Apple reveal all new 21.5 and 27-inch iMacs
Posted on October 20th, 2009 by tomacintosh in Articles, Hardware, tags: 21.5-inch, 27-inch, alu imac, brand new imacs, i7 imacAfter getting home from work earlier today I fell asleep on the sofa, only to be woken up by a Ping! alert from a friend mentioning the Apple Store was down. With that, I soon woke up and quickly dusted myself down, made a drink and headed to my Mac. Looks like I’d woken just in time, as minutes later the news all over Twitter was of new iMacs with different sized screens. Once all the news seeped through, I just looked at my current 20″ ACD in awe of the new 27 inch iMac, it’s a thing of sheer beauty!
Apple have completely dropped the 20 and 24-inch models in a very aggressive move, that paves way for new 16:9 aspect ratio LED backlit panels. The days of the 17-inch iMac are long forgotten! So what does that mean for us users? Well screen aspects are now akin to the HDTV’s in your living room, which means less black bars above and below your Movies. Apple have taken the screen resolutions to the next level, the 21.5-inch model boasts a full 1080p display (1920 x 1080) while the 27-inch packs in an awe-inspiring amount of pixels at 2560 x 1440.
So what’s powering these new displays? Apple have thrown in three very nice options for us. The base 21.5-inch model ships with the excellent GeForce 9400M Integrated solution. But if you fancy more grunt you can choose the second model up which uses an ATi Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB VRAM. For the gamers out there, both 27-inch models can be bought with a ATi Radeon HD 4850 with 512MB VRAM. This is a very nice GPU and should easily run the latest games. One thing I was a little disappointed with was Apple scrimping on the VRAM. It would’ve been nice to have a 1GB option, especially with the crazy resolution the 27-inch model is pumping out.
Something tells me Apple had a lot of 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo processors left in the stock room. All three of the lower end models (if you can call them that) use this processor, the same processor that was saved for the very top of the line 24-inch iMac in the previous lineup. This time though, the pièce de résistance sports an Intel i5 Quad Core processor, this is a first for Apple and should tie in nicely with Grand Central Dispatch, built directly into Snow Leopard. If you’re wondering where the Intel i7 processor is, that’s a BTO option, costing an extra £160.
Something that wasn’t obvious at first, and I only spotted when I went to order a new iMac (window shopping style) was the release of an updated Apple Remote. Keeping in with the Aluminium theme, this sleek little beauty still has the same number of buttons as the older, white model. When I first saw it I thought it had an extra button slapped on there, but it turns out they’ve simply relocated the Play/Pause button. I was slightly disappointed by this, as sometimes I feel the Apple Remote is a bit limited with so few buttons. Oh well, Apple do like to keep it simple. As is the norm of late, the new Remote does not ship free of charge with new Macs, it’s an optional extra at £15. Your shopping basket is about to burst, isn’t it?
Other noteworthy inclusions to the new lineup include:
- 4 DIMM Slots – upping maximum RAM to a whopping 16GB.
- 27-inch models now support Video Input from MiniDisplay Port sources. Absolutely awesome news!
- Built-in SD Card slot, located beneath the Optical Drive slot
- Redesigned and much improved Speakers, offering more bass and better clarity
- Wireless Keyboard and new Wireless Magic Mouse included with every iMac (more on them later!)
- Meet ENERGY STAR 5.0 and EPEAT Gold requirements. Greenest iMacs yet.
- Amazing 178° viewing angle thanks to premium display technology called in-plane switching (IPS).
- 27-inch is wall mountable with optional VESA Mount.
- Rear side of iMac is now completely Aluminium for a continuous, precision finish.
- 2TB Hard Drive option on all but the lowest end model.
So, I just need to save some pennies and sell my Mac mini now. Got to have me a 27-inch beast!
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That friend who Ping!’d you sure sounds nice, whoever he/she is.
Nice write-up, Tom. Those new iMacs sure are some beasts. I love the whole alu look, rather than the black plastic back. I’d love to have a 27″ sitting on my desk and will definitely aim to buy one early next year if the iTablet fails to materialize
For now, I’m tiding myself over with the Magic Mouse which I suspect will feel incredible. Oh and the new Apple Remote which I just had to tuck into my shopping basket!
The friend was more of an ‘it’ than anything, s/he’s defs suspicious.
I’m not sure which iMac to try and get to be honest. It has to be the 27 inch, but not sure which model. If I go for the Quad Core then I’m gonna want the 2.8GHz i7 instead of the 2.66GHz i5 processor. Totalled up with a new Apple Remote it’s £1,758.99!! So after selling the Mac mini and 20″ ACD, plus a few other bits, I’m still looking for a grand!! Please Sam, give it to me!
Nice round-up Tom, these are some really nice updates we’ve seen! I didn’t realise it till 5pm yesterday, but my life is incomplete without a 27″ iMac, i must have one
Make sure you post plenty of pics when you (inevitably) get one, haha.
[...] The Apple Store was offline from approximately 3pm until 5.30pm UK time while they updated it with the new shiny hardware including new 21″ and 27″ iMacs, white unibody MacBook, Magic Mouse, new Apple Remote and updates to the Mac Mini, AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule. Almost too much to take in! tomacintosh has written a little on the new iMacs and their specs, here. [...]
I have never used a Mac before. My Wife bought me the iMac with the i7 processor. I was using a Dell XPS 1530 which was pretty intense but this iMac has no words to describe it. I am in love. It took me a few days to make the conversion and load it up with all the software I like (Adobe Master Collection) but this is a well oiled machine. Everything is so smooth and this wireless keyboard and magic mouse is Great! I am going to order the remote and some extra Ram in a few minutes. Not that it really needs it but who knows. I may see a difference. Great article..
That’s nice to hear when I’m currently waiting for mine to be delivered!! Lol! Seriously though, I’m glad you’re liking it. I’ve got an extra 4GB of RAM waiting to go straight in
Have you bothered installing Windows on it yet?