M1 iMac is faster, thinner and more incredible than ever

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New M1 iMac
The new iMac goes on sale on April 30 in 7 new color options.
Photo: Apple

The world’s most popular all-in-one now runs on Apple Silicon. The all-new and beautifully colorful iMac, unveiled today at Apple’s Spring Loaded event, packs a blazing-fast M1 chip into an aluminum form factor that’s just 11.5mm thick.

The new 24-inch machine delivers significantly faster performance and more powerful graphics, but consumes less power than ever before. It’s also available with Touch ID — a first for a desktop Mac — and it goes on sale on April 30.

“M1 is a gigantic leap forward for the Mac, and today we’re excited to introduce the all-new iMac, the first Mac designed around the breakthrough M1 chip,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

“With its striking design in seven stunning colors, its immersive 4.5K Retina display, the best camera, mics, and speakers ever in a Mac, and Touch ID, combined with the amazing performance of M1 and the power of macOS Big Sur, the new iMac takes everything people love about iMac to an entirely new level.”

iMac picks up Apple Silicon

Apple Silicon, which debuted last year, has brought excitement back to what was becoming a somewhat boring Mac business. The M1 chip has made Apple’s notebooks and the Mac mini substantially faster, quieter, and more efficient than they’ve ever been in the past.

What’s more, Apple has ensured a rather seamless transition away from Intel. It has encouraged developers to embrace its own chips — and many already have — while introducing the Rosetta 2 platform that allows apps that haven’t yet been updating to run smoothly on Apple Silicon.

With no major hiccups to worry about, then, Mac fans have been waiting for Apple Silicon to expand into more machines. And it does that today with the all-new iMac — the first Apple desktop with an M1 chipset.

Super-sharp 4.5K Retina display

On the outside, the new iMac features an aluminum enclosure that’s familiar but also completely brand-new. It measures just 11.5mm thick — less than most external displays — and packs a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display with 11.3 million pixels and True Tone technology.

That display packs 11.3 million pixels and supports the P3 wide color gamut. It offers up to 500 nits of brightness, and is flanked by thinner borders that make your on-screen content more immersive. The screen is combined with the best speaker system ever packed into a Mac.

M1 iMac color options
Thinner but more powerful than ever.
Photo: Apple

It has two pairs of force-cancelling woofers, balanced with a high-performance tweeter for a six-speaker sound system that produces “massive” sound, Apple says. You get strong bass and crystal clear mids and highs, plus spatial audio and Dolby Atmos support.

The microphone system gets a major upgrade, too. Its “studio-quality” three-mic array features beam-forming that helps you sound even better, and it’s better at filtering out background noise. Apple has also positioned the mics so they don’t pick up noise from iMac itself.

On the inside of the new iMac, there’s a significantly smaller logic board that’s cooled by just two small fans. And yet, thanks to that incredible M1 chip, the new iMac is an absolute powerhouse.

Up to 85% faster CPU

Like the M1 inside the Mac mini and MacBook Pro, the iMac’s features an eight-core CPU that’s up to 85% faster than previous 21.5-inch iMac. It also feature up to eight GPU cores that deliver 2x faster graphics. It can easily tackle video and image editing, music production, and high-end games.

M1 iMac in green
iMac’s accessories are color-coded to match its shell.
Photo: Apple

The M1 chip is combined with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage as standard (upgrades are available), plus a slew of connectivity options. You get Thunderbolt and traditional USB 3 ports, and an Ethernet connection that’s built into iMac’s power brick so that it can be hidden away under your desk.

Touch ID comes to iMac

Apple has also packed in Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth connectivity, and for the first time ever on a desktop Mac, you can get the iMac with Touch ID built into its Magic Keyboard. What’s more, iMac’s keyboard and Magic Mouse are color-coded to match the machine itself.

M1 iMac gets Touch ID
iMac gets Touch ID for the first time.
Photo: Apple

There are six color options to choose from: green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. All are combined with a white cover glass. The new iMac goes on sale April 30, with prices starting at $1.299.

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