iMac

Ignored in 2018, the iMac is ready for a change

Apple’s New York event in October brought no mention of the all–in–one desktop. Barely a year old and still extremely quick, the iMac Pro arguably wasn’t due an overhaul, but the current consumer line–up dates back to June 2017. Its seventh–generation Intel i5 and i7 processors were phased out months ago by other computer makers. That’s not to say they’re slow — all but the cheapest are quad– core, and the top–end 4.2GHz i7–7700 is quite a beast — but eighth–gen silicon, with up to six cores, has shown significant increases made to performance.

Assuming it doesn’t dump Intel just yet (see next page), Apple could skip straight to ninth–gen in 2019. An 8–core i9‑9900 is already available, requiring only 5 per cent more power than the i7–7700; an i7–9700 and 6–core i5–9600 follow. But limited stock has inflated the i9–9900’s price, and it’s hard to tell how long it’ll be until these chips are ready in quantity. As for the iMac Pro, any update will have to wait for the Cascade Lake versions of its Xeon W processors, now expected late in 2019.

So much for the inside. What we don’t know is whether Apple has a revamp of the six–year–old ‘slim’ iMac design up its sleeve — and we’ll come back to that on page 33.