Apple to Launch 4K 21.5-inch Retina iMac Next Week, iPad Pro in Early November

[Gudi]

So Microsoft just launched the most impressive "Surface Pad Pro" yet (even looks a lot like a Macbook Pro, but doubles as a tablet) and has Skylake on it already ...

It's so impressive, you even got the name wrong. It's called a "Surface Book". And it has a backlit keyboard and multitouch glass trackpad, features Apple Kool-Aid drinkers enjoy since 2008.

It's not 2008 anymore. Apple users of today demand their Skylake notebooks in combination with a pressure-sensitive ForceTouch trackpad and Thunderbolt 3 ports. Honestly, I don't need Skylake, for what I do my Core2Duo is still fast enough. It's all the other reasons that make upgrading compelling.

 

[JediZenMaster]

This makes sense because i was looking at iMac's with a friend and he wanted the 21.5 and we went to multiple Best Buys here in portland and they had all mentioned it was being discontinued which obviously is taken with a grain of salt but it could see this being a thing now.

 

[appledefenceforce]

Can anyone explain to me the advantage of getting a TV over one of these, apart from smart TV features?

 

[blanks]

Can anyone explain to me the advantage of getting a TV over one of these, apart from smart TV features?

Uh... what? iMacs are computers, not televisions.

 

[manu chao]

+1.

SSD as standard option would be nice.

Exactly, it should be TB 2+1.

 

[Glassed Silver]

Why wouldnt they refreash the 27" Retina iMacs?

Well, why would they?
Wasted focus, iOS is making all the money nowadays.

I'm pretty let down by the change of pace as well, but at this point I'm happier when they DON'T touch something and mess it up.
Many refreshes of devices nowadays come with some considerable tradeoffs, so yeah...

No rushing, Cupertino.

Glassed Silver:mac

 

[Stema]

What about the regular 21,5" iMacs?

 

[tuna9720]

They must fix the low end 21.5" in many ways.. ($1099 version).

The processor is a joke.
Retina display must be added IMO.
Price? It's still not cheap.. And I'm not kidding..

You can get a PC with a top of the line processor , 16GB RAM, and a great graphics card for under $800 any day (even without making a research to find deals, coupons etc).. And this still performs much much better than the low end iMac..

I love every Apple device that I have/had.. But not all of them are great products..

Ps: The other reason for Apple to make it much better because most of its components are not upgradable .. Most PCs have the option to upgrade almost any unit inside (ram, hdd, graphics etc).

 

[69650]

Broadwell Chips? Seriously? That would very disappointing if true.

 

[69650]

Thank god. It's only been 25 months.

They should spin off the Mac hardware and software into a seperate company so they can gain some focus and attention once again.

 

[patent10021]

Well I guess this means the death of separate Apple displays. I guess they don't want iMac cannibalism.

 

[kazmac]

Good point soupcan.

I wonder if they'll update the internals in the regular 21.5" too... I forget if they did that with the regular 27" last year.

Price for the retina 21.5", I'd think 1799. If it's 1699 that would be great, but...

 

[karsten]

magic touchpad 2 please

 

[hleewell]

36" iMac or Bust !!!!

 

[thekev]

This makes sense because i was looking at iMac's with a friend and he wanted the 21.5 and we went to multiple Best Buys here in portland and they had all mentioned it was being discontinued which obviously is taken with a grain of salt but it could see this being a thing now.

That is highly unlikely. It's often rumored to be one of the more successful Macs.

 

[FrankySavvy]

Check out the PC specs here: http://www.amd.com/en-us/products/graphics/notebook/r9-m200

View attachment 590246

So the new 21" iMac with Retina could come with 4gb discrete gpu and a BTO option of up to 8gb? wow!

 

[FrankySavvy]

I ordered my 27" BTO iMac two weeks ago. It just got another bump to ship on the 16th. I suspect something is being upgraded.

One can only hope!

 

[X38]

That's nice. How about a 4K Thunderbolt Display already?!

 

[GoodWheaties]

I am just hoping for the 3TB storage option offered only on the 27" currently. No rumors yet on that front.

Unfortunately I don't think it will because the 21.5 uses 2.5" drives and I think the biggest there are of those is 2TB unless they have recently came out with larger.

 

[hleewell]

36" iMac or BUST !!!

 

[toke lahti]

I was think about this myself, but in my usual crazy way.

Just imagine if Apple sold only the Displays. And then put the computer in a stick that could plug into a port on the back. Seriously, if you look at the innards of the Macbook or even th imac, we are so close to this. The benefit is that while computing technology changes every year (at least). Display/viewing technology does not. In the last 10 years we have gone to 1080p, retina and now 4k. in those same ten years the speed and power of computers has changed 20 times and grown exponentially.

Add to that - it would be cool to simply take my computer in my pocket and just plug it into a screen wherever I go.

And they would call that revolutionary mac "mini"?
But then they'd have to update their displays more often than now...

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Why not a 23" and a 27". I always think 21" is a little too small and 27" way to big.

 

[Tech198]

computer displays are always higher then tradition smart TV's

For one, the resolution is always higher on a retina display, even on a 5k iMac or 4K Mac the screen will still be higher and better than a tradition 4k smart tv just because it's sharper on computer displays. You'll never see the same pixel density on a smart TV just because displays are 50-104 screen or bigger.

For instance 2560x1600 on a Retina Mac i will not get that resolution on a smart TV when comparing to a non-4k display.... and the same will be true when comparing 4k iMacs or 5k iMacs to their equivalent smart TV screen.

Look up close to any smart TV r any TV and u'll see the pixels..... On a Retina or 5K iMac screen u cannot, which makes the whole display sharper.

This is also why TV's doubling as computer displays is also not a good idea, as a primary display

 

[appledefenceforce]

Uh... what? iMacs are computers, not televisions.

but if you're gonna get a TV to watch youtube and netflix then the iMac is better.

 

[QCassidy352]

Come on Apple flavored Kool-Aid drinkers, tell me how people don't NEED Skylake yet. It's just too damn new and fast for people in 2015 and there's not enough interest in better/faster/more powerful technology. Let's wait until the next chipset comes out and then release Skylake models. After all, you need more than a tiny percentage using something before Apple can invest in it....

Would I prefer Skylake desktop chips? Yes of course. But the replacements for the Broadwell chips with the iris pro 6200 are not available yet. And even if they were, and Apple decided to release the Broadwell's instead, which do you think is going to have a bigger impact on how I use my computer: the small performance increase from Broadwell to Skylake, which I basically wouldn't notice from my uses, or the difference between using windows and El Capitan?

I'm not defending Apple choosing to release hardware later than they could, or releasing sub standard specs when they could do better, but at the end of the day, the Mac is still going to give me a better overall experience than some spec-sheet-winning Windows machine with an OS that I don't like and doesn't play nicely with my other devices.

If you think that makes me a Kool-Aid drinker, then so be it. I think that to choose some silly synthetic benchmark over the OS, which is the core of the computing experience, makes one a spec whore. I guess we'll each just do what works for us, hmm?