M1 iMac Configurations and Pricing Breakdown

[Donfor39]

I really like the blue (back), but not liking the sky blue front. That seems like an odd decision to go two-toned like that. Really makes silver the preferred color choice.

It's sky blue front Ide enjoy, though wonder if Single Red becomes available.

 

[Peperino]

I guess Apple has switched to the business of selling SSD and RAM at obscene prices rather than selling well designed computers.

 

[Maconplasma]

Two ideas that come to mind is to either put the components behind the screen and thus the overall thickness will increase slightly (no more than double so 22mm? total). Or an idea I would have gone after is go back to the lamp stand models from 1999 or so where the computer was in the stand. The stands footprint is not much smaller than a Mac mini which has lots of empty space, so they could have innovated in that direction. The other argument for the stand is that this would have made it easier to fix in that you don't have to mess with the display backing to get to the computer internals. The one downside with the current M1 setup is lack of upgradeability to the memory. Maybe the new architecture will make this irrelevant, time will tell.

Let's just be real about it. Apple has already thought about every option you stated. Not sure why you're having such a major issue with the chin. It's really no big deal. I for one am glad they took out the power supply and put the electronics down in the chin area. I've had the lamp iMac and 3 of the current Intel iMacs. The Intel iMacs had much of the electronics behind the screens and I've had to have multiple screen replacements on all of them due to the insane amount of heat behind the screen that ended up in defective pixels. The lamp had it's own set of issues that became very widespread.

 

[mattopotamus]

I guess Apple has switched to the business of selling SSD and RAM at obscene prices rather than selling well designed computers.

It's been that way for a decade (their SSD/RAM price hike).

 

[Peperino]

You're confusing good quality with built-in specs. You make no sense with that. Apple's products have very good build quality. Often in the Windows world a product in the same category as Apple's will have terrible build quality, creaky plastics, poor screens, bad speakers and easily breakable bezels. Specs have nothing to do with the quality of a product.

Specs have a lot to do with the quality since the regardless how "well" it is built it is barely usable unless you upgrade.
Old iMacs have a great quality. THough quality control in Apple has declined especially in the Macbook line. The Macbook line has been a complete mess, from 2015-2019, from bad keyboard design to problems with screens, etc.

 

[antonrg]

Please point me to a year where Apple's was always fair about pricing and upgrades? I've been a Mac user exclusively since over 20 years and they've always been expensive and limited on the base configurations. I bought the first 17" Powerbook in 2003 and it was $3299.00 for the base model. Wait until WWDC and see if you will still say the same thing because I'm 100% certain there will be a Pro line of Macs (and perhaps a Pro iMac) that will greatly be separated from this new lineup.
I can't do anything personally to make you happy about the price upgrades but if you're not happy with Apple's new lineup then maybe it's time for you to move on to what's available in the world of Windows.

People with a point of view like yours are the reason Apple can sometimes get away with whatever. End of discussion.

 

[mattopotamus]

Now that everything is consolidating on an M1 chip, the big price differentiator is the display... It's crazy that you get the same basic computer now in 3 different price categories. A 16GB 1TB MacBook Air is $1649 and the mini is $1299...

Is the display/keyboard/mouse worth $600 over the mini? Is the 2 more ports, touch ID and ethernet worth $200?... yikes. The Intel cpu differences helped make the iMacs worth their extra cost... now you have to really love the design... the colors probably go a long way towards that.

Honestly, I am going to say yes on the display costing that much. A built in 1080P webcam and 4K are not only expensive, they are hard to find stand alone. That doesn't even consider the speakers and supposedly much better mics. We all know the Apple premium exist, but the display is definitely in the ballpark of others offering those specs.

 

[Maconplasma]

Honestly, I am going to say yes on the display costing that much. A built in 1080P webcam and 4K are not only expensive, they are hard to find stand alone.

Agreed. It's disturbing that some posts here were saying that Apple shouldn't have included such a high-quality screen on the new iMac. Lordy if they included a crap screen to make the price lower then these same people would say, "I would've paid more for a better quality screen.".

 

[montuori]

5. Magnet is cool and all, but mostly these iMacs will back onto a wall. Peripheral benefit at the margin for a lot of cost.

Your iMac might back onto a wall; none of mine do. Getting the cord snagged in a dark theater is a real issue. Here's a picture of what happens when things go wrong:

(Sure, it's a '99 cinema display not an iMac and survived unscathed; however, I'm not anxious to do that again. Bring on the over-engineered power cord I say.)

 

[bandrews]

iMac is a desktop machine, it does not need to be this thin and lose the sense of all in one machine. I remember first opening the iMac box thinking, "this is so cool, very little stuff to have around the desk". Now we have the magnetic power cable (will do very well with people who have pets and kids), power brick with "innovation" that is the Ethernet port (not sure if that's even a standard). White bezels, which are horrible for designers and videogrpahers/photogrpahers (yes, iMac is used by them). Pro desktops were always too expensive to buy and regular iMacs delivered performance (and upgradeability) to graphic designers, illustrators, videographers, photographers... Now we have this dump, with a possible rumour promise of a bigger Pro iMac, yes sure, that's how a whole category of customers gets priced out. Because that thing will be at least 1K more in cost. Let's not forget about their storage and RAM options on this POS. Shall I continue?

Bit confused by your first point - you love that it's all-in-one/less stuff on desk... but not too small? Did people get so upset about the white bezels on the G4 and G5 iMacs?

It's blatantly obvious these are not Pro machines and come on, nobody ever bought a mac for value and upgradability. The 21.5 and 27 models are still available and I'm sure there will be something along soon to replace them.

I've been running the base Macbook Air editing photos on Lightroom and video on Adobe Premiere Rush with zero lag issues and staying cool as a cucumber and I expect the people this is aimed at will be using it for even less taxing stuff.

 

[macgenius34]

The redesigned iMac with the M1 chip is available in three different base configurations that users can upgrade with Build-to-Order options for their specific needs. The new 24-inch iMac starts at $1,299, but it can reach $2,628 through Build-to-Order options.

There are three standard configuration 24-inch iMac models available from Apple:

• $1,299 - Apple M1 chip with 8-Core CPU and 7-Core GPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports, and Magic Keyboard.
• $1,499 - Apple M1 chip with 8-Core CPU and 8-Core GPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports and two USB 3 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.
• $1,699 - Apple M1 chip with 8-Core CPU and 8-Core GPU, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports and two USB 3 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.

Build to Order Options

Entry-level 24-inch iMac with 256GB of storage:

• 16GB RAM - +$200
• 512GB SSD - +$200
• 1TB SSD - +$400
• Gigabit Ethernet - +$30

Mid-level 24-inch iMac with 256GB of storage:

• 16GB RAM - +$200
• 512GB SSD - +$200
• 1TB SSD - +$400
• 2TB SSD - +$800

High-end 24-inch iMac with 512GB of storage:

• 16GB RAM - +$200
• 1TB SSD - +$200
• 2TB SSD - +$600

Color-Matched Accessory Options

All M1 iMac configurations come with a color-matched Magic Mouse as standard, but users can opt to upgrade to the Magic Trackpad, or purchase both the Magic Mouse and the Magic Trackpad together.

• Magic Trackpad - +$50
• Magic Mouse + Magic Trackpad - +$129

Apple also notes that it is possible to upgrade from the standard Magic Keyboard with the entry-level iMac to the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID for an additional $50. All base configurations will also offer the option of upgrading to the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad from the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID for an additional $30.

The M1 iMac will be available to pre-order on Friday, April 30, and will begin arriving to customers in the second half of May.

Article Link: M1 iMac Configurations and Pricing Breakdown

It is absolutely mind boggling that in 2021 a new computer comes with the same amount of storage as my current phone. . . . .maybe I'm being unrealistic but I think a standard computer should have a minimum of a 1TB drive and 16GB of RAM. It seems like the target audience for this does email, documents, has a handful of photos and on the rare occasion of boredom will venture into a small video project. The sad part is they are doing the same thing on the Mac Pro!!

 

[antonrg]

Bit confused by your first point - you love that it's all-in-one/less stuff on desk... but not too small? Did people get so upset about the white bezels on the G4 and G5 iMacs?

It's blatantly obvious these are not Pro machines and come on, nobody ever bought a mac for value and upgradability. The 21.5 and 27 models are still available and I'm sure there will be something along soon to replace them.

I've been running the base Macbook Air editing photos on Lightroom and video on Adobe Premiere Rush with zero lag issues and staying cool as a cucumber and I expect the people this is aimed at will be using it for even less taxing stuff.

I bought a 27" iMac with upgradeability in mind and it's been serving me well. I don't like editing video or graphics on a laptop, I prefer real estate of a large screen. These are personal preferences, I completely understand that. What worries me is what's coming to replace the 27" iMac.

I do, however, think that these iMacs are blatantly limited for what they offer in terms of the looks and the functionality.

As for the first point, what i meant to say is these machines are going to bring more clutter. They are not all-in-one. That's all.

 

[Blackstick]

Lots of geeky people here (myself included) looking for features in a Mac that's mostly going to look good on a receptionist's desk or in a hotel/art gallery/fancy lobby. Also will appeal to affluent customers who don't sweat the $1500 but want a Mac for surfing, maybe holding their Photos library, maybe listen to some music, kids might type up a homework assignment -- and it'll look nice in their home office or computer area.

This isn't the big one, it's not the 16" Pro... I think you'll be more pleased this summer.

 

[kcslc]

Good. I know. I don’t care. Nobody else makes stuff like Apple does.

Yeah. Lots of companies make better quality than Apple.

 

[Lolito]

Johnny Ives is at his house now having a proper big LOL


for sure.

 

[Pugly]

Honestly, I am going to say yes on the display costing that much. A built in 1080P webcam and 4K are not only expensive, they are hard to find stand alone. That doesn't even consider the speakers and supposedly much better mics. We all know the Apple premium exist, but the display is definitely in the ballpark of others offering those specs.

Yeah I agree. The entry model seems a pretty good value if you want a high quality display.

It seems like the iMac is becoming even more niche, but it's serving that niche very well.

 

[neilw]

I've been running the base Macbook Air editing photos on Lightroom and video on Adobe Premiere Rush with zero lag issues and staying cool as a cucumber and I expect the people this is aimed at will be using it for even less taxing stuff.

This points to something important that a lot of folks are seemingly overlooking:

The first round of M1 Macs, with the exact same M1 and RAM limitations, has been out for 6 months. Many folks have been using them for pro applications (including video, audio, and software development) and absolutely *loving* them. So the idea that the iMac with identical computing guts and 16 GB is worthless for pro apps is stupid, because it's already been proven wrong.

Count me in the camp that is disappointed to get neither M1X nor 32 GB option; I wanted both purely for future-proofing. But I have zero doubt that one of these machines will be a fantastic improvement over my 2013 21", and will handle anything I choose to throw at it for quite a while.

I'm not enthused by the prices or the loss of SD slot, though. Need to find a not-hideous USB hub with a card slot, that doesn't have tons of extra useless crap. Any suggestions?

 

[kazmac]

So prices close to the 21.5” iMac it replaces? 24” is a great size display for me. So better speakers, screen, microphones and Touch ID too?

My M1 MBP serves me fine, but I want a larger screen on board and with better speakers and microphones, I think I’ll jump in on this iMac and sell the MBP.

Interesting tidbit from the Apple Newsroom press release:

iMac configurations in green, pink, blue, and silver will be available to purchase directly at Apple Store locations, and all colors will be available at apple.com.

Now, do I go with Yellow or Green...

 

[MrDerby01]

eh.. These color schemes will give a lot of people courage to come out.. Though again these systems are sorta bland with case usages. I can't see companies moving to this yet.

 

[CHRISBklyn]

So is there really a "High-End" option or is it just that this one comes with 512gb SSD? It seems like this is the just the Mid-Range option with the $200 upgrade to get 512gb instead of 256gb.

 

[opeter]

Which is slow as mud compared to most Apple SSD speeds (read speeds around 3300 for M1 MBP)

To be honest, at everyday use you won't see any difference.

Even with a SATA SSD drive (and that has a maximum speeds of 600 MB/s).

 

[PsykX]

Those SSD upgrade prices are insulting. I will not buy an Apple computer until they are more fair.

I thought the same, but will buy an external 2 TB NVME for about $199 instead.

I just have to figure out if I can change the default folder path for either Applications, Documents, Downloads, etc.

 

[svish]

RAM and SSD upgrades are costly

 

[C-Dub]

are the M1 iMac RAM user upgradable?

 

[Miles Teg]

You can always get a thunder bolt 3 enclosure from OWC for $80.00 and then get a 1 or 2 TB NVMe drive for much less and just boot off the enclosure.