“My main work machine is a once top-of-the-line 2013 27-inch iMac that’s been completely maxed out with 32GB RAM, a terabyte flash drive, and a once-powerful fourth generation Intel Mobile Core i7 Haswell processor,” David Gewirtz writes for ZDNet. “It’s also got a GeForce GTX 780M with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. In 2013, it was epic. Today, it’s anemic as heck.”
“I’ve been holding off on upgrading this machine, waiting for Apple’s latest Mac announcements,” Gewirtz writes. “Now, to be clear, I’m differentiating the iMac from the iMac Pro. That means I’m not going into Xeon territory. I’m not going to suggest space gray. I’m not even going to recommend a video card. Instead, I’m going to ask this: what does it mean to be an iMac?”
“In thinking about a fantasy iMac, the screen needs to be the focal point. 21-inch and 27-inch screens are so 2009. I’d say that Apple should completely ditch the 21-inch screen, but that actually has a big market in schools. iMacs don’t wander as easily as notebooks do, and the 21-inch screen is less expensive and easier to fit in tight classrooms,” Gewirtz writes. “But it’s time to give up on the 27-inch screen in its 16:9 format. Today, we have ultrawide screens at a 21:9 format. LG has a 38-inch 3840×1600 beauty… If Apple produced a 38-inch wide, 21:9 iMac that tilted like a Surface Studio and worked with the Apple Pencil, I’d be very happy indeed.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: 38-inch iMac? Yum!
Tilting like some also-ran company’s non-selling, Window PC junk? We wouldn’t bet on it.
We can all hope but it seems unlikely to happen. Apple are more interested in phones and social issues than the iMac.
Sad…..
But probably true.
Threadripper iMac 32″.
Gewirtz wants a Microsoft Surface with an Apple sticker. Most Mac owners have no desire to draw on the screen, which is why Apple has repeated said the Mac will remain a precise mouse-controlled interface.
Mac owners have been repeatedly asking Apple to relegate the all-in-one format to the low end market, and add/update/offer new thicker and more user friendly desktop and portable Macs suitable for professionals which easily enable any monitor or monitor array choice, ability for 3rd party repair, multiple drive bays, etc. This year the pent up demand for any update to desktops is enormous, but it is not focused on iMacs. iMac owners know they’re getting a sealed appliance, an immobile laptop designed primarily to look like Ive thinks it should, not for usability or performance. If you’re willing to be locked into a glued computer screen with little to no upgradeability, Apple is happy to charge a premium price.
Non-fashionista iMac users wish that Apple kept them up to date with current chips, made it thicker and more user serviceable for GPU and RAM, put the accessory ports on the front so the user could dock peripherals easily, and kept the price in line.
It should take very little effort for Apple to do this every other year for each of its Mac models. Unfortunately Cook, Schiller, and the rest are tone deaf. They are too busy analyzing supercar paint colors for the next iPhones to bother listening to Mac owners.
This autumn, if Apple doesn’t have a very compelling lineup to reveal including a Mac Mini, a mid tower Mac, and/or a big workstation Mac Pro, then Apple will have hell to pay to get the pros back to its camp. If no iMac announcement is made, nobody will say anything. They all know Ive’s thinness obsession has reached the limits of acceptable usability, there is nothing more on a Mac to cut if you want to retain customers.
An iMac with a Wacom Cintiq built in? To quote a monkey “I like it, I like it a lot”.
My wish list:
I7 and i9 options
up to 4TB SSD option with door
up to 64gb RAM with door
Choice of Nvidia or ATI
2 TB3
4 USB3-C back
2 USB3-A side
SD side
Retina screen- I’d be good with “just a 27er” but a 34 or bigger would be nice.
Tilt AND rotate
Keyboard with 2 USB 3 ports on it.
AND all that under $4000 with base model just over $2K.
Dream on…….
You had me at the “with door” we def do need some upgradability in an iMac – Please Apple in the name of Jobs!
Make easier to repair. No reason for it to be so difficult to repair. It is done on purpose and is wrong! With things being almost 1 layer now, it should be a few screws and access to everything and easy to replace.
“38-inch 3840×1600” is non-retina.
zero interest.
this sort of gives an idea of glued in vs upgradeable:
Article ““top-of-the-line 2013 27-inch iMac … It’s also got a GeForce GTX 780M with 4 GB of GDDR5 ”
Typing this on a 2010 Cheese Grater Mac Pro upgraded with a GTX 980 Ti which userbenchmark.com averaging a battery of tests says is 57% faster than the iMacs 780.
Until recently my upgraded MP is probably faster in GPU than any Mac out there including the various Macbook ‘Pros’ . (Not against mobile devices , I have a MBP and an iPad Pro 12.9 but just stating the facts).
The upgradable pro desktop has simply been missing since the last 2012 MP. (I have a running 2012 as well).
btw I have a 27 inch Cintiq connected to my MP and another big monitor
flexibility is better. if I was a PC user i would never get a surface. So many powerful boxes with upgradeable GPUs etc you can link to a Cintiq.
Indeed I was in the loop there until he went on about tilting screen. The surface studio is irrelevant for a reason it’s a dead end that’s over priced and under powered if Apple copied that they would b rideculed for good reason in a way that the Microsoft fanbase are incapable of doing in any objective manner. Only creative tw-ts want to keep adjusting their work space between 2 totally different work modes as their creative juices flow and only mind dead programmer/engineers, or those beyond a one dimensional niche few would think it otherwise. Totally impractical and unimaginative beyond that very limited space. True imagination is required beyond a rediculous puck based interface just because it simply looks momentarily new. Apple should by comparison never try to appeal to the easily led and fooled.
My dream iMac or Mac is my current top iMac 27 I use every day combined with my custom build PC including the current Intel 8-core I want and the new Nvidia card I need. I use the PC when I need the horsepower side by side on my desk. In total, I may have invested more than an entry-level iMac Pro but I won’t need to ask Apple for the tools I need. However, I would prefer to have just one powerful machine.
Let’s be realistic. Not even the iMac Pro is easy to open and people are paying very serious money for them. The Cintiq iMac is a very specialized design, but of course, Apple should have one.
For all those Surface Hub haters – doubtful you have spent any time with it. It’s pretty cool – and I’m not a designer. I have to work with both mac and pc – and have both at home. I would love an iMac that rotates and has better screen adjustment – and damn it – put those connectors where I can reach them. And if I’m wishing – some better speakers.