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Apple Discontinues Intel-Based 21.5-Inch iMac
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It works well. I still have a 2011 vintage Macbook Pro with dual core i5. The memory is 8GB and I've put in an SSD in place of the HD.
I can run Macos and in that the Chrome broswr and some other light office apps for notes and test editing and ALSO at the same time saveal Linux text windows using VMware virtualzation. Linux works well even on that old notebook.
It would be a horrible game platform if I cared to shoot monsers in Windows gamesusing VMware but for developing and runing robots project (in C++ and Python under Linux) it still works well and lets me use the macos based office and drawing tools.
Yes, I have a more modern iMac and a much more powerfull Linux system (16-coreXeon, 64GB RAM and multiple nvidia GPUs) but the old macbook is small and portable and built like a tank and has an anti-glare screen and good keyboard.
Schools spending $1,099 on an iMac that's just for web browsing and text creation? ?
Kids can already do that on their smartphones, or with the under $400 Chromebooks the schools have.
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Yeah that’s normal, probably will remain there until inventory is completely cleared out.
And then, after next spring or whenever Apple introduces the M2 24 inch iMac, I wouldn’t be in the slightest surprised if they keep around just a basic, silver and white with no color options M1 iMac with 8GB of ram and the 7 Core GPU M1 at that $1099/$999 for education customers price points
The non-retina iMac 21.5" has been a bad value for a long time. I would have liked them to drop an M1 into the 21.5" Retina as a lower cost educational option.
I hope not. Those spinning hard drives are way too slow for machines people use.
Or the Intel Mac Mini. (I bought one last year)
It’s overpriced for what it is, $200 for a underclocked 2016 processor is absolutely laughable, it has absolutely horrendous battery life even for just listening to music, it is using an outdated design from 2012, it’s the only iOS device in the lineup without at least an A13, it’s the only iOS device still available without any form of biometrics, and it’s very, very hard to justify its existence anymore.
I’ve heard people use the excuse that “well kids love it for gaming,” but that excuse falls apart immediately the second that you bring up the budget iPad that’s only an extra $129 with a screen almost 2.5 times the size, a battery life that’s at least quadrupled, and gaming/CPU performance thats much, much further ahead.
Not to mention you can easily go on eBay and find an iPhone 7 or eight for cheaper than this with better specifications, bigger screen, better speakers, faster processors, much much better battery, Touch ID.
It literally has absolutely no reason to exist other than that Apple can say “look guys, the iPod still exists” while doing absolutely everything they can to hide the fact that it exists.
After the October Keynote, they literally made it harder to fine, completely removing the tab. You have to go into the footnotes to even find it.
So in summary, it’s horrible for kids because it has a terrible battery life and A tiny screen with horrible gaming performance so there’s not much actual gaming they can do, it’s horrible for music lovers because you have to pay $400 to actually get it with 256 GB, and even then the battery life is so terrible that you’re better off just getting a used iPhone, and it’s horrible for anyone else because if you need just an extra device that’s not your phone, the budget iPad exists with a much faster processor, much, much, much and I cannot emphasis enough, much better battery life, not to mention that the 4 inch screen in 2021 is just cramped.
Add on top of these things the fact that it has an absolutely horrendous front facing camera, a back camera from the iPhone 5, and The fact that it’s probably only gonna get another year or two of software updates, and… it just needs to go.
Yeah this became painfully obvious with my 2015. It cannot run Big Sur or Monterey worth a squat so I downgraded it to Mojave and now it has acceptable performance.
However, I did just get a deal (paid $550 for it) on a 2017 Retina 4K iMac that has the 1TB Fusion drive and I hope that will make at least some difference so that it can run the latest OS without too much hassle.
It’s like the MacBook 12, gorgeous but underpowered.
I wonder how many people bought this model in the last 30 days? Probably thousands of people who didn't do their research. Instantly outdated.
That took way longer than expected for Apple to fulfill their contract with Intel and other vendors for the iMac 21.5"
So the remaining Intel Macs are
So the remaining Intel Macs are
| Next Macs to be updated | Released as early as | Apple SoC |
| iMac 27" | Apr 2022 | M1 Pro & M1 Max |
| $1,099 Mac mini | Apr 2022 | M1 Pro & M1 Max |
| Mac Pro | Dec 2022 | Multi M1 Max dies in multi die package |
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About G-D time! When Apple peddles old cruft like this to educational institutions, it makes generic windoze boxes and e-waste, er…chrome books, come out looking good in comparison. It doesn’t matter if this old gear was price-competitive, it was still 5 year old tech with a tiny amount of storage and memory.
I'd put a SSD in it, they're pretty cheap and it's an easy upgrade.
Nice machine btw, and at $550, it's GREAT!
This was being sold as a low-cost edu model, not targeted at normal customers. Apple did something similar with the 2012 MacBook Pro being sold until 2016. But it was an issue because Apple made it available alongside the newer models, and some normal customers undoubtedly did buy one thinking they were getting a deal when in reality it was hardware that was years out of date being sold at retail prices.
But those 5400 RPM drives are freaking awful even for educational use. If you end up with a lab that has both Macs and PCs the Macs often feel slower and that is not a good look for Apple.
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Well the M1 iMac was a excellent replacement, but the 21" iMac has a lot of history that it will be remembered.
It was relatively inexpensive for an computer, but let’s face it, it was a pretty yucky machine
An M1 Lite/Mini is basically an A14 with a different name.
What they’ll probably do is take the approach they do with iPhones - leave last year’s model on the market at a reduced price or release lower-end SE models with older processors.
Still available to education institutions for $1,049.
MHK03LL/A iMac 21.5"
2.3GHz dual-core 7th-gen Intel Core i5/8GB/256GB SSD/Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 w/Apple Magic Keyboard, Apple Magic Mouse 2
MHK03LL/A iMac 21.5"
2.3GHz dual-core 7th-gen Intel Core i5/8GB/256GB SSD/Intel Iris Plus Graphics 640 w/Apple Magic Keyboard, Apple Magic Mouse 2
Moment of silence for Intel
