24-inch M1 iMac: New colors, new chip, and much much more
Silver and black had a good 13-plus-year run, but on Tuesday, Apple put an end to it and started a colorful new chapter for its all-in-one Mac, the iMac. The colors aren’t all that’s new; the iMac features Apple’s new M1 system on a chip, new sizes, and a lot more. Here are the top five features of Apple’s new all-in-one:
New design with a rainbow of colors
The iMac is now available in blue, green, orange, pink, purple, and silver with matching a Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad. (Maybe you can even match with the colored iPad Air if you bought one recently.)
The new iMac has an elegant, minimal look compared to its predecessor. The bezels around the display are much smaller than on the previous iMac, but it still has a “chin,” below the display that houses the iMac’s internals (though it’s much thinner). The chin doesn’t have the Apple logo on the front. Instead, it’s on the back, where you’ll also find two Thunderbolt ports and two USB-C ports. The tapered design is gone, and the new iMac is now 11.5 millimeters thick.
Apple provides input devices that match the color of the iMac.
Apple
Power of M1
The iMac is the latest Mac with Apple’s own system on chip, following the Mac mini, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and MacBook Air. The iMac has the same M1 chip Apple released last year. Here is a quick look at the specifications:
- 5 nanometer process technology
- 8-core CPU
- 7- or 8-core graphics processor (GPU)
- 16-core Neural Engine
- 8GB or 16GB of RAM
- 256GB or 512GB SSD
24-inch 4.5K Retina display
The new iMac is available in one size with a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display—right in between the 21-inch and 27-inch Intel Macs—which has 11.3 million pixels and support for the P3 wide color gamut, over a billion colors, 500 nits of brightness, and True Tone. Apple treats the display with an anti-reflective coating to help with readability.
The iMac still has a chin, but the bezels around the screen are a lot smaller. Pictured here in orange.
Apple
Touch ID
It’s been on Apple’s MacBooks, and now Touch ID makes its debut in a desktop Mac. The iMac comes with a new wireless Magic Keyboard with a Touch ID button in the upper right corner. Touch ID is standard in the $1,499 and $1,699 models with an 8-core GPU, but if you want it in the $1,299 iMac with a 7-core GPU, you’ll have to add it as an option and pay extra. Apple hasn’t said how much the new keyboard costs and it doesn’t seem to be available separately
A new Touch ID button on the Magic Keyboard for the new iMac.
Apple
Made for video conferencing
Apple finally upgraded the FaceTime camera when it updated the 27-inch iMac last year, but it didn’t change the 720p camera in the 21.5-inch model. The new iMac, fortunately, has the 1080p FaceTime camera, and if it’s anything like the one in the 27-inch model, it’s a good one, with great picture quality, better handling of light, and good color consistency.
Along with the camera, Apple also includes a three-microphone array that are in places on the iMac so you don’t get feedback from the computer. The mics are support “directional beamforming” to help filter out background noise while you are talking.
Apple calls the speakers in the iMac “the best sound system ever in a Mac.” It has six speakers, two pairs offorce-cancelling woofers and two high-performance tweeters. Apple also uses “advanced algorithms” to support spatial audio.
Roman has covered technology since the early 1990s. His career started at MacUser, and he’s worked for MacAddict, Mac|Life, and TechTV.