Apple’s New iMac
Apple has announced its new iMac. There are so many new features, I hardly know where to start.
The question is, what makes this one special? What are the new features?
Well, here are the highlights:
- New, Big LED Backlit Display
- Wireless Keyboard & Magic Mouse
- Fastest iMac Ever
- More Memory & More Storage
- Environmentally Friendly
Here are the details:
New, Big LED Backlit Display
Apple claims this is the most stunning display ever seen on the iMac. I checked it out at the Apple store and it is very impressive, but not so much so that it alone makes it worth upgrading for this alone (but read on…).
Overall, the display is improved in many ways:
Larger screens - offered in 2 sizes: 21.5″ and 27″. The previous models were 20″ and 24″.
More pixels - Pixels are the little dots that make up the image. The more pixels there are, the higher the resolution of the picture – i.e., more detail and more information.
1000:1 contrast ratio – The contrast ratio provides more vibrant colors and blacker blacks. In other words, the pictures are more crisp.
16:9 Aspect Ratio – The aspect ration is simply the relative height vs the relative width of the display. These new displays have the same relative size format as HD TV.
| Wide Viewing Angle – Apple states that these new displays are stunning from every angle. The new display technology gives you a bright picture with excellent color consistency at very wide viewing angles (178°). This is great if you have many people trying to look at the screen all at once or you move around a lot. The wide viewing angle is not as important if you are like me and just sit in front of the computer. |
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Edge to Edge Display – Apple is very proud of the way they have taken the glass to the edge of the display. They say it is “just display, then no display”. Now this is very cool, but not really very significant. It is part of their attempt at appearing to be completely sleek and seamless. Maybe I am missing something, but to me it looks like all they did was extend the glass to the edge, so it covers the the 3/8″ of frame that used to be exposed. You still have about a one inch black frame around the viewable image. Now maybe this makes it a little easier, less distracting to view the display, but certainly not a selling point of its own right.
Fastest iMac Ever
These new iMacs are the fastest ever. Up to 2.4 times faster. There are two aspects to this: a) the processor speed and b) the graphics.
Faster Processor
Each model of iMac has different processor options, making it even more confusing if you do not know what you need.
Here is Apple’s description:
The 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMac models offer fast Intel Core 2 Duo processors up to 3.33GHz. Quad-core power comes to the 27-inch iMac with a 2.66GHz Intel Core i5 processor or 2.8GHz Intel Core i7 processor. Four cores deliver up to 2x faster performance ...
What does all of that mean? The answer is simple. The iMac is plenty fast. They have made many tweaks and changes to speed up the iMac.
Unless you are doing a lot of heavy processing you do not need to make upgrading the processor a high priority.
However, if you are editing HD videos, playing graphic intensive 3D games, or manipulating very large graphic files than you will really appreciate the faster processors and will want to upgrade to one of the faster, i5 or i7, quad core processors.
Revved-up Graphics
Just like the processor upgrades mentioned above, the graphics are also faster. Up to 4.4 times faster.
| This means that the display will be able to make drastic changes quicker and more sharply. As the size of the display and the amount of information that can be displayed increases, this becomes more and more difficult and critical.
You want to have fast graphics when you watch movies and use other graphics applications. The standard graphics that come with this new iMAC are excellent for those applications. Where you really see these graphic upgrades shine is with 3D games, such as Call of Duty 4 or Doom 3, and very graphic intensive applications. |
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More Memory & More Storage
More Memory
These new iMacs come with 4 GB of memory standard with 16 GB maximum. I think the previous version was 1 GB standard and 4 GB maximum.
This is great!
For most 1 GB is enough and 4 BG is even better. 16 GB is great!
More memory only helps if you have a lot of applications and windows all open at the same time or are running data intensive programs. For example, right now, I have 8 applications running and about 30 windows (with 50 Firefox Tabs) open. My iMac is a 2008 model, which I upgraded to 4 GB. I am at the limit of running smoothly and just starting to notice perfermance degradation. More memory would help in a situation like this.
Now, keep in mind that none of the applications I am running are very data intensive. They are email, Word, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, Skype, and iTunes.
If I were manipulating very large data bases, playing 3D graphics games, editing HD videos etc, the extra memory would be a necessity.
More Storage
Along with the extra memory, these new iMacs have larger hard drives as well. My current iMac has 300 GB. That seemed enormous when I bout it 2 years ago. Now, I am just running up against the limit.
The new 21.5″ iMac comes with wither 500 GB or 1 TB hard drive. The 27″ model comes with a 1 TB standard. Both models can be upgraded to 2TB.
If you take a lot of pictures with the newer higher megapixel cameras or like to store your videos on your computer, then you will really appreciate the largest hard drive possible.
Just remember to always backup your data. That means you will need a larger Time Capsule or external backup hard drive!
Environmentally Friendly
iMac is designed to have less impact on the environment than most other computers. It’s energy efficient, free of many harmful toxins, and made of highly recyclable materials.
Wireless Keyboard & Magic Mouse
With this new iMAC Apple announced a new wireless keyboard and the Wireless Magic Mouse as standard. These are very cool! The nice thing is, you can buy them independent of the new iMAC, to use with your current iMAC.*
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This is a new product in its own right. I will discuss it in detail in my next post.
Overall, I am very excited about the new iMac and am seriously considering upgrading. However, my current iMac still works great and I cannot really justify the upgrade at this time.
Look for details on Apples other new products over the next few days.
Making Technology Easier,
Richard Lazovick
* NOTE: You must be running Mac OS X v10.5.8 or later with Wireless Mouse Software Update 1.0 to use the new mouse and Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard to use some of the features.