry-level macs or high-end macs:

iMac 24" or Mac Mini: M1 8-Core
Mac Studio: M1 Max 24-Core

Theoretically you could purchase an M1 Mac Mini with the Studio Display but you'd still be limited to the 8-core GPU performance, which is well below the entry-level graphics for the intel iMac 27". For some people (myself included) this just isn't enough and it is a drop in graphics performance from my 2015 5k iMac which has a Radeon R9 M390.

Jumping up to M1 Max 24-core GPU is just overkill for most people, not to mention that $2k for the studio desktop without the monitor is more expensive than the entry level iMac 27" was. The M1 Pro entry level (14-Core GPU) is roughly equivalent to a Radeon 5500M, which would put it more or less on par with the graphics for the last 27" iMac.

My hope is that apple is just trying to push the upsell on Mac Studio before they release a more reasonable option. Which is either an iMac or Mini with M1 Pro options.

Edit: Updated the M1 Max 24-core as the entry level option, previously had it listed as 32-core. Still feels like a significant gap from my opinion.

 

[Tagbert]

The iMac is not green enough. Every time you want a new computer you are chucking out a good screen.

I have been waiting nearly two years to buy everyone in my office a new 27” iMac. Now I don’t know what to do. The studio display with stand is about £1800 in the U.K. that is not far off the price of the old 27” iMac. Then you have to buy a computer, keyboard and mouse. It is not far off £4000 per seat for a fairly basic model.

The alternative is a Hwawi Mate screen (no camera though) but having used one for three months, I like the format better than the 27” iMac the vertical height of the screen is brilliant.

Did you know you are limited to 2 screens and two studios?

I would wait until later this year when the Mac Mini is updated. If they do an M1 Pro mini, that, coupled with the Studio Monitor might, be a good option for you.

BTW I see the price of the Studio Monitor as £1,499 with the default stand. The extra $400 is for the articulated stand. You might save some cash if you went with VESA monitor stands and get even more flexibility.

 

[CWallace]

You can't spec a Mac mini or 24" iMac with 32GB of RAM, period.

Don’t know where you got this information, but you definitely can on the higher-end Mac mini, which is the device I was talking about...

You can spec an Intel Mac mini above 16GB, but not an Apple silicon model and I believe Blackstick was referring to Apple silicon models.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

I don’t think there’s any configuration of the Mac Studio and Studio Display which is not significantly more expensive than a comparably specced 27” iMac would have been. Perhaps not “three times” as much, but it’s definitely a price hike.

Yes, it’s likely significantly faster spec-for-spec because of Apple silicon, but there is now a pretty substantial gap for mid-range Macs (the so-called “prosumers”) with the discontinuation of the higher-end Intel Mac mini and 27” iMac.

For example, you can’t currently spec a Mac with 32 GB RAM without spending $2,000. That certainly wasn’t the case before.

Edit: Turns out that high-end Intel Mac mini is still for sale. Hmm.

Hmm, good point. There is an obvious glaring lack of the M1 Pro chip in the Mini/Studio lines. Maybe there is still to come a Mac Mini Pro, with options of M1 Pro and M1 Max, which will replace the Intel Mini's as it will provide the missing port abilities that the M1 base chip doesn't support. I could really see a Mini Pro that is halfway between the Mini and the Studio in size, with a similar cooling design as the Studio, but with the thinner, smaller fans than in the Studio.

That might seem like a weird overlap to have the M1 Max available in both the Mini Pro and the Studio. But I'm somehow expecting the new Mac Pro to come with both the M1 Ultra and M1 Ultra x2, thus the M1 Ultra could end up overlapped in both the Studio and the Mac Pro. I'm also expecting the Mac Pro to have plug in off-SoC RAM on top of the 256GB SoC RAM, allowing up to at least 1.5TB RAM, as per the Intel Mac Pro.

 

[emulajavi]

Before:

iMac 27-inch: from $1799 (computer+display+keyboard+mouse)​

Now:

27-inch monitor: from $1599 (only display)​

with keyboard + mouse: +$249, so $1849. No computer and costs more than the 27-inch iMac.


The display should have been the same $999 of the last Thunderbolt Display or less.

 

[sigurros]

HUGE mistake! the 27" iMac was perfect for designers and especially education. Schools won't buy these higher end options nor will they purchase the smaller iMacs.

 

[CWallace]

Jumping up to M1 Max 32-core GPU is just overkill for most people, not to mention that $2k for the studio desktop without the monitor is more expensive than the entry level iMac 27" was.

The M1 Max with 10C/24G is a $500 upgrade over the M1 Pro with 8C/14G so yes, we might have had a $1499 starting model with that and then a $1699 model with the 10C/16G M1 Pro.

My guess is that talking with potential customers, the majority were interested in M1 Max for the extra CPU and GPU cores and double the memory bandwidth. So they made the decision to just offer M1 Max and M1 Ultra configurations and start at $1999.

 

[sigurros]

Before:

iMac 27-inch: from $1799 (computer+display+keyboard+mouse)​

Now:

27-inch monitor: from $1599 (only display)​

with keyboard + mouse: +$249, so $1849. No computer and costs more than the 27-inch iMac.


The display should have been the same $999 of the last Thunderbolt Display or less.

Exactly! This is a big mistake by Apple. Think about educational institutions. The 27" iMac was perfect.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Let’s not forget that the M1 Mac mini is more powerful than most offered 27 inch iMacs excepting some of the most powerful options. So the 1599 dollar studio display + M1 Mac mini of 699 is likely the new iMac 27 inch entry comparison price. So like 2300 dollars. And the iMac 27 inch started at 1799.

Hmm I forget the keyboard and mouse (99 dollar without Touch ID and 79 dollar for mouse) which were also included with iMac. So almost 2500 starting price compared to 1799…. A 700 dollar increase is indeed a lot.

Yep, they've left a gap in the market. They've also left out the M1 Pro as an option in either the Mini or the Studio. So presumably there is still to come, something like a Mini Pro. Another cheaper display option than the Studio Display would make sense too. It would also make sense to put out the exact screen as the Studio Display, but without the camera and speakers, so that people buying the Studio could have multiple monitors without paying for those extras multiple times over.

 

[xxray]

Even though I had no plans to buy, this is pretty disappointing. The 27” iMac was my first Mac ever, so I’ll always be fond of it. It always seemed like a great deal because of how expensive external monitors were that had similar specs to the screens of the iMacs. Now, Apple has caved with the rest of the market.

I think it would’ve been ideal if Apple had released a 27” iMac with M1 as base option with M1 Pro and M1 Max as options. Now, to get a 27” “iMac” with the M1 (Studio Display + Mac Mini), it would be ~$2300 plus tax, and you still don’t get a mouse/trackpad or keyboard. What a shame. If you were looking to replace your 27” iMac, unless you really need the power of the M1 Max or M1 Ultra, I feel like it only makes sense to go to the 24” iMac. It’s just so much more value for the money even though it’s a smaller screen.

Apple tried to fill a gap in their product line and created another gap (and a bigger one at that) instead. You either can get M1 Mac Mini + Studio Display for $2300 but only have 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. If you need more than 16GB of RAM or more processing power or graphics power than the M1, your only option is to jump all the way up to $3,600 + tax for the Studio Display + Mac Studio. Insane and unfortunate. Let’s hope those rumors that the 27” iMac is coming in 2023 are true.

 

[macsteve27]

So humour me here - does anyone really think we will see an upgraded 27" iMac now - At all?

My hope is that maybe they just discontinued it for now, to push Sales of the Studio line. I have been hanging out for a new 27" iMac for a good 18 months now and don't know whether to keep hoping of face facts it's gone and the Studio setup will cost me a lot more than I had hoped!

This is exactly what I'm curious to know. I also hope they have just discontinued it for now to push an upsell on the Studio. I think that there is an M1 Pro gap here that can be filled in the following ways:

Mac Mini with M1 Pro Options
24" iMac with M1 Pro Options
27" iMac with M1 Pro Options

My guess is that at least one of the above has to be true, otherwise apple is leaving a crucial mid-tier customer out in the dark. The 24" iMac price point ends at $1699 (Additional storage and ram options excluded), and the Mac Studio + Studio Display comes in at a minimum of $3600. I think there is a sweet spot of $1800-$2500 for a monitor and screen that needs to be accounted for with the mid-range M1 Pro as an option.

For now I'm going to hold on until WWDC and see if any of these options become available because the cost of a Mac Studio + Studio Display is just too high.

 

[MacFin]

I feel like Apple had already designed the 27" iMac Pro but then someone said, "Hey how about if we split it into two different products and that way we can make more money?"

From the technical point of view if you were to glue Mac Studio behind the Studio display that would be the "iMac Pro" most of us wanted. So this "Studio Set-Up" is what I was hoping from the next large iMac but instead of paying a lump sum of around $3000, now I need to pay that much just to get a "Fatter Mac Mini". Plus on top of that I need to pay $1500 extra to get the 5k display too. So not cheap.

I'm kind of hoping that Apple will still reincarnate larger iMacs at a later date and maybe they will even create a new iMac Pro range that covers both 27" and 32" models.

 

[B4U]

Well the RAM starts at 32GB with the Mac Studio, and upgrading to that with the old 27” iMac was a significant cost.

Perhaps the initial outlay is more than you’d like to spend, but once you’ve got the display you can pair it with future Mac Studio models at less cost.

I am going to say, let's wait and see if this Mac Studio has RAM that can be upgraded by the user post sale. (From looking at other M1 powered ones, it is unlikely.)
I understand it may be comparing apple (no pun intended) and oranges when we talk about upgrading RAM post sale, but most of us know it is way cheaper to buy them from OWC afterwards.

 

[Mr. 123]

I have a very old 27 inch iMac and have been putting up with it's limping along just waiting for an M1 or M2 27 inch replacement. Guess I'll just go with a 24 and move on. Others in the house have apple laptops, but as the old man of the house who hates using my work laptop HP POS I just prefer using an imac on my desk.

I'm hoping that Apple's statement doesn't mean the end of the 27 iMac. The ideal thing would be for them to introduce a 27 inch iMac alongside the new MacBooks (maybe at WWDC?)

 

[David G.]

You can't spec a Mac mini or 24" iMac with 32GB of RAM, period.

You can spec a Mac mini on Apple's website with either 8, 16, 32, or 64GB of RAM right this very moment.

 

[macsteve27]

The M1 Max with 10C/24G is a $500 upgrade over the M1 Pro with 8C/14G so yes, we might have had a $1499 starting model with that and then a $1699 model with the 10C/16G M1 Pro.

My guess is that talking with potential customers, the majority were interested in M1 Max for the extra CPU and GPU cores and double the memory bandwidth. So they made the decision to just offer M1 Max and M1 Ultra configurations and start at $1999.

Good catch, didn't realize the Mac Studio started at 24-core since they spoke to the 32-core in the presentation. They definitely could have added an M1 Pro option for the Studio but the didn't so it's clear they are positioning this more toward high-end users. Makes me wonder where they'll place and M1 Pro for desktop it (if at all) ?

 

[fwmireault]

You can spec an Intel Mac mini above 16GB, but not an Apple silicon model and I believe Blackstick was referring to Apple silicon models.

Yes this is my understanding too, but @Blackstick was answering to my original comment which was specifically about the Intel Mac mini, thus why I replied when he said it could not be configured with 32 GB RAM. Just a misreading on his part, no big deal.

If Apple upgrades the high end Mac mini to M1 Pro and/or Max, they will probably offer an option for 32 GB of RAM, as those two chips can be offered with this amount of RAM on MBP.

 

[CWallace]

Exactly! This is a big mistake by Apple. Think about educational institutions. The 27" iMac was perfect.

Wasn't Apple keeping the 21.5" Intel model around for education?

I expect education would prefer buying the 24" M1 model over a 27" M1 Pro model that was 50-75% more expensive per unit.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Definitely a shame. My Dad's been holding out with his 2010 iMac, waiting for the equivalent Apple Silicon replacement. Not sure what his budget is, but this is definitely much higher than the iMac was, both on the low end and the high end.

I paid about $3500 for my maxed out late 2015 iMac (upgraded everything but RAM), and I would generally expect similar money to get me close to the current top end. But now that's the entry level. Even if you consider inflation (my iMac was $4100 in 2022 dollars), it's much closer to the new low end than the high end (approaching $10k for maxed out M1 Ultra + Studio Display!).

Obviously that new low end is more powerful than my top end was, but that's to be expected with any improvement in technology over time. It just feels like a worse value proposition when equivalent expenditure gets you something lower relative to the new product range.

It'll be interesting to see what people decide to do with the display - pay the ever-increasing Apple Tax for the Studio Display, or pay half or less for a very nice competing monitor? I do like the increased flexibility of not having your computer physically tied to your display, but ugh, the cost of that flexibility...

Tell your dad to keep waiting. There is no Mini or Studio offering the M1 Pro chip yet, so surely there is still something in between to come. Maybe it will be called a Mini Pro. And maybe it will come with a lower end, and cheaper, screen to match. More evidence is that the Intel Mini is still available, thus the equivalent AS replacement is still to come.

Also keep in mind that the "high end" M1 Ultra is not in the same class as the "high end" old iMac, it's in the class of the "high end" iMac Pro with Xeon chips. Whereas the "low end" Studio, with the M1 Max chip, is more in the class of the "high end" previous iMac. The M1 iMac is in the same class as the old "low end" iMac. And in each of those classes, the M-series blows the old iMacs out of the water in both performance, and wattage.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

The original post that I replied to specified Ultra. The cheapest ultra+display ($5598) is a little over three times the price that the cheapest 27" iMac was ($1799). I haven't considered any upgrades, as I'm just looking at the entry price.

The M1 Ultra and the iMac are NOT in the same class. The Ultra is to replace the iMac Pro w Xeon chips. The M1 Max is what you should be comparing to the 27" iMac. But even then, the M1 Pro is what you really should be comparing it to. And since the M1 Pro chip is still missing from the headless lineup, surely there is still a Mini Pro to come, and that will be an even more realistic comparison to the 27" iMac. As basically, the Mac Studio is more of a replacement for the iMac Pro, not the iMac.

I also suspect we will still see a 27" iMac to come. Either as an M1, or as an M1 Pro/Max.

 

[dannys1]

So humour me here - does anyone really think we will see an upgraded 27" iMac now - At all?

Nope. No chance at all.

 

[dannys1]

The M1 Ultra and the iMac are NOT in the same class. The Ultra is to replace the iMac Pro w Xeon chips. The M1 Max is what you should be comparing to the 27" iMac. But even then, the M1 Pro is what you really should be comparing it to. And since the M1 Pro chip is still missing from the headless lineup, surely there is still a Mini Pro to come, and that will be an even more realistic comparison to the 27" iMac. As basically, the Mac Studio is more of a replacement for the iMac Pro, not the iMac.

I also suspect we will still see a 27" iMac to come. Either as an M1, or as an M1 Pro/Max.

Spot on - except the last bit - we're not going to see a bigger iMac now, I think that ship has sailed for this solution instead.

 

[Dorv]

You can spec a Mac mini on Apple's website with either 8, 16, 32, or 64GB of RAM right this very moment.

You can spec out the Intel Mac mini at that level of RAM, but not the M1.

 

[KaplanMike]

For example, you can’t currently spec a Mac with 32 GB RAM without spending $2,000. That certainly wasn’t the case before.

Exactly! The 24-inch iMac is relatively underpowered, with its 16GB memory limit and smaller screen than a generation of iMac users have grown accustomed to. Here's hoping Apple releases some upgraded versions, maybe with the M1 MAX or M1 PRO chips, and more realistic memory limits. I don't need a super computer to run Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator all at the same time -- but I DO need more than 16GBs of memory, and maybe the option for one up of the updated processors (M1 PRO or M1 MAX).

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Stunned by this move.

Bloomberg says the iMac Pro still coming, but I’m not so sure. Seems like an extra SKU that Apple doesn’t need. What do people think?

Since the M1 Pro chip is missing from the Mini/Studio lineups, there is obviously something still to come. I won't be surprised to see both an iMac Pro, and a Mini Pro, both with M1 Pro and M1 Max options.