No 2018 iMac?!

[opeter]

They will (of course) come with the t2 chip.
If you want an iMac WITHOUT the t2, better buy a 2017, as they are destined to be the last desktop Macs that will come without it.

And the last desktop Macs, that you can easily upgrade (mostly).

 

[Dave245]

I spent the weekend embarrassing and making the Apple technical support team feel like idiots.

Firstly why would you do that to anyone, how would you like it if someone did that while you were working, they were well within their rights to tell you not to use such foul language, secondly that is a long rant just to complain that Mojave wasn’t installed on you’re device, something you can do yourself in around half an hour.

 

[retta283]

I wouldn't be surprised if they did a silent spec bump, but that's about it. The most hardware will change in the next few years will be the new cooling system and the t2 chip. IMO, they will discontinue the iMac before they do a complete redesign, since it has had the same design for 14 years.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

I wouldn't be surprised if they did a silent spec bump, but that's about it. The most hardware will change in the next few years will be the new cooling system and the t2 chip. IMO, they will discontinue the iMac before they do a complete redesign, since it has had the same design for 14 years.

I really hope that’s not true, but I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s very possible that the iMac has reached its final design.

 

[retta283]

I really hope that’s not true, but I wouldn’t be surprised. It’s very possible that the iMac has reached its final design.

Of course it took them 10 years to redesign the Mac Pro, and the current Macbook Pro 15" design still shares a lot of notes with everything going back to the PowerBook G4, so maybe they will redesign it, but I think it is more likely to stay since they created the iMac Pro using the same design. As said though, they may add the cooling system from the iMac Pro to the regular models.

 

[Icaras]

I wouldn't be surprised if they did a silent spec bump, but that's about it. The most hardware will change in the next few years will be the new cooling system and the t2 chip. IMO, they will discontinue the iMac before they do a complete redesign, since it has had the same design for 14 years.

Very false statement. The design is not 14 years old. The current design just turned 6 years. And I just don’t believe that the iMac has reached its final design.

 

[retta283]

Very false statement. The design is not 14 years old. The current design just turned 6 years. And I just don’t believe that the iMac has reached its final design.

How is it false? The iMac has had the same design since 2004 when the iMac G5 came out. The materials and dimensions have changed, but the base design has not.

 

[danwells]

I wouldn't call the thick design with optical drive the same as the current thin design (whether there's a reason for the thin design, or whether its predecessor served just/at least as well, is another story). Even the externally identical (save for color) iMac Pro isn't the same design - it has a LOT more cooling capacity, and can handle very different hardware. If you say the thick, thin and Pro iMacs are the same design, I'd think that any metal-bodied AIO PC, especially one with a chin and/or the electronics behind the screen instead of in the base, is at least a similar design.

Any iMac at this point is going to be a metal-bodied AIO, probably a very thin one (like it or not, Jony Ive is fond of thin). It may get a larger screen. My guess is that the most likely pair is the present 21.5/27", but I could see something like 24/31.5" or even 21.5/27/31.5" (with the 31.5" possibly Pro-only). It probably won't lose the bezels or the chin unless it adopts either laptop chips or liquid cooling - they need the space to cool the thing. Yes, an "all-screen" 31.5" iMac would be very, very impressive to look at, but it would either have to have the CPU+GPU specs of a high-end MacBook Pro, use some interesting liquid cooling that almost certainly loses the RAM slots, or be a lot thicker - and Jony won't allow the last...

 

[ThisBougieLife]

Yeah I wouldn't say since 2004. That was the last totally re-imagining of it, but really it's had the same design since 2012. That was the last time where were any changes to the chassis.

 

[mikehalloran]

I have to agree. The guts have changed from G5 to Intel. In 2012, Apple started putting it together with tape and made it a bit thinner but the overall design of the iMac is little changed since 2004.

 

[retta283]

Of course the current iMacs aren't the exact same, but the general design is the same. Regardless, no updates since 2012 is bad enough. The only Mac that comes close to having a chassis that old is the Mac Pro not being updated since 2013, but of course soon it will be.

 

[EugW]

I wouldn't call the thick design with optical drive the same as the current thin design (whether there's a reason for the thin design, or whether its predecessor served just/at least as well, is another story). Even the externally identical (save for color) iMac Pro isn't the same design - it has a LOT more cooling capacity, and can handle very different hardware. If you say the thick, thin and Pro iMacs are the same design, I'd think that any metal-bodied AIO PC, especially one with a chin and/or the electronics behind the screen instead of in the base, is at least a similar design.

Well..

2010 iMac Thicc on left. 2017 iMac Thin on right.

 

[petercw2]

They will (of course) come with the t2 chip.
If you want an iMac WITHOUT the t2, better buy a 2017, as they are destined to be the last desktop Macs that will come without it.

sorry, but not up to speed on the chip stuff. Can you explain what the t2 chip is, and why when I read your prediction of its arrival, it sounds like a bad thing? Are there pros and cons to it?

 

[EugW]

sorry, but not up to speed on the chip stuff. Can you explain what the t2 chip is, and why when I read your prediction of its arrival, it sounds like a bad thing? Are there pros and cons to it?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple-designed_processors#Apple_T2

The Apple T2 chip is a SoC from Apple first released in the iMac Pro 2017. It is a 64-bit ARMv8 chip (a variant of the A10, or T8010), and runs a separate operating system called BridgeOS 2.0[citation needed] (formerly eOS), which is a watchOS derivative.[100] It provides a secure enclave for encrypted keys, gives users the ability to lock down the computer's boot process, handles system functions like the camera and audio control, and handles on-the-fly encryption and decryption for the solid-state drive.[101][102][103] T2 also delivers "enhanced imaging processing" for the iMac Pro's FaceTime HD camera.[104][105] On July 12, 2018, Apple released an updated MacBook Pro that includes the T2 chip, which among other things enables the "Hey Siri" feature.[106][107] On November 7, 2018, Apple is set to release an updated Mac mini and MacBook Air with the T2 chip.[108][109]

So overall, it's a great idea, but the problem is that it runs its own OS and Apple hasn't worked out all the kinks in the software yet. Some are blaming T2 for some kernel panics etc. in some situations.

It's forward thinking engineering, but the problem is sometimes forward thinking products give real world problems in the present.

 

[Icaras]

How is it false? The iMac has had the same design since 2004 when the iMac G5 came out. The materials and dimensions have changed, but the base design has not.

The “Mac on a stick” premise hasn’t changed since 2004, but the iMac has still gone through several facelifts since then. And if you’re basing it off the original design principle, then you can’t say that the Mac Pro from 2013 was a redesign since it’s basically a tower in shrunken form in just a cylinder styled chassis. I could argue that the size, dimensions, and materials have all changed like you mentioned, but in the end it’s still essentially a desktop “tower” that dates back to the PowerMac G3.

 

[EugW]

The “Mac on a stick” premise hasn’t changed since 2004, but the iMac has still gone through several facelifts since then. And if you’re basing it off the original design principle, then you can’t say that the Mac Pro from 2013 was a redesign since it’s basically a tower in shrunken form in just a cylinder styled chassis. I could argue that the size, dimensions, and materials have all changed like you mentioned, but in the end it’s still essentially a desktop “tower” that dates back to the PowerMac G3.

That's a stretch. The garbage can Mac Pro is essentially a revamped Cube in philosophy. It's fundamentally different from the cheese grater Mac Pro.

OTOH, it's actually impossible to tell my 2010 and my 2017 iMacs apart from the front. They 100% identical from the front.

In my opinion, the Mac Pro garbage can has more in common with the Mac mini 2018 than it does with the Mac Pro cheese grater.

 

[CmdrLaForge]

Well I still hope for a redesign with smaller bezels like new iPad Pro and the Face scanner to unlock. Just sit in front of the machine and hit a key to unlock is very good idea. Also 6 core or 8 core. I am not buying current design.

 

[Stephen.R]

Also 6 core or 8 core.

To get 8 core they'd need to use a desktop i9, wouldn't they? Perhaps a revamped cooling system will help there.

 

[Glmnet1]

To get 8 core they'd need to use a desktop i9, wouldn't they? Perhaps a revamped cooling system will help there.

The i7 9700k also has 8 cores but no HT.

Yes a better cooling system would really help to fully use those processors.

 

[retta283]

I can see a face ID capable camera coming to iMac but the low end models might not get it right away. I also would not be surprised if they add the iMac Pro cooling system to the regular ones. Only thing that remains to be seen is the rumor of Apple moving away from Intel, and how that will affect the desktops.

 

[danwells]

Having a similar facade is not the same as exactly the same design... Going all the way back to 2004 counts even the white plastic iMacs as the same design, which pretty much means "any all-in-one with the hardware behind the screen, regardless of design or construction, is the same design". By that standard, no, we'll never see another iMac redesign - it's pretty firmly stuck as an all-in-one, and Apple has experimented with hardware in the base and decided to go behind the screen...

What would you like to see for the front facade? If no bezels/chin, that means laptop chips and/or very low-powered GPU as well (assuming it's not thicker, which is an Ive barrier - wish all you like for a thicker iMac without a chin, but Apple will need a new design chief before it might happen)...

If the bezels and chin have to stay, how much can the rest of it change? It's otherwise all screen, and monitors tend to look alike when off. A new display could mean even higher resolution (possibly including new sizes). which has already happened three times in the lifespan of iMacs with hardware behind the screen - 17"/20" to 20"/24" to 21.5"/27", plus the upgrade to Retina. It could mean Adobe RGB (although Apple seems to prefer DCI-P3), a brighter display, or, at some point in the future, OLED. Barring something like a 31.5" iMac with an 8K OLED display (nice, but do you want the $8K price tag), most of these upgrades would be dismissed as not being a redesign. If that 8K iMac came, would you want it without the bezels and the chin? What if it meant we got the processor and GPU from the top MacBook Pro (a 6 core mobile i9 with a midline Radeon Mobility GPU) instead of a fire-breathing Xeon with up to 22 cores and a desktop Vega? The iMac has enough cooling problems without taking away the spaces where Apple hides a lot of the cooling...

 

[retta283]

Wow some thread hijacking went on here. The only way I see them getting rid of the bezels would of course them using smaller and less powerful components, and possibly making it thicker. If they really wanted to, they could make an all-screen iMac today but it would have to be extremely underpowered. The next update to the iMac will most likely be a minor spec bump and probably the T2 chip.

 

[Glmnet1]

Not sure why some people think that less bezels would mean less powerful components. If you look at the insides of the iMac Pro and the iMac you can easily see that the edges, everything under the bezels, is pretty much empty.

Apple could chop off that part and then round off the edge instead of tapering all the way to the end. It's not making it thicker either, just getting rid of the thin edge.

 

[Dave245]

I’m very surprised that Apple didn’t update the iMac at the October event, are we counting out an updat this year at all now? Or maybe a spec bump later this month?

Still don’t know why they didn’t update it, the Air and mini got an update, why not the iMac?

 

[Fishrrman]

After years, I'm still amused about the folks who want "a smaller chin".
The iMac is what it is.
I think it's going to pretty much stay that way for a while yet...