iMac Pro Will there ever be a 27 inch iMac with the Apple silicon chip and more?

[theluggage]

No, they don't. Anyone "needing" a 27-inch iMac is just as served by the pairing of a Studio Display and any other desktop Mac, ranging from a base model M2 Mac mini to a maxed out M2 Ultra Mac Studio/Pro. No one "NEEDS" a 27-inch all-in-one that isn't served just as well by that combination.

It's not so much that a 5k, 27" iMac would be useless - it's just a "niche" that is being squeezed in multiple directions.

• Some users (like me) prefer a separates system and only bought iMac in the past because there was no viable alternative. People want to update displays and processors independently, or explore non-Apple display options. Even Apple devotees now have a choice of the Studio Display or Pro XDR, and this thread is full of people wanting different sized displays on their iMac.
• The 24" is now more powerful and has a better screen than the old 21.5" iMac, which will take some potential sales away from a new 5k.
• The market is moving away from desktops in general. Moreover, while there used to be a big performance gap between Intel MacBooks and iMacs with their desktop-class chips, with Apple Silicon everything below the ultra uses the same chips for desktop and laptop, and delivers much the same performance. That's another bunch of 5k iMac customers gone (and the Studio Display is clearly designed as a MacBook docking station).
• Right now, there doesn't seem to be anything better on offer than a slightly brighter version of the 5/10-year-old 5k panel to put in a new iMac at a remotely affordable price. Also, nobody outside Apple has really taken up the 5k@27" format (have the 5k displays Samsung et. al. announced 6 months ago appeared yet?) so they probably are quite expensive.

So I guess that there aren't enough remaining 5k iMac customers to get Apple out of bed.

Price out any Mac Studio configuration and the price point would've been similar to a 2020 27-inch iMac priced out with that same RAM amount, worse graphics, and a worse CPU.

Very true of the higher-end i9 iMac configurations - even the base Studio is getting into iMax Pro territory. In fact, the US$ price of a Mac Studio + full GPU/Studio Display combo is suspiciously the same as a top-end i9 5k iMac with the same RAM and Storage.... do you believe in coincidences? And, yeah, the option to add cheap 3rd party RAM to the iMac was never likely to make the jump to Apple Silicon.

However, there really isn't an equivalent of the old $1800-$2000 i5 5k iMacs for people who just like a nice big, clear screen to do less-demanding work.

M1 iMacs already exist. Because you can't tolerate a small little box hanging off of your display, your only option is a 24-inch model.

Well, it's a little box and a second mains power lead. Maybe the much anticipated 3nm M3 will draw less power Apple can make a Thunderbolt-powered Mini.

Of course, the "magical" feature of the M1 iMac is that it does have a little box hanging off on a lead (power supply and, inexplicably, Ethernet) - hopefully the last gasp of the "thinner is better" mindset. I can understand people being less than enamoured of the design... If they'd been flying off the shelves I think we'd have seen an M2 version by now.

 

[JamesMay82]

It's not so much that a 5k, 27" iMac would be useless - it's just a "niche" that is being squeezed in multiple directions.

• Some users (like me) prefer a separates system and only bought iMac in the past because there was no viable alternative. People want to update displays and processors independently, or explore non-Apple display options. Even Apple devotees now have a choice of the Studio Display or Pro XDR, and this thread is full of people wanting different sized displays on their iMac.
• The 24" is now more powerful and has a better screen than the old 21.5" iMac, which will take some potential sales away from a new 5k.
• The market is moving away from desktops in general. Moreover, while there used to be a big performance gap between Intel MacBooks and iMacs with their desktop-class chips, with Apple Silicon everything below the ultra uses the same chips for desktop and laptop, and delivers much the same performance. That's another bunch of 5k iMac customers gone (and the Studio Display is clearly designed as a MacBook docking station).
• Right now, there doesn't seem to be anything better on offer than a slightly brighter version of the 5/10-year-old 5k panel to put in a new iMac at a remotely affordable price. Also, nobody outside Apple has really taken up the 5k@27" format (have the 5k displays Samsung et. al. announced 6 months ago appeared yet?) so they probably are quite expensive.

So I guess that there aren't enough remaining 5k iMac customers to get Apple out of bed.


Very true of the higher-end i9 iMac configurations - even the base Studio is getting into iMax Pro territory. In fact, the US$ price of a Mac Studio + full GPU/Studio Display combo is suspiciously the same as a top-end i9 5k iMac with the same RAM and Storage.... do you believe in coincidences? And, yeah, the option to add cheap 3rd party RAM to the iMac was never likely to make the jump to Apple Silicon.

However, there really isn't an equivalent of the old $1800-$2000 i5 5k iMacs for people who just like a nice big, clear screen to do less-demanding work.


Well, it's a little box and a second mains power lead. Maybe the much anticipated 3nm M3 will draw less power Apple can make a Thunderbolt-powered Mini.

Of course, the "magical" feature of the M1 iMac is that it does have a little box hanging off on a lead (power supply and, inexplicably, Ethernet) - hopefully the last gasp of the "thinner is better" mindset. I can understand people being less than enamoured of the design... If they'd been flying off the shelves I think we'd have seen an M2 version by now.

I only bought the 27 inch iMac because I wanted the biggest screen to do my family/video edits and work from home with my job which is mainly just spreadsheets and outlook.

A small screen size would be a downgrade for me if I went for the iMac in its 24 inch form so I would 100% want a 27 inch mini. I think the monitor and Mac mini combos are more expensive than what the orginal 27 iMac were.

My dream scenario back in the day was a Mac Pro with all the quick removable hard drives. They don't do that with the new pros do they? and even if they did it way to expensive for my needs.

I wish they did a budget tower with the ability to add multiple larger internal drives..

so for now I will hold out but worse case I'll end up with a base studio and studio display.

 

[pshufd]

The problem with APPLE is that while your iMac is still running like a charm after 10 years, the O.S. is outdated,
because no longer upgradable, and the software has become a chain of limitations: my 27" of 2013 was stuck on
Catalina, but also refused to run beyond JAVA 14 and thus beyond ECLIPSE 26, etc., etc.
So, to sit well for another decade I bought a Studio with enough memory and space. Waiting for an iMac 27
was no option, because I never buy a just released new machine (the studio was 12 months 'mature').
And what will it be after 10 years? Nobody knows.
;JOOP!

My approach was to add a 2015 iMac 27 to my M1 Studio. For $200 including Apple Keyboard and Mouse, it was a great way to get a 5k monitor that could also run my office programs just fine. I use it for video calls now as my Studio doesn't have a videocamera.

 

[theluggage]

My dream scenario back in the day was a Mac Pro with all the quick removable hard drives. They don't do that with the new pros do they? and even if they did it way to expensive for my needs.

Nah. The original Mac Pro that started at ~$2500 was do-able if you wanted lots of fast storage. The new MP at $7000 - well, you could plug SSDs into the PCIe slots or there's a $400 extra internal dingus with a single SATA hard drive and space for a second. The new Mac Pro is really for people who need specialist PCIe cards (not GPUs) and nobody else.

The "modern way" would be to use external drives connected to USB 3/4.Thunderbolt ports (with which the Studio and Mini Pro are reasonably well endowed). To be fair - even back in ~2010 when I had cause to work with some pro video editors, who were using tower PCs with Avid - they were already mainly using external drives to hold projects.

As for displays - you can get a good 27" 4k display for a lot less than a Studio Display and while they're not quite as good as 5k for running MacOS - mainly because of the need to use scaled mode to get the familiar UI size - the problems have been hugely exaggerated.

 

[JamesMay82]

Nah. The original Mac Pro that started at ~$2500 was do-able if you wanted lots of fast storage. The new MP at $7000 - well, you could plug SSDs into the PCIe slots or there's a $400 extra internal dingus with a single SATA hard drive and space for a second. The new Mac Pro is really for people who need specialist PCIe cards (not GPUs) and nobody else.

The "modern way" would be to use external drives connected to USB 3/4.Thunderbolt ports (with which the Studio and Mini Pro are reasonably well endowed). To be fair - even back in ~2010 when I had cause to work with some pro video editors, who were using tower PCs with Avid - they were already mainly using external drives to hold projects.

As for displays - you can get a good 27" 4k display for a lot less than a Studio Display and while they're not quite as good as 5k for running MacOS - mainly because of the need to use scaled mode to get the familiar UI size - the problems have been hugely exaggerated.

Yeah I'm on all externals for my current 2014 iMac but I always preferred to keep things internal with one external drive for back up as opposed to the 2 external boxes I have. Thats just more a me being awkward issue though.

I get your studio display point but again I'm going for that more because of the looks of it all. All other external monitors seem to be really cheap and plastic looking which im not a fan of.

Its a shame we can't use a modern day OLED tv as they look good and are weirdly cheaper than the studio display.

 

[pshufd]

Yeah I'm on all externals for my current 2014 iMac but I always preferred to keep things internal with one external drive for back up as opposed to the 2 external boxes I have. Thats just more a me being awkward issue though.

I get your studio display point but again I'm going for that more because of the looks of it all. All other external monitors seem to be really cheap and plastic looking which im not a fan of.

Its a shame we can't use a modern day OLED tv as they look good and are weirdly cheaper than the studio display.

I have 3 Dell Ultrasharp 27 4k monitors on my Studio and the iMac 27 does look nicer but it's more about getting work done for me. I imagine that you could do a little hobby work on the plastic on monitors to get them to look better.

 

[theluggage]

I have 3 Dell Ultrasharp 27 4k monitors on my Studio and the iMac 27 does look nicer but it's more about getting work done for me. I imagine that you could do a little hobby work on the plastic on monitors to get them to look better.

I agree about the "getting stuff done" - I have a pair of 3:2/4k+ 28" MateViews on my Studio (about £500 each) and while the display quality isn't quite in the same league as the Studio Display, the "real estate" is insane and of far more practical use to me than the single, admittedly nice, 5k on my old iMac. They really don't look bad (yes, its silver plastic rather than aluminium but that's not obvious from a distance). Pity there aren't more 3:2 aspect ratio displays around for people who don't fancy Huawei (now, if Apple wanted something special how about making a 3:2 - or at least 16:10 - ~27" display?)

 

[AL2TEACH]

$1799 Power Macintosh G4 450 Cube 450 MHz PowerPC 7400 (G4)

I forgot what I paid for the Cube but I had some internal parts upgraded thru a Cube not Apple) website. I might still have it bookmarked even though the site is not running anymore.
Of all the PC markers, I always liked the look of Acers.

It would be nice to have a 27”iMac with aM1 or M2 or M3 chip

The rumors are, it's in development and maybe a larger screen. So much for the naysayers

The problem with APPLE is that while your iMac is still running like a charm after 10 years, the O.S. is outdated,

So goes all machines.

 

[tothemoonsands]

I believe Apple will release a 27”+ iMac alongside FaceID and some other notable improvements. My guess is that it will be considered “iMac Pro” - in other words, a big jump from the 24” iMac.

M-Pro through Ultra all available as options. 6K. Always on display. Face ID. Designed similar to a clean lines of Studio Display.

Apple is saving the best for last once the Apple Silicone is in full swing. We are nearly there with the 3nm M3s…

 

[AL2TEACH]

will be considered “iMac Pro”

Hope they have a non-pro model.

 

[MandiMac]

I believe Apple will release a 27”+ iMac alongside FaceID and some other notable improvements. My guess is that it will be considered “iMac Pro” - in other words, a big jump from the 24” iMac. 6K. Always on display. Face ID. Designed similar to a clean lines of Studio Display.

This right here. The price will be between Mac Studio and Mac Pro - likely will be worth it, but outside the range of private/hobby buyers.