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Apple iMac: Comparing Old and New

The new iMac has arrived, and it's lost some weight since we last saw it. But is it time to upgrade? We compare old and new to help you decide.

October 25, 2012

Amid the excitement of Apple's Tuesday event, which featured the iPad mini and the new Retina-equipped MacBook Pro 13-inch, iMac users got something they've been anticipating for nearly 1.5 years - the announcement of a new iMac.

The iMac has gone through several changes in its eight iterations. The bondi-blue plastic iMac gave way to the pedestal design, which in turn gave way to the all-in-one design, first in white plastic, and then in brushed aluminum. In that sense, the newest iMacs look a whole lot like the previous generation—glass covered displays, with brushed aluminum chassis and stand. There is, however, one major difference. The new iMac is a lot slimmer.

Many defining features of the previous iMac are found on the new model, like the wide aluminum strip along the bottom of the chassis, and the single piece stand. When viewed directly from the front, in fact, you could even mistake the new model for the old. View it at an angle, however, and the difference is stark—the new model is nearly an inch thinner, with 40 percent less volume and 8 fewer pounds.

Tapering down to a mere 5 millimeters at the edge, the overall thickness of the iMac has been reduced nearly by half. The back of the iMac has a curved shape to accommodate its internal components, but even with this extra thickness, the iMac is the slimmest, sexiest desktop we've seen all year. They're also faster, with updated Intel Ivy bridge processors and Nvidia graphics processing.

Neither the 21.5- nor the 27-inch iMac has an optical drive—which contributes to the thinner design—but they include two Thunderbolt ports, four USB 3.0 ports, an SDXC card reader (now found on the back of the iMac instead of the side), and Gigabit Ethernet. Dropped along with the optical drive is the FireWire 800 port found on previous models. If you're using an older camcorder with FireWire output, it may be time to upgrade your video equipment.

The new iMac comes in two sizes, a 21.5-inch model with 1,920-by-1,080 resolution, and a larger 27-inch model that ramps up the resolution to 2,560-by-1,440 resolution. While these are the same resolutions offered on the previous iterations, the new iMacs have upgraded from a TFT LCD display to an IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel, which boasts clear viewing from 178 degrees, and glowing with up to 300 nits brightness.

The new iMacs also benefit from Apple's Fusion Drive, which adds a 128GB of flash storage to the hard drive, and dynamically manages the memory, shifting less used programs to the hard drive, reserving the speedier flash memory for the most often used apps for faster day-to-day performance. It's also seamless, showing up as one logical drive without the need for user management.

Apple iMac 21.5-inch (Late 2012)
The Apple iMac 21.5-inch (Late 2012) is available in two different configurations, both equipped with quad-core Intel Core i5 processors (2.7GHz and 2.9GHz, respectively). This processor can be paired with 8-16GB of RAM, but choose wisely when customizing your system, because the 21.5-inch model doesn't allow access for upgrading memory. Since last year, Apple has also dropped AMD graphics processing in favor of Nvidia-made alternatives—either the GeForce GT 640M or 650M, depending upon your selection. The new 21.5-inch iMacs also are equipped with 1TB 5,400rpm hard drives across the board. The previous models started at 500GB.

The Apple iMac 21.5-inch (Late 2012) starts at $1,299 for the base model (without Fusion Drive), or $1,499 when bumped up to the 2.9-GHz processor (with Fusion). Both models can be seen on the Apple Store, and will be shipping in November.

Apple iMac 27-inch (Late 2012)
Like the smaller iMac, the Apple iMac 27-inch (Late 2012) is available in two configurations, the primary difference between them being your choice of either 2.9-GHz or 3.2-GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, and the option of an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660M (with 512MB of dedicated memory), or an Nvidia GeForce GTX 675MX (1GB). Unlike the smaller model of iMac, all 27-inch models do offer access for upgrading from the 8GB of RAM that come standard, and all 27-inch configurations are outfitted with Fusion Drive. The Apple iMac 27-inch (Late 2012) sells for $1,799 or $1,999, and will begin shipping this December.

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