Budget Mac setup

You can get lots of use out of even the most affordable Mac – but which one should it be?

Configure your iMac 21.5-inch

The iMac 21.5-inch is good value considering its built-in 4K screen, which supports the wider DCI-P3 colour space as well as sRGB. All configurations include an AMD Radeon 5 graphics card.

The base i3-8100 processor is quad-core and will handle a wide range of tasks. The cheapest models run a slow 5,400rpm mechanical hard disk; swapping this for a 256GB SSD is expensive, at £200, and you’d probably need more space. You could stick with the internal HD and add an external SSD via the Thunderbolt 3 ports, which also accept USB-C connections. Using

Disk Utility, format this drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) with GUID Partition Map, then download macOS Catalina from the Mac App Store and install it on this drive. Using this as your startup drive will maximise the speed gain, and you can use the internal HD as additional storage.

Other models have a Fusion Drive – a hard disk boosted by a flash memory cache – but this falls short of SSD performance. The default 8GB of memory will be enough for everyday purposes; the 16GB option is overpriced at £200 and the iMac 21.5-inch has to be disassembled to upgrade the memory later. The iMac was last updated in March 2019, and we’d hope to see specs bumped soon.

Screen queens

Current iMacs support one external display at up to 5K or two at up to 4K via Thunderbolt 3, which is compatible with USB-C and can be used with DisplayPort, DVI and HDMI adaptors. The Mac mini can drive up to three 4K monitors, or one 5K via Thunderbolt 3 plus one 4K on HDMI, while the MacBook Air can use two 4K monitors or one at up to 6K. All screens are supported at 60Hz.

Back to basics An older 1080p 21.5-inch iMac is still available at £1,049 with a 2.3GHz dual-core i5-7360U processor and integrated Iris Plus Graphics 640.

Maxed out Power vacuum Screen saver Coming soon? Twin peeps The Air’s energy-efficient 10th-gen Intel Core i3, i5 and i7 processors aren’t as fast as their counterparts in desktop Macs. The 13.3-inch IPS non-touch display offers accurate sRGB and is as sharp as the MacBook Pro 13-inch, but lacks its P3 wide colour. In Silver, Gold or Space Grey, the Air is more tapered than the MacBook Pro 13-inch and slightly lighter, but the same width and depth. Configurations go up to an i7, 16GB memory and 2TB SSD, but all rely on integrated Iris Plus graphics. No components can be upgraded later. Scissor sister The backlit scissor-switch Magic Keyboard, replacing the problematic butterfly design, feels great, as does the glass Force Touch trackpad. The Mac mini hasn’t changed much since 2018. We’d hope for an update with next-gen Intel CPUs once they appear later this year.