Review Post Demo

Apple did little to celebrate the 20th birthday of its famous all-in-one iMac last year, skipping any hardware update or some kind of special anniversary edition. Now, the iMac is back with a bang, offering new high-end configuration options.

The company supplied us with a high-end 27-inch iMac featuring a ninth-generation Intel Core i9 processor (CPU), an AMD Radeon Pro Vega 48 graphics processor (GPU), and a super-fast 512GB solid-state drive (SSD) in place of the usual SSD/hard disk combo.

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You could sit this iMac alongside a 2017 model and be unable to tell the difference without firing it up. Apple has been using the same tapered body since late 2012 – the longest it has stuck with any particular look for the iMac, if you ignore small changes to the port line-up and the keyboard.

There may be an element of “if it ain’t broke…” to that lack of evolution. With talk of Apple moving the Mac to ARM-based processors, we have a sneaking suspicion that a radical redesign hinges around that.

Price and availability

Let’s ignore our revved-up review model’s specs for a moment, which send the price north of three grand, and first talk about what you get in the three more affordable, off-the-shelf 27-inch iMac starting points.

Each of the entry-level ($1,799/£1,749/AU$2,799) and the mid-range ($1,999/£1,949/AU$3,099) models comes with an eighth-generation, six-core Intel Core i5 processor. The rival Dell Inspiron 27 7000 range also uses eighth-gen CPUs, although the nearest price ($1,688.99/£1618.99/AU$2,999) to Apple’s most affordable 27-inch iMac is also equipped with a six-core processor, it has a lower clock speed of 2.4GHz, whereas the iMac’s is 3.0GHz.

At the top of the 27-inch iMac line-up is a model that includes a ninth-gen, six-core i5 as standard. That’ll set you back $2,299/£2,249/AU$3,549, which is actually the most affordable way to get a ninth-gen CPU in an iMac.

It’s not the only way, but the other – adding the more powerful eight-core i9 that was in our review unit – adds $500/£450/AU$770 to the mid-range spec or $400/£360/AU$640 to the highest standard config. Before you balk at that, read about its impact in our HandBrake test, as it might be the way to go if you expect your all-in-one to do heavy lifting often.

Design

As noted earlier, Apple has been using this look for the iMac for more than six years now. Make of that what you will, but there’s not much to complain about.

The one obnoxious thing is right in your face, though: the display’s thick black bezel and the aluminium chin beneath it look increasingly old-fashioned.

Apple has managed to trim some of that fat from all of its MacBooks, on which doing so must have been more of a challenge, but disappointingly Apple doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to do the same for its all-in-one desktop.

Changing the overall good look isn’t urgent, though. This particular iteration has aged gracefully, and continues to be elegant where the thicker models from 2011 and earlier didn’t. That is, when you see it from any angle other than head-on. The back’s gentle curve helps even a computer this big to appear low-key among its surroundings.

We’re pleased with the iMac’s heat management, too, even when putting the high-end components in our review unit through a tough test. Our HEVC video conversion in HandBrake comes close to maxing out all 16 virtual processing cores.

Despite that, the iMac’s fan was quiet enough not to be distracting, even while chucking a good amount of heat out of the rear vent.