Good review. I think he nailed the fact that “it’s a different kind of computer” than iMacs of the past. The M1 chip is very capable, but in a desktop it’s not the premium level supporting the toughest workflows. It’s the entry-level iMac, and even with maxed-out specs you can’t upgrade it very much, unlike the 27” Intel iMac he compared it with.
Sounds to me exactly like any 21.5” (and earlier) entry-level iMac, those never were particularly powerful.
Yeah I think that is true. The M1 is still a step up for these machines, but not as big a step as it was for the entry-level notebooks. For the MacBook Air, it was an amazing upgrade; for the entry-level iMac, it’s a so-so upgrade, but still an upgrade.
In a way Apple have created kind of a problem for themselves by upgrading the screen size from 21.5” to 24”, it makes the positioning of the machine less clear relative to the 27” iMac which is in a different class compared to the 21.5”.