No way to know for sure what if Apple will release before your return window closes. I would wait until at least the 7th to make a hard decision.
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Apple Discontinues 512GB and 1TB SSD Configurations of 4K 21.5-inch iMac
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The fusion drive in my late 2014 iMac had serious issues twice, where the link between the SSD and the spinning HDD got corrupted, lots of spontaneous reboots and kernel panics were the signs of that doom. This required a wipe and low level reformat at an Apple Store, on two occasions. Good thing I had time machine and cloned backups for restoration of my data. Since the last reformat about 4-5 years ago, it has been solid. I will get SSD only for my next iMac if given an option. I cannot wait for this new iMac. Use my current one for work from home and would love that speedy M1 or M1X update!
One option to consider: what if you return the iMac and get an M1 MacBook Air, and use your iPad as a second display via Sidecar? That is, if your iPad is new enough to support Sidecar. A portable, dual display setup would have been my college computing dream, back in the day... way back... when I was in college! I’m assuming that Sidecar is still present as an option in the new M1 computers, although I don’t hear much mention of it since the functionality was introduced. Third party software (I think Duet) can turn your iPad into an external display also.
You can check this out with your current set up if your iPad is new enough, see minimum requirements in the link below.
Use an iPad as a second display for a Mac - Apple Support
With Sidecar, you can use your iPad as a second display for your Mac.
EDIT: I’m now noticing you said you want to use Windows on it for certain things. Dual booting into Windows is not supported on the M1 at this time, and I’m not certain about the third party virtualization options, you may want to research that.
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<3 Thank you Apple for caring so much and protecting me from my own stupidity. Please also remove the ports from the laptop so I'm protected from plugging in non-top-tier-qualityTM devices and external drives or, god forbid, a BUDGET monitor, the dummy that I am.OK, second take at this, apologies for the misunderstanding the first time - I stopped at SIM having seen the LTE bit -
I'll start with the RAM issue first. The reason given for soldering RAM was to make it more reliable and to reduce the space required to enable Macs to become thinner (from being lower profile, lower power, and not having to cater for fat fingered users trying to remove it). Remember many manufacturers have since followed that example and do the same with ultra thin laptops.
And this is the point, Macs would still be a thick and heavy as the old 2012 Ivy bridge non retina MacBook Pro if they'd stuck with SATA, DVD, and replaceable RAM. That's 4.5lb (2.06kg) vs 3.0lb (1.4kg) for the 2012 vs 2020 M1 13" MBP.
The Surface Pro doesn't seem to be as thin as a MacBook Pro so I'll assume part of this is due to a certain level of serviceability.
Don't get me wrong here, I like a bit of serviceability and have added RAM and HDD/SSD to Macs before when they were serviceable. The fact that the 27" iMacs are upgradable makes them a great budget option for users who want more RAM.
Apple's next point will be about data security and reliability. Remember that they use some of the fastest SSDs available, and if it were down to an average computer user with replaceable parts they'll buy the cheapest they can find and then complain that their Mac runs like crap when it's the fault of the hardware they bought.
Remember Apple are going down a road with Unified RAM that doubles down on replaceable RAM and I think the storage is on die too - this is for performance and power efficiency reasons. They select the correct components to fit their design.
I haven't used this kind of argument in a while but how many people buying a 2230 m.2 are going to buy SSDs of a top tier quality? Are they even available because a cursory look reveals they are quite rare at higher capacities and seem to be dying out. They'll just buy cheap crap if they can and probably botch the install job. And If you're advocating that Apple leave an empty space in the machine for users to add their own storage then that's a massive error because for a majority of users it means the space will be left blank. If you think they'll out a 256Gb unit in there for people like you to replace with a 1Tb unit - great. But how well will it perform? And will you even be able to get a replacement in 4 years?
I have seen links for a Samsung 970 PCIe 3.0 x4 EVO 1Tb in a 2280 form factor (which is a lot bigger than the postage stamp sized 2230) for 122 quid on Amazon today. But a casual search for a 2230 didn't turn up much.
Let's then not forget that you can accidentally buy a SATA SSD in an M2 form factor. Imagine the frustration as the fat fingered user buys the wrong item. Thankfully these appear to be dying out, and manufacturers in the budget sector appear to be happy to swap controllers and hardware on the same product name items (bit underhand there).
If I were building a PC today I might look for a PCIe SSD to go on the motherboard but I'd buy a high performance Samsung EVO or Pro with true PCIe 3.0 x4 performance. I'd also look into the possibility of waiting for PCIe 4.0 for even more performance. Remember the very best SSDs are 2280, with heatsinks, and boast SERIOUS figures for read and write.
I daresay a lot of average Joes will be looking for cheap storage on a postage stamp they can just plug into a computer as easily as plugging in a SD card. Well, if you'd only just have a look at the murky world of SD card reliability and performance you might then come back and see why Apple won't want users raging on them after botching their install of a no-mark brand and the industry has moved on from that connector technology.
Yes, it's convenient, cheaper, but we've yet to see the performance figures for Apple's Unified architecture to see if it outperforms it to any serious degree.
Man, you should seriously take a step back for one second and consider that the majority of what apple does is to maximize profits. What you are saying doesn't even make sense, how many people do you think open up their laptops and replace parts on their own? It's super rare even among Windows laptop users and it's basically never done on a new machine. And your rationalization of why there are no Macs with cellular connectivity is not just ridiculous, it's also completely wrong. I can add cellular connectivity to 12.9" iPP for same $150 in the base model, or the $1500 1TB model. And do you see how these prices are completely in line with M1 mac pricing? Anyway, more expensive models can have more expensive upgrades not because of some imaginary patent costs (lol btw) but because people buying top of the line stuff aren't as price sensitive and can be milked for higher margins.
I honestly don't mind less replaceable parts or no cellular connectivity in laptops (even though it's present in basically all business class windows laptops that are way smaller and lighter than the current Mac lineup) if we get other improvement in return. They are niche anyways. But let's not pretend that drive swaps were somehow an epidemic destroying people"s experinces, when I'd bet that >90% of those were done by people trying to squeeze a few extra years out of their 5y old laptops.
I'm assuming you got a 27" because of the SSD size... then no its not a mistake in my opinion. It has the T2 co-processor, 1080p web cam, improved 3-mic array, True Tone display, latest generation Intel and AMD CPU and GPU and will last for years to come. I invested heavily into a top spec 2020 27" model used every day for work and have been enjoying it compared to my 2015 it replaced.
Fair comment, I have done that with my 2012 Mac mini - but that's not where the industry is going (like it or not). Higher performance SSDs need heatsinks and cooling solutions. The 2230 form factor (as per Xbox series X by the looks of it) looks unsuitable in ultraportable laptops due to heat dissipation from performance considerations, and capacities over 1Tb aren't generally available.
If I were looking for something that ilk today then Apple might allow 2280 size high performance SSDs to be placed inside an ARM mini Pro as additional internal storage (with heatsinks and but I'm not holding my breath on that at all and wouldn't be surprised to see mini Pros priced at the same stratospheric prices of the current Pros given the mini is continuing and that seems to have the sub 2k price bands sealed up.
Apple may have underestimated the popularity of SD ports a long time ago, but there are faster card formats out there - their logic in letting TB/USB-C ports only may have been derided at the time. It may be derided in the future.
And DVD drives didn't weight a pound - they weren't the only factor for the thinning.
Mate, I'm not condoning Apple's rationale - just trying to quantify their thinking. I think you might have noticed it seems to be working for them though just like it works for Porsche. Do you see Porsche losing money because they aren't selling 1.0 litre supermini shopping cars?
Let's be absolutely fair here, if you don't like it, Dell, HP or ASUS can help you out - and you can always home brew your own PC to a spec of your liking but will it be as silent, well built, or efficient as a Mac? Just look at the heat given off by most desktop Intel PCs...
Don't get me wrong, I like the repairability of PCs, the ability to upgrade or replace storage easily, but getting a PC to be as small, quiet, power efficient, or built with the same quality materials as a Mac? Do you think you could do it cheaper and work with Windows?
And in terms of lifetime of laptops, I think Apple have a better track record on that front than many PC manufacturers - I'm still rocking Macs from 2012-2013. The laptop's battery life is degraded but that's to be expected from over 7 years of use. I wouldn't have thought too many PCs are still around from that period because of smaller batteries and plastic build quality. Don't ever underestimate the average user declaring a PC is crap because bits are falling off it and battery life is in minutes after 2 years. No amount of SATA SSDs and 32Gb of RAM is going to fix that if spare parts are no longer sold or batteries are EOL, especially if those users turn their nose up at the price of obtaining and fitting those parts and spend another 350 quid on another POS.
Apple are pricing cellular modules for iPads at a consistent price for consumer consistency but don't get it wrong - FRAND patents have to be paid on a percentage of the retail price of each unit for cellular storage. The low end Macs that are currently M1 powered are cheap. Just consider the price of a cellular unit in a 16" MacBook Pro which costs double or triple the price of an iPad Pro 12.9". And then consider why Apple might not be interested in losing battery space for a niche SKU, never mind the price of developing and testing that.
Your example of the iPad Pro vs M1 Mac. The M1 MBA might be roughly analogous with a 12.9" iPad Pro and the cellular uplift is for the iPad Pro only, but why would the average laptop user care about cellular, especially if they have many methods of tethering if they were out of the house and away from wifi? And let's be clear here - the brighter screen of the iPad Pro (600 nits vs 500 nits) is a better prospect for working in the field on a sunny day anyway.
I wouldn't have thought cheesing off a small percentage of wannabe self upgraders was top of Apple's list of people to thwart, just like they weren't too interested in Hackintosh users because ARM was coming. Like I said, the technology was heading in a direction that would suit soldered RAM and CPU - extra thinness and lightness plus performance and efficiency from shorter interconnects. The performance considerations with unified RAM will surely come to light later. Security is also an issue, hence the T2 CPU - not something that a large number of users care about - know what a TPM module in an Intel CPU is or does?
Semiconductor shortage.
Just hours after officially discontinuing the iMac Pro, Apple has also discontinued the 512GB and 1TB SSD configurations of the 4K 21.5-inch iMac.
Last month, both options became unavailable for purchase, although it was unclear at the time whether it was a temporary issue due to a component supply problem or if it was a permanent decision to no longer offer the options.
Apple has now removed both of the affected SSD options from the iMac’s configuration page entirely, leaving a 256GB SSD and a 1TB Fusion Drive as the only options for customers.
An all-new redesigned iMac based on Apple silicon is expected to launch later this year, but a more specific launch timeframe isn't yet known.
Article Link: Apple Discontinues 512GB and 1TB SSD Configurations of 4K 21.5-inch iMac
Your Intel iMac is not gonna suddenly stop working in the near future. As you can see, they are still selling Intel models along side M1 models. Also, I have PowerPC Macs such as a PowerBook G4 from 2005 with Leopard that still works, even though it got only one OS upgrade. Certainly, its not gonna be the same way this time, since the Intel Macs released in the past 5 years are still super fast. Apple is in a position where they are gonna be required to still provide OS upgrades for at least 5 more years. There is no reason to artificially stop providing OS support because all their Macs will be using Apple Silicon by June of 2022. Especially since they will likely be selling Intel Macs like the Mac Pro up to that point.
Worse case scenario, if they announced macOS 12 is the last Intel supported release, they are gonna get bad press and likely backtrack that decision immediately. This is not 2008 where they can get away things like that. They did have a Snow Leopard release in development for PPC but never did release it. But, I think that was strategically lazy and greedy move to get people to abandon PowerPC for a new shiny Intel Mac at the time. Sorry, but 25 million versus a 100 million user base is different.
Their exact wording is as follows:
“So what’s the timeline for this transition? Well, for developers it begins this week with the valuable information delivered at this conference as well as applying for the Quick Start Program. And for the customers, we expect to ship our first Mac with Apple silicon by the end of this year, and we expect the transition to take about two years. We plan to continue to support and release new versions of macOS for Intel-based Macs for years to come.” — Tim Cook, WWDC 2020 keynote
Trust and believe that they meticulously thought out every word there. Given the RAM and I/O limitations on the M1 SoC, I can’t really fault someone for thinking it bodes poorly for replacements of high-end Macs within two years. My personal expectation is that they’re resolved soon and every Mac does get replaced, but Apple seems pretty careful to avoid saying or implying that the transition will necessarily include all Macs.
As for macOS updates for Intel-based Macs, they left it at a nebulous “for years to come.” That could put the EOL date as early as June 22, 2022, or two years from the day those words left Tim Cook’s mouth. I suspect that regular macOS updates will be released through 2025 or so, and security updates for the usual three years thereafter…but again, Apple covered their bases to give them a great deal of leeway here.
Yes, I went with the 27" because of the SSD size, also because I like the bigger display, and the ability to upgrade the RAM myself. So far I love it. I guess more than worry that it will be absolute in a couple of years is more me wanting to have the latest and that's probably why I was worried about it, but so far it's been a good computer.
Thank you. I guess I'll wait and see what happens. I also want to purchase a Macbook pro so I can take my classes when I'm away because of work, but I think I can wait until later this year when they update the MacBooks.
Already last spring there was rumours from many of the usual leakers about a 24 inch iMac with iPapPro design language. We got instead an Intel update and no redesign... and M1 portbales.
Therefore I believe there will be a 24 inch low cost iMac very soon. An M1 iMac with out a fan and very low cost seem like a good idea. The rumours about colorful iMac aligns well with a low cost iMac.
An office, edu, sales point iMac with M1, 8/256 for 1299.
An 12 core M1X and double GPU for 1799 for those who need a little bit more.
Ram and SDD upgrades as usual (slight too expensive)
Therefore I believe there will be a 24 inch low cost iMac very soon. An M1 iMac with out a fan and very low cost seem like a good idea. The rumours about colorful iMac aligns well with a low cost iMac.
An office, edu, sales point iMac with M1, 8/256 for 1299.
An 12 core M1X and double GPU for 1799 for those who need a little bit more.
Ram and SDD upgrades as usual (slight too expensive)
idk...does the iMac even have a place any more? Pros go with Pros and most people get by with a MacBook or Mini. Even those people who say they are "Artist" they use an iPad!
I was shocked to learn a lot of people have shifted to smartphones as their only device replacing any type of PC. Gone are the 90s where you had a PC tower in each home...for the whole family.
I was shocked to learn a lot of people have shifted to smartphones as their only device replacing any type of PC. Gone are the 90s where you had a PC tower in each home...for the whole family.
There may be no configuration matching those. It may also be an acceleration of the transition because of the new aggressive stance taken by Intel.
True, but screen size matters a lot. The iMac is a sleek package and thermal management is better than the MBP. An apple designed display and the rumored Mac mini Pro might however replace the higher performance 27 iMacs.
There are 28nm shortage, which has actually been going on for years, pandemic just happen to made it worst.
The chip shortage got repeated for 4 page before anyone even point out how It has nothing to do with NAND and DRAM.
True, they didn’t weigh a pound. But including them meant a 25% thicker case, which adds structural weight, and required stiffening structure to keep the case from collapsing at the DVD slot, and various compromises due to weight balancing, the space the DVD drive takes, etc.
The Air was thinner and lighter at 3lb in 2008 because it didn’t have the legacy DVD drive. It also saved weight with a 1.8in drive, but that’s 2 oz and 4 mm thickness. So I am not convinced that having a non-soldered SSD is large contributing factor in laptop size and weight, but soldered RAM seems to be an important factor.
You sure don't have a high opinion of the average dumb customer.OK, second take at this, apologies for the misunderstanding the first time - I stopped at SIM having seen the LTE bit -
I'll start with the RAM issue first. The reason given for soldering RAM was to make it more reliable and to reduce the space required to enable Macs to become thinner (from being lower profile, lower power, and not having to cater for fat fingered users trying to remove it). Remember many manufacturers have since followed that example and do the same with ultra thin laptops.
And this is the point, Macs would still be a thick and heavy as the old 2012 Ivy bridge non retina MacBook Pro if they'd stuck with SATA, DVD, and replaceable RAM. That's 4.5lb (2.06kg) vs 3.0lb (1.4kg) for the 2012 vs 2020 M1 13" MBP.
The Surface Pro doesn't seem to be as thin as a MacBook Pro so I'll assume part of this is due to a certain level of serviceability.
Don't get me wrong here, I like a bit of serviceability and have added RAM and HDD/SSD to Macs before when they were serviceable. The fact that the 27" iMacs are upgradable makes them a great budget option for users who want more RAM.
Apple's next point will be about data security and reliability. Remember that they use some of the fastest SSDs available, and if it were down to an average computer user with replaceable parts they'll buy the cheapest they can find and then complain that their Mac runs like crap when it's the fault of the hardware they bought.
Remember Apple are going down a road with Unified RAM that doubles down on replaceable RAM and I think the storage is on die too - this is for performance and power efficiency reasons. They select the correct components to fit their design.
I haven't used this kind of argument in a while but how many people buying a 2230 m.2 are going to buy SSDs of a top tier quality? Are they even available because a cursory look reveals they are quite rare at higher capacities and seem to be dying out. They'll just buy cheap crap if they can and probably botch the install job. And If you're advocating that Apple leave an empty space in the machine for users to add their own storage then that's a massive error because for a majority of users it means the space will be left blank. If you think they'll out a 256Gb unit in there for people like you to replace with a 1Tb unit - great. But how well will it perform? And will you even be able to get a replacement in 4 years?
I have seen links for a Samsung 970 PCIe 3.0 x4 EVO 1Tb in a 2280 form factor (which is a lot bigger than the postage stamp sized 2230) for 122 quid on Amazon today. But a casual search for a 2230 didn't turn up much.
Let's then not forget that you can accidentally buy a SATA SSD in an M2 form factor. Imagine the frustration as the fat fingered user buys the wrong item. Thankfully these appear to be dying out, and manufacturers in the budget sector appear to be happy to swap controllers and hardware on the same product name items (bit underhand there).
If I were building a PC today I might look for a PCIe SSD to go on the motherboard but I'd buy a high performance Samsung EVO or Pro with true PCIe 3.0 x4 performance. I'd also look into the possibility of waiting for PCIe 4.0 for even more performance. Remember the very best SSDs are 2280, with heatsinks, and boast SERIOUS figures for read and write.
I daresay a lot of average Joes will be looking for cheap storage on a postage stamp they can just plug into a computer as easily as plugging in a SD card. Well, if you'd only just have a look at the murky world of SD card reliability and performance you might then come back and see why Apple won't want users raging on them after botching their install of a no-mark brand and the industry has moved on from that connector technology.
Yes, it's convenient, cheaper, but we've yet to see the performance figures for Apple's Unified architecture to see if it outperforms it to any serious degree.
Considering sales of the iMac Pro which launched in December 2017 ended just this month, it likely means the Mac Pro launched in December of 2019, might be discontinued by late 2022 or 2023. That’s a machine that’s between a rock and a hard place. It’s still worth buying this year, but next year, but next year it will be 4 years old.
Tell that to business? The iMac, the iMac Pro and the Mac Pro are the workhorses in many companies, including mine.
It might be still going, and I don't doubt that. I use a pimped up imac2012 in my hall, which I just put a 256Gb SSD in and the difference in performance was amazing.
A fusion drive of 3Tb? Is it really necessary or technically worthwhile?
With 3TB I suspect much of that is data storage, whatever form that data takes, whether its photos, films, rendering etc., and therefore you are getting that storage on a fusion drive at the cost of performance on many of your computing tasks.
I suspect you'd have been better off with an SSD where you could easily pick up decent fast storage as an external.
Parallels has support for the M1 as a beta. The main problem with running Windows under virtualization under the M1 is that the M1 lacks support for 32-bit ARM code and Windows includes some 32-bit ARM programs while lacking a translation layer to 64-bit ARM, so those programs will not run. This includes the Microsoft Store.One option to consider: what if you return the iMac and get an M1 MacBook Air, and use your iPad as a second display via Sidecar? That is, if your iPad is new enough to support Sidecar. A portable, dual display setup would have been my college computing dream, back in the day... way back... when I was in college! I’m assuming that Sidecar is still present as an option in the new M1 computers, although I don’t hear much mention of it since the functionality was introduced. Third party software (I think Duet) can turn your iPad into an external display also.
You can check this out with your current set up if your iPad is new enough, see minimum requirements in the link below.
Use an iPad as a second display for a Mac - Apple Support
With Sidecar, you can use your iPad as a second display for your Mac.support.apple.com
EDIT: I’m now noticing you said you want to use Windows on it for certain things. Dual booting into Windows is not supported on the M1 at this time, and I’m not certain about the third party virtualization options, you may want to research that.