My new iMac arrived this afternoon so I have spent most of the evening setting it up. Thought I would provide my first impressions,
The unboxing experience is delightful. If you have seen any of the videos, it works just as shown. Sort of an origami effect. Almost entirely plastic free. Even the carrying handle is color coordinated fabric instead of plastic. Lots of paper packing the cords and peripherals. I got the numeric keyboard and both trackpad and mouse. Lifting it out of the box shows you how light it is.
With a single cable for power and Ethernet, the connection is easy and keeps cable clutter minimized. All the cables are color coordinated. I did not connect anything else to it for setup. I got the red/pink version. The pink is more a pinkish rose gold while the red back is almost exactly the same color as my Product(Red) iPhone XR with a more metallic finish.
Initial boot was very quick and takes you into the usual setup. I chose to not do a migration and loaded everything from scratch. I wanted to make sure I was running ARM code and not Intel via Rosetta 2.
Speed is amazing. I was coming from a 2015 MacBook Air with 8gb. The Air was connected to a Thunderbolt Display. The new display is almost as wide as the 27” but shorter which is easier for me to look at. I don’t have to crane my neck to get my bifocals in focus. With the thinner bezels it looks much smaller on my desk.
Still getting used to the UI changes in Big Sur - had been running Catalina on the Air. Between that and not getting all my tweaks setup yet makes it feel strange.
I got the 16gb version because I would occasionally get memory pressure in the 70s on the Air. I think it’s worth the $200 up charge.
I’m fairly sure if I hadn’t got the MacBook Pro late last year I would have pulled the trigger on an iMac. I’ve still been close to doing it anyway (lack of funds helps with this a lot). If Apple release a 24.5" or bigger standalone monitor my wallet may catch fire.
I will wait for the M2 Mac Mini, I will wait for the M2 Mac Mini, I will wait for the M2 Mac Mini… No, I will not buy a new Mac. I will wait. Wait. Wait…
To stop the nonsense: I do not get a lot of those bad comments circulating among all those experts about the 24’’ iMac. It is one of the best looking Macs of all times as far as I am concerned. And it is a powerful Mac. To be honest, EVERY M1 Mac is a powerful Mac. Sorry for my lack of negativity. It feels so good to have nice Macs again.
Agreed! It has been weird to see some suddenly be down on an M1. Clearly there’s more powerful stuff coming but we can enjoy these for what (and who) they are for.
In all honesty, it’s not that much different from previous generations, isn’t it? Sure, it’s thinner and now comes in colors. But basically it still feels like the same design blueprint to me. Including “the chin”.
I have it sitting on a glass top and it stays in place fairly well. Easy to rotate but doesn’t move front to back or side to side without effort.
I get that some people really need/want the larger screen. In a previous life I would have wanted it too but find the mid-size more appropriate now. I’m just glad that they came out with the 24" first. If the 24" meets or exceeds sales expectations it would make sense to have colors in the larger version.
