iMac Review

The iMac is a range of all-in-one Macintosh desktop computers designed and built by Apple Inc. It has been a large part of Apple’s consumer desktop offerings since its introduction in 1998, and has evolved through four distinct forms.

I think iTalkApple is the cutest Apple fan chick around, so here’s her review. She really pointed out similar sentiments I have of the Apple iMac.

by iTalkApple

I got the iMac back in April, and hundreds (not exaggerating) of you wanted to see a review. So here it is!

On March 3, 2009, Apple updated its offerings for the iMac, featuring new NVIDIA chipsets, the new Mini-DisplayPort and a new standard keyboard featuring no numeric pad that has become standard in all new Apple computers.

In March of 2009, Apple released a minor refresh of the iMac line. The exterior of the new design is nearly identical to the 2007 Intel-based iMac systems. Changes include the replacement of the Firewire 400 port with a fourth USB port and a slightly redesigned base.

Apple is offering one 20-inch configuration and three 24-inch configurations (instead of two at each screen size as before). In addition to changing the iMac’s screen resolution, Apple doubled the RAM and hard-disk space on all iMac models compared to the previous generation, and added faster hard disks and DDR3 RAM.

Some reviews, such as the oft-quoted Walt Mossberg review, mentioned the iMac shipped with less RAM than industry standard and had no slots for camera memory cards as the only drawbacks. There is a current major criticism for the August 7, 2007 batch of iMacs pertaining specifically to the 20 inch model.

Apple is currently being sued for having allegedly deceived the public by promising millions of colors from the LCD screens of all Mac models. The 20 inch models, however, currently only display 262,144; dithering was used in an attempt to make up for the discrepancy. This issue was originally noticed on Apple’s line of MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks.

This issue arose due to the use of 6-bit per pixel Twisted nematic LCD screens, instead of more modern technologies. There also has been some criticism of the 20″ Aluminum iMacs for having lesser viewing angles than the 24″ Aluminums. This is due to lower quality displays being used in the 20″ models than in the 24″s. Apple hasn’t commented on the issue.

While not a criticism of the iMac per se, the iMac’s integrated design has some inherent tradeoffs that have garnered criticism. In The Mythical Midrange Mac Minitower, Dan Frakes of Macworld suggests that with the iMac occupying the midrange of Apple’s product line, Apple has nothing to offer consumers who want some ability to expand or upgrade their computers, but don’t need (or can’t afford) the Mac Pro.

For example, the iMac’s integration of monitor and CPU, while convenient, commits the owner to upgrading both at the same time. Similarly, the graphics chip in some models is soldered to the motherboard, precluding an upgrade, and models after the iMac G5 (excluding the August 7, 2007 iMac update) made it difficult for the end-user to swap out the hard disk or optical drive. While conceding the possibility of a minitower cannibalizing sales from the Mac Pro, Frakes argues there is enough frustration with the iMac’s limitations to make such a proposition worthwhile.

iMac Specs

Type Desktop

Release date March 3, 2009 (current model) / August 15, 1998 (original release)

Introductory price US$1,199–US$1,499–US$1,799-US$2,199 (current model) / US$1,299 (original release)

CPU Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.66, 2.93, 3.06 GHz (current model) / PowerPC G3, 233 MHz (original release)

Website iMac Home Page