Hands-On With Apple's New 27-Inch 5K 8-Core iMac

[CWallace]

Actually this IS an Apple problem. Knowing how those chip perform (esp on the 2017 iMacs) they should have redesigned the cooling to incorporate two fans like the iMac Pros.

Sure they could have - at the expense (literaly) of having to buy your RAM from Apple since you would no longer be able to replace it yourself without going through the front like on the iMac Pro.

And the forum outrage from that decision would outshine a Type 1 Supernova.

 

[Zdigital2015]

93 Degrees under stress even without throttling is still too bloody high. Even the i5 gets up to the 90s. I'd love to see what happens to the temps when you turn off Turbo Boost with Turbo Boost Switcher.

It's these crazy temps, prices and older tech which are seriously making me consider switching.
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Regarding your desktops: Walp you know what you like? Cheers!

Then switch...why do you even care “what happens to the temp when you switch off Turbo Boost”?

Do you expect some massive drop in temps? In a case that is 6 years old and a known quantity by now? It is never going to run like a water-cooled tower and Apple is not going to let it run up to a 165w TDP.

The 9900K is already running quieter and faster than the 7700K ever though about, it’s faster all the way around workload-wise and as a bonus, it is not hitting the kind of temps that the 2017 iMac saw even under sustained loads. But now that’s not good enough?

Are you serious about buying one or just moving the football so you can justify jumping to Windows?

I say jump!
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Sure they could have - at the expense (literaly) of having to buy your RAM from Apple since you would no longer be able to replace it yourself without going through the front like on the iMac Pro.

And the forum outrage from that decision would outshine a Type 1 Supernova.

Not to mention the likely loss of any sort of spinning storage to accommodate the second fan a lá the iMac Pro, the cost goes up and BOOM! the forums implode...but I digress.

 

[WrightBrain]

Do you expect some massive drop in temps? In a case that is 6 years old and a known quantity by now? It is never going to run like a water-cooled tower and Apple is not going to let it run up to a 165w TDP.

Actually I expect a close to 20 degree drop in temps. A drop in performance too, but operating at lower temps can extend the life of the machine. And you can lower temps but disabling Turbo Boost and manually speeding up the fan (er...FAN). There are drawbacks, increased noise and more dust in the machine. But if Apple actually cared about their computer business you wouldn’t have to do such things.

 

[efi123]

I guess they're still having this built-in problem with dust collecting under bottom corners of screen.. such a shame.

 

[Colonel Blimp]

If you add an eGPU, then you can have a >60Hz screen.

Hz is tied to your screen's refresh rate, and has nothing to do with your GPU. You're thinking fps.

No. You can connect just about any screen you like, even a 240 Hz display, to the eGPU.

That is just ridiculous. Why not just get rid of distractions behind your iMac? Extra 0.75" bezel isn't going to block out that much more visual distractions behind the screen.

Gosh, you’re right! I’m going to get rid of all of my books and paintings right now!

You seem to think that every desk with an iMac on it should be placed right up against a wall. For a number of good reasons (including, but not limited to, minimizing daytime glare on my iMac’s screen), the best place for my desk and for the iMac upon it is in the middle of this room.

What is just ridiculous is your assumption that you know best what will work for everyone else.

 

[nutmac]

Gosh, you’re right! I’m going to get rid of all of my books and paintings right now!

You seem to think that every desk with an iMac on it should be placed right up against a wall. For a number of good reasons (including, but not limited to, minimizing daytime glare on my iMac’s screen), the best place for my desk and for the iMac upon it is in the middle of this room.

What is just ridiculous is your assumption that you know best what will work for everyone else.

Your argument essentially amounts to "my workspace is a mess and iMac's huge bezel hides some of that. Hence, Apple shouldn't make 'em smaller."

With smaller bezel, iMac would occupy less desk space OR it can have larger viewable screen while occupying the same space. Arguing for any less is just ridiculous to me when just about every monitors have moved toward smaller bezel. I am not sure why you are defending such an outdated design.

It would be one thing if reducing the bezel affects functionality or performance of the product. In this case, it's purely Apple pushing 6.5 year old design a bit longer.

 

[Colonel Blimp]

Your argument essentially amounts to "my workspace is a mess and iMac's huge bezel hides some of that. Hence, Apple shouldn't make 'em smaller."

What drivel. You really haven’t the slightest idea what my workplace is like.

All that I originally posted on this subject was one reason why some persons might prefer bezels. If your own personal tastes are different, that’s just fine; no one is trying to tell you to change them. But stop trying to impose your personal tastes on everyone else.

 

[-BigMac-]

If you add an eGPU, then you can have a >60Hz screen.

An eGPU doesnt increase your 5k iMac screen refresh rate to 120hz

 

[nutmac]

What drivel. You really haven’t the slightest idea what my workplace is like.

All that I originally posted on this subject was one reason why some persons might prefer bezels. If your own personal tastes are different, that’s just fine; no one is trying to tell you to change them. But stop trying to impose your personal tastes on everyone else.

Look, this isn't about taste.

I've already stated that if reducing bezel comes at the expense of compromising performance or features, I would be against it.

But 2019 iMac has giant bezel only because it is a spec bump, pure and simple. It is the only Mac in the lineup without T2 and space gray color option. It is the only Mac in the lineup with spinning hard disk. For better or worse, this is probably the iMac of 2015 MacBook Pro.

Arguing how the giant bezel is good because it blocks some of the mess is such a weak argument. I am willing to bet that next generation iMac will be redesigned with vastly smaller bezel. Not because of taste. But because the technology allows smaller bezel. LED backlighting no longer requires such a big space.

Making a product smaller without compromising is a win. Fewer materials and components. Smaller package. Cheaper shipping cost. Uses less desk space. All good things.

And if you really want this to be about taste, visit a local retailer like Best Buy. Look at iMac. Then head over to PC section and look at monitors with smaller bezel (hopefully those without giant branding, such as LG's newer 32" monitors). Sure they lack Apple's fancy design and use cheaper material. But smaller bezel look good.

 

[Colonel Blimp]

An eGPU doesnt increase your 5k iMac screen refresh rate to 120hz

True, but then I never said it did. I said that “if you add an eGPU, then you can have a >60Hz screen.”
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But 2019 iMac has giant bezel only because it is a spec bump, pure and simple. It is the only Mac in the lineup without T2 and space gray color option. It is the only Mac in the lineup with spinning hard disk.…

Arguing how the giant bezel is good because it blocks some of the mess is such a weak argument…

Making a product smaller without compromising is a win. Fewer materials and components. Smaller package. Cheaper shipping cost. Uses less desk space. All good things.

So buy a 2018 iMac mini: T2, space gray, SSD-only (not even the option of a Fusion Drive), fewer materials and components, smaller package, cheaper shipping costs, uses less desk space, and no bezels!

I never said that I chose an iMac because it has bezels; bezels are hardly near the top of the list of things I care about. I simply mentioned one advantage of bezels for me. (Now, if I were planning on spanning multiple monitors, then I would certainly not want bezels.)

 

[starchild3012]

Anyone trying to justify the massive bezel or saying "it shouldn't matter" or whatever, has their head in the sand. Yes we love MacOS and yes some of their products are great, but clearly Apple have lost the plot. More concerned with incremental updates to manage the bottom line, rather than leapfrog technology and hardware like the old days.

Apple have been playing catchup for long time now.

Yawn.

 

[Colonel Blimp]

Agree with all except the gaming part; unless somehow by a miracle Apple starts supporting Nvidia GPU in the eGPU enclosures under Mojave.

My guess is that even if nVidia GPUs were supported under Mojave, the AMD Radeon VII is likely to give better performance and compatibility for macOS gaming. (In Boot Camp, it’s a different matter.)

You really think that Vega48 is going to cut it at gaming with a 5k monitor?

At 2560 x 1440, yes.

Hell, my Tonga-based AMD Radeon R9 M395X from 2015 still cuts it at 1440p in all but the newest games, and 1440p gaming looks gorgeous on my iMac’s 27-inch 5K display. The Radeon Pro Vega 48 is going to blow my M395X out of the water.

 

[Oinkment]

I don’t really understand why people are so obsessed with thinner bezels.

Really? You actually can't see the benefits? If one measures the current bezel diagonally (at each corner) it totals approximately 3". Remove that bezel and there's a 30" display available. That is significantly more image real estate.

So, to all you bezelphiles, right there, is a reason to dispense with what is really just a picture frame. And a 27" display is so passe these day. And random. Let's not forget, Apple used to make a 30"display. A better kind of random.

That's for starters.....

The other thing that is immediately disappointing about this new release is: the same old amount of RAM capacity. For my purposes 128GB is what I'd comfortably require.Before the iMac "Pro", actual professionals were using the "regular" version of the iMac for years.So,this thing about the "average user" only needing x-amount of RAM simply doesn't wash.

I'm expecting the new "modular" Mac Pro to support 256 GB's of RAM. Of course! It's modular! It'll be multi-channel (surely). And it's professional. Right? In fact, Apple should have gone modular a long time ago. I know Steve Jobs would have sanctioned that.

OK,well, here's my two cents about The Company. Apple are huge (congrats), but it's nothing, compared to when Steve Jobs was at the helm. Their present computer OS is simply a big, bad iOS. It even looks like an iPhone. Huh?? The Mac OS has been full of buggy nonsense for a long time, when it used to be bulletproof. Who's running this show now?? So-called integration, is more like disintegration.

Well, they clearly place their populist portable devices at the front of the queue. Good for them. But let's not forget, Apple is/was primarily a computer company. Hm.

I miss the visionary qualities of Mr. Jobs, and I also miss his drive for perfection. I'm certain he would not be happy with what's happening these days. No. He would have come up with something so off the scale, that it would have pushed things interstellar. The iRocket.....? C'mon, that odious ****, Branson, is doing it. Jesus H Stupid. They should name a galaxy after Steve Jobs, but the way it's going he'll be lucky to get a scrap of space rock.

Apple is nothing like it should be,or used to be. Cook is a pale shadow of Jobs. A bland, grey, grinning cypher in,um, grey. Jobs' obsessive passion made Apple what it is today, but they are losing it. Fast.

I expect more. A lot more. It ain't happening. Apple credit card? Really? Licence-to-print-money mentality. What next: the iParty?

Apple should not forget what put them at the top: seriously groundbreaking, visionary tools, dedicated to improving people's lives. God bless Steve, and long live (and bless) Mr. Wozniak.

Oink.

 

[Colonel Blimp]

Anyone trying to justify the massive bezel or saying "it shouldn't matter" or whatever, has their head in the sand.

Riiiight, all the posters in this thread who just don’t get worked up about bezels have our heads in the sand.

Are you people banging on about bezels the same lot who banged on about how outdated Mavericks looked after Windows 8’s flat UI design?
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Really? You actually can't see the benefits? If one measures the current bezel diagonally (at each corner) it totals approximately 3". Remove that bezel and there's a 30" display available. That is significantly more image real estate.

So, to all you bezelphiles, right there, is a reason to dispense with what is really just a picture frame. And a 27" display is so passe these day. And random. Let's not forget, Apple used to make a 30"display. A better kind of random.

It’s not like Apple can simply stretch the display to fit the existing case dimensions. With the iPhone, they sell so many units that they can specify any size screen they like, but not with the iMac. Apple choose an existing flat-panel display from another manufacturer and build the iMac around it.

Maybe Apple will offer a 30-inch iMac one of these days, and maybe it will still have an extra three inches of bezel diagonally in an even larger case, and then we can still wonder at the spectacle of people fulminating about bezels.

The other thing that is immediately disappointing about this new release is: the same old amount of RAM capacity. For my purposes 128GB is what I'd comfortably require.

You can upgrade the 2019 iMacs with 128 GB of RAM.

I'm expecting the new "modular" Mac Pro to support 256 GB's of RAM.

It surely will, since you can order an iMac Pro with 256 GB of RAM right now.

 

[PickUrPoison]

Really? You actually can't see the benefits?
<snip>

Did I say I actually couldn’t see the benefits? No I did not.

I said I “don’t really understand why people are so obsessed with thinner bezels.”

Apple reportedly has a 31.5” 6K3K widescreen iMac in development [update: report was wrong; it’s just a monitor, not an iMac]. No doubt it’ll have smaller bezels. The current design isn’t a constraint.

256GB is available on iMac Pro. Apple only sells 2-3 million iMacs a year, and most consumers certainly don’t need more than 64GB. Or 16GB for that matter. If you do, buy the iMac Pro, it’s better than the regular iMac in many ways.

btw the Apple you want—apparently pre-iPod/iPhone/iPad/etc.—is quite frankly, as dead as Steve Jobs. Dead, dead, dead. That Apple only sold a few million Macs per year. Jobs dropped “Computer” from their name, launched iPhone and re-invented the company. They now average close to 20 million Macs per year, and those extra 15 million are sold in large part because buyers are so happy with their other Apple products.

The Apple you’re so upset with today is effectively Jobs’s Apple, but in any case it’s not going back to just selling a few million Macs per year. Times change, and companies change too. Most people adapt to change, some don’t.

 

[briloronmacrumo]

My 9900K is currently running at 37-38 C and the Vega 48 running at 29 C while doing the mundane tasks like web surfing, emails, etc.

Thank you. Very helpful.

 

[Colonel Blimp]

Arguing how the giant bezel is good because it blocks some of the mess is such a weak argument

By the way, it occurs to me that bezels around the iMac’s display serve the same purpose as the white space around the text of a book.

By your argument, all books should be printed with no margins, so that their text fills the entire page. This would have several advantages. Books could be made smaller and lighter, so they would be more portable. Bookshelves could be spaced closer together, allowing more books to be shelved on bookcases of the same height. Books would be cheaper to print and to ship, and they would require fewer trees to be cut down for their paper.

And unless you were facing a blank wall, they would be damned unpleasant to read.

There’s a good reason why all books are printed with white space around the text, even at the considerable expensive of requiring substantially more paper, and why more expensive editions almost always make more generous use of white space. This principle has been well understood for at least a few hundred years now.

If there’s nothing but a blank wall behind your iMac, then obviously bezels aren’t going to matter so much (although if you’re watching a movie on your 27-inch iMac, a black border around the picture would be preferable to a white one).

 

[starchild3012]

By the way, it occurs to me that bezels around the iMac’s display serve the same purpose as the white space around the text of a book.

By your argument, all books should be printed with no margins, so that their text fills the entire page. This would have several advantages. Books could be made smaller and lighter, so they would be more portable. Bookshelves could be spaced closer together, allowing more books to be shelved on bookcases of the same height. Books would be cheaper to print and to ship, and they would require fewer trees to be cut down for their paper.

And unless you were facing a blank wall, they would be damned unpleasant to read.

There’s a good reason why all books are printed with white space around the text, even at the considerable expensive of requiring substantially more paper, and why more expensive editions almost always make more generous use of white space. This principle has been well understood for at least a few hundred years now.

If there’s nothing but a blank wall behind your iMac, then obviously bezels aren’t going to matter so much (although if you’re watching a movie on your 27-inch iMac, a black border around the picture would be preferable to a white one).

Sorry, but this is like something you'd read in a satirical article. Does your "white space" arguement also apply to laptops?

Apple are lazy. They're doing the same old thing they have since Jobs died - and that's eek out every last morsel of what they designed to date before they're dragged kicking and screaming into line with the rest of the tech world. Oh, and then charge exorbitant prices for the incremental updates on offer. Oh and then pretend like they're leading the flock.

 

[haleyp]

Bluetooth 4.2 wireless "technology"

 

[trifid]

Year 2021 - Apple releases bezel-free iMac with Apple chip instead of Intel.

I wonder how many of the people defending bezels in this thread will come out against it, get nostalgic about losing bezels, and argue for all their benefits and criticize the new iMac for not having it. The answer is none. Everyone here trying to act like bezels is a nonissue is going to go silent and hope no one remembers this topic out of shame.

When Apple is on the losing side, it's convenient to argue certain things; when Apple joins the other side, the argument changes.

Remember the arguments against OLED? Oh, now that Apple does it it's cool. Before it wasn't.

What about inductive charging? Airpower obsession. It's cool now. But for 10 years we had to hear all sorts of arguments against it. That Apple was never going to do it because they were going to do true wireless. Yea. Right.

And by the way, bezels is just the most visible thing screaming RETRO in this thing, but it represents how outdated the entire thing is:

• 5400rpm caveman drive
• no HDR display
• no T2
• no touch ID
• no face ID
• no keyboard with touchbar
• no revamped cooling
• no height adjustment
• no redesign to take it to the next generation, as Surface Studio

 

[Colonel Blimp]

Does your "white space" arguement also apply to laptops?

No, I think it probably does not, for the same reason it certainly does not apply to iPhones. I just bought an iPhone SE, because I love its small size, but I would love it a lot more if its screen stretched from edge to edge like it does on the iPhone X.

In a phone, and almost certainly in a laptop (I can’t say for sure, since I don’t use one), I’d happily sacrifice bezels for the convenience of a smaller device.

In a desktop computer, however, where portability is not an issue, then bezels just don’t bother me, and for the two reasons which macduke and I have mentioned, I’m inclined to prefer them. (Like I said before, if I wanted to seamlessly span multiple displays, then I certainly would not prefer them.)

I find it bizarre that this should bother you so much.

 

[travelsheep]

Apple store is a joke now in China. The staff didn't let me in because the store was full. There were nobody waiting in queue to enter the store! I remembered Apple Store and Genius Bar was the best. But my last visit completely changed my mind.

Had a similar experience in Shanghai last year. I guess with the extreme behaviour of Chinese citizens Apple is just totally overwhelmed. Unable to control piracy, theft, fraud, and exploitation, they just closed the services..

 

[Zdigital2015]

Sorry, but this is like something you'd read in a satirical article. Does your "white space" arguement also apply to laptops?

Apple are lazy. They're doing the same old thing they have since Jobs died - and that's eek out every last morsel of what they designed to date before they're dragged kicking and screaming into line with the rest of the tech world. Oh, and then charge exorbitant prices for the incremental updates on offer. Oh and then pretend like they're leading the flock.

The bezels increase in size as the user gets further away from the screen. The iPhone is such an intimate device and is often less than 12” away from most users and the bezels are smaller/thinner, while the iPad and MacBook Pro is generally around 18” away and the iMac tends to be 24” or further away.

The bezels on any device serve more than one purpose for the user - they help the user to focus on the content and away from the background, they frame the content shown onscreen to showcase/emphasize it and they provide a predictable boundary for the user while they interact with operating system and with applications, especially in a true multitasking environment.

Apple has reduced the bezels on devices like the iPhone and the iPad as they have advanced each device technologically with the Super Retina and Liquid Retina displays.

Apple was being just as “lazy” when Steve Jobs was alive. There is really very little difference between the iMac G5 of 2004 and the 27” Mid 2019 iMac. They are all a screen surrounded by bezels with a chin on a single aluminum foot. Sure, the overall design has been refined quite a bit...plastic gave way to glass and aluminum and the bezels have gone from white to black and have actually been reduced a bit in width, but the basic premise survives.

Incidentally, Porsche has been milking the same basic design for 56 years, but I have yet to hear people bitch and moan about that particular decision. Aston Martin and Range Rover/Land Rover, ditto.

What Apple does with the industrial design for the next iMac is clearly up to Apple. While it will be nice to see an updated design, the current iMac is still a classic design that will stand the test of time, meaning you will see the current iMac in the Smithsonian or MoMA, et al. at some point in our lifetime. You are not going to see some thin bezel LG monitor in one of those institutions.

I have both a Dell U2414H and a P2415Q with thinner bezels and while I would prefer slightly thinner bezels on the iMac, there is nothing about the thin bezels on these displays that I think is really useful, helpful or somehow more “modern”. They are just thinner.

If thinner bezels are that important to you, I guess that is your problem, uh, I mean...preference. It sounds like you have bigger problems with Apple than their bezels, anyways.
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Year 2021 - Apple releases bezel-free iMac with Apple chip instead of Intel.

I wonder how many of the people defending bezels in this thread will come out against it, get nostalgic about losing bezels, and argue for all their benefits and criticize the new iMac for not having it. The answer is none. Everyone here trying to act like bezels is a nonissue is going to go silent and hope no one remembers this topic out of shame.

When Apple is on the losing side, it's convenient to argue certain things; when Apple joins the other side, the argument changes.

Remember the arguments against OLED? Oh, now that Apple does it it's cool. Before it wasn't.

What about inductive charging? Airpower obsession. It's cool now. But for 10 years we had to hear all sorts of arguments against it. That Apple was never going to do it because they were going to do true wireless. Yea. Right.

And by the way, bezels is just the most visible thing screaming RETRO in this thing, but it represents how outdated the entire thing is:

• 5400rpm caveman drive
• no HDR display
• no T2
• no touch ID
• no face ID
• no keyboard with touchbar
• no revamped cooling
• no height adjustment
• no redesign to take it to the next generation, as Surface Studio

While I might like slightly thinner bezels overall, I will not have a problem with stating my preference in public, nor will I be ashamed. If they makes me some sort of Luddite, then people are focusing on the esoteric and need to take a good long look in the mirror.

Personally, I could care less about OLED...everyone who harps on the supposed virtues of OLED baffle me. I ended up buying an iPhone XR and I love the display. I spent significant time with an iPhone X and I just do not see why everyone holds OLED up as if it was the Holy Grail. It is expensive, it has a shorter lifetime and while the blacks are clearly superior to an LCD, I just do not think it is as incredible as everyone wants to believe.

Inductive charging...meh, whatever. I have a phone capable of it, but I have no burning to desire to rush out and get a Qi charging pad. My Watch uses it, I get it, put the device on the pad and it charges, whoop-ti-do...next topic.

Thick bezels make the iMac scream RETRO? LOL! Really? So, is it a device to get work done while looking good or is it a fashion statement to show off to friends/family and you are just upset that Apple has not updated the ID while someone else gets oohs and ah’s because they bought a Surface Studio?

As for the rest of your list:

• 5400rpm caveman drive - I agree that Apple needs to stop doing this, but it serves a price point. Still not a good way to delight customers or show off performance. I hope Apple drops HDDs in the next iteration of the iMac. To move to the T2 co-processor, they have no choice.

• no HDR display - I suspect the next iMac will have an HDR display, but which formats should it support? There are currently five (5) competing formats! I do not think Apple can support them all and provide the kind of quality display we all want and expect out of Apple at a palatable price. Is HDR more important than Pro Motion? You are not going to get both...just know that going forward.

• no T2 - Apple would have had to go all in on SSD storage for both the 21.5” and 27” iMac, which would have raised the cost for everyone. I expect that a redesigned iMac will go all SSD and prices will rise slightly/some which would be easier for users to swallow with a new design. I could care less about the T2 given the iBridge issues that have crept up with other model lines.

• no Touch ID - Apple only ships wireless keyboards and Touch ID is not going to work with Bluetooth or Apple has decided they do not trust Bluetooth security enough with Touch ID.

• no face ID - Likely with a redesigned iMac, Apple is not going to put the time and effort into it with the current design. They just extended it to the completely redesigned iPad late last year, which tells me they are not going to retrofit it to the existing iMac design.

• no keyboard with touchbar - I suspect battery life with a wireless keyboard and the Touch Bar is not good enough for Apple. I hope I am wrong as I like the Touch Bar.

• no revamped cooling - Again, when the 2012 iMac was released, the 3rd Generation Core i-Series had a 77w TDP and now we are at a minimum 95w TDP with the Core i5 and Core i7 9th Generation K-Series CPUs. The current iMac cools things pretty well with the revised IHS in the 9th Gen, based on what people are saying and YouTubers are experiencing and reporting back. The next iMac will probably have better cooling given Intel’s throwing TDP limits out the window, for the most part.

• no height adjustment - I hope height adjustment makes it into the next iMac as I would like that myself and so would the majority of users, I believe.

• no redesign to take it to the next generation, as Surface Studio - The Surface Studio is boutique at best and a horrible value from a price/performance perspective. It is a beautiful curio piece, but it is not “next generation”.

If Apple is serious about moving to in-house CPUs, the current iMac design may be around a few more years. This should come as a surprise to no one who has been using Apple products for a period of time. It may frustrating, but it should not be surprising.

 

[nutmac]

By the way, it occurs to me that bezels around the iMac’s display serve the same purpose as the white space around the text of a book.

By your argument, all books should be printed with no margins, so that their text fills the entire page. This would have several advantages. Books could be made smaller and lighter, so they would be more portable. Bookshelves could be spaced closer together, allowing more books to be shelved on bookcases of the same height. Books would be cheaper to print and to ship, and they would require fewer trees to be cut down for their paper.

And unless you were facing a blank wall, they would be damned unpleasant to read.

There’s a good reason why all books are printed with white space around the text, even at the considerable expensive of requiring substantially more paper, and why more expensive editions almost always make more generous use of white space. This principle has been well understood for at least a few hundred years now.

I disagree with your book analogy.

You will find big margins mostly on thicker books. Thinner books like comic books, preschooler's board books, and magazines have much smaller margins -- just enough to rest your fingers.

Thicker books require wider margin for your hands to hold it open and to compensate for gutter. Long form papers often utilize margins and whitespaces to help readers follow the text.

On computer monitors, bezels are unnecessary because the long articles on websites and documents have margins already. And you can also resize windows to create margin as needed.

Heck, most people have "distracting" wallpapers and things are still fine.

Bezels on computer monitors were necessary to house edge lighting and/or to block backlighting leakage. But advancements in modern display panel technology have eliminated the need for thick bezels.

Most TVs have slim bezel. Smartphones have slim bezel. 2018 iPad Pro have just enough bezel to house Face ID sensors and to rest your fingers.

There's no good reason for thick bezel to exist in 2019 iMac. Rest of us shouldn't suffer iMac with big bezel because some of you have distracting wall or decorations behind the computer.
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• 5400rpm caveman drive - I agree that Apple needs to stop doing this, but it serves a price point. Still not a good way to delight customers or show off performance. I hope Apple drops HDDs in the next iteration of the iMac. To move to the T2 co-processor, they have no choice.

• no T2 - Apple would have had to go all in on SSD storage for both the 21.5” and 27” iMac, which would have raised the cost for everyone. I expect that a redesigned iMac will go all SSD and prices will rise slightly/some which would be easier for users to swallow with a new design. I could care less about the T2 given the iBridge issues that have crept up with other model lines.

• no revamped cooling - Again, when the 2012 iMac was released, the 3rd Generation Core i-Series had a 77w TDP and now we are at a minimum 95w TDP with the Core i5 and Core i7 9th Generation K-Series CPUs. The current iMac cools things pretty well with the revised IHS in the 9th Gen, based on what people are saying and YouTubers are experiencing and reporting back. The next iMac will probably have better cooling given Intel’s throwing TDP limits out the window, for the most part.

I think these three things exist solely to maintain previous price points.

Apple should've just continued selling 2017 iMac with HDD or Fusion drive, ideally with $100 or so discount.

2019 iMac should've use iMac Pro's innards -- T2, SSD only, and new thermal design. And throw in space gray option while at it.

 

[CWallace]

The 2TB and 3TB Fusion Drives are also likely there to meet legitimate (or what Apple feels are legitimate) storage needs for a consumer desktop at a decent price point. I mean even if Apple halved the price of their SSD storage, 2TB or 4TB would still be significantly expensive.