Safe Passage
The August update of the 27” 5K iMac may be the final Intel iMac as Apple readies itself to release its first Apple Silicon Macs.
On August 04, Apple updated the 27" Intel iMac for, what many believe to be, the final time. And should this end up being the last update we see to the Intel iMac, it can't be said that it wasn't a significant update to a beloved desktop computer.
Let's get it out of the way; the design hasn't changed! It hadn't changed since 2012 when Apple released this iteration. And in my opinion, this was the right move. By saving the rumoured redesign for the Apple Silicon line of iMacs, Apple creates a meaningful visual distinction between the two lineages. Additionally, a redesign doesn't happen without also rejigging the internal architecture - from the ports to the thermals - and doing all that work on a product's last iteration doesn't make a lot of sense.
But what did Apple do? For starters, they almost killed the Fusion drive - SSD are now standard across all 27" models, but the option remains for a 1TB fusion drive if you ABSOLUTELY must have one in the 21.5" configurations. Internal updates include 10th generation Intel processors on the 27" iMac that can be spec'd up to a 3.6GHz 10-Core Intel i9. Configurable memory has been doubled to 128GB (although all base models start with only 8GB, which makes my brain hurt). The graphics have been improved, and storage has been quadrupled to up to 8TB. Finally, Apple has brought their nano-texture display technology to the iMac 27" (at only $500; half the cost of adding it to the Pro Display XDR), introduced True Tone & the T2 to the desktop, improved the webcam to 1080P, and upgraded the speakers and mics on the device.
Just as notable as what Apple did is also what they didn't do. The iMac 21.5" and the iMac Pro remained untouched minus making SSDs standard on the 21.5" iMac and making the 10-core Xeon the base iMac Pro configuration. No new RAM, no T2, no nano-texture display, no upgraded mics etc. By putting their weight behind the 27" iMac, I believe Apple is trying to push customers requiring/desiring Intel processors towards the 27", leaving the 21.5" and iMac Pro to be the first candidates for Apple Silicon redesigns or ultimately being discontinued. Hate to break it to you iMac Pro; I think you're not long for this world.
Whether you're transition-phobic, your workflow relies on X86 and won't be able to transition quickly, or if you want to wait a bit to let the transition kinks work themselves out, Apple has released an update to the computer it wants users to purchase to ride out the transition into Apple Silicon. This iMac will easily get users more than a half-decade of reliable performance and support, after which the Apple Silicon transition will in its third established year as the de facto chip in Macs.
