“Apple’s refreshed its iMac for 2019 and it looks awfully familiar,” Lori Grunin writes for CNET. “That’s no surprise. The company couldn’t figure out how to bring a charging mat to market because of its dysfunctional obsession with a specific, thin-uber-alles design aesthetic. Meanwhile the design of its larger computing hardware — MacBooks and iMacs — hasn’t significantly changed in years and we’re still waiting for a functional replacement for the trash can Mac Pro.”
MacDailyNews Take: Tim Cook’s Apple so stupidly leads with its chin, that it deserves these punches in the mouth. Speaking of chins, iMac’s Leno-esque lower jaw fairly begs for a shave after years neglect.
“The iMac continues to be a fine system that runs fast given its components thanks to Mac OS,” Grunin writes. “And since the prices haven’t changed while the innards have, the base 27-inch configuration is a good value, if an uninspiring one.”
“The base 27-inch model is a reasonable configuration for the money. If you want something more powerful, I’d suggest a big bump to the Pro 580-based model, with a Core i7 and 16GB memory, at $2,700,” Grunin writes. “For in-between configurations you most likely won’t see significant performance increases that merit spending much more, unless you switch completely to SSD from the Fusion drive or increase the amount of memory.”
“To Apple’s credit, while the air blowing out the back vent got hot — about 105 degrees Farenheit — the surrounding metal never did,” Grunin writes. “I’m not saying Apple should turn the iMac into a big, roomy system. But imagine what Apple could do if it didn’t insist on cramming fast new parts into a thin, stuffy cabinet.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, the new iMacs are fine systems, albeit uninspiring ones. They are very fast and certainly recommended, but a new, improved design would be welcome next time around, for sure. Hopefully that happens sooner than later, but when it comes to the current Apple management and Macs, unfortunately, life is like a box of chocolates.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s new iMacs see significant performance increases over predecessors, benchmarks reveal – March 29, 2019
Benchmarks confirm Apple’s new top-of-the-line iMac is screamingly fast – March 28, 2019
Hands-on Apple’s 2019 iMac 4K; benchmarks, too! – March 27, 2019
Apple’s first iMac update in nearly two years packs quite the punch – March 20, 2019
Apple’s new 2019 iMacs are better for consumers and enterprise pros alike – March 19, 2019
Apple finally updates the iMac with significantly more powerful CPU and GPU options, no T2 chip – March 19, 2019
Apple updates iMac line with dramatic performance increases – March 19, 2019
Talk about a headline that says I don’t want this computer under any circumstances…
The bad news is that the low end is ridiculously expensive. The good news is that the high end is fiendishly fast even with Premiere.
Thanks for the share.
Make it easy to swap out RAM AND the HD.
Don’t make it so frickin’ thin that there are any heat issues.
Give me a port or two on the front/side where I can see them!
4.Explain to me again why the Mac mini can’t simply be a headless iMac with ALL the HD/RAM/GPU options of an iMac? Wouldn’t this make sense from a logistical point of view?
Wow MDN linking Cnet again. Those Cnet frustrated Apple wanna be. No wonder garbage are coming out of Cnet everytime they talk Apple, look who owns Cnet.
I am a boomer. And to have millennial insides that is a big compliment to me. 😆😆😆
Yeah Cnet has never been an Apple friend let’s be honest no matter how good the product objectivity to them would be better observed on a heavyweight boxer. It would certainly be good to have a design update but then MDN’s wish list was for a less obvious chin, well isn’t that sort of the equivalent of asking for a thinner MacBook everyone riles against. Yes an all screen design would be great visually no doubt but the present machine is probably the best looking around already so redesign for design sake isn’t a priority just a nice change of scenery for our expenditure. Making it look worse for the sake of change would be a far worse option.
An article written by a pundit, not a user. They are just looking for something new to write about. Apple would do well to ignore.
I use a late 2015 iMac, 4.0GHz i7, 32gb RAM and a 512gig SSD – the machine still screams, chews through 4k video in FCPX, track limit FAR above what I’ll ever use in Logic and, to me at least, looks great. Sure, a new design would be cool but this is far from a big clunk PC box. Could it be better? Sure. Am I dissatisfied? Nope.
I had an original G5 iMac – ordered at 6:30 AM just after it was launched. Had to wait weeks for it, but it was well worth it,
And the “chin”? That was for the power brick – kept it away from the display. Unless you want a brick sitting on the floor you are going to have a chin on the iMac. Learn to love it.
Let’s not forget about the ergonomic impact of removing the chin. You would need to have a longer arm to raise the screen up to an equivalent height, likely throwing out the weight balance and forcing a more extreme internal redesign.
You would also restrict the amount of rear space you have available for placement of the ports, forcing further cramming inside to accommodate them, especially considering the majority of the circuit boards are towards the bottom of the case.
There would be less surface area to dissipate heat, accommodate the cooling fans and power infrastructure and might force Apple to reduce the size of the impressive speakers that come with the iMac.
Lastly, it would remove an awesome marketing feature – the great big Apple icon on the front!