What to expect from this month’s new iMac

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rumored new iMac update
Still beautiful, but ready for a change.
Photo: Thomas Q/Unsplash

This week, serial rumor-tweeter CoinX predicted the imminent release of a new iMac and a new Mac mini. But what does that mean exactly? A giant, 30-inch iMac that looks like the Pro Display XDR? Apple’s first ARM-based Mac? Probably not. So what changes can we expect?

The 13-year-old iMac needs an update

The current iMac design is old. Really old. It debuted in 2007, and got slimmed down in 2012 to the current tapered-edge version. But it’s also still a great design. I’d love a new iMac that’s built into the beautiful Pro Display XDR chassis. But I’d settle for the same design as now, only with smaller bezels. And perhaps a bigger screen.

A bigger iMac?

Might a new ARM iMac look like this?
Imagine an iMac that looked like this.
Photo: Cult of Mac

Last year, a rumor made the rounds saying Apple was planning a 31.6-inch iMac, with a mini-LED screen. And just this week, Ben Lovejoy, writing for 9to5Mac, complained that the 27-inch iMac is too small. I disagree that we need a big jump in size. The 27-inch iMac is already a huge beast. But I would like the iMac’s body to stay the same size, and to replace those bezels with more pixels. In this way, it would be like the 11-inch iPad Pro, which did the same thing.

Storage, RAM and pricing

Really, though, I expect none of the above. After all, if brand-new iMacs were coming, we’d have heard rumors from the supply chain already. More likely this will be a simple spec bump and a rearrangement of the pricing structure. Currently, the 16-inch MacBook Pro comes with 16GB RAM as stock, whereas the iMac only gets 8GB. Also, the iMac still comes with a spinning hard drive.

I expect to see the end of the hard drive in the next iMac (except perhaps in the entry-level model, which is designed to sit on dentist reception desks). I also think Apple will add more RAM for the base model, and perhaps lower prices for upgrades to both SSD and RAM. Also welcome would be an internal redesign, using the iMac Pro’s superior cooling system to keep the new model cool and quiet.

Also, perhaps this is where Apple switches away from Intel to use AMD CPUs instead, as recent rumors imply.

After 10 years using the same old iMac. I’m in the market for a new one. Mine is as healthy as ever, and fast. But it is also incapable of running macOS Catalina, and lacks many modern features. If we see nothing more than a basic speed bump this month, I’ll probably upgrade. But really, I’d like something a little more modern, so I can use it for another 10 years.

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