M1 imac: Which model should you order?
Our guide to help you buy the one you need. Roman Loyola reports
As we’ve seen Apple has launched a new M1 imac, and if you’re like us, you’ll immediately wanted to buy one. So follow our guide and spend your money wisely.
WHAT’S STANDARD ON ALL THREE MODELS
Before we start getting into the differences, let’s take a look at the features that are the same on all three models of the 24in imac.
• 4.5K Retina display (support for 1 billion colours, 500 nits brightness, P3 colour gamut, True Tone)
• M1 processor
• 8GB RAM (16GB upgrade available)
• 1080p Facetime HD camera
• Six speaker system
• Three-microphone array
• 3.5mm audio jack
• Wi-fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0
That’s a lot of computer no matter which model you buy. But there are key differences between the £1,249, £1,449 and £1,649 imac models.
DESIGN AND COLOURS
All of the imac models have the same design, measuring 547x461x147mm and weighing about 4.5kg, which is impressive for such a powerful desktop PC. But the colour options are different, with the higher configurations getting extra options.
£1,249 M1 imac: Blue, green, pink, silver
£1,449 M1 imac: Blue, green, pink, silver, orange, purple, yellow
£1,649 M1 imac: Blue, green, pink, silver, orange, purple, yellow
Our pick: If you absolutely, positively must have an orange imac, you absolutely, positively must spend the extra cash. (We’ll admit it does look fabulous.)
GRAPHICS (GPU)
All three models have an 8-core M1 CPU, but the graphics processor (GPU) is different in the £1,249 option.
£1,249 M1 imac: 8 CPU cores; 7 GPU cores
£1,449 M1 imac: 8 CPU cores; 8 GPU cores
£1,649 M1 imac: 8 CPU cores; 8 GPU cores
The £1,249 imac has one fewer GPU core than the other two models. To get an idea of how the 7-core and 8-core GPU compare, let’s take a look at benchmarks from our Macbook
Air review. We tested both the £999 Macbook Air with a 7-core GPU and the £1,249 Macbook Air 8-core GPU. Here’s how the Geekbench test results compare.
Geekbench 5 Opencl
7-core GPU Macbook Air: 16,804 8-core GPU Macbook Air: 18,462
Geekbench 5 Metal
7-core GPU Macbook Air: 19,283 8-core GPU Macbook Air: 20,960
Opencl and Metal are frameworks that are used to render graphics. These tests show how fast each GPU can perform. The 8-core GPU shows a 10 per cent increase over the 7-core GPU in Geekbench’s Opencl test. With Metal, the improvement is 8 per cent. Keep in mind that these are benchmark tests designed to stress out and make heavy demands of the GPU, so while you may notice a slight difference if you’re playing an actionpacked video game, when it comes to everyday use – web browsing, email, editing your photos, and so on – you won’t notice the difference at all.
Our pick: You’re getting a great chip and solid graphics performance no matter which model you buy, so the GPU shouldn’t be the overwhelming factor when deciding which 24in imac to buy.
THUNDERBOLT AND USB PORTS
All three 24in imac models have two Thunderbolt/usb 4 ports. However, that’s all you get on the £1,249 model. The £1,449 and £1,649 models also have a pair of USB 3 ports, which will be useful if you have a few peripheral devices to connect. None of the imac models have any USB-A ports, which is disappointing, but they all have a headphone jack on the left side.
Our take: Obviously, if you are only connecting one or two items to your Mac, two ports will suffice. But two ports on a desktop machine are extremely limited, so you’ll likely
need to invest in a Thunderbolt hub, a device that is essentially a box that has several different ports on it, acting as an adapter for your devices. For example, we reviewed the Corsair TBT100 Thunderbolt 3 Dock (£270 from fave.co/2qwulku), that you could connect to the imac’s Thunderbolt port, and it will then provide you with two USB-A ports, two USB-C ports, a gigabit Ethernet connector, two HDMI video jacks and an SD card slot.
STORAGE
The imac has the usual storage upgrades, going up to 2TB on the higher configurations.
Standard configuration
£1,249 M1 imac: 256GB £1,449 M1 imac: 256GB £1,649 M1 imac: 512GB
Upgrade options
£1,249 M1 imac: 512GB, 1TB £1,449 M1 imac: 512GB, 1TB, 2TB
£1,649 M1 imac: 1TB, 2TB
Our pick: With cloud storage (icloud, Dropbox, Box, Onedrive) becoming more prevalent, a 256GB SSD will probably be enough for most people. Content creators who deal with large files will want more onboard storage, which means they’ll probably want to upgrade to one of the higher models anyway.
GIGABIT ETHERNET
Most people are using Wi-fi connections to a network and the Internet, but power users will prefer a wired connection with an Ethernet port to ensure top speeds and low latency. The 24in imac doesn’t have a gigabit Ethernet jack on it per se, but you do get one on the power adapter. As you can see below, Apple moved the port to the power brick, as you can see below.
That Ethernet-equipped adapter doesn’t come with the £1,249 imac,
however. You can opt to get one, but it’ll cost extra.
Our pick: We’re not sure how much the Ethernet-equipped adapter will be, but since Apple charges £79 for the 96-watt USB-C Power Adapter, we figure it’ll cost at least £50 on top of the £1,249 imac. So if you really need wired Internet, you’ll probably want at least some of the other features on the £1,449 model too.
TOUCH ID
Touch ID is finally on a desktop Mac. Apple made a keyboard specifically for the 24in imac in seven colours with Apple’s fingerprint sensor in the top right corner. With Touch ID enabled, any time you need to enter a password, a prompt appears and you simply lay your finger on the Touch ID button to authenticate. However, the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID is only available on the £1,449 and £1,649 models. Unfortunately, the £1,249 model does not include Touch ID, which is disappointing. Instead, it has a standard wireless Magic Keyboard that can be upgraded to a Touch ID keyboard for a £50 fee.
Our pick: We’re big fans of Touch ID on our Macbooks, so we definitely recommend getting it, whether you pay extra or jump to the £1,449 model. However, while a £50 fee isn’t a huge expense, it represents 25 per cent of the difference between the lowend imac and the middle option. So you might want to just spring for the higher model.
VERDICT
It’s nice that the 24in imac starts at the same £1,249 as it did before, but with just a £200 difference between it and the next model, we’d recommend saving up for the higher-priced one. The £1,449 24in imac has the right combinations of features for the price: You get a total of four ports for connecting cables and devices, the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, gigabit Ethernet, more colour choices and a little bit of a boost with graphics processing. It’s hard to quantify the difference without knowing how much the add-ons cost, but it certainly feels like more than £200.