iMac: One Year Later
The personal computer is personal again!
Last April, Apple announced the new M1-powered 24-inch iMac at their Spring Forward event. An 11.5mm slab of colourful anodized aluminum and glass, the iMac furthered Apple's march into an Apple Silicon future with a product deferential to the best qualities of Apple's all-in-one desktop while introducing a new attitude for the Mac. A year (err… 321 days) later, I wanted to share my thoughts on a desktop I've grown to love more and more over the past year.
Unboxing
With the 2021 iMac, Apple pulled out all the stops, making it one of the most memorable unboxing experiences I've had to date.
From the minute you take the iMac box by the colour-matched handle, the unboxing experience is truly one of Apple's best to date.
Typical of Apple products, the box starts with colour-matched photos of the iMac inside. The second thing I noticed was the handle on top of the box, which was blue & colour-matched to the iMac inside. Upon opening the box, the accessory kit included a matching Magic Mouse, Keyboard, and Trackpad, all in a beautiful Sky Blue anodized finish. Pause and do the math for a second; Apple has seven different iMac colours, which means it has seven Mouse & Magic Trackpads to produce. Apple also offers three keyboard configurations (Magic Keyboard, Magic Keyboard + TouchID, & Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad), creating at least 21 layouts in seven different colours. Keyboards alone mean Apple needed to produce nearly 150 configurations for just one component. From there, you'll come across colour-matched Apple Stickers and matching braided cables for power and a Lightning-to-USB-C cable for charging. Finally, covering the glass on the iMac is a colour-matched sticker printed with 'hello' in Apple’s iconic cursive type. It was extravagant to see the lengths Apple went for this iMac, but it made the whole experience feel exceptionally personalized and made this product genuinely feel like a labour of love.
The luscious new iMacs come paired with matching keyboards, mice, and trackpad accessories, alongside matching Apple Stickers and braided cables. It’s a beautiful thing!
And these distinct, colourful touches go more than skin deep. The Mac knows which colour it is and offers unique desktop wallpapers, screensavers, accent & highlight colours to customize macOS. These details come together to produce a very flattering first impression of the new iMac, all within the first 15-minutes of setting it up.
Design
Apple made the right choice going back to their 1998 playbook of releasing a personal computer in a range of vibrant colour options. Before the M1 iMac, Apple's desktops were only available in various shades of grey. And honestly, I didn't mind it - they were stunning-looking gray desktops. But I didn't anticipate how much the infusion of colour would impact my affinity for this Mac. It wasn't just 'an iMac'; it was 'my Blue iMac.' Overnight I became an armchair psychologist/interior designer pondering what colour iMac 'represents me' & coordinating which would look best in the space I was planning on setting it up in. More than a tool, the iMac became an accent piece, a part of my personality, something that I was excited to showcase in my living space, making previous Macs appear cold and utilitarian by contrast. And you can put me on the record as saying that for this class of product, Apple absolutely made the right choice of surrounding the display with a soft light gray bezel - it helps the Mac integrate seamlessly into the living space I've placed it in.
An accent piece? A computer? Why not both!?
I continue to be a huge fan of Apple's display size for their consumer iMac. At 24.5-inches, the M1 iMac is the goldilocks Mac between the previous 21 & 27-inch models. The 27-inch 5K iMac always felt a bit too large for both my needs & the tiny office space it had been in, while the 21-inch iMac felt a wee bit too small as a desktop. But by reducing the bezels, the 24-inch iMac maintains nearly the same footprint as the 21-inch iMac with a panel that offers nearly 2-million more pixels. For me, it's the best of both worlds.
Performance
The internet doesn't hold back punches when critiquing tech. If the M1 chip were a dud, you would have heard about it. But in the rarest of internet phenomenon, the reception to the M1 has been overwhelmingly positive. And this praise isn't unwarranted; the M1 sings. While I don't fancy myself a power-user, I would consider myself in the top third of performance users and in the top percentile of people who neurotically obsess over any bit of perceived slowdown. After a year, the iMac exceeds my expectations on both counts. It'll stutter a little if I am working with a large 2-3 GB image, but beyond that, the iMac swiftly handles anything I throw at it. From opening apps to zipping between a dozen applications, day-to-day use continues to be exceptionally fluid and fast.
Furthermore, I am optimistic that this speed will continue far into the future with this iMac. Intel Macs seemed to always age dramatically with each new software update; the fans would spin up a bit sooner, apps would acquire an extra bounce before opening. But on iOS, Apple has shown a commitment to prioritizing speed & efficiency in their operating system, so I am hopeful this same philosophy extends to Apple Silicon Macs. And the combination of integrated memory, fast SSDs, and top-shelf compute power creates a powerful trio that'll keep this iMac zippy for years to come. I can easily see this Mac lasting over half a decade for most users and still feel sufficient for most tasks.
Other Tidbits
Display: You get spoiled in the display department as an Apple user. It's a phenomenal panel with a retina 4.5K display, TrueTone, & P3 colour!
Camera: The updated 1080p webcam, CenterStage, and better computational imaging are welcome upgrades. This iMac has helped me look and sound better than I deserve through countless video meetings, all despite Zoom's aggressive compression, and often in harsh lighting conditions on account of early mornings and limited winter daylight.
Ports: I opted for the four-port (Two USB 3, Two USB 4) configuration, which is honestly three more ports than I need. If you require specific ports (SD-slot, HDMI), you'll need to stay in dongletown if you go with this iMac, but I imagine that an all-wireless or USB-C lifestyle should suffice for most consumers.
Sound: Offering Dolby Atmos out of a system this thin and light is a remarkable achievement, and the iMac offers speakers that, to my ear, will exceed what people feel they should get out of a consumer desktop. And people wanting more complex sound will know to bring their custom sound systems. Apple's computational audio and sound quality have gotten so good that it constantly makes me depressed to remember that they discontinued the HomePod, their best-sounding audio product to date!
Stand: I'm not disappointed by the stand not being height adjustable. I lucked out by having a desk, chair, and torso that keep me at a comfortable eye-level for this Mac, but I've heard some have needed to stack their iMac on books to elevate it to a comfortable height. A height-adjustable monitor in a future revision would be a welcome addition, assuming, of course, it doesn't tack on an extra $999 to the price (a la the XDR stand).
‘The Chin’: Doesn't bug me. If the chin were all white or had a darker hue like the back of the display, I fear that it would just be distracting. The subtle and unsaturated pastel is a much nicer choice than I initially thought it would be. Besides, having a chin is kinda the iMacs 'thing'; it creates an identity for the product.
Storage & RAM: I upgraded to a 1TB, 16GB configuration because I wanted to maximize the longevity of this Mac and because I am often doing things that exert a strain on the memory. Call me old-fashioned, but while Apple has made their devices incredibly agile at balancing and managing RAM, I prefer having a surplus to having my computer juggling memory in the background.
Value: The particular configuration I purchased was an upgraded Blue iMac with 16GB of unified memory (up from 8GB) and a 1TB SSD for $2,099. I think the entry model of $1,299 is a little lean on storage (256GB), and would suggest upgrading to at least 512GB and potentially 16GB of integrated memory. While this becomes an extra $400 upfront, that upgrade will give you an additional couple of years of longevity, particularly if you are the kind of person who plans on keeping this desktop for a long time. And think carefully about the type of keyboard you want to use and whether you are planning on adding a Magic Mouse and/or Magic Trackpad to your setup, as you can't buy any colour options separately from buying an iMac.
Overall
Colours & computers shouldn't be antagonists! The iMac restores the fun and vibrant aesthetic to the personal computer first introduced by the 1998 iMac. iMac image by 512 Pixels.
The iMac is simple, clean, and uncomplicated. It's a revitalization of the iMac that pays homage to its roots in a powerful, thin, and colourful all-in-one computer. Comparing the iMac to what we've seen Apple do with the MacBook Pro, Apple seems to be creating a clearer bifurcation between how a consumer and pro computer should perform & look. Like the MacBook Air is to laptops, the iMac becomes the best desktop for most consumers, with the hardest decision being: what colour will you get?
