I think that this is simply a carry-over from when the choices included the 27", and because the 24" and 27" had different designs. I wouldn't be surprised if they remove the 24" at some point. And it's also notable that the MacBook Pro shows the two sizes only in the illustration and not by stating 14" and 16".
But Apple has given us information about their future product plans.
When did Apple specifically say the iMac Pro will not be continued?
Doesn't solve my problem. I have a 2013 27" iMac that needs replacing now, and I've been holding out until this annoucement. It looks like a Mac Studio is going to be the way to go, but i'm not buying the monitor to match (I'll just buy a 27" monitor from elsewhere).
Try finding one with a 5700XT GPU for a reasonable price. This is a *favored* 27" iMac, and now becoming hard to find. Some on Apple refurb store.
It looks like I managed to jump into the last car on the fly, having ordered 27" with 5700XT in January...
I remember people saying AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16GB on the 27" iMac is overkill. It's never overkill to future-proof your investment and get the joy of buttery smooth experience.
After thinking about this further, I'm going to wait until I make a decision on what I'll get as a replacement for my 27" iMac.Thats what I did, though I came to the conclusion that there probably wouldn't be an affordable 27" replacement forthcoming a while ago and took the plunge.
The reality is that the M1 is SO powerful (we are tending to forget this with all the attention on the way-overpowered for average consumer Pro, Max, and Ultra variants) that its all you could need for a long time to come.
The 24 is great - and you really wont notice the loss of 3" of screen.
My other thought was that given Apples pricing.... IF they ever did release a '30" iMac' it would almost certainly be a replacement for the deceased iMacPRO and not be aimed at consumers any more AND have a +£2,000 price tag to match.
Seems to me that the studio and studio display are definitely aimed at the pro market and replacing the iMac Pro for sure.
Enjoy your 24" iMac... you'll love it
Lots of colour choice - my only complaint is that most of us have an iMac against a wall so never really get to appreciate the colour choice once its out the box and on the desk.
forums.macrumors.com
After thinking about this further, I'm going to wait until I make a decision on what I'll get as a replacement for my 27" iMac.
There is no rush, my current iMac is trouble-free, and one objective is to have a new computer with Apple silicon that will maintain compatibility with the newest software features. That is a 'nice to have' motivation rather than a 'must have' or immediate need. And this could very well be the last computer I purchase, wanting it to last into retirement and for as many years as possible.
The 24" is surely a good choice and powerful enough for my needs, although I'd like to get a larger internal SSD so that I can keep all of my music files right on the computer. The maximum storage currently offered in the 24" is 2TB SSD. And you can't get more than 16GB RAM (I know, it's almost certainly sufficient).
I can adjust to a separate desktop and display and the new 27" monitor looks very nice. The affordable choice is to pair it with a Mac mini, but that has the same limitations as the 24" iMac - 16GB RAM and 2 TB SSD.
The Mac Studio looks fantastic and the very cheapest Studio would be just fine for my needs, it comes with 32GB RAM as standard and I can get up to 8TB SSD if I really want to splurge. I'd probably get 4TB. But - do I want to spend that much?
If I get separate computer and monitor then I could get a second display at some point, something I've thought about a lot during this work-from-home period.
I started a new thread a few days ago, including a poll (first time I've tried setting one of those up myself). I don't know if you noticed it. Not getting a lot of activity but one interesting observation is that of the forum members who have voted, the great majority are for a separate computer and monitor votes. I'll eventually decide what to do for myself, but it's interesting to see the variety of opinions:
Poll - Now That Apple Has Discontinued the 27" iMac, What Is the Best Replacement for an Older 27" iMac?
Lots of discussion about the new Apple desktop choices now that the new Mac Studio has been announced and the iMac is only available in 24" size. I've been waiting to see what Apple would announce this year, expecting to have an obvious choice to replace my 7 year old 27" iMac, but instead I'm...
I would go one step further...After thinking about this further, I'm going to wait until I make a decision on what I'll get as a replacement for my 27" iMac.
There is no rush, my current iMac is trouble-free, and one objective is to have a new computer with Apple silicon that will maintain compatibility with the newest software features. That is a 'nice to have' motivation rather than a 'must have' or immediate need. And this could very well be the last computer I purchase, wanting it to last into retirement and for as many years as possible.
The 24" is surely a good choice and powerful enough for my needs, although I'd like to get a larger internal SSD so that I can keep all of my music files right on the computer. The maximum storage currently offered in the 24" is 2TB SSD. And you can't get more than 16GB RAM (I know, it's almost certainly sufficient).
I can adjust to a separate desktop and display and the new 27" monitor looks very nice. The affordable choice is to pair it with a Mac mini, but that has the same limitations as the 24" iMac - 16GB RAM and 2 TB SSD.
The Mac Studio looks fantastic and the very cheapest Studio would be just fine for my needs, it comes with 32GB RAM as standard and I can get up to 8TB SSD if I really want to splurge. I'd probably get 4TB. But - do I want to spend that much?
If I get separate computer and monitor then I could get a second display at some point, something I've thought about a lot during this work-from-home period.
I started a new thread a few days ago, including a poll (first time I've tried setting one of those up myself). I don't know if you noticed it. Not getting a lot of activity but one interesting observation is that of the forum members who have voted, the great majority are for a separate computer and monitor votes. I'll eventually decide what to do for myself, but it's interesting to see the variety of opinions:
Poll - Now That Apple Has Discontinued the 27" iMac, What Is the Best Replacement for an Older 27" iMac?
Lots of discussion about the new Apple desktop choices now that the new Mac Studio has been announced and the iMac is only available in 24" size. I've been waiting to see what Apple would announce this year, expecting to have an obvious choice to replace my 7 year old 27" iMac, but instead I'm...
yep he might indeed.
Can second that this is a really good option. My wife got the iMac 24" with 512GB and I bought her a Samsung T drive that opens on boot to give her extra storage without having to pay the apple up charge. I think we can all agree that apple's pricing for storage is a bit of a stick up.
Not millions of tracks at all! A couple of decimal points less, in fact, but the storage required is quite large since I've put all of my CDs into my Music library as Apple Lossless files, which are not small. This precedes using Apple Music and streaming, and if I was to start all over today I might not do it this way. But on the other hand I have a library of the CDs I selected myself, that was built up over many years, so I have a real attachment to this music. Presently it is on a separate drive from my iMac, slightly more than 1 TB just for the music files. And I back up (using Time Machine) on yet another separate drive.
You do You! thats perfectly OK.
You understand completely, and it sounds like we've gone down a very similar path (other than thinking of keeping it all on the Mac like I'm probably foolishly considering!).
