Apple Unveils Redesigned M1-Powered iMac During “Spring Loaded” Event

Apple has revealed its redesigned iMacs that feature vibrant colours and a thin design enabled by the company’s M1 chip.

Apple’s new iMac comes with six other colours aside from its usual silver Credit: Apple

The Cupertino-based tech giant unveiled the iMac, its redesign and its new features at the Spring Loaded event on 20 April 2021. The new iMac features a thinner design, the new M1 chip and a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display. It also has a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, studio-quality mics, Touch ID and other features that make it stand out from other iMacs. Apple stated that the new iMac will be available to order on 30 April 2021 on its official website and in the Apple Store app.

You may have noticed that some of the iMacs featured aren’t sporting the usual silver this time. That’s because, for the first time since the ’90s, Apple’s iMacs will come in six other colours as predicted by leaker Jon Prosser. Aside from the usual silver, customers will be able to choose from blue, green, pink, yellow, orange and purple, “bringing a sense of joy to any space”.

The iMac’s colour isn’t the only new thing. Apple has also added its M1 chip which enables the company to create a thinner iMac and provide its customers with even better performance.

A 2021 iMac with Photoshop opened Credit: Apple

The M1 chip provides customers with faster responses and the capability to flawlessly run more intensive applications that the previous iteration might have struggled with. We previously reviewed a 13-inch MacBook Pro M1 and compared it with our 16-inch MacBook Pro and we found the latter came out on top in many ways. It even seamlessly rendered 8K videos without one single frame being dropped in Quicktime and Final Cut Pro thanks to the M1 chip.

Apple mentioned that aside from apps frequently used by creative professionals such as Photoshop, Affinity Publisher and DaVinci Resolve, there are currently thousands of universal apps available that take full advantage of the iMac’s M1 chip and macOS Big Sur, with more coming every week.

Apple also equipped the new iMac with a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display with narrow borders and 11.3 million pixels. The company stated that the display supports a P3 wide colour gamut and over a billion colours as well as a brightness of 500 nits. Images were said to be vivid and more brilliant when displayed using the new iMac.

An iMac showcasing its 24-inch 4.5K Retina display; notice the amount of detail on the screen Credit: Apple

Additionally, the new iMac’s display also features True Tone technology, which automatically adjusts the colour temperature as the environment changes for “a more natural viewing experience”. The display also has an anti-reflective coating to provide greater comfort and readability.

The new iMac has a 1080p FaceTime HD camera that can deliver high-quality video and great performance in low-light environments, a studio-quality three-microphone array for clearer calls and voice recordings and a combination of two pairs of force-cancelling woofers on the iMac’s sides for “an impressive bass response” as well as two high-performance tweeters. The resulting combination was said to be able to produce a massive sound stage with “strong, articulate bass and crystal-clear mids and highs”.

The camera capitalises on the M1 chip’s image signal processor (ISP) and its Neural Engine to enhance the image quality and noise reduction of the iMac’s camera. The M1 chip also provides the camera with greater dynamic range, improved auto exposure and white balance for customers to look their best when on video calls.

Touch ID has finally come to Apple’s iMacs Credit: Apple

The new iMac’s Magic Keyboard comes in similar shades as the iMac, and what’s even better, Touch ID is now available. This new feature enables customers to purchase apps easily with Apple Pay and unlock their iMac with just their fingerprint. Customers need not worry about their fingerprint being stolen either. The iMac’s Touch ID uses a “dedicated security component” on the keyboard that communicates with the M1 chip’s Secure Enclave, protecting a customer’s print from end to end.

The iMac’s Touch ID also supports Fast User Switching, which allows other users to change to a different profile with just their fingerprint.

Apple gave its two iMac configurations two Thunderbolt ports for superfast data transfers. However, the 8-core iMac configuration offers two additional UBS-C ports and a 1Gbps Ethernet port in the power adapter.

As previously mentioned, there are two iMac configurations available for ordering: the 7-core GPU iMac and the 8-core GPU iMac. The former starts at S$1,849 while the latter starts at S$2,149. Both configurations will come with their own Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, 8-core CPU, 256GB SSD and Magic Mouse.

Students, teachers and staff can avail Apple’s Education Pricing Credit: Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

Education pricing is also available for Apple’s new iMacs; the 7-core GPU iMac will start from S$1,779 while the 8-core GPU iMac is starting from S$2,009.

Customers can get additional technical specifications, configure-to-order options and accessories at Apple’s website.

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Written by John Paul Joaquin