Preview: Apple iMac

Apple's iMac is the archetypal all-in-one computer – who can forget the earlier generations of these with their giant CRT monitors and translucent highlighter colours?

Earlier this year, Apple released a refresh of their entire range of iMacs. Visually they appear identical to the previous generation, but a few tweaks under the hood have given them a new lease of life.

Apple has yet to provide us with a test unit, but we can give you a full rundown of what to expect from the new line-up.

Firstly, all iMacs now feature Intel quad-core processors from their Sandy Bridge range. Aside from the ultra expensive six-core Gulftown processors also from Intel, these are the fastest desktop chips on the market right now.

There are four pre-configured iMac variations available to order – two with 21.5in 1920 x 1080 screens and two with 27in 2560 x 1440 screens. The baseline model 21.5in iMac ships with a Core i5 2.5GHz processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory, 500GB hard drive space and AMD Radeon HD 6750M graphics card with 512MB video memory.
For an extra $500 you can upgrade this base model to a 2.7GHz processor, 1TB hard drive and Radeon HD 6770M GPU. Buying the upgrade model also ‘unlocks’ the ability to configure several options such as going for a 2.8GHz Core i7 CPU (this range has HyperThreading whereas Core i5 does not), adding a 256GB SSD and/or 2TB 7200rpm hard drive.

Similarly, the 27in model also comes in a baseline or upgraded version. The baseline model packs exactly the same hardware as the upgraded 21.5in model (except for the screen obviously), and the $500 upgrade gives you a 3.1GHz Core i5 processor and a Radeon HD 6970M 1GB video card.

Specs aside, the main differences between iMacs and the other all-in-ones we have reviewed are the operating systems and the monitors. All iMacs run on Apple’s OS X operating system, as opposed to Microsoft’s Windows 7 (although you can manually install Windows onto an iMac to run instead of or as well as OS X).

As for the monitors, they do not offer any touchscreen capability. You do however get the option of choosing either an Apple Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad, both of which have multi-touch surfaces for gestures like scrolling and swiping – the trackpad even supports more complicated gestures like three and four-finger swiping.
The monitors themselves are top quality nonetheless. They use the same IPS monitors as the 2010 iMacs, so beautifully accurate colours and wide viewing angles are guaranteed. None of the models, however, come with a Blu-ray player to show off HD movies on the screens which is a shame.

For me, the main attraction would be the baseline 27in model. Screens of this size and type with a resolution of 2560 x 1440 retail for approximately $700 more than smaller IPS screens, yet you are only paying $300 on top of the similarly-specced 21.5in upgraded iMac. This amount of screen real estate is great for any type of work, be it documents, spreadsheets, graphics or video editing.

So if you prefer an OS X computer, don’t need touchscreen capabilities, and appreciate a quality screen, the 2011 iMac models provide great options at surprisingly reasonable prices.