At their special media event in California Theatre in San Jose, CA, Apple unveiled the new iMac (2012) with an all new design, same screen sizes (21 and 27 inches), new specs, and lots more. Details after the jump!
Over the past couple of weeks, the rumors and speculation have been relentless regarding today’s Apple keynote event, and although it was presumed an iMac refresh would be on the way, the changes announced by Phil Schiller have taken everybody by surprise.
The dramatically thinned-out form factor sees the company’s flagship desktop cut down to 5-millimeters at its thinnest point, with a colossal 8lbs shed when compared to the previous generation.
Apple has been really aggressive this year in cutting the MacBook range down to size while maintaining and improving the technology and hardware within, and the iMac is the latest device to be given a design overhaul.
There’s no Retina display, for those curious, but that shouldn’t take away from what is a vastly-improved computer on first view. It packs in the new Intel Ivy Bridge processors, USB 3.0, and does away with the optical drive in order to manage its incredibly thin form factor.
I have to say, when I first saw it, I thought it looked like an enlarged iPad on a stand – such is the svelte nature of it – and anybody whose been waiting patiently for Apple to upgrade the iMac will struggle not to be impressed by the new design.
As well as the Ivy Bridge and USB 3.0 everybody expected, though, it also features a new Fusion drive, which has been built by Apple to bridge the gap between flash storage and the traditional spinning hard drive. Essentially, you get the storage of the HDD, with a performance almost equaling that of an SSD, and in the words of Schiller, users get "near the performance of flash, with access to all of that storage, without having to do anything else."
It will ship, once again, in 21.5-inch and 27-inch models. The smaller version will be available from next month, while the larger iMac will drop at sometime in December, so if you’re in the market for a new Mac this Fall and portability is not on your agenda, you’ll struggle to beat the new iMac.
In the box is a wireless keyboard, wireless Magic Mouse, but optionally, you may want to opt for the Magic Trackpad. Although the optical drive is no longer in-built, consumers can also select a standalone drive if, as Schiller puts it, they’re "stuck in the past"
The 21.5-inch iMad costs $1299 for the entry level version, while the 27-inch starts at $ 1799.
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