iMac 24–inch
The all–new iMac 24–inch is an incredible machine to behold, but it has some limitations
From $1,299 From Apple, apple.com
Features 23.5–inch Retina display (4480x2520), Apple M1 chip, 8GB unified memory (16GB available), 256GB storage (512GB, 1TB, and 2TB available), 802.11ax Wi–Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, 2x Thunderbolt 4/USB Type–C ports (4x on the upgrade model)
The Apple iMac 24–inch (M1, 2021) is all–new internally and externally. The characteristics of Apple’s M1 chip mean that the computer can be just 11.5mm thick, not including stand, but still pack in eight cores of potent processing power — and run silently.
The 4.5K resolution screen is larger than the 21.5–inch model it replaces, but the whole unit is only 2cm wider and 1cm taller — and much less voluminous. It is, simply, much more computer in a smaller space. Mostly.
There are a few changes in the iMac 24–inch that won’t be as welcome as the upgrades we’ve mentioned, and there’s one notable thing that hasn’t changed but really should have. But overall it’s maybe the most exciting Mac in years, and with its seven jaunty colors it feels less like a new electronic appliance and more like a computer from the days when getting a new Mac was cool and thrilling.
PRICE AND SPEC
The iMac 24–inch starts from $1,299, which gets you an M1 with an eight– core processor, seven–core GPU, 8GB RAM, 256GB storage, and two USB Type–C/Thunderbolt 4 ports; and it’s available in green, pink, blue and silver. However, this version doesn’t come with Touch ID fingerprint security on its keyboard, or an Ethernet port on its power brick.
If you step up to the $1,499 version you get the M1 with an eight–core GPU, two additional USB Type–C ports (making four total), keyboard with Touch ID, and an Ethernet port.
From here, you can customize the iMac 24–inch in two ways: RAM and storage. Neither can be upgraded in the future by the user, so you’ll need to buy smart. The RAM can be upgraded to 16GB, but that’s the maximum. The storage can be raised from 256GB up to a maximum of 2TB.
FEATURES AND WHAT’S NEW
What’s new in the 24–inch iMac compared to the 21.5–inch model it replaces? Literally everything. Not a single aspect remains unchanged.
Let’s start with the screen, which is a 23.5–inch, 4480x2520 display — Apple is calling this “4.5K,” which makes sense if you know that 4K just means “any screen around 4,000 pixels wide.” This one has slightly more pixels. Easy! Apple has done 24–inch screens before, but not since 2009, so this is a blast from the past.
The screen offers 500 nits of typical brightness and P3 wide color gamut support, both of which are big improvements on your average
monitor, which is likely to be about half as bright and without such wide color support. You also get Apple’s True Tone system, which adjusts the colors based on the lighting in your room and makes a big difference to eye comfort, we think.
The screen has always been one of the big draws for iMacs because you don’t find a huge number of 21– to 24–inch 4K displays at all, let alone at this level of quality; and if you do they cost most of what this entire machine costs, without adding all the actual computer parts.
For power, you’ve got the Apple M1 chip in an iMac for the first time, replacing the Intel processors and graphics used in the previous model. That’s an eight–core processor, with four high–power performance cores and four lower–speed “efficiency” cores. You can get it with 8GB or 16GB of RAM — a drop from the 32GB max that the older model offered, which will be annoying for some pro users, though it isn’t a problem for the average buyer.
The M1 also provides graphics, with seven or eight cores of GPU power depending on the model you choose. It also includes a “Neural Engine,” which can be used by apps that include machine
WHAT’S NEW IN THE 24–INCH iMAC? EVERYTHING. NOT A SINGLE ASPECT REMAINS UNCHANGED
learning tools to massively speed up tasks — this is niche, but some Mac apps are starting to make good use of it.
At the top is a 1080p Full HD webcam, which uses the M1 chip for image processing, though disappointingly it doesn’t include the useful “Center Stage” feature seen in the iPad Pro (2021), which keeps you in the middle of frame even if you move around. Apple pushes this iMac as being as much for the kitchen or living room as an office desk, and this would be a really useful feature.
There’s also now a better array of mics that Apple describes as “studio–quality,” which will always remain as slightly wishful thinking when the average home office is lacking several other crucial qualities that studios have, but should still help to pick your voice and avoid other sounds around you.
The speakers are one of the most interesting upgrades. There are six drivers in total, with three in each of the bottom corners. The really clever part is the use of two woofers in each side, positioned exactly to oppose each other (one facing forward, one back). Force– opposing drivers are used to cancel out residual vibrations from powerful speakers, so you can put loud and impactful sound into something where you don’t want shaking to happen — they’re used in high-end subwoofers for home cinema, and in Apple’s 16–inch MacBook Pro, as well as here.
These are then paired with a dedicated high–end driver. In combination, it means a lot of speaker power, and Apple says it can create a “Spatial Audio” effect, which is Apple’s name for 3D audio.
Finally, let’s talk connections. Other than the RAM, this is where you might think that things have gone backwards. Whichever version of the iMac you get, you only get USB Type–C/Thunderbolt 4 ports, plus a 3.5mm headphone jack. No regular USB, no SD card slot, no regular HDMI port. You do get an Ethernet port on the more expensive model.
The reason appears to be simple: the body is too thin for them. The problem is also simple: if you’re replacing an existing iMac with this lovely new one and you have USB hard drives or other accessories, you’ll also need to buy a way to connect those peripherals to this machine.
In principle, we don’t mind Apple moving ahead with its all–USB–C future, it’s just frustrating that there’s no hub or solution to this problem that’s actually as good–looking as the iMac itself. You get a sleek computer and then you might need to drastically un–sleek it, but there are at least plenty of options in that regard.
The iMac supports up to Wi–Fi 6 for connectivity (802.11ax and before), and includes Bluetooth 5.0 too.
In the box, you get the keyboard and mouse or trackpad (your choice) in a matching hue to your iMac. Pleasingly, the included USB–C to Lightning cable (for charging the mouse and keyboard) is color–coded too, with the same lovely braided finish as the power cable.
DESIGN AND ACCESSORIES
We’ve already talked about loving the overall look of the new iMac 24–inch, especially the colors and how thin it is, but let’s get into the design nitty gritty that’s not so obvious.
Apple’s images don’t show this well, but the front chin of the iMac is actually made of glass and is a seamless piece with the white bezels and actual screen above it. This means that there are effectively three different tones of the same color on the machine — the dark aluminium color used on the sides and back, the lighter aluminium color used on the stand, and then the lightest version of the color, on the glass.
We say the glass is the lightest, but it depends — being glass and slightly translucent, light bounces on and in it differently. This is most obvious in bright sunlight; in darker settings it looks closer to the stand’s hue.
The included cables have lighter versions of the color in their braiding, and look great. The power cable also attaches magnetically, which is neat.
No assembly is required for the stand, and the lightness of the screen makes it really easy to adjust the angle, generally. Having said that, though, the base of the iMac isn’t especially good at holding itself still on smooth surfaces, so on a classic white Ikea desk we found that trying to re–angle the screen usually meant a bit of accidental sliding around.
The keyboard, mouse and trackpad come in the same aluminium color as the stand of the iMac, plus white to match the display bezel.
The keyboard is lovely, needing only a little pressure, with clear feedback and a comfortable amount of travel. It’s a good size, too. Having the Touch ID button in the top–right is something we’ve wanted for ever, and it works perfectly — the only downside is it’s an optional extra ($50) on the base model.
Apple’s Magic Mouse is an ongoing design question, with the question
THE iMAC’S KEYBOARD IS LOVELY, WITH CLEAR FEEDBACK AND A COMFORTABLE AMOUNT OF TRAVEL
being “Why isn’t this better?” In its basic mouse usage, it works fine, though there are plenty that sit more neatly in the hand and offer better feedback when you click. We don’t like the double–rail pads along the bottom — it feels much less smooth over almost any surface than other mice we’ve tried.
The fact that it has a touch surface all over for scrolling and other gestures is… okay. Scrolling works pretty well, other gestures are hit and miss. But the final annoying flourish is that it’s impossible to charge and use at the same time, as the port is right on the bottom. You can get a long period of use from a quick charge of just a few minutes, but that’s not really the point. This is the least–changed aspect of the iMac from the last version, and we don’t know why Apple can’t come up with a better mouse design.
If you pay a bit more, you can swap it for the Magic Trackpad. It’s got a lovely big area — much larger than any laptop — which makes it easy to use for dragging stuff across the big display. And you can charge and use it at the same time!
PERFORMANCE
The story with Apple’s M1 processor is that it’s more than powerful enough for most people. There’s no variation of speed or number of cores because there doesn’t need to be: it’s more powerful than the highest–end chip in the Intel– powered 16–inch MacBook Pro, and that’s more than enough for the vast majority of people. So no worries there.
In Geekbench 5 the iMac scores 1745 in the single–core benchmark and 7660 in the multi–core benchmark. Compare that with the eight–core Intel Core i9 16– inch MacBook Pro, which earns 1100 and 6900 in those tests respectively.
For some high–end pros this still won’t be enough processor power, but if that’s the case this slimline machine was never really the one for you anyway. Most tasks you use a computer for are single–core, so having such serious performance in that area is great. And in practice, the iMac is wonderfully fast to do everything,
from booting up to loading apps. It doesn’t quite hit the dream of making everything as instant as it is on your phone — it’s still dealing with a different, older style of software after all — but it’s among the speediest machines we’ve ever tested.
Running intensive tasks such as video transcoding reveals that it won’t run 100% silent all the time — when you really push it, you’ll definitely hear some significant fan noise. But that was the only time the iMac made any noise during our time with it.
It’s a similar story to the processor specs when it comes to RAM. The 8GB it comes with as standard is miserly in cost terms, but will be enough for a home user. Being able to upgrade to 16GB gives solid headroom for people with more advanced ambitions, though Apple is charging far more than is reasonable. It’s a shame that 32GB isn’t an option, because there is a niche of people for whom this is powerful enough otherwise, but need more than 16GB of RAM.
Graphics is the area that the iMac 24–inch could be improved. The M1 is graphically very impressive inside the MacBook Air, but in a desktop it feels relatively weak. Obviously, the GPU is still capable — there’s enough power to help make standard photo or video editing a breeze, and it can run slightly older games at decent resolutions, even when the games haven’t been optimized for the M1 yet. But it’s not powerful in the overall scheme of desktop parts — in Geekbench 5’s computation benchmarks, the entry– level GPU in the previous 27–inch iMac is 50% more powerful.
SCREEN, SPEAKERS, CAMERA
The iMac’s screen has been one of its crown jewels for years, and this version is no different. It’s incredibly detailed at normal viewing distances, though even if you squish your face into it, it’s hard to see the pixel seams. Its brightness of 500 nits is higher than almost all consumer monitors, which are often around half the brightness or slightly more. This makes a huge difference for visibility — it not only makes everything more vibrant but it also just cuts through bright sunlight better too, making things clearer and easier to see during the day. The colors are vibrant and punchy, it offers decent contrast, and detail is impeccable. This is pro–level stuff, though anyone will appreciate it, with the only downside being that it’s a little on the reflective side.
The new speakers punch well about their weight and provide a true feeling of separation between left and right, producing sound that’s bigger than just the width of the iMac. What’s impressive is how robust they can be for handling bass in music while also ensuring that treble stands out clearly. There’s equal clarity and depth.
However, as for the “Spatial Audio” feature and the idea of it offering a kind of surround sound for movies, it’s less impressive. All the same advantages are here in that the sound is generally rich and sturdy, but the voices can be a little lost in the mix. It’s more like doubly effective stereo than the true 3D effect you get from Spatial Audio on the AirPods Pro or Max.
The built–in webcam works impressively in terms of visibility.
IT’S A MUCH–NEEDED REDESIGN WITH LOADS OF POWER, A STUNNING SCREEN FOR PRO WORK, AND SOME NEAT EXTRA FEATURES
It handles mixtures of light better than even a good dedicated webcam, helping dark areas to appear light; and it appears to add a little extra warmth to the image, which is not unwelcome. However, the image was also softer than the Logitech webcam we compared it to, and so doesn’t feel like it’s fully taking advantage of its Full HD resolution.
The iMac 24–inch is a fun, fast, desirable desktop, with a gorgeous screen. There’s more than enough power here for the average user, and the M1 chip is capable enough to allow some major headroom beyond that — complex video editing and similar tasks are well within what it can handle.
It’s a great package, its only irritations being the lack of port variation, limited GPU power, and Apple’s cheap approach to RAM. Again, though, none of these will impact people using it for standard home tasks, with the exception of the ports.
It’s not cheap, but the iMac has always been good value considering its screen — a display this good would cost well over half the price on its own.
The biggest competitor to the iMac is the MacBook Air (M1, 2020), MacBook Pro 13–inch (M1, 2020), or Mac Mini M1 with your own screen. You’ll struggle to get the same quality of display as the iMac, but you could put together a cheaper package. The iMac 27–inch is still around too. Powered by Intel, it has a 5K display that’s just as good as the 24–inch version, and offers lots of configurability and ports.
THE BOTTOM LINE. A much–needed and brilliant redesign of the iMac, with loads of power, a stunning screen for pro work, and some neat extra features. But the lower–price machine doesn’t offer quite the full experience and it’s awkward for ports.