News Apple Brings M1 to iMac

[Admin]

Apple is bringing its homegrown M1 chips to new Macs, including the iMac.

Apple Brings M1 to iMac : Read more

 

[TCA_ChinChin]

I feel as if the iMac isn't so well priced. I imagine a mac mini with a good monitor (maybe even an Apple brand monitor) could potentially cost less but provide the same experience. Other than that, it seems like much of what was rumored and leaked beforehand was pretty accurate. iPad pro might be expensive, but its yet another iteration that Android/Windows won't be able to catch up to for the next decade or so.

 

[Pollopesca]

8GB of RAM & 256GB SSD for $1500? Going heavy on the Apple tax with weak specs like that. But hey, at least it comes in pretty colors.

 

[waltc3]

As usual, Apple is making things for people who don't know much of anything about what they are buying... Same-old, same-old Apple: less is more, and more expensive, too.

 

[hotaru.hino]

It looks like a giant iPad with a lopsided bezel to me 😄

 

[giorov]

Will it run Crysis though? (Ok, then how about Minecraft?)

 

[evdjj3j]

What happens to a Mac owner's Steam library? Will the games run on these chips? Serious question.

 

[hotaru.hino]

What happens to a Mac owner's Steam library? Will the games run on these chips? Serious question.

Hope that Rosetta 2 works.

 

[Sippincider]

8 gigs memory for everything? Hope it can be BTO to something usable.

My 27" has that just for the graphics, and looks like it'll be soldiering on for a while longer.

 

[velocityg4]

It's just so hideous. They even went to great lengths to give it a chin and powerbrick. When they could have just made it a little thicker. To give it proper cooling, get rid of the chin and bezels. Plus put the PSU inside of it.

This has got to be one of the worst looking Macs ever. 8GB RAM and 16GB Max is just laughable. It should have been 16GB and 32GB Max at least.

 

[Sippincider]

This has got to be one of the worst looking Macs ever.

For sheer hideousness it'll be tough to outdo the Macintosh TV.

But for overall poor decisions they may have cut new ground. Did anyone inside Apple actually sit down and use one in development? Or was it designed completely by PowerPoint/Keynote meetings?

 

[hushnecampus]

Huh. In the same presentation they told us it can support having hundreds of tabs open at once, but they also told us it has 8GB of RAM.

I’m having trouble reconciling those figures.

 

[Heat_Fan89]

8GB of RAM & 256GB SSD for $1500? Going heavy on the Apple tax with weak specs like that. But hey, at least it comes in pretty colors.

And the Apple loyalists will excuse and overlook the specs and price because Apple loves them. I have been using Macs since 2001 and i'm pretty much finished with Apple and switching to Windows once my 2018 Mini is no longer supported.

 

[joytech22]

What happens to a Mac owner's Steam library? Will the games run on these chips? Serious question.

I have an M1 MBP, everything that worked before works now but using Parallels 16.5 and Windows ARM with steam will get many more games running.

Some games just don't run well even though the computer is powerful, and I think that comes down to x86-arm translation as well as not using apples metal API.

Parallels uses Metal to accelerate graphics in windows but it isn't perfect, I suspect performance is 30% lower than native and with some stuttering depending on the game.

 

[watzupken]

What happens to a Mac owner's Steam library? Will the games run on these chips? Serious question.

Unlikely for all Intel optimised games to run on M1 since it still new. I think the question is, what Mac are you using? If you are using a Mac running Intel's graphic solution, I feel there is no difference since the UHD graphics is rubbish when it comes to gaming. So for owners of Mac mini or MacBook Air, there is no loss in my opinion.

 

[watzupken]

I feel as if the iMac isn't so well priced. I imagine a mac mini with a good monitor (maybe even an Apple brand monitor) could potentially cost less but provide the same experience. Other than that, it seems like much of what was rumored and leaked beforehand was pretty accurate. iPad pro might be expensive, but its yet another iteration that Android/Windows won't be able to catch up to for the next decade or so.

I agree that it makes more sense to get the Mac mini M1. Having everything built in is nice to have, but the premium here is too high.

There is nothing in the Android tablet arsenal that can match the iPad Pro. Adding the mini LED to the lineup just made the iPad Pro even more lethal. Its not cheap, but with a very fast SOC and screen, it could well be a good replacement for a laptop depending on one's use case.

 

[watzupken]

And the Apple loyalists will excuse and overlook the specs and price because Apple loves them. I have been using Macs since 2001 and i'm pretty much finished with Apple and switching to Windows once my 2018 Mini is no longer supported.

There is no perfect platform. Whether its Windows or Apple, they have their own fair share of problems. Price is always a problem with Apple products, but if you look at Microsoft's own lineup of PC and laptops, they are not cheap either. The only good thing for Windows OS is that you can customise your own PC with solid specs and it will be cheaper than a high end Mac. On the flip side, because of the level of customisation allowed on PC, most apps are not as optimised and will not run as efficiently as on MacOS.

Unlike you, I've only used a MacBook Pro around 15 years ago and I gave it up in around 6 months because everything is so expensive. However, recently I decided to ditch my Windows based laptop and use a MacBook Air M1 instead after testing it for a week. Despite the 8 vs 16GB of RAM, I've never felt that it was lacking in anyway. The smoothness and battery life blew me away. Been happily using the Air for almost a month now and no plans to switch back anytime soon.

 

[Giroro]

The pastel colors are very offputting to me.

I was also going to complain that this desktop computer has the specs of a phone... but then I remembered my phone has significantly more RAM, expandable storage, and better software support.

 

[hotaru.hino]

I was also going to complain that this desktop computer has the specs of a phone... but then I remembered my phone has significantly more RAM, expandable storage, and better software support.

If we took the specs at face value, it isn't better than where most computers from system builders start at.

But hey, at least they're serviceable.

 

[Jake Hall]

Technology for idiots

 

[Giroro]

On the flip side, because of the level of customisation allowed on PC, most apps are not as optimised and will not run as efficiently as on MacOS.

Unlike you, I've only used a MacBook Pro around 15 years ago and I gave it up in around 6 months because everything is so expensive. However, recently I decided to ditch my Windows based laptop and use a MacBook Air M1 instead after testing it for a week. Despite the 8 vs 16GB of RAM, I've never felt that it was lacking in anyway. The smoothness and battery life blew me away. Been happily using the Air for almost a month now and no plans to switch back anytime soon.

I have to disagree that apps on mac are better optimised. The Mac OS market share numbers are abysmal, and still basically nonexistant for the M1 architecture.
Most software developers don't proritze the version of the software being built for a platform that nobody uses.
It might be more work to bug test a wide variety of powerful PC hardware over a souped up phone, but that work tends to get done when your PC build is outselling the Mac version 1,000 to 1.

What is the use case for your macbook air?

 

[Giroro]

If we took the specs at face value, it isn't better than where most computers from system builders start at.

But hey, at least they're serviceable.

Sure, that's roughly the base version of many computers. But we are talking about a $1500 luxary desktop computer that is using Final Cut in their marketing, not a $400 HP laptop built for "the emails".

 

[hotaru.hino]

Sure, that's roughly the base version of many computers. But we are talking about a $1500 luxary desktop computer that is using Final Cut in their marketing, not a $400 HP laptop built for "the emails".

I should add that I was looking at higher end lineups like Dell's XPS. Although they don't come with an 8-core CPU from the get go.

 

[Giroro]

I should add that I was looking at higher end lineups like Dell's XPS. Although they don't come with an 8-core CPU from the get go.

At least I'm pretty sure Dell still lets you put in your own SSD and maybe RAM.
But as has been pointed out before, the $1500 imac has the same specs as the $700 mac mini.
I'm just not sure a probably-good built in monitor is worth the extra $800.

The pricing kinda feels like Apple just shrugged and said "well it technically contains a GPU"

 

[hotaru.hino]

At least I'm pretty sure Dell still lets you put in your own SSD and maybe RAM.

The Desktops sure, the laptops have soldered RAM and until recently some models had non-replaceable SSDs

But as has been pointed out before, the $1500 imac has the same specs as the $700 mac mini.
I'm just not sure a probably-good built in monitor is worth the extra $800.

The pricing kinda feels like Apple just shrugged and said "well it technically contains a GPU"

You also have to consider that the iMac is completely usable out of the box, you still need your own peripherals for the Mini. In particular, the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse cost $180 for both (though this is the keyboard without the TouchID, so who knows how much that'll actually cost if sold separately). The monitor also has 500-nit brightness and DCI-P3 color coverage capabilities, which I haven't seen a monitor with those specs for under $600 once we take the $800 less accessories price difference into account. There are some 4K monitors with DCI-P3 color coverage, but none of them have 500 nits.