Apple imac 27in (2017)
Good computer, greatat monitor
5K 4-star monitor and PC in one handy package
Yes, it’s expensive, and £1,7499 only gets you 8GB of memory and a 1TB Fusion Drive – boosted by a 32GB SSD – which is unlikely to satisfy users spendingending this kind of money. Doubling eitherther of those adds a frankly outrageous £180. Just as well you can still pop in yourur own memory chips (two 8GB modulesdules would cost under £140 from Crucial or Kingston, giving a sensiblele 24GB) or plug in fast externalal drives.
So why even consider the imac? Because you’re payingg for the fantastic monitor. Apple’s 5K display is ridiculouslylously sharp and bright, and covers the DCI-P3 colour space, as used to edit Hollywoodwood films, which encompasses 25 per cent more colours than SRGB. You’ll need compatible programs such as Lightroom (£10 a month with Photoshop from Adobe, www.snipca.com/24921) to take advantage, but other programs appear correctly in SRGB. You’d pay £1,000 or more for a similar monitor alone. It’s a shame there’s no input to use the 5K screen with a laptop, but the imac can be used with two additional 4K monitors or one 5K.
Intel’s 3.4GHZ Kaby Lake i5-7500 processor is standard, and not especially impressive for a top-end system. But macos, Apple’s answer to Windows, is efficient enough to feel speedy, and even tasks like video editing are do-able, helped by the Fusion Drive, which gave us fast read speeds, and a 4GB AMD Radeon Pro 570 graphics card. The 570 is comparable to an Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060, except here it’s been underclocked to stop it overheating. It’ll cope with the few games available on macos, and gives compatible features such as video effects a good boost. If you need more, though, an i7 and 8GB Radeon Pro 580 bump up the price to £2,429. The imac can also run Windows 10, but you’d have to buy your own copy (from £75).
The four USB ports on the back (pictured below left) are all USB 3.0, not the faster 3.1, so you’d want to daisy-chain external storage from the two Thunderbolt 3 Type-c ports. These connect USB 3.1, Thunderbolt drives and Displayport monitors with simple cables or HDMI, DVI and VGA screens with adapters. There’s also a Gigabit Ethernet port and 802.11ac Wi-fi. Apple’s flat Magic Keyboard comes without a numeric keypad – that’s an extra £30 – and if you want a Magic Trackpad instead or the gesture-sensing Magic Mouse, it’s £50 more.
Yyou’re’ payingi ffor the monitor, which is ridiculously sharp
VERDICT: This is an effective multifunction printer, and fast in the tasks where it matters most, but missing features and pricey inks might put you off
★★★☆☆
ALTERNATIVE: HP Officejet Pro 6960 £80 With similar features and limitations, this costs less to run, at under 6p per page or maybe less with HP’S Instant Ink subscriptionon