At first glance, Apple’s new iMac is easy to evaluate. It’s almost identical to the 2021 iMac, with its beautiful 24-inch display and multicolored exterior. In fact, the only difference between the new iMac and the old one is a new chip, the M3 processor.
As such, everything we liked about the iMac in 2021 holds true here. It’s an extremely well-designed machine, the screen looks beautiful, and yet the issues we had with it, particularly the specs of the lower-end model, are harder to ignore.
First, the good news. The M3 chip inside the new iMac (along with 24GB of RAM and 1TB of storage in the model I tested) provides more than enough power for my daily workflow. Of course, as a journalist my needs are moderate. I don’t edit 4K movies or run intense music creation software, and most of the things I do can be accomplished in a browser. But a bunch of Safari tabs along with my regular apps like Messages, Photos, Slack, Bear, Apple Music, and Trello never slowed it down. More power-hungry apps like Lightroom or Photomater also didn’t crash while editing and exporting RAW photos. I’m especially happy that the iMac M3 supports up to 24GB of RAM this time, up from 16GB on the M1 model.
The iMac M3 is also capable of running modern games, at least the ones available for it. In a story as old as time, gaming options on Mac lag far behind what you’ll find on Windows, but things are getting better. Titles like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Lies of P are the kind of games you wouldn’t normally expect to see on a Mac. This is part of a general trend this year, with other blockbuster games like the Resident Evil 4 Redo, Resident of the bad town and death stranded either available now or coming soon.
Both Baldur’s Gate 3 and Lies of P worked fine on the iMac. They didn’t run at the highest resolution, but they were still fully playable. And other games from the Mac App Store like NBA 2K24 Arcade Edition and skate city Apple Arcade’s game ran smoothly, but since those games must run on a variety of lower-powered devices, good performance is basically a given. While no one is going to buy a Mac with cutting-edge gaming in mind, I’m still glad there are more options than there were a few years ago.
The benchmarks show that the M3 is a modest improvement over the M2, which isn’t a huge surprise. The M3 is also nearly identical in single-core performance to the M3 Max, which we tested in the new 16-inch MacBook Pro. Of course, that computer beats the iMac in multi-core performance. But given the iMac’s intended purpose as a family computer, the M3 should be more than enough for most people. Apple Silicon has so much performance that people who bought the iMac M1 two and a half years ago probably won’t have much reason to upgrade.
what hasn’t changed
As for literally everything else: If you’ve seen a 24-inch iMac before, you’ve seen this one. Mine was a beautiful shade of blue: dark and metallic on the back and a more pastel shade on the front. There are six other colors available, all the same as what Apple offered before, and all of them make me wish Apple used these bold hues in more of its products. (Seriously, the colors on this year’s iPhone 15 are terrible.) The screen has a 4.5k resolution, which splits the difference between the older 21.5-inch and 27-inch Intel models. Overall, I think that’s enough, although I miss the expansive canvas that a 27-inch iMac has. I’m not alone, but Apple has made it clear that that computer is not coming back. If you want a larger screen, you’re better off trying a Mac mini or Mac Studio and pairing it with the monitor of your choice.
Despite occasionally wishing it were larger, this panel is still excellent, with 500 nits of brightness, Apple’s TrueTone technology to adjust color temperature to your environment, and support for the Wide P3 color gamut. It’s not the most advanced display since it uses a time-tested LED panel but, again, the people Apple is targeting with this computer won’t care.
The iMac is still extraordinarily thin at 11.5mm and weighs less than 10 pounds. In fact, I wouldn’t mind if it was a little heavier. It’s easy to accidentally move the entire computer when I adjust the tilt of the screen. And feline owners beware: my cats liked to jump on the desk and pet the iMac, sliding it across my desk. But its minimal weight also makes it easier to move around the house.
Most of the time it was at my desk, but I also took it into the bedroom to watch a movie when I felt sick. My colleague Devindra Hardawar (who reviewed the M1 model in 2021) also praised the iMac as a computer you can put in your kitchen, which is not something I can do with my relatively limited counter space. But the thing is, this is still the most portable iMac ever, and that opens up some interesting usage possibilities.
Apple has done a good job of putting surprisingly solid speakers in its laptops, and it’s also created an impressive speaker system for the svelte iMac. It has six speakers in total with two force-canceling woofers, resulting in clear and relatively loud audio. I prefer to use dedicated speakers because I’m a bit of a music nerd, but for casual listening or watching YouTube, this system is much better than you’d expect from such a thin device. The speakers also support Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio for Apple Music, movies and shows through the Apple TV app. Those effects are not the most obvious in this system; The songs sound different, though not necessarily better, but I’ve found that to be the case no matter what device you’re using to play Spatial Audio.
As before, the iMac comes with a color-matched keyboard and mouse (and/or trackpad, your choice), a subtle but really nice touch. Mechanical keyboard enthusiasts will scoff, but I still find the Magic Keyboard extremely comfortable to type on for extended periods of time, and I love that you can now incorporate Touch ID. The Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad are the same ones that Apple has been selling for years and are very reliable (although many people don’t like the shape of the mouse).
However, Apple really missed a good opportunity to redesign these accessories to use USB-C for charging. Instead, they use the same Lightning connector that’s been on iPhones and other devices for years. With Lightning’s days clearly numbered, this would have been the perfect time to move to USB-C. At least the included Lightning cable is the same color, too.
Basic specifications are a big disadvantage
Most of the things Apple didn’t change with the new iMac don’t bother me: the design and display make sense, even if some people wish things were a little different. What doesn’t make sense are the cuts Apple is taking to offer the iMac at a starting price of $1,299. That configuration comes with a measly 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, which was scarce two and a half years ago and is completely unacceptable now. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend anyone spend more than $1,000 on a computer with only 8GB of RAM in 2023.
There are other cuts to the base model that aren’t as egregious but are still disappointing. Apple doesn’t include the power adapter with a gigabit ethernet port, the Magic Keyboard doesn’t have Touch ID, the GPU has eight cores (compared to 10 on the $1,499 model), it only has two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports (the iMac more expensive also has two more USB-C ports) and only comes in four colors instead of seven. The base iMac may exist primarily as a more affordable model for education, but there’s no reason to limit yourself to just 8GB of RAM if you’re buying this computer for yourself or your family.
That means you’re spending at least $1,499 to get a computer with 16GB of RAM and all of the aforementioned compromises. It’s the same price as the mid-tier iMac, which includes the gigabit ethernet adapter, Touch ID, etc., but also comes with only 8GB of RAM. Upgrading that computer to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, the minimum specs you’d consider for a desktop, comes to a whopping $1,899.
This is not a new problem. The company’s entry-level models often feel artificially limited to push you toward a more expensive option. Just look at the $1,099 MacBook Air, which is also limited by 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, but feels slightly more forgivable on a laptop. With the iMac, you don’t get improved portability in exchange for poorer specs. In fact, in many ways (except the screen), the iMac is a more limited model. and More expensive computer than the MacBook Air.
Fortunately, Apple also sells Mac mini. You can get that little desktop with an M2 chip, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage for $999, add a nice 4K monitor, and you’re all set for under $1,500. Of course, you miss out on the subtleties of an all-in-one, which are not insignificant: I really enjoyed the complete absence of cable clutter on my desk while using the iMac.
Wrap
Thanks to Apple Silicon, Apple’s desktop lineup is in better shape than it has been in years. For a time, the iMac had to be both a simple all-in-one for those with basic needs and a more powerful, professional-focused machine (remember the iMac Pro?). But now, the Mac mini and Mac Studio are attractive options for people who want better performance, leaving the iMac to serve a smaller audience. And it does it well: the screen is great, the M3 is powerful, and everything is surprisingly compact. If you want the simplest, simplest Mac experience, the iMac is still the way to go. Just make sure to increase the RAM.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apple-imac-review-2023-nothings-changed-except-the-m3-013032286.html?src=rss
