Verdict
The iMac 2021 ( 24 - in ) with M1 is a magnificent desktop that feels more like a blueprint statement than a piece of tech when it ’s sit on a desk . This is more than just a pretty face though , with a stunning 4.5 K cover and fast performance too . An M2 edition would be squeamish , though .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Apple iMac M1 ( 24 - inch ) signalled a design shimmy for Apple ’s main background option tote up fun people of colour of the past times back to the serial .
Since its launch , Apple has blow up its background argument further with the Mac Studio and Mac Mini ( 2023 ) , though the 24 - inch iMac remains the only all - in - one Apple machine packed with Apple Silicon .
There have been rumours of anM2 ( or possibly an M3 ) update , but that has n’t arrived yet .
Design
The iMac 2021 is all about the innovation . This is the first time Apple ’s chief desktop calculator has have a notable design chemise in over a decade – and it could n’t be more eye catching .
There ’s a unassailable sensation of nostalgia here and this is very much a descendant of the colourful iMac G3 from the late 90s . I grew up with a purple version of that iconic machine in my childhood kitchen and I get flashback to that every time I look at this iMac .
Like that iMac G3 , the iMac 2021 feels like it ’s been designed to slot into your home – rather than just sit on a desk tuck away in an office . It ’s light , topnotch slim and very estimable looking at . It ’s more comparable to a decorative small-arm of art than a microcomputer .
It come in a bunch of colours , like the unripened version I was send out by Apple for testing . Other chromaticity include a yellow that has wind of gold , blue , purple , a reddy garden pink , Orange River and a more standard silver . Interestingly , there are no black and darker options – I would opine these are being held over for the Pro model whenever that might go far .
Over the body of the iMac 2021 these coloring are used differently . The front has a idle , more pastel tone while the alloy bandstand is a little more sparkly . The back is much dour and if you could place the iMac somewhere where all sides are seeable there ’s a really prissy contrast . If it ’s just on a desk though , you ’ll likely never see the back , which is a bit of a shame .
The front has a lighter , more pastel tone while the metal point of view is a footling more sparkly
The coloration spreads to the accessories too , with matching keyboard and Magic Mouse ( and the Magic Trackpad if you choose that as an extra ) . There ’s also a really nice braided USB - C to Lightning cable included that , again , match the colour of the iMac .
This tending to detail carry over to the redesign plug , which has a woven cable and impound magnetically to the back of the machine . It ’s not quiteMagSafe – trip over it and it wo n’t take out itself away – but it ’s a slick illusion nevertheless .
The former iMac held all the components in a bulge behind the display . This gave the iMac its distinctive blueprint and razor - slender edge . With the new iMac , Apple has incite all the components into the Kuki at the bottom . The side are now unconditional and not that much boneheaded than theiPhone 14 Pro Max , while the back is the same thickness throughout .
On the back , you ’ve got a choice of two or four port along with a 3.5 mm headphone connective on the side . The cheapest model comes with two Thunderbolt / USB 4connectors inside USB - deoxycytidine monophosphate ports , while the pricier model adds in another two USB 3 interface – again with a USB - C connector . That higher - end manikin also comes with a Gbit ethernet porthole hidden off on the iMac ’s mightiness supply .
There are no traditional USB - A port anywhere so you ’ll need dongles and adapters to tie in older item . I ’m not so fussed about this as more and more devices are now using USB - C , however the want of an Mount Rushmore State card slot is a little more irritating especially as it seems there would be plentiful space to have one on the side . An SD card is not a ‘ pro ’ feature and it should be received across any iMac .
The blanched bezel smother the 24 - column inch display has caused a morsel of controversy , with many bid Apple had gone with a more traditional shameful version . And yes – if you ’re a professional video editor or colour - grader then opprobrious is better , but that ’s not who this machine is aimed at .
There are no traditional USB - A port anywhere so you ’ll want dongles and adapters to connect quondam item
go into my flat , the lily-white bezel looks a sight secure . It blend in into the snowy wall and almost disappears , rather than resist out like the previous iMac . If Apple was to ever release another iMac Pro then it would switch back to black bezel , as it did with theApple Studio Display .
The previous iMac design lacked any height adjustment and that ’s once again an issue here . you’re able to tip the display forward and back , but nothing more . I ’ve had to resort to sitting the iMac on top of a few books to get it to more of a comfortable height . This is certainly something that ought to be improve in succeeding model .
Screen and audio
I mentioned originally this iMac is n’t directly aimed at the Pro market , and nothing sum up this up more than the screen size of it .
At 24 - inches , this might be bigger than the extroverted 21.5 - inch model but it ’s still a lot smaller than the 27 - inch model and a portion of higher - end monitors around . If you ’re used to working on , say , a 32 - column inch screen or enjoy a multi - display setup this will feel cramped in comparison .
This is the idealistic size for the smaller elbow room and I you do n’t want dominated by a monumental covert : a kitchen , a smaller desk in a lounge or a university dorm room if you ’re a pupil with enough disposable income to peck one of these up .
It ’s also the perfect size of it for someone who has set out working from family more and does n’t have a house or matted that ’s set up with a consecrate office .
This is the idealistic size for the smaller rooms and one you do n’t need to be dominated by a massive screen
Size aside , the caliber of this venire is n’t to be sniffed at . It does n’t push any limit with features like theMicro LEDyou’ll feel on the MacBook Pro 14 - inch or 16 - column inch orXDRfor mellow dynamic range , but it ’s still very , very salutary with a sharp 4.5 K ( 4480 × 2520 ) resolution and nifty colour accuracy .
This is an excellent display for watching video recording , with the 500 nit offering enough luminousness even if the room is bath in sunlight . I loaded up some 4 K content on both YouTube and Apple TV and the footage was vivacious , colourful and wonderfully immersive .
The whole medium experience is made even better by the excellent speakers that pump out loudly , detailed audio with strong channel separation and even some decent bass . I can totally see this iMac being a strong option if you desire to combine both a work computer and somewhere to get up on Netflix in the even .
The exhibit also supports Apple’sTrue Tonetech , which alters the colour temperature to make whites easier on the eye depending on your surround . If you want colour truth you should flex this off ; for everyone else I think it ’s a peachy touch , peculiarly if you expend hours per day in apps with lots of white space . I write a band in Google Docs , for example , and True Tone makes this far easy on my eyes .
Performance
The iMac 2021 is the fourth Mac to ship with Apple ’s usage M1 silicon and the first all - in - one desktop to trench the Intel internals since Apple made the move from PowerPC all those geezerhood ago . There ’s still no sign of an M2 version yet , even though there ’s a Mac Mini ( 2023 ) with M2 andM2 Pro .
Apple move to its own chip designs and away from Intel is significant for a phone number of reasons . It set aside Apple to innovate quicker , push carrying into action forward without give to await for Intel to produce the chipping . It also allows for smaller machines , like this iMac , and deeper integrating with apps specifically made to harness the M1 ’s power .
It ’s been a while since M1 hit the market and plenty of apps have been update with aboriginal support . Chrome , Lightroom , Photoshop are all here – and if an app you use does n’t support the chip natively , a displacement layer called Rosetta 2 will interpret it instead . I have n’t had any issues with any app , though that ’s certainly not going to be the case for everyone . If you really do swear on a specific service then you ’re run to want to check its compatibility with the M1 scrap before get to the shift .
iOS apps are also supported – sort of . developer have the option of not let their iPhone and iPad to appear on the Mac App Store and it seems like most of the big ones have taken that option . None of the apps I use every Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ( Pocket Casts , Slack , Audible , Instagram , Netflix etc ) work and even those that do are janky on the larger display .
The M1 crisp here is the same as the one you ’ll incur in the MacBook Air M1 , 13 - inch professional or even theiPad Pro 2021 . Like the Air and Pro , the iMac can be configure with either a 7 or 8 - core GPU , 8 - core CPU and 8 or 16 GB of RAM . Even though the options are fairly sparse , recall to pick out wisely as you ca n’t upgrade these options later on if you want more RAM .
This review unit is one of the high-pitched - death modelling , with 16 GB RAM and an 8 - core GPU . If you fatten for the sleazy exemplar you might see some slimly worse graphical performance , but I would n’t say the difference would be too braggart .
Like the Air and Pro , the iMac can be configured with either a 7 or 8 - core GPU , 8 - core central processing unit and 8 or 16 GB of RAM
In terms of storage , it ’s all SSD now . No HDD with an SSD portion or anything like that – just speedy SSDs in sizes ranging from 512 GB to 2 TB .
There are fan here , but I have n’t been able to get them to whiz up even with over 60 tabs open in Chrome . The fans on my Intel MacBook Pro stumble laughably meretricious volumes with four tab heart-to-heart .
I loaded up a 30 - minute 4 K video I shot with aniPhone 14 Proand imported it into Final Cut Pro . Scrubbing through the timeline did n’t cause any issue and again the fans did n’t kick into action . I also opened upFootball Manager 2021(a plot that is n’t M1 optimize ) and was told the nontextual matter preferences and performance could be ramped up to full . I played the secret plan without any slowdown and again without aid from the fan .
The deficiency of a real consecrate GPU will likely put those off who want a machine purely for television work . But for most , there ’s plenty of oink here for daily tasks and more specific work , like video or bombastic picture editing .
I ran a number of benchmark on the machine and the final result are telling . In Geekbench 5 , the iMac score 1719 in the individual - gist test and 7527 in the multi - core run . Even when run Geekbench 5 without any M1 optimisations , the multi - core grade of 5183 easily pulsate off challenger like theOptiPlex 7070 Ultra Desktop . In the Cinebench benchmark , the iMac rack up 1490 in exclusive - core group and 7598 in multi - core test . This is telling , especially compare to the 1053 ( individual - core ) and 4626 ( multi - core ) my MacBook Pro ( 13 - inch , 16 GB RAM , quadrangle - core Intel i5 ) grade .
Test Data
The SSD is tight too , with read speed hit 2830 MB / s and write pep pill 2876 MB / s.
carrying into action is fantastic in other domain too . The 1080p webcam is one of the skilful I have ever used . Not only is it with child on point , but does a great chore with skin flavour and does n’t make me look dampen out in morning meeting . The three - mic raiment is impressive too , scrub out background noise that can often get in the path on video calls .
The USB 4 / bolt of lightning 3 larboard are up to of 40Gb / atomic number 16 transfer speeds , while the USB - ascorbic acid ones are up to of 10Gb / s. There ’s alsoWi - Fi 6support if you have a router that sustain it .
One feature I would have liked to have seen was an choice to use the iMac as a monitor for a connected MacBook . Sadly this is n’t something you’re able to do , unless you ’re happy AirPlaying the video recording across .
Accessories
Included with the iMac 2021 is a keyboard and mouse . If you desire the Magic Trackpad , you could tot up that or else of the Magic Mouse . All these accessories are gibe to the colour of your iMac .
There are differences with the keyboards depending on which theoretical account of the iMac you choose . The higher - end models bestow a very handy Touch ID button for unlocking the information processing system with your fingermark – this is missed off the base model . Both versions of the keyboard have a few dissimilar button to the old framework though , including a consecrate key for enable Do Not agitate , emoji , Spotlight and Dictation .
TouchID put to work excellently here and it ’s just as antiphonal as it has been antecedently on a MacBook . you may also quickly tap the button to lock the iMac or add in a secondary fingermark to switch to a dissimilar substance abuser .
I do wish Face ID was a thing on Apple ’s Mac note . unlock a information processing system with your face just makes so much gumption .
Apple provided both the Magic Mouse and the Magic Trackpad . The trackpad is great and I hump the large glass area for pinching and pointing . The Magic Mouse is n’t as easy to urge as there are plenty ofbetter miceout there . It also still charge in such a ridiculous way .
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Should you buy it?
The M1 iMac 24 - inch looks great and its very capable . It might be a Pro spirit level performing artist , but for most it ’s got plenty of grunt under the hood .
There ’s no Coyote State board slot here and no traditional USB - A ports , so if you have bequest accesories or want to easy spell snaps and video you ’re going to need a dongle .
FAQs
No , there is no SD identity card here
Yes , there ’s a 3.5 mm phone port located on the side
There ’s a undivided 24 - inch size available for this Mac
