Credible Leaker Says New iMac to Feature 'Really Big' Display Larger Than Current 27-inch Model

[macinfojunkie]

I'll buy 2 if they'd make them.

Careful, some may consider

Not sure I'm "arguing the wrong point" so much as having a different opinion than you, mate. I do a lot of work on an iMac 5K and I would absolutely hate to see it take on that gimmicky "ultrawide" screen ratio.

you’re advocating the advantage of height. I’m pointing out that there’s a point of diminishing return at the current aspect ratio. personally I think 27” is about the limit before ergonomic challenges kick in. You have a different point of view. That’s fine. But you’re arguing it based on needing height. Not on the ergonomic basis. I actually agree with you on height being good. That’s why I bought an external 5k to use in Portrait mode. Works a treat.
I don’t see wider aspect ratios ad a gimmick any more that portrait mode is for those that need height. But the one size fits all sizing of an iMac screen does make it a compromise.

 

[Minxy]

If there is a 27"+ iMac then i presume it will be 4k/5k minimum screen resolution, so surely it would have to have a powerful GPU to power it all?

I briefly had a Mac mini M1 and whilst all the YouTuber tests celebrated many of its capabilities, for me editing a basic 15 minute 4k videos with a couple of basic effects on a Final Cut timeline and it would chug along.

 

[MLM]

I am wondering why i woud choose this over a Mac Mini with a monitor of whatever size i choose?

Because Apple generally doesn't support 3rd party monitors.

 

[SkiHound2]

Monitors have gotten so thin they could almost introduce a dock on the back. Many people have said the iMac is just a MacBook in a monitor shell so why not make it modular. That way you can buy a M2, M3, M4 and use the same monitor by just sliding the computer into the back of the monitor from the top. Got a MacBook Pro? No worries, just close it up and slide that into the back. It would be universal across the range. The depth of the bump only needs to be the same as a few Ipad Pros stacked on each other.

I like the idea of a modular system, but only if you can be confident new modules will be released with some regularity. I bought a 2012 i7 version of the mini and a pretty nice 27" Dell monitor with just that thought in mind. When new the mini was fine for my needs. In 2014 the "updated" mini was a downgrade, or at best a side grade. I do quite a bit of photo editing and some light video editing. By 2019 the old mini was just not cutting it and the hard drive was failing. I don't recall when the upgraded mini was released but it only had integrated graphics, and by that time that was really cutting for some of the things I was doing. So add an EGPU? But they aren't cheap and added yet another component. I thought of getting a higher end Macbook, but a model with a decent dedicated gpu was pretty costly. When the 2019 iMacs hit the market I went that route. To this point I've not seen any combination of components (mini or Macbook, keyboard, mouse, monitor, gpu) that offers the functionality of an iMac at the same price. Now if someone does a lot of traveling and needs a really powerful notebook, that equation might change. But I don't travel that much and I don't want to be lugging a large notebook with me when traveling. I suspect Apple doesn't really see a modular system as very profitable.

 

[itsmeaustend]

I am wondering why i woud choose this over a Mac Mini with a monitor of whatever size i choose?

Because iMacs have always obliterated any Mac Mini that attempts to compete with them, and this will probably always be the case.

 

[itsmeaustend]

Because Apple generally doesn't support 3rd party monitors.

What sorta weird lie is this? Why would you even make something like this up?

 

[itsmeaustend]

Making the case much bigger than the current 27, don’t know but I guess 32 6k will be nice.
But PLEASE, at least some ports in the front or side

There’s many ways you can add ports to the front of your Mac. I’ve added them via the stand my iMac is on. Very elegant and incredibly useful.

I think ports on the device itself on the front would be an ugly design choice and not one I’d support unless Apple did it classily.

 

[CJ Dorschel]

I know. I was shocked that Apple dumped their wifi business too. So many techs carried the Airport Express APs. They were small, powerful, easy to setup, easy to reset and reprogram. Great stuff. I bought the Linksys mesh system, and it was pure crap. I couldn't keep the mesh up. One of or the other, of the three nodes, was disappearing. It was so unstable, I actually have all of them inn an old milk crate in my office, and I dug the Airport Extreme APs out of the donation bin.

My company was a Cisco dealer, and there was a keynote for a conference, where he said that Cisco branches out into the products that their customers want. He said that when they ignore, or drop a hot tech genre, and their customers need that tech, they will seek it out from other vendors, and if they are looking, they will come across things that compete with Cisco in other areas. The more they are a 'one source shop', the happier the customers/clients are, and the better the tech is at working together. That made a big impact on me, and the company. We added more vendors, and branched out to other areas too.

So, Apple dumping their monitors, printer, and networking businesses opened the door for their customers to look for other solutions for what Apple used to provide. And, if Apple recommends and resells a product that turns out to be a turd, they burn their customers TWICE! Cisco's then CEO said that they would even get into a niche market, not to make money, but to keep their customers. I think Apple needs to think that being a one stop shop for *everything* isn't realistic, but, dangit, the items that people need are NETWORKING, MONITORS, and MORE PORTS!!!

Dropping those lines, and pushing other vendors crap (in the wifi area) is inexcusable. I was so furious that that Linksys stuff turned out to be crap. So disappointed...

All of this - 100%

Sorry you had a bad experience with Linksys - routers/networking is something we almost always take for granted. When it’s working it’s great but when it craps out it’s a disaster especially when the average person has a plethora of mobile and smart home devices. Having to take the time in diagnosing and resetting systems can take hours to days.

When Apple announced leaving the airport market I spent a year testing out other systems as I had time and wanted to spend it wisely before committing myself to a new network. I also took advantage of 30 day return policies when testing out systems.

I tested:
- Linksys Velops (they were the first Apple recommended and sold)
- AmpliFi HD
- eero
- Orbi
- UniFi

and a few others. I ran each for at least a month (as long as I could within return windows) and surprisingly the Velop tri-band system held up the best. I haven’t used a linksys product since the early 2000’s and I’m still experiencing PTSD - always used AirPort Extreme Base Stations. I didn’t have to rush into anything as the current gen‘s met all my needs at that time but mesh was becoming a standard and prices were falling in line.

The runner up was the AmpliFi HD but the speeds weren’t great and I didn’t like the lack of an Ethernet backhaul with the plug-in nodes. i couldn’t return that one but sold it online for what I paid for it.

This was in my NY home which is approximately 6000 sq ft over 3 floors. I did have an issue with one of my August Smart Lock Pro Connects and thought it was a node issue. After moving things around it persisted so I reached out to August and turned out the Connect was the issue which they exchanged. However, I began looking at adding another node and thought if I’m gonna spend money I may as well check out other options.

The linksys WiFi 6 MX5300 was on sale at Best Buy for $499 ($200 off) so on a whim I grabbed it and tried it out. That was December 2019. What a difference. Two nodes easily cover my home and I’ve never had to reset them or deal with drops, etc and the speed difference from a WiFi 5 system was night and day. Linksys has been working hard on the app which is the one thing I disliked the most but I usually logged into my main node on my Mac Pro for better configuring.

I had no idea Belkin bought linksys years ago. I know some have had difficulties with linksys systems - maybe I just lucked out 🤷🏼‍♂️ Having the Ethernet backhaul makes a big difference and each node has four Ethernet ports and USB - they’re essentially the same size and have the same ports as the 6th gen AirPort Extreme’s.

I was weary of Netgear as so many had issues with firmware updates bricking them. The others just didn’t bring the same experience as Apple’s systems. I’ve heard good things about Linksys’ newer WiFi 6 mesh systems that are more affordable than the MX5300 but I believe the MX5300 (MX10’s) have 4x4 and are slightly faster.

Either way, the Extreme’s are solid routers and they can more than meet the needs of users with ac in bridge mode. I just don’t understand why Apple has abandoned core products while adding more variants of Mac’s, iPhones, iPads, etc. If Apple was losing market share it was from a lack of updates - they could have easily added mesh to their lineup or brought another company in-house. A major benefit and core value of Jobs’ vision was a streamlined user experience with an Apple ecosystem in which everything works seamlessly. That’s hard to accomplish when your products and services depend on solid wireless systems.

 

[Lemon Olive]

The anticipation for this iMac is beginning to look like the anticipation for an unannounced iPhone.

For me it is infinitely more important than the next 5 iPhones.

 

[Lemon Olive]

6016 x 3384 pixels.

At 32" this would be 215 ppi which is right in line with their standards for a display. I would be very, very, very interested in this.

Of course...this is also the same resolution as the Pro XDR display which costs $5000. So, something huge is missing from this puzzle.

There is no way Apple is going abandon everyone and make the 32" iMac start at $6000.

Hopefully they have found a way to make a reasonable 6K panel (just like they did 7 years with 5K) that they can include at iMac pricing.

 

[Lemon Olive]

32” 6k and a 24” 4,5k? Makes sense. But I guess the 24” will come first as a good start.

That's how it seems, but it also seems that modern Apple will get greedy with it and the prices will be ridiculous.

 

[macinfojunkie]

That's how it seems, but it also seems that modern Apple will get greedy with it and the prices will be ridiculous.

they will continue to raise prices until they see it impact their profits. The price sensitive will be pushed back towards android and windows PCs.

 

[turbineseaplane]

If there is a 27"+ iMac then i presume it will be 4k/5k minimum screen resolution, so surely it would have to have a powerful GPU to power it all?

I briefly had a Mac mini M1 and whilst all the YouTuber tests celebrated many of its capabilities, for me editing a basic 15 minute 4k videos with a couple of basic effects on a Final Cut timeline and it would chug along.

I totally agree based on my experience with multiple units, including one nearly maxed out.

I need a Mac mini pro and/or just more GPU power.

 

[Apple4U]

Credible leaker l0vetodream today endorsed widespread speculation that one of the newly redesigned iMacs, expected to launch sometime this year, will feature a larger display than the current largest offering in the iMac lineup.

Apple currently sells a 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac. Apple is rumored to be replacing both with updated designs and faster performance. Its desktop computer has not received a significant overhaul since 2012.

According to l0vetodream, the new model replacing the 27-inch size will feature a larger display. The private tweet translates to "The iMac’s screen is really big, bigger than the biggest one".

While new information, the larger display size can easily be expected. Bloomberg has reported that the new iMac will feature slimmer bezels, the removal of the metal chin, and a design language similar to the Pro Display XDR. The Pro Display XDR, Apple's standalone high-end monitor, features a 32-inch display.

Alongside a redesign, the new iMac will come equipped with next-generation Apple silicon chips. Internally, Apple is testing chips with as many as 16 high-performance cores and four efficiency cores, according to Bloomberg. Hit-and-miss leaker Jon Prosser also suggests the new iMacs will come in colors.

Article Link: Credible Leaker Says New iMac to Feature 'Really Big' Display Larger Than Current 27-inch Model

This is hardly groundbreaking stuff. Its been surmised for months and months.

 

[Apple4U]

Apple - don't mess this up.

iMacs are desktops...
Don't gimp the ports on the back just to make it "look good from behind in a Doctors office"

Offer them all - and lots of them - even some legacy USB-A please -- make them easier to access also.
Desktops and Dongles should never become a thing (barring weird edge cases)

If the bezels are removed, the chances are the thickness of the iMac will be greater, like the Apple Monitor. Nothing then to stop ports being on the side or the underside of the iMac frame, but still out of view.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

All of this - 100%

Sorry you had a bad experience with Linksys - routers/networking is something we almost always take for granted. When it’s working it’s great but when it craps out it’s a disaster especially when the average person has a plethora of mobile and smart home devices. Having to take the time in diagnosing and resetting systems can take hours to days.

When Apple announced leaving the airport market I spent a year testing out other systems as I had time and wanted to spend it wisely before committing myself to a new network. I also took advantage of 30 day return policies when testing out systems.

I tested:
- Linksys Velops (they were the first Apple recommended and sold)
- AmpliFi HD
- eero
- Orbi
- UniFi

and a few others. I ran each for at least a month (as long as I could within return windows) and surprisingly the Velop tri-band system held up the best. I haven’t used a linksys product since the early 2000’s and I’m still experiencing PTSD - always used AirPort Extreme Base Stations. I didn’t have to rush into anything as the current gen‘s met all my needs at that time but mesh was becoming a standard and prices were falling in line.

The runner up was the AmpliFi HD but the speeds weren’t great and I didn’t like the lack of an Ethernet backhaul with the plug-in nodes. i couldn’t return that one but sold it online for what I paid for it.

This was in my NY home which is approximately 6000 sq ft over 3 floors. I did have an issue with one of my August Smart Lock Pro Connects and thought it was a node issue. After moving things around it persisted so I reached out to August and turned out the Connect was the issue which they exchanged. However, I began looking at adding another node and thought if I’m gonna spend money I may as well check out other options.

The linksys WiFi 6 MX5300 was on sale at Best Buy for $499 ($200 off) so on a whim I grabbed it and tried it out. That was December 2019. What a difference. Two nodes easily cover my home and I’ve never had to reset them or deal with drops, etc and the speed difference from a WiFi 5 system was night and day. Linksys has been working hard on the app which is the one thing I disliked the most but I usually logged into my main node on my Mac Pro for better configuring.

I had no idea Belkin bought linksys years ago. I know some have had difficulties with linksys systems - maybe I just lucked out 🤷🏼‍♂️ Having the Ethernet backhaul makes a big difference and each node has four Ethernet ports and USB - they’re essentially the same size and have the same ports as the 6th gen AirPort Extreme’s.

I was weary of Netgear as so many had issues with firmware updates bricking them. The others just didn’t bring the same experience as Apple’s systems. I’ve heard good things about Linksys’ newer WiFi 6 mesh systems that are more affordable than the MX5300 but I believe the MX5300 (MX10’s) have 4x4 and are slightly faster.

Either way, the Extreme’s are solid routers and they can more than meet the needs of users with ac in bridge mode. I just don’t understand why Apple has abandoned core products while adding more variants of Mac’s, iPhones, iPads, etc. If Apple was losing market share it was from a lack of updates - they could have easily added mesh to their lineup or brought another company in-house. A major benefit and core value of Jobs’ vision was a streamlined user experience with an Apple ecosystem in which everything works seamlessly. That’s hard to accomplish when your products and services depend on solid wireless systems.

It was the Velop system that crashed on me. There was a data dump, when people's accounts at Linksys were exposed, and they rebooted their entire userbase, but the issues I had predated that hot mess by a few months. I set the mesh up, and it crashed, I reset everything and set it up again, and it crashed. I tried using a different 'node' for the central point, and it still crashed. I called Linksys on a Friday, and spent HOURS on the phone with them. They finally agreed to replace one unit, and didn't have much hope that they chose the right one to replace. I got the new one, and reset everything, and tried several times to get the mesh to stay up, and finally just threw them in the bin for donation, etc... (One 'agent' I had kept telling me that they 'had to be line of sight'. I asked for second level, or to be expedited. 'Line of sight'? Huh? It doesn't work through walls? The second guy was shocked)

So disappointed, I spent so much time trying to get the thing to work. Tried moving them closer, tried moving them apart, tried hooking them all to the ethernet backbone, and tried (again) with one after another as the 'parent'. I went back to Airport. It. Just. Worked. Even with two different vintages of their APs, it worked. Linksys just didn't. I bought the three node one. Someone suggested using just two. I lost my patience with that system. Then the accounts were exposed, and I just dropped the whole mess.

I see they came out with an updated mesh system. Not interested. I already have their older Velop system, and was not impressed. GRRR...

I thought of going with Cisco, but their wifi gear is big time expensive, and just insane. I should probably dig those Velop units out and see if they can be made to work now. In the spare time I seem to have. I'm sure the warranty is long over. *sigh*

And I couldn't figure out what the problem was. Stupidest thing. One node would go down, and come back up, sometimes the parent, and sometimes more than one at the same time. I was watching the administrator app, and nodes would be down with no reason, and then pop back up. Sometimes they were out for days. And it wasn't updates. I saw an update sweep through the nodes once. They also updated their app. Yeah, nope. Still a stinking hot mess. If only Apple would...

 

[DarthDon]

really big - i take the 200 inch display!!!

 

[fathergll]

I don't even want totally bezel-less to be honest. I think the bezel makes for a nice "setting" for the screen and you end up with a gorgeous desktop just "floating" in the black void created by the bezel.

I have to agree. I was anti bezel for a bit until I got a ultrathin monitor without bezels and it's not crack up as I originally thought. Obviously the advantage is the size which can be nice of you have other monitors on your desk but bezels can suck you more into the screen. If you look at serious high end monitors all of the bezels are thick and once I started using a pro level monitor I stopped caring about the bezels.

 

[anthonymoody]

At 32" this would be 215 ppi which is right in line with their standards for a display. I would be very, very, very interested in this.

Of course...this is also the same resolution as the Pro XDR display which costs $5000. So, something huge is missing from this puzzle.

There is no way Apple is going abandon everyone and make the 32" iMac start at $6000.

Hopefully they have found a way to make a reasonable 6K panel (just like they did 7 years with 5K) that they can include at iMac pricing.

I too am rooting for a 32" 6k iMac. I agree they can't/won't make it $6000, but they could make it an iMac Pro starting at say $4000 but $5k+ with the usual upgrades of RAM and SSD, maybe more cores, etc.

 

[sublunar]

Because iMacs have always obliterated any Mac Mini that attempts to compete with them, and this will probably always be the case.

That may have been true with Intel Macs - where the big differentiation was in having onboard AMD graphics - and put up against a Mac mini which always had to survive on integrated graphics.

In recent years the eGPU situation has offered a chance for Mac mini and MacBook Pro users to get some equality at a price, but there were still minor technology hurdles with PCIe 3.0 x4 not being able to carry as much data as a full x16 PCIe slot in a Windows PC. These setups are also prone to having spaghetti cables making a user's desk untidy - a significant factor for some.

CPU-wise the Mini has become closer to the base model iMacs - using the same CPUs - but with the advent of ARM and M1 - which eliminates a lot of thermal issues with the later Intel CPUs.

Now, we have a situation where the first round of M1 Macs broadly perform the same - with the Mini having more thermal headroom to cool its M1 CPU up against a total absence of cooling in the MacBook Air.

The Mac mini has a reported 65w TDP thermal budget, the 16" MacBook Pro has a reported 95w TDP profile so there should in theory be no reason why the top SKU Mac mini should not be just as capable as any Mac laptop.

If you consider a theoretical M1X CPU having more CPU and GPU cores then it's should be easy to imagine Apple considering variants of more powerful M1 CPUs to suit the job at hand:

a. M1X CPU in a Mac mini - to fit within a 65w TDP ceiling. As this gets a lot of datacenter interest I could see Apple using CPUs with some deactivated GPU cores that didn't meet quality control being fitted into the top SKU.

b. M1Z CPU in an iMac - with more GPU grunt to drive a larger screen - these ones could be the top tier CPUs that will fit into the MacBook Pro 16" and latterly into the iMac where they are guaranteed to be powering retina displays.

 

[CJ Dorschel]

There was a data dump, when people's accounts at Linksys were exposed, and they rebooted their entire userbase, but the issues I had predated that hot mess by a few months

whoa. How did I not know this? Wow.

 

[vmistery]

For me the most interesting thing will be the CPU / GPU differences to the MacMini. One of the most compelling reasons for many with the Intel models was the iMacs were just so much more powerful. A mini with the same power as an iMac might canabilise iMac sales

 

[Gudi]

Because an SoC architecture doesn't solve the problem of having to fetch your data when you get a cache miss.

Hard to get a cache miss when we’re talking about the processor with by far the biggest Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3 cache in the market. 8 GB unified memory on the chip is something entirely different than 16 GB at the end of a system bus. And an SSD with a read speed of 2500 MB/s is not a bottleneck when refreshing the entire RAM in 3 seconds.

The Apple M1 will beat any Intel i5/i7 with 16, 32 or 64 GB RAM hands-down.

 

[VictorTango777]

For me the most interesting thing will be the CPU / GPU differences to the MacMini. One of the most compelling reasons for many with the Intel models was the iMacs were just so much more powerful. A mini with the same power as an iMac might canabilise iMac sales

"If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will" - Steve Jobs

“I’d rather Apple cannibalize Apple than somebody else cannibalize Apple” - Tim Cook

 

[Digital Dude]

wrong thread