The Apple iMac all-in-one (AIO) has long been the darling of photographers and videographers, thanks to its combination of sleek design, excellent performance, and its affinity with content-creation tools like Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and Premiere. For these folks, the new Apple iMac 21.5-inch with 4K Retina display ($1,499 as tested) is a welcome addition to the Mac desktop lineup, with its 4K screen, fifth-generation Intel Core i5 processor, and updated peripherals. Outside of this admittedly popular niche though, the less expensive Lenovo B50 remains our top pick for midrange AIOs, thanks to more memory and storage, an HDMI-in and -out connector, and more conveniently placed ports. And if you have the budget and the space, the latest 27-inch iMac with 5K Retina display is our Editors' Choice for high-end all-in-ones.
Design and Features
The exterior of the iMac looks identical to the 2014 model, with the same aluminum and glass body. It measures 17.7 by 20.8 by 6.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 12.5 pounds. But turn on the system, and the main upgrade becomes very apparent: the display.
The 21.5-inch Retina display is the real star here. With a resolution of 4,096 by 2,304, the In-Plane Switching (IPS) screen has 4.5 times the resolution of a 1080p HD display. That means you can have four 1080p HD video windows playing at native resolution simultaneously, or you can fill the screen with a 4K video from your iPhone 6s or other sources. Unfortunately, most of what you see will likely be self-created, since 4K video content is still rare at this time. Note that, since there is less physical space, the 21.5-inch screen has 9.4 million pixels compared with the 14.7 million (5,210-by-2,880 resolution) on the latest Apple iMac 27-inch with 5K Retina display. That's still a lot more screen real estate than the 3,840-by-2,160 resolution you'd get on an Ultra High-Definition 4K display like the ViewSonic VP2780-4K.
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The display is color calibrated at Apple's factory. It features technology that lets it display colors in the DCI-P3 color space. DCI-P3 was introduced in 2007 by the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) as a color reference that's wider than the sRGB space common to LCDs. That translates into more accurate reds and greens, as well as all the colors in between. For example, cyan, gold, orange, and red elements have greater vibrancy and accuracy on this display than any current LCD or IPS panels limited to sRGB colors. It matches the color calibration in modern movie theater digital projection systems, making the Retina display ideal if you're a film studies hobbyist, student, or professional. Since the screen is more true to life, it's also a great tool for photographers. In our testing, the smattering of 4K videos that I streamed from YouTube looked great, showing some of the potential of the screen.
You'll find some familiar ports on the back of the monitor, including a Gigabit Ethernet port, a headset jack, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, an SDXC card reader, and four USB 3.0 ports. The system's sides are tapered to a very fine edge, so there's no space for side-mounted ports. That's a shame, because it's somewhat inconvenient to plug in a headset, an SD card, or a USB drive in the back. The Lenovo B50 and the wafer-thin Dell XPS 18 (1820) both have side-mounted SD card readers and USB ports.
If you're a veteran Mac user, you'll notice the new wireless keyboard and mouse. The Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse 2 now have rechargeable batteries instead of AA batteries. The keyboard is slimmer, and both have Lighting ports for recharging via an included Lightning cable. One neat plus is that the Lighting-to-USB cable will pair either peripheral to any new Mac, so you don't have to manually pair the devices, or fiddle with the Bluetooth control panel pretty much ever.
The 27-inch iMac comes with a 1TB 7,200rpm hard drive standard, so it's somewhat disappointing that the 21.5-inch model comes with a 1TB, 5,400rpm HDD. Thankfully, it didn't seem to affect performance too much on our benchmark tests. You can upgrade to a faster Fusion Drive or flash storage in configure-to-order (CTO) options, but our base model doesn't have these upgrades.
The system's memory has been upgraded to a speedy 1,867MHz DDR3. The standard 8GB of memory is solid, and you can upgrade to 16GB at the time you order. Officially, the chassis is sealed, so choose wisely if you think you'll need more memory or storage.
Like all Macs, the 21.5-inch iMac is unencumbered by bloatware. The system comes with a one-year standard warranty, which is on par with its Windows-equipped competitors.
Performance
Equipped with an Intel Core i5-5675R processor with Intel Iris Pro 6200 graphics, the system performed quite well on our multimedia tests, making it well-suited for video editing and production tasks. It came in first place on our HandBrake video encoding test, at 1 minute, 9 seconds. That's a bit faster than the Apple iMac 27-inch (1:15) and the HP Sprout (1:13), but it's significantly faster than last year's iMac 21-inch (3:03) and Lenovo B50 (4:23), as well as portable all-in-ones like the Dell XPS 18 (2:51) and the Lenovo Horizon 2 (3:47).
The iMac is also an excellent photo-editing tool, taking just 3 minutes, 20 seconds to complete our Photoshop test. That's on par with the iMac 27-inch (3:19), the HP Sprout (3:18), and the MSI Gaming 24GE 2QE-014US ($3,672.28 at Amazon) (3:19). It was much faster than systems like the Dell XPS 18 (4:19), the Lenovo B50 (4:23), and the Lenovo Horizon 2 (5:51). This new iMac is a multimedia powerhouse.
3D performance is good for a system with integrated graphics. The iMac completed the Heaven (29 frames per second or fps) and Valley (35fps) tests at medium quality with frame rates that just qualify as playable. Its performance is equivalent to that of systems with entry-level discrete graphics like the HP Sprout, the Lenovo B50, and the Lenovo Horizon 2, but it can't hold a candle to all-in-one PCs with higher-end discrete graphics, like the MSI Gaming 24GE and the Apple iMac 27-inch.
Conclusion
If you make your living through the lens of a camera, or you're a serious creative type, the 21.5-inch 4K Retina iMac belongs high up on your short list—especially if you want the hi-res display but don't want to pay for the 27-inch 5K iMac. It has the power to easily motor through photo and video projects, and its brilliant, high-resolution Retina display has a color depth that's unmatched by rivals. However, the Lenovo B50 remains our Editors' Choice for midrange all-in-one desktops by virtue of its more flexible HDMI-in and -out ports, more convenient port placement, and higher-capacity hard drive and system memory, all for a list price that's $300 less than the 4K 21.5-inch iMac.
With a new Retina display, the latest Intel Core I CPU, and faster memory, the latest 21.5-inch Apple iMac is a very attractive option if you're creatively inclined and have limited space and/or funds.
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