Apple freshens up iMac

Jul 28, 2010 by Dan Taylor    3 Comments    Posted under: Technology

As a proud owner of a 27” iMac, I’m both excited and bummed to see the new iMac updates. Excited, as they’ve met the very few, “Really? Why ISN’T there an SDD inside this thing?,” requests that I’ve had, and bummed because…well, I don’t have one.

Whenever I acquire new gear, I generally have the same rule of thumb, find the top of the line item, and then back it off one or two. The same applied to my iMac 27. I don’t have the 2TB drive, and I don’t have the maxed 16 GB of RAM, but rather 1TB and 8GB. Therefor, whenever new updates like this come out, I’m not completely behind the curve.

Starting at $1,199, the new iMac line features Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 options, with dual core speeds up to 3.6 GHz and quad core doing 2.93 GHz. Add to that blisteringly fast processing power an ATI Radeon HD 5750 graphics card, and daaaang skippy, that’s one nice all-in-one you’ve got there.

But processors and graphics cards aren’t the only shiny new toys for iMac. In addition, Apple has beefed up their SD card reader to now include SDXC format, sure to please any digital photog or those using cutting edge high capacity storage cards.

And speaking of storage, and it looks like I missed it by one generation, Apple has finally added an SSD HDD option to the iMac lineup. iMac 27 customers will have the option to include a 256 GB solid state drive in either the primary or secondary role. With data transfer speeds of up to 215 MB/second, can you say “primary drive startup and program launch in the blink of an eye” ? Yeah. Me too. ?

And what would a product line update be without a little fun. Completely unnecessary, but falling under the, yes, I want one category, Apple now has an oversized touchpad (similar to those found in the MacBook line) for desktop users. Dubbed The Magic Trackpad, it houses the same technology as Apple’s notebook pointing device, and offers the same intuitive gestures as it’s smaller cousin.

Specifications from the low-end 21.5” 3.06 GHz i3 – $1,199:

• 21.5-inch 1920 x 1080 LED-backlit display;
• 3.06 GHz Intel Core i3 processor with 4MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 4670 discrete graphics with 256MB GDDR3 SDRAM;
• 500GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive® with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video output (adapters sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme® 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight® video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one SDXC SD card slot;
• one FireWire® 800 port;

And on the other end of the spectrum, the 27” 3.6 GHz i5 – $1,999

• 27-inch 2560 x 1440 LED-backlit display;
• 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 processor with 8MB shared L3 cache;
• 4GB 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM expandable to 16GB;
• ATI Radeon HD 5750 discrete graphics with 1GB GDDR5;
• 1TB Serial ATA hard drive running at 7200 rpm;
• slot-load 8x SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW);
• Mini DisplayPort for audio and video input and output (adapters sold separately);
• AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless networking & Bluetooth 2.1+EDR;
• iSight video camera;
• Gigabit Ethernet;
• four USB 2.0 ports;
• one FireWire 800 port;
• one SDXC SD card slot;

“We took the world’s best all-in-one and made it even better,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “With the latest processors, high-performance graphics and signature aluminum and glass design, customers are going to love the latest iMac.”

Again, the only thing I’m really missing is the SSD option, which I’m happy to see Apple now offering.  These new iMacs are sure to make a welcome addition to any desk, and hey…Apple, if you’re listening – Retrofit an SSD option to previous iMac generation owners?