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Wired reviews Apple’s new iMac: Impressively slender, a damn sexy piece of machinery

Tuesday, January 8, 2013 · 4:01 pm · 21 Comments

“When Apple debuted the new iMac alongside the iPad mini and a newer Retina display iPad at its media event last October, it was the iMac that turned the most heads,” Christina Bonnington reports for Wired. “Sure, the iPad mini was the hot item of the day going in, but the stunningly thin iMac generated more buzz than we were expecting. It certainly made the jaded digerati leap to Twitter with excitement.”

“The design, an impressively slender all-metal case capped by edge-to-edge glass, garners wows. But the fact that Apple managed to pack in a real computer — in my tester, a 3.1 GHz quad-core i7 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and a 1TB Fusion Drive running OS X Mountain Lion — is just as commendable,” Bonnington reports. “This thing doesn’t just look good, it knows how to work it, too.”

Apple’s all-new iMac (8th gen)

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Bonnington reports, “Some people hate it when you refer to a consumer electronics product as ‘sexy,’ but … this is a damn sexy piece of machinery. At its edges, the iMac’s thickness measures a mere 5 millimeters… When putting our specced-out unit through the paces, no amount of multitasking, photo-editing, audio and video streaming, or general workingness threw it for a loop. In addition to an Adobe app or two, I regularly have multiple Google Chrome windows open, each filled with a seriously ungodly number of tabs. Where my older 2010 iMac started choking, the 2012 iMac just breezed on quietly.”

Read more in the full review here.

Categories: Review

Tags: iMac, iMac (8th gen), iMac 2012, review, Wired

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Comment Feed

21 Comments

24january1984

Tuesday, January 8, 2013 - 4:21 pm · Reply

‘been using one for about three weeks; awesome!

Silent, no beach balls, purdy.
thanxal

Tuesday, January 8, 2013 - 4:31 pm · Reply

Yeah, but be prepared to wait. 28 days since I ordered mine and no iMac in sight.
- ErNegro
  
  Tuesday, January 8, 2013 - 4:47 pm · Reply
  
  me too!!!!
  
  I s**t on Apple!!!!
  
  F*ck!!!
ken1w

Tuesday, January 8, 2013 - 5:06 pm · Reply

When you walk up to one at an angle, it looks like the whole iMac is 5mm thick, which is a really cool illusion. “Sexy” is right…
cashxx

Tuesday, January 8, 2013 - 5:19 pm · Reply

Sexy and slender until you try to take it apart!! They have the thing glued together, I don’t see why they couldn’t have stuck with Magnets. Simply pulling the screen off with suction cups and having access to everything would have been great, no screws, no glue. Now you have to have a special tool to get into it and break the glue seal and order a new part every time you open the computer up. I thought this was going to be the easiest iMac to tear apart, but doesn’t look like it. On the 21.5″ iMac the ram is under the logicboard, fun fun.
- Now, Now...
  
  Tuesday, January 8, 2013 - 6:42 pm · Reply
  
  Wonder what the percentages are of people with the desire, drive and technical virtuosity to tinker with their machine? Me… not so much a change the spark plug type of guy and thus had no desire to do anything more other than enjoy what came with my Performa 6200cd, bondi blue G3 PowerMac, and first Intel iMac circa 2006… I mean, I’m sorry for the plight of those that want to crack the thing open and do whatever, but if Apple had a running Ledger and one side had a list of DIY people and the other side had people that don’t care to tinker with their computer’s innards, which side would have a superfluous amount?
  - cashxx
    
    Tuesday, January 8, 2013 - 9:17 pm · Reply
    
    Its rough on the Apple techs when worked on and admins that have several hundred of them. It could have been easier is all I am saying. I’m afraid next you won’t be able to open them up and they will become throw away units and Apple devices are too expensive to be throw away items.
    - eldernorm
      
      Friday, January 11, 2013 - 9:48 am · Reply
      
      But the idea here is to make machines that do not fail out of the box. VERY HIGH QUALITY machines. And those that fail a year or two into use, need to go to the factory for repair where they have all the right equipment.
      
      Just a thought.
      
      PS, have you tried to work on a car today. You cannot even add speed control any more as there is no exposed drive shaft. Everything is computer controlled. Its life today.
      
      Just a thought.
      en
- James
  
  Wednesday, January 9, 2013 - 6:58 am · Reply
  
  DON’T TAKE IT APART!!!
  
  Buy it, enjoy it.
rimshot

Tuesday, January 8, 2013 - 7:03 pm · Reply

And “Now,Now..” brings up the other side of that coin…
But, the dilemma is …
BOTH very valid arguments ..

I mean .. cashxx, COULD be a guy who makes his living repairing Macs ..so
I can see where he’s comin’ from, too ..

Me ? ..
I’m a Mac Pro kinda guy… and the secret to making them last longer.. is ..
having the ability to replace and upgrade parts..

You see …
OWC is my friend !
- dave
  
  Wednesday, January 9, 2013 - 12:15 am · Reply
  
  Yes OWC is my friend too. I always have a spare HD sitting around as HD fail often.
janekg

Tuesday, January 8, 2013 - 10:36 pm · Reply

I have the new 27″ iMac 16GB, 3TB fusion drive, maxed out on the graphics card etc. This is one sweet machine! Less than 30secs. on startup, quiet running, no heat issue, power to spare when working in tough environments like FCP.
I don’t care if I never see what’s on the inside, if anything goes wrong it’s Apples problem and they can fix it! If you haven’t got one and want one then get it. You won’t regret it.
dave

Wednesday, January 9, 2013 - 12:13 am · Reply

SD card in back kills us photographers. No optical drive stupid. Unable to repair it yourself dumb. I’ve had to replace at least one drive in EVERY Mac I own. I can be back up in running in a couple of hours if I bought this POS I would have to wait weeks for apple to replace the drive. Who cares how thin a desktop is. No upgradable memory, dumb dumb dumb, not even your own Aperture software will well without gobs of memory. Wise up apple, no sale here. Waiting for the next generation.
- Troll Alert!!
  
  Wednesday, January 9, 2013 - 12:43 am · Reply
  
  SD card in back kills us photographers??
  
  You mean those photographers that used to have to change rolls of film and process it in a dark bag as if they were blind folded. NOW, all of a sudden, it’s to difficult to feel the thin slot in the back and slip in the SD card. What’s the world coming to.
  
  Next up! No optical drive?
  
  What do you need it for? I too am a photographer too, and I can’t remember needing to use the DVD drive in a long time. All my file transfers are done by Air Drop or USB.
  
  Other peeves: Memory IS upgradable on 27 inch. REGARDLESS, every model comes with standard 8GB. That’s an awfull lot of mem. To start with.
  
  My HD drives have only required replacement ONCE in my three iMacs. And that was because it was on a recall. Nothing went wrong. Making a mountain out of molehill I think.
  
  Get lost troll!
  - sorachiblue
    
    Wednesday, January 9, 2013 - 6:31 pm · Reply
    
    Every iMac I have owned has had to have either the hard disk replaced or the motherboard. I had one iMac that had to have two motherboards replaced as well as the power supply. I love the iMac, but they are always needing to spend time at the Apple Store. I think the iMacs look at it as a week at the Spa or something! But talk about a Pain!
    - steveH
      
      Wednesday, January 9, 2013 - 7:29 pm · Reply
      
      What do you *do* to them?
      
      I’ve had, or maintained at work, 12 different iMacs of various vintages. None have needed to replace motherboards or power supplies. Two got HD upgrades, but those were “it would be nice”, not “the drive is dead, Jim” cases.
- larry fritzlan
  
  Wednesday, January 9, 2013 - 9:18 am · Reply
  
  Really? I got my first Mac in 1984. Between my business, home, wife, wife’s business, grand kids, etc. I bet I’ve purchased 50+ Macs and not one, zero, has every needed to go back in for repair. I get Apple Care and enjoy. Macs are awesome and fun. My tricked out iMac is out there. There is a Santa Claus and I get to be excited for however long it takes to arrive.
Paul

Wednesday, January 9, 2013 - 12:54 am · Reply

It is light as a feather too. Mine looks absolutely stunning in my office.

I have never needed to use the DVD in my past iMacs. I also have never needed to replace a HD either. So as far as I am concerned, apple made great trade offs there. I do however, always upgrade my RAM. On that, I am glad Apple left it user serviceable on the 27 inch.

It’s almost like having a 27 inch iPad running full OSX connected to a stand with mouse and keyboard.
Agent Provocateur

Wednesday, January 9, 2013 - 10:52 am · Reply

I have never purchased a desktop computer because it was thin- especially if that came at the cost of functionality. Past a certain point it is bullshit even with a laptop.

Does Apple make serious machines for people who need them or has it become a boutique for fashionistas obsessed with how slender the side view of a display is? I’ll gladly trade some junk in the trunk for a computer that can be user upgraded and maintained.
ilankrt

Monday, March 11, 2013 - 10:04 am · Reply

On one side Apple produces high end computer. On the other hand the order conditions and delivery time is catastrophic and outrage! I am waiting now 2 month (!) for the delivery of my purchased iMac with the highest performance. Until this moment my dealer is not able even to let me know when the delivery is planned! All I know is that the computer is put together in Apple Ireland.
Apple is nowadays strong, but it behavior facing their clients, can bring Apple very quickly to those days before Steve Jobs return because Apple offers relative few models. With such customers service it will fail soooooon !
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