Apple Refreshes 21.5-Inch and 27-Inch iMacs With Brighter Displays, Kaby Lake Processors, and Faster Storage

[TallManNY]

The 1TB Fusion Drive's SSD has been increased from 24GB to 32GB. The 2TB and 3TB Fusion Drives remain 128GB for their SSD portion.

Thanks. I was not the person who asked but was wondering that myself.

I will probably sit this version out myself. But I will be buying my Mom a 21.5" iMac and will put a Fusion Drive in it.

I will hold out another year. But don't worry about me. The new iPad Pro will console me.

 

[jjjoseph]

So tired of Pro snobbery. The ONLY Pro is the Pro like ME! Give me a break!

Pro is short for professional. There are many kinds of professional users. The only thing they really have in common is the need for more horsepower. Most professionals don't want a rack mounted system. Maybe in your industry, but across the board? No.

Can we all just recognize that Pro covers a lot of users and dispense with the ridiculous snobbery we see coming from the media content creators?

Yes I agree.. Maybe their are other demographics.. Like Unity? Game Design? And now People trying to Port Native VR to MacOS and also iOS development. It is a market and it is fairly substantial at this point, but Media Creation was Apples thing for a long time and a lot of people are still stuck in MacOS because of it.. and now we are frustrated until something better comes along. Hence the snobbery..

 

[paleghost]

[doublepost=1496716962][/doublepost]Anyone know if the announced eGPU can drive the internal display on the iMac (not PRO) or just an external display?

 

[chars1ub0w]

I made a comparison chart comparing the iMac Pro specs and price to other popular workstations for those wondering...

In conclusion the new iMac Pro will be priced perfectly

You're not comparing the same generation of processors.

It looks like the iMac Pro top-end will use the 18 core Xeon Gold 6150, TDP 165W, that people were discussing back in February. (Or hopefully, but less likely, the faster 6154 @ 200W). These processors are from the Xeon Skylake-EP series and use the fairly new LGA 3647 socket.

It is interesting that Apple picked this 18 core part rather than the newly announced Core i9-7980XE, which is also an 18 core part from a different line, and uses the (also new) LGA 2066 socket. The new Core i9 probably is more cost-effective and will receive wide adoption, as it's really a non-Xeon line Xeon. I suspect either Apple didn't know Intel's plans, or the i9-7980XE won't be available in time. I guess it'd make sense to refresh the iMac Pro in January to adopt the Core i9 18 core part and massively drop the price.

The Xeon E5-2687W v4, one of the ones from your chart, is a 12 core part using the old LGA 2011 v3 socket that will be obsoleted.

 

[iMi]

I don't see the thicker bezels as a huge negative on the desktop. On the phone or iPad, shrinking the bezel is nice. On the desktop, however, the bezel creates a negative space that separates the screen from what's around it. I think that actually is an advantage. Your eye stays focused and what's in the background behind the screen doesn't bleed into the image on your screen. I personally think this is very nice when it comes to photo editing, for example.

I see your point. I agree that on the phone the smaller bezels definitely help, if only by reducing the overall dimensions of the device while delivering the same screen real estate. On the tablet, it's somewhat problematic. The way a tablet it held makes it more likely to accidentally touch something while just holding it. The extra bezels make it easier to hold, I think.

I have a new 27" monitor with very small bezels and like it better than the iMac it replaced. Part of it definitely personal preference. Part of it is that the monitor looks smaller and less bulky on the desk. It actually seems to fit the space better, so there is that advantage.

 

[werbal]

Has anyone heard if the memory is user upgradable on the 27 inch version?

 

[Traverse]

So excited. This is what I was waiting for. My first desktop.

 

[bluespark]

Any word on Target Display Mode? If that's there, I'm buying!

 

[BWhaler]

These look like a great upgrade. I look forward to purchasing the new iMac later in the year.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

Disappointed in no more 2 TB fusion in the 21".

 

[Works4Me]

Well, I'm up for one of these. I'll be selling one i5 and one i7 27 inch iMacs to do it...

 

[sudo1996]

You really do get some nice hardware for good prices with these low and mid range iMacs. The storage and display are often overlooked but are normally very expensive.

 

[Dr Stuart-Zhang]

Is the memory user upgradeable?

Same question!!! If it can, I will definitely buy IMac over Macbook pro then.

 

[EightyTwenty]

5400 spinner on a $1500 computer sold in 2017.

Let that sink in.
[doublepost=1496727172][/doublepost]

Same question!!! If it can, I will definitely buy IMac over Macbook pro then.

Why is it the only people who display their significant others in avis are interracial couples? Always found that weird. Is it a status symbol thing? Like "Look everybody... I got me a white woman!"

Unless you both post together on the same account (doubtful), why would she be in your avi?

 

[namria]

Has anyone heard if the memory is user upgradable on the 27 inch version?

Read previous posts.

 

[Appledane]

Apple has announced a few new iMac models at WWDC today, which the company said include the best Mac displays ever with 500 nits of brightness and support for 1 billion colors, resulting in displays that are 43% brighter than previous models.

The new iMacs have up to three times more powerful graphics abilities in comparison to previous generations, faster processors, Thunderbolt 3, and faster storage options. Apple said that the updates, along with refreshes of the MacBook, represent a lineup of Mac devices that are "stronger than ever."
With the refresh, a Retina 4K display is also coming to the 21.5-inch iMac. Both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs feature faster Kaby Lake processors up to 4.2 GHz, with Turbo Boost speeds up to 4.5 GHz. The computers support twice the memory as the previous generation, and Fusion Drive will now be standard on all 27-inch iMac configurations, as well as on the top-end 21.5-inch iMac.

SSD storage will become 50 percent faster on the refreshed iMacs, and graphics on the computers are more powerful thanks to new Radeon Pro 500-series cards with up to 8GB of vRAM. In terms of faster performance, the 21.5-inch model delivers up to three times faster speeds in comparison to the previous iMacs, while the 27-inch model is up to 50 percent faster.

The models start at $1,099 for the 21.5-inch iMac, $1,299 for the 4K 21.5-inch iMac, and $1,799 for the 5K 27-inch iMac. Users can find more information on tech specs and pricing for each tier of the 21.5-inch model and 27-inch model on Apple's website, and both are available to purchase today.

Article Link: Apple Refreshes 21.5-Inch and 27-Inch iMacs With Brighter Displays, Kaby Lake Processors, and Faster Storage

These look like a great upgrade. I look forward to purchasing the new iMac later in the year.

Has Apple done anything with IMAC cooling problems? Can understand that they have redesigned IMAC pro but what about IMAC? Will there still be problems with the IMAC?

 

[Gudi]

The 1TB Fusion Drive's SSD has been increased from 24GB to 32GB.

Yay, that's still a quarter of my Mac mini 2012 DIY Fusion Drive for €50 plus cable.
[doublepost=1496730718][/doublepost]

Same question! If it can, I will definitely buy iMac over MacBook Pro then.

I'll do the opposite and choose an all-SSD MacBook over an iMac anytime.
[doublepost=1496731038][/doublepost]

Has Apple done anything with iMac cooling problems? Can understand that they have redesigned iMac Pro, but what about iMac? Will there still be problems with the iMac?

Of course the new cooling system will only be in the iMac Pro.

 

[organic bond]

Still glossy screens. No thanks, no more mirrors here.

 

[cracksoup]

I wish i needed an iMac Pro. Sadly i'd be better off just buying an iPad.

 

[alexgowers]

These look great. Wish they didn't neglect the mini.

or the Mac Pro. Apple doesn't want to sell standalone units with no screen, keyboard etc, they don't make them any money. I'm of the opinion MacOS is so unimportant to bottom line they should open it up to 3rdparties and give up on any tower only systems as anyone can do it better than apple now with hardware off the shelf.
[doublepost=1496736331][/doublepost]

Wow, a hard drive is still standard. They really need to make SSD standard and hard drive an upgrade. Too many users are too ignorant about the performance difference or simply don't think about BTO. It doesn't need to be a Samsung 960 Pro, or whatever to tier SSD they used this time, either a plane ole 240GB AData SATA-III is more than enough for the budget model and regular user.

Then when I set it up for them. I have to explain to a client why their brand new $1,100+ computer feels just as slow as the 8 year old Core 2 Duo iMac they just replaced or why their two year old Macbook Air feels so much faster.

The super speed SSD is a needless expense anyway. Real world testing shows no appreciable difference between various NVMe SSD for workstation tasks there is less than a 1 second difference between a WD Black NVMe and Samsung 960 Pro. They are too fast for a single user to tax them. Although differences are apparent in synthetic benchmarks. It would require some very specialized workstation application or a server for their differences to be noticed.

Agree, the whole iMac line up makes zero sense mixing very slow hardware with expensive locked down bits. Pairing such an expensive display and no way to drive it outside of it, once hardware is defunct and lets face it Intel are a few months from the next CPU release that's it...

 

[randian]

I hope the increased brightness doesn't come at the expense of color fidelity.

 

[pkissel]

Are you kidding me? Damn you Apple. This refresh wasn't supposed to happen until October. I'm trying to sell off my 2015 5k model this week, now the value just dropped. Thanks!

Could be worse. We just bought a "new" 27" iMac 3 weeks ago. Didn't expect Apple to release an update for WWDC this year. Still a great computer. It was going to get outdated sooner or later anyway.

 

[DCIFRTHS]

I'm interested in picking this one up. Do we know if the ram is still user upgradeable on the 27 inch 5k?

I can't tell if there's an access point on the new iMac. None of the pictures I have seen show one, and I haven;t seen any pics / drawings of the inside to know what memory they are using (probably laptop memory).

I was looking at the pictures of the iMac pro, and it appears to use desktop memory. Looking at the computer from the back, it looks like the memory is off to the left, and there is no visible access point. Maybe they will include one when it's released.


[doublepost=1496739299][/doublepost]

You can see in the photos it has the hatch to where you install the ram, just like current iMacs.

I missed that. Where are you seeing this photo? Apple's website? A Blog? Thanks!
[doublepost=1496739592][/doublepost]

No Touch Bar on new wireless extended keyboard. Disappointed

Not going to miss the touch bar, but Touch ID would have been awesome.
[doublepost=1496739737][/doublepost]

Wow, a hard drive is still standard. They really need to make SSD standard and hard drive an upgrade. Too many users are too ignorant about the performance difference or simply don't think about BTO. ....

I just went through this with a friend. I was able to get him to cancel and reorder.

 

[Appledane]

[doublepost=1496731038][/doublepost]Of course the new cooling system will only be in the iMac Pro.[/QUOTE]

Sorry to hear that.

Will the the new IMAC with i7 produce more or less heat than the old one?

 

[johnnyenv]

Can anyone tell me what the 27" 1TB SSD is that ships with the high end iMac. What brand, Read/Write/Cache etc.