Apple updated the long overdue 27” iMac earlier this year with some noticeable internal upgrades. The biggest boon is the new FaceTime HD camera that support 1080p – a major improvement over the previously used 720p sensor. It also now packs the latest Intel 10th gen processors that offer significantly higher performance.
Of course, the story with the 27” iMac has always been about packing a pixel perfect display. The computer still packs the same Retina 5K panel with a resolution of 5120×280 but with a new optional nano-texture glass that reduces reflections.
The negatives of the iMac are the slower speed 2666MHz DDR4 RAM while there are much newer options available in the market. The speed of RAM may not be a big deal for a lot of people but considering that iMacs are usually used for 5-10 years on average, it would have been nice to have future proof components on the inside.
Future of the iMac
Also, the base model of the 27” iMac packs just a meagre 256GB SSD which is totally pointless. The new standard for desktop machines should be to pack at-least 512GB SSD at the bare minimum. It would be fine for laptops that are focused at light weight use to have 256GB SSD. However, it does not make sense on the iMac and I hope that Apple tweaks the storage option with its next iteration unless they make macOS a completely cloud based operating system.
With the updates that the 27” iMac has received this year; it is now a compelling option for a lot of people. It would be pointless for Apple to upgrade the same machine with its new Apple Silicon. Also, we do not know whether the Apple chips are ready for proper desktop use; rumors suggest that the first Apple Silicon based Mac would be a MacBook.