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Apple M4 iMac (2024) Review
Mar 11, 2025
Review on Cult of Mac: https://www.cultofmac.com/reviews/m4-imac-2024-review More Apple news: http://www.cultofmac.com The 2024 #Apple #iMac with the M4 chip is a stunning and powerful all-in-one. The desktop computer is an endangered breed, but if you have room for one in your life, the new iMac offers a beautiful design and some impressive performance. Produced by Extra Ordinary for Cult of Mac Music composed by Will Davenport, arranged by D. Griffin Jones Chapters: 0:00 The M4 iMac 1:29 Design 3:06 Display 5:26 Camera 6:20 Storage and memory 8:12 Performance 9:14 Ports and accessories 10:29 Conclusion Follow us! Threads: https://www.threads.net/@cultofmac
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0:00
the M4 iMac is a stunning and Powerful
0:03
all-in-one computer here's my
0:06
review the iMac is like a retro Revival
0:09
car like the new Ford Bronco or the
0:12
Volkswagen ID Buzz computer nerds across
0:16
the spectrum look back fondly upon
0:18
Apple's period of experimentation and
0:21
Discovery between 1998 and 2008 in 10
0:25
short years computers went from clunky
0:27
beige boxes to the slim aluminum unibody
0:31
objects we use every day during that
0:33
period some of the most radical iconic
0:36
and weird designs hit the market like
0:38
the original iMac the M4 iMac is a
0:41
computer that's as easy to use as it is
0:43
fun to look at I ordered the very base
0:45
model iMac for $12.99 it has a 24in 4.5k
0:50
retina display 256 GB of storage 16 GB
0:55
of unified memory an M4 chip with an 8
0:58
core CPU 8 GPU and 16 core neural engine
1:02
two Thunderbolt four ports a magic mouse
1:05
and a magic keyboard Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth
1:09
5.3 as a tech blogger I'm very fortunate
1:11
to be able to buy and test the latest
1:14
and greatest products in my daily life
1:17
but I wanted to get more in touch with
1:19
what the average budget constrained
1:20
person would get so I got no options no
1:24
upgrades this is the default iMac
1:28
experience let's start with the design
1:30
which is luckily unchanged because the
1:32
iMac is an object of stunning Beauty and
1:36
desire it is a piece of art on a level
1:38
that no iPad nor my beloved Mac Mini
1:42
will ever achieve from that truly
1:45
unbelievably thin body to the solid mil
1:48
aluminum foot I could just stare at it
1:51
and take in all the subtle details for
1:53
hours the iMac still comes in six
1:56
gorgeous colors and with this new model
1:58
the colors are improved and truer to
2:00
their names the green is greener the
2:03
yellow is pure sunflower the pink is
2:06
actually pink if you order silver what
2:09
the is wrong with you on the front the
2:11
color is a little more pastel my green
2:14
iMac looks more like mint I highly
2:17
encourage you to put it somewhere in
2:18
your house where the back is visible so
2:20
you can see that richer darker color as
2:22
well the color matched magic keyboard
2:25
magic mouse or magic Trackpad and even
2:27
color matched cables are just ing on the
2:30
cake Mac OS even color matches the
2:33
accent color of the user interface the
2:35
cherry on top the downside to offering
2:38
seven different models is the slightly
2:41
complicated Logistics on Apple's end I
2:44
actually pre-ordered a purple iMac for
2:47
pickup in the Apple Store on day one but
2:50
when I got to the Apple Store I was told
2:52
my order wasn't ready it was still on
2:54
the UPS truck and it wouldn't get there
2:56
until that afternoon I didn't have that
2:59
time to wait waight so I had to cancel
3:01
my order and then buy a green one with
3:03
identical specs on the spot now let's
3:06
talk about the display the display isn't
3:09
Apple's biggest nor brightest it has a
3:11
maximum brightness of 500 knits which is
3:15
plenty bright for most indoor settings
3:17
where I had it naturally set up I had it
3:19
between 30 to 40% brightness placing it
3:22
in direct sunlight it isn't outshined
3:25
but there are still a lot of Reflections
3:28
if this is a problem with the desk you
3:29
want to use it on I would consider the
3:31
nanotexture option it's a 24in 4.5k
3:35
display it has a physical resolution of
3:37
4480 X 2520 with a screen space of 2240
3:42
X 1260 or in other words it's a Rea
3:45
display with a little more screen space
3:48
than a standard 1080p screen some say
3:51
that's too small for a desktop computer
3:53
personally I disagree I happily used a
3:56
single 24in monitor with an even lower
3:59
physical resolution with no problems for
4:02
many years surrounding yourself with as
4:05
many monitors as possible always felt
4:07
like the PC user thing to do probably
4:10
because Windows is really bad at window
4:12
management right alongside tap to click
4:14
on a trackpad and buying peripherals
4:16
with a bunch of ugly RGB Lighting in Mac
4:19
OS you have a bunch of tools at your
4:21
disposal to do more from a single screen
4:24
Mission Control expose stage manager and
4:28
now in Mac OS seoa window tiling or if
4:32
you're like me you just make every
4:34
window as small as possible and fill
4:36
every single inch of the screen I do
4:38
sympathize with people who missed the
4:39
27in iMac Apple's answer to that seems
4:43
to be a Mac Mini with a studio display
4:46
and after all the studio display is made
4:48
with the exact same display panel that
4:51
used to go in the 5K iMac in 2024 the
4:55
consumer Market has simply moved Beyond
4:57
desktop computers PL of PC manufacturers
5:01
stopped making desktop computers
5:03
entirely years ago the fact that Apple
5:05
makes as many desktop Macs as they do
5:08
with the addition of a new model to the
5:10
lineup with the Mac Studio is a miracle
5:14
Apple has determined that there's a
5:15
market for powerful desktop Macs with a
5:19
big external screen a market for
5:22
midsized all-in ones but not at the
5:25
intersection the new built-in camera
5:27
supports center stage while it always
5:29
outputs a 1080p image it's actually a 12
5:33
megapix sensor it's good enough for a
5:35
FaceTime call or Zoom meeting because
5:38
those are ephemeral but you wouldn't
5:40
want to record a video on it it's far
5:42
too grainy and fuzzy for those moments
5:44
where quality matters Apple makes it
5:46
really easy to use the much better
5:48
camera system you already have in your
5:51
pocket using a simple Mount by Bellon
5:54
you can put your iPhone on top of your
5:56
Mac and use continuity camera to use its
5:58
camera instead desk view is a really
6:01
awesome feature that takes the bottom
6:02
part of that image and crops it and
6:04
skews it to make it look like you have a
6:06
second camera pointing down at the
6:08
surface of your desk unfortunately it
6:11
requires a really long desk the desk
6:14
that I set it up on desk view was more
6:18
like legs view as I mentioned at the top
6:21
the entry-level model comes with 256 GB
6:23
of storage and 16 GB of unified memory
6:27
the upgrade from 8 GB to 16 18 GB is
6:30
long overdue but the benefit is that now
6:33
there is no bad Mac you can tell anybody
6:37
buy any Mac in the lineup and you don't
6:40
have to give any qualifications of
6:41
things they need to upgrade running all
6:44
kinds of tests and Final Cut Pro logic
6:47
pro and pixel Mater the Mac always felt
6:50
Zippy fast even when it ran out of
6:52
physical memory and had to swap old
6:54
memory to the disc it still felt
6:57
seamless I wouldn't have even known if I
7:00
hadn't checked activity monitor 256 gabt
7:03
of storage is now the pinching point the
7:05
first thing you would upgrade if you had
7:07
more money to spend but unlike 8 GB of
7:10
memory 256 GB of storage is going to be
7:13
enough for more people a lot of work
7:16
happens on the web local storage is
7:19
becoming less relevant the biggest
7:21
amount of data that people carry around
7:23
with them is their photo library and
7:25
their messages both of which can
7:27
invisibly sync up to I Cloud although it
7:30
is still good to have a full local
7:32
backup desktop apps are becoming rarer
7:35
and rarer but 256 gigabytes is more than
7:38
enough to comfortably fit all the top
7:40
productivity apps two notable exceptions
7:43
to that are video editing and software
7:45
development both Final Cup Pro and xcode
7:48
will eat every available megabyte of
7:51
your disc away if you don't regularly
7:53
empty caches clean libraries delete old
7:57
sdks and simulators if if this is your
8:00
line of work it's unfortunate that Apple
8:02
charges such outrageous prices for
8:04
adding more internal storage but at
8:06
least with a desktop computer adding
8:09
external storage is both cheap and
8:11
convenient so let's talk performance I
8:13
run a speed test with various benchmarks
8:16
of real tasks that I do on a regular
8:18
basis rendering a video exporting the
8:21
cultcast upscaling an image Building
8:24
open source apps in xcode and running
8:27
some Python scripts the Del on these is
8:30
impressive considering this is the base
8:32
model and I'm comparing it to an M2 Pro
8:35
chip audio was 46% faster video 11%
8:39
faster image upscaling 21% faster now
8:43
those are impressive Deltas but on the
8:45
other hand it doesn't have a huge impact
8:47
on your day if you're only talking 10.9
8:50
seconds compared to 12.8 seconds the
8:53
story of Apple silicon is that nothing
8:56
is slow everything is fast don't feel
9:00
like you're too Pro for the entrylevel
9:02
chip it's also an incredibly powerful
9:05
machine and it goes without saying that
9:07
if you're still on an Intel iMac the
9:10
time has come to board the Apple silicon
9:13
train one let down with the new iMac is
9:15
the number of ports you have two
9:17
Thunderbolt 4 ports and a headphone jack
9:20
higher end models come with an ethernet
9:22
port built into the power adapter
9:25
because the computer itself is too
9:27
skinny to fit it other Macs with an M4
9:30
Chip have more ports the MacBook Pro has
9:33
three Thunderbolt 4 ports the Mac Mini
9:35
has three Thunderbolt 4 ports and two
9:37
USBC ports I'm not sure why the iMac
9:41
gets the short shrift Apple didn't
9:43
respond to my request for comment the
9:45
entry-level model comes with a basic
9:47
compact magic keyboard any upgraded
9:49
model comes with a compact magic
9:50
keyboard with Touch ID without Touch ID
9:53
there's a key that locks the screen you
9:55
also get a Magic Mouse upgrading to a
9:57
magic Trackpad a very worthy upgrade in
10:00
my opinion costs an extra $50 there's no
10:03
longer an option to spend even more and
10:05
get both which is unfortunate because
10:08
you can only buy the color matched mouse
10:11
or trackpad at the time you buy your
10:13
computer if you decide later down the
10:15
road that you'd like a trackpad instead
10:18
well there's no way to buy it aside from
10:20
scouring eBay I was hoping for a more
10:22
substantial upgrade to these accessories
10:24
beyond the USBC Port but you can click
10:27
here to see that review in the late '90s
10:29
and early 2000s the iMac was a bold
10:32
Proclamation against the status quo that
10:35
saved Apple these days it's asking the
10:38
big philosophical questions about what
10:40
it's still doing here the original iMac
10:43
was the anti- desktop computer at work
10:46
you had a beige PC with a pennium
10:48
processor running Windows 2000 a beige
10:52
CRT monitor a beige keyboard and a beige
10:55
roller ball Mouse Apple's pitch was that
10:58
at home you wanted something simple and
11:00
fun because you live in a house not a
11:03
cubicle you don't have to buy the same
11:05
computer your boss bought you today
11:08
people don't really have a family
11:10
desktop computer everybody has an iPhone
11:14
maybe an iPad maybe a laptop that's
11:17
maybe a Macbook ironically it's the
11:19
businesses that are still buying
11:21
desktops and the iMac is an attractive
11:23
option for the employee doing work
11:25
mostly through web apps who just needs a
11:28
midsized screen the iMac is more than
11:30
capable looks clean on a desk and
11:33
crucially can be bought with a single
11:35
purchase order for the customer service
11:38
desk or check-in desk a
11:40
color-coordinated iMac telegraphs that
11:42
your business has taste I liked my time
11:45
with my iMac because of the novelty it's
11:48
nice having a beautiful computer in a
11:50
fun color in a brighter room in the
11:52
house it's nice having something simple
11:54
that doesn't feel like a workstation it
11:57
just made me happy every time I sat down
11:59
in front of it so be sure to check out
12:02
my other reviews remember to like And
12:04
subscribe I'm D Griffin Jones with Cult
12:07
of Mac
12:08
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