Quick thoughts on Apple’s M4 iMacs

Apple iMac M4 (Photo: Apple)
Apple has new M4-equipped iMacs available for those who want a desktop-based computer — here’s my early thoughts.

It wasn’t a secret at all that Apple’s gearing up for a week of Mac reveals, kicking off overnight with the announcement of the M4 iMac, an upgrade from the (wait for it)… M3 iMac.

In many ways this is a spec bump kind of deal, but there’s a few interesting standouts worth pulling out of Apple’s announcement that caught my attention and made me ponder.

Also Read:
Apple MacBook Pro M3 Max Review: Very Powerful. Very Expensive.
MacBook Air M3 Review: Too much power?

16GB RAM is now standard

Apple iMac M4 (Photo: Apple)
While the M4 should be a faster system — “up to 1.7x faster for daily productivity, and up to 2.1x faster for demanding workflows like photo editing and gaming” according to Apple — what really caught my attention is the fact that the new iMacs (and most likely any other Mac refreshes that come down the pike this week) — all ship with 16GB of RAM rather than the 8GB that’s been the entry-level spec for Macs for a while now.

Good. The shift to Apple Silicon brought with it some impressive productivity gains, but it also shifted the internal design to a single blob of silicon that combines CPU, GPU, storage and RAM, meaning that there’s no way to upgrade RAM on any new Mac later on, so going upscale is a very good move.

Of course, the entry level models have limits

Apple iMac M4 (Photo: Apple)
This isn’t a new deal for Apple, so it’s not surprising. While all the new iMacs have the M4 processor, the entry level $1,999 variant drops to an 8-core CPU and GPU, but also just two Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports and no ethernet capability. You can bump that model up to 24GB of RAM, and that’s true for the $2,399 10-core model as well, but if you want 32GB of RAM, you have to opt for the 512GB storage variants.

I strongly suspect that there’s nothing stopping Apple making 32GB possible within the silicon blobs that make up the entry level models — it’s just more cost effective and/or profitable for it to reserve that for the higher tier models.

I’m never getting an actually accessible iMac

Apple iMac M4 USB Ports (Photo: Apple)
This one has bugged me for a long time, but whether you opt for a 2 USB port or 4 USB port iMac, you’re going to have to reach around the back to plug anything into it at all. Mac Studios can have front-facing convenient ports, but not iMacs, because the design trumps the practicalities here — and I’m not a fan of that.

New peripherals drop Lightning

There ain't no lightning port and there never was (Meme: Frinkiac, Copyright Disney... probably)
There’s new iterations of the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse, but the key difference here is that they’re swapping out Apple’s Lightning connector for USB-C.

While I think that’s a good move generally, I will be honest here and say that I’m not a big fan of Apple’s external keyboard and mouse combinations. They’re fine when they’re in laptops because flat keyboards make sense there, but if I’ve got a choice, give me a keyboard with a little bit of travel… and don’t get me started on why I don’t like the Magic Mouse, we’ll be here all day.

The new iMacs are available for pre-order today and will be physically available in Australia from the 8th of November with pricing at $1,999 (8-Core CPU/GPU 16GB RAM 256GB Storage) / $2,399 (10-Core CPU/GPU 16GB RAM 256GB Storage) / $2,699 (10-Core CPU/GPU 16GB RAM 512GB Storage) and $2,999 (10-Core CPU/GPU 24GB RAM 512GB Storage).

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