Mid-range Mac setup

A Mac that sprints through all your work and play will cost a little more. So how much, exactly?

Configure your iMac 27-inch

There are two versions of the 2019 iMac 27-inch with an i5 processor. Both are six-core, but the 3.1GHz model uses the Core i5-8600, while the 3.7GHz configuration has the newer i5-9600K. With no big jump in architecture, the clock speeds give a fair indication of the difference in performance.

But this isn’t the only reason to pay the extra £500 for the 3.7GHz model. It gets you an 8GB Radeon Pro 580X rather than a 4GB 570X, a significant upgrade: the extra graphics memory will enable more ambitious creative software, plugins and 3D games, while overall processing power is over 50% greater. These Radeon Pro X GPUs (sold with similar specs as Radeon RX to non-Apple users) are still behind the likes of Nvidia’s latest RTX 20-series; you can take a step up to a Radeon Pro Vega 48 for £450, while swapping the CPU for an eight-core i9-9900K costs £400. At this point, consider the iMac Pro (see p30).

Speed and storage

The 3.7GHz model also doubles the Fusion Drive to 2TB, which means its SSD element rises from 32 to 128GB. This should bring a noticeable speed boost, and also makes it viable to ditch Fusion – which merges the two drives to optimise access speed – and use the SSD and HD separately (see bit.ly/splitfusion). External storage is effectively unlimited in speed and capacity; there are only two Thunderbolt 3 ports, but you can daisy-chain drives or add a hub.

The default 8GB of memory is too little for any serious creative work or multitasking between demanding apps, but the iMac 27-inch has a hatch to upgrade this yourself (see bit.ly/ installmemmac). There are four slots, two filled with 4GB modules by default, so you can reach 40GB, enough for most purposes, with a 2x16GB kit (around £140, versus Apple’s £200 for 16GB).

Middle ground We’ve picked a pricier iMac 27-inch configuration for the reasons explained below, but the base model is also a good buy at £1,749.

See sharp High key Nifty shades Bright slide The Touch Bar, now with a proper key, displays controls relevant to each app, like picking colours or scrubbing a video timeline. oe Ports of pain The Retina display is up to Apple’s usual high standards, supporting the wide P3 colour space. At this size, the resolution is plenty. Apple has replaced the butterfly design with the thicker Magic Keyboard, bringing the 13-inch into line with the 16-inch and Air. The top 13-inch configuration, from £1,799, gains two extra Thunderbolt 3 ports on the right; other models just have two on the left. Dongle dang With only Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports and no SD slot, you can’t eke out storage using an unobtrusive card or compact USB-A stick. The 13-inch comes in silver or the more pro-looking Space Grey, but not the Air’s Gold or the discontinued 12-inch’s Rose Gold.