imac 24 lcd panel manufacturer

Accessibility features help people with disabilities get the most out of their new iMac. With built-in support for vision, hearing, mobility, and learning, you can create and do amazing things. Learn more about Accessibility

Configure your iMac with these options at apple.com:. Looking for an iMac you can mount on a wall or an adjustable arm? Choose an iMac with a Built-in VESA Mount Adapter

Magic Keyboard with Touch ID is included with the 24‑inch iMac systems with Apple M1 chip and 8‑core GPU and is available as an option on systems with 7‑core GPU

Apple 661-4989 LCD Display Panel, 24 inch for 24 inch 2.66-2.93-3.06GHz iMac 09 – A1225 – Apple LCD Displays 661-4989 – iMac (24-inch Early 2009) LCD Display Panel, 24 inch

Apple Inc. sold a variety of LCD and CRT computer displays in the past. Apple paused production of their own standalone displays in 2016 and partnered with LG to design displays for Macs.Pro Display XDR was introduced, however it was expensive and targeted for professionals. Nearly three years later, in March 2022, the Studio Display was launched as a consumer-targeted counterpart to the professional monitor. These two are currently the only Apple-branded displays available.

Apple"s manufacture history of CRT displays began in 1980, starting with the Apple III business computer. It was a 12″ monochrome (green) screen that could display 80×24 text characters and any type of graphics, however it suffered from a very slow phosphor refresh that resulted in a "ghosting" video effect. So it could be shared with Apple II computers, a plastic stand was made available to accommodate the larger footprint of the display.

A new external AppleColor High-Resolution RGB Monitor was introduced in 1987 for the Macintosh II. It had a 13″ Trinitron CRT (the first Apple display to use an aperture grille CRT) with a fixed resolution of 640×480 pixels. The Macintosh II was a modular system with no internal display and was able to drive up to six displays simultaneously using multiple graphics cards. The desktop spanned multiple displays, and windows could be moved between displays or straddle them. In 1989, Apple introduced a series of monochrome displays for the Macintosh, the 20″ Macintosh Two Page Monochrome Display which could display two pages side by side, the 15″ Macintosh Portrait Display with a vertical orientation to display one page, and the 12″ High-Resolution Monochrome Monitor. In 1990, two 12″ displays were introduced for the low end, a 640×480 monochrome model and a 512×384 color model (560×384 for compatibility with Apple IIe Card), meant for the Macintosh LC. These were succeeded by the Apple Macintosh 16″ Color Display, and Apple Macintosh 20″ Color Display with resolutions of 640×480, 832×624 and 1152×870, respectively. There were also the Apple Performa Plus Display (a low-end Goldstar-built 14″ display with 640×480 resolution) for the Macintosh Performa series and the Apple Color Plus 14″ Display.

The Macintosh Color Classic introduced a 10″ color Trinitron display to the Classic compact Macintosh, with a slightly enhanced resolution of 512×384 (560×384 to accommodate the Apple IIe Card) like the standalone 12″ color display. Apple continued the all-in-one series with the larger 14″ Macintosh LC 500 series, featuring a 14″, 640×480 Trinitron CRT until the LC 580 in 1995, which heralded the switch to shadow mask CRTs for the remainder of Apple"s all-in-one computers until the switch to LCDs in 2002. The last Macintosh to include an integrated CRT was the eMac, which boosted the display area to 17″ with support up to 1280×960 resolution. It used a 4th generation flat-screen CRT and was discontinued in 2006.

The fourth generation of displays were introduced simultaneously with the Blue & White Power Macintosh G3 in 1999, which included the translucent plastics of the iMac (initially white and blue "blueberry", then white and grey "graphite" upon the introduction of the Power Mac G4). The displays were also designed with same translucent look. The Apple Studio Display series of CRT displays were available in a 17″ Diamondtron and a 21″ Trinitron CRT, both driven by an LG-Manufactured chassis. The 17″ displays were notorious for faulty flybacks and failing in a manner that could destroy the monitor and catch fire. It"s also reported that these monitors can destroy GPU"s, and sometimes the entire computer. The last Apple external CRT display was introduced in 2000 along with the Power Mac G4 Cube. Both it and the new LCD Studio Displays featured clear plastics to match the Cube, and the new Apple Display Connector, which provided power, USB, and video signals to the display through a single cable. It was available only in a 17″ flat screen Diamondtron CRT. It was discontinued the following year.

The history of Apple LCDs started in 1984 when the Apple Flat Panel Display was introduced for the Apple IIc computer, principally to enhance the IIc"s portability (see Apple IIc Portability enhancements). This monochrome display was capable of 80 columns by 24 lines, as well as double hi-res graphics, but had an odd aspect ratio (making images look vertically squished) and required a very strong external light source, such as a desk lamp or direct sunlight to be used. Even then it had a very poor contrast overall and was quite expensive (US$600), contributing to its poor sales and consequently it dropping from the market not long after its introduction. An estimated 10,000 IIc LCD displays were produced.

The next attempt at a flat panel was with the Macintosh Portable. More of a "luggable" than a laptop, it contained a high-resolution, active-matrix, 1-bit black & white, 9.8″ LCD with 640×400 resolution. Like the IIc Flat Panel, it was not backlit and required a bright light source to be used. A second generation model employed a backlit LCD. The PowerBook and MacBook series would continue to use LCD displays, following an industry-wide evolution from black-and-white to grayscale to color and ranging from 9″ to 17″. Two primary technologies were used, active matrix (higher quality and more expensive) and passive matrix displays (lower quality and cheaper). By 1998 all laptops would use active-matrix color LCDs, though the Newton products and eMate portables would continue to use black and white LCDs. Apple"s current MacBook portable displays include LED backlighting and support either 2560×1600 or 2880×1800 pixel resolutions depending on screen size. The iPod series used black-and-white or color LCDs, the iPhone line uses LCD and OLED displays, and the Apple Watch uses OLED.

In 1997, Apple released the Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM), its first all-in-one desktop with an LCD display. Drawing heavily from PowerBook technology, the TAM featured a 12.1″ active matrix LCD capable of displaying up to 16 bit color at 800×600. While Apple chose to retain traditional and cheaper CRTs for its all-in-one desktop line for the next 4 years, the TAM is undoubtedly the predecessor for the successful LCD-based iMac line of all-in-one desktops starting with the iMac G4 released in 2002. A substantial upgrade over the TAM, it contained a 15″ LCD supporting up to 1024×768 resolution. It was followed by a 17″ and 20″ models boasting resolution of up to 1680 × 1050. In 2005, the iMac G5 dropped the 15″ configuration and in 2007, the new iMac dropped the 17″ and added a 24″ to the line-up, further boosting resolution to 1920 x 1200. In October 2009, new iMac models moved to 16:9 aspect ratio screens at 21.5 and 27 inches.

The first desktop color flat-panel was introduced on March 17, 1998, with the 15″ Apple Studio Display (15-inch flat panel) which had a resolution of 1024×768. After the eMate, it was one of the first Apple products to feature translucent plastics, two months before the unveiling of the iMac. Apple called its dark blue color "azul". It had a DA-15 input as well as S-video, composite video, ADB and audio connectors, though no onboard speakers. In January 1999 the coloring was changed to match the blue and white of the new Power Macintosh G3s, and the connector changed to DE-15 VGA.

The 22″ widescreen Power Mac G4 and in the beginning was sold only as an option to the Power Mac G4, selling for US$3,999. It had a native resolution of 1600×1024 and used a DVI connector. The display had a striped look on the bezel, similar to previous Studio Displays and iMacs. In December, the colors of the 15″ display were changed to "graphite" to match the new Power Mac G4s, and the input was changed from VGA to DVI, the audio and video features dropped, and the ADB functionality replaced by a two-port USB hub.

In 2000 the 22″ Cinema Displays switched to the ADC interface, and the 15″ Studio Display was remodeled to match the Cinema Display"s easel-like form factor and also featured the Apple Display Connector. In 2001 an LCD-based 17″ Studio Display was introduced, with a resolution of 1280×1024. In 2002 Apple introduced the

In 2004 a new line was introduced, utilizing the same 20″ and 23″ panels alongside a new 30″ model, for $3,299. The displays had a sleek aluminum enclosure with a much narrower bezel than their predecessors. The 20″ model featured a 1680×1050 resolution, the 23″ 1920×1200, and the 30″ 2560×1600. The 30″ version requires a dual-link interface, because a single-link DVI connection (the most common type) doesn"t have enough bandwidth to provide a picture to a display of this resolution. Initially, the only graphics cards that could power the new 30″ display were the Nvidia GeForce 6800 DDL series, available in both GT and Ultra forms. The DDL suffix signified the dual-link DVI capability. The less expensive of the two cards retailed for US$499, raising the net cost of owning and using the display to nearly $3,800. Later graphics options included the NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500; the card included two dual-link DVI connectors which allowed a Power Mac G5 to run two 30″ Cinema Displays simultaneously with the total number of pixels working out to 8.2 million.

With the introduction of the Unibody MacBook family, Apple introduced the 24-inch LED Cinema Display, its first desktop display to use the new Mini DisplayPort connector, and also the first with an LED-backlit LCD. It had built-in speakers, a powered 3-port USB hub on the rear, an iSight camera and microphone, and a MagSafe power adapter for laptops. It also connected by USB for peripherals. It has a resolution of 1920×1200 and retailed for US$899.00. In 2010 it was replaced with a new 27-inch version with a resolution of 2560×1440.

Apple announced the Pro Display XDR at the 2019 WWDC, the first Apple-branded display since the Apple Thunderbolt Display was discontinued in 2016. The display contains a 6016×3384 6K color-calibrated Extreme Dynamic Range (XDR) panel.

A DVI connector was used on the 2001-2002 titanium PowerBook G4; all aluminum PowerBook G4 15” and 17”; all aluminum MacBook Pro 15″ and 17″ models; Mac Mini G4, Power Mac G4, G5; Intel Mac Mini, and Mac Pro 2006–2012. PowerBook G4 12”, iMac G5 and Intel white iMacs mini-DVI ports.

A mini-VGA connector, which can provide VGA via a short adaptor cable. It appears on the white iBook, eMac, iMac G4 and G5, and first generation 12-inch PowerBook G4. Later models also support a composite and S-video adapter attached to this port.

The Apple VGA Display Adapter was specially designed to allow users to connect certain Macintosh computers to an extra VGA display or external projector (equipped with VGA) for 24-bit video-mirroring. The VGA cable from your external display or projector cable plugs into the Mini-VGA video port built into your Macintosh via the Apple VGA Display Adapter.

Compatible with: eMac, iMac G5, iMac G4 flat-panel, 12-inch PowerBook G4, or iBooks having a Mini-VGA port. Most Macintosh computers with the Mini-VGA port can also use the Apple Video Adapter for S-video & Composite output options.

According to Reuters, the continued losses suffered by the company is due to "sagging prices" for LCD panels across the board. The company also said its production plans in South Korea and China could be impacted by the emerging trade war between the U.S. and China.

LG Display cited "concern for the global smartphone market," as well as the long-term decline of LG"s LCD panel business. The company has been shifting its emphasis towards OLED panels.

A report earlier this month stated that Apple has ordered between 3 and 4 million OLED panels from LG Display, for use in the 2018 generation of iPhones, with LG expected to become the majority supplier of OLED panels for iPhones for 2019, overtaking its rival Samsung.

There had been reports in April of manufacturing delays on LG"s side affecting Apple"s panel diversifaction plans. As of June, LG was expected to deliver 2 million and 4 million OLED panels to Apple for "a future iPhone," although it"s unclear whether they would be used in this year"s or next year"s models.

LG Display has long been a supplier of 4K and 5K panels for the iMac. LG Display and Samsung both supply screens for the Apple Watch, while LG Display supplies Pad screens as well.

The external design of the iMac had not changed much in 13 years, with minor alterations to screen size or aspect ratio being the most noticeable updates. The new 24-inch iMac breaks that cycle with a new thin and vibrant lineup.

The redesigned iMac replaces the 21.5-inch iMac 4K that ran Intel processors. A few versions of the original iMac are still available for legacy users and education markets looking for low entry prices.

Apple announced it would transition its entire Mac lineup to Apple Silicon within two years during its 2020 WWDC. The design changes for the new iMac were possible only because of Apple"s use of the M1 processor.

The 24-inch iMac is 11.5mm thick — about the same thickness as the original iPhone. It no longer has a prominent chin with an Apple logo, and gone are the thick black bezels surrounding the display. The 2021 iMac is a slim and light desktop PC with seven color options and powerful Apple Silicon.

The desktop stand is the same muted color as the faceplate and can be traded for a VESA mount at purchase. It doesn"t have an adjustable height, but the entire iMac can be tilted for better viewing angles.

The colorful design bleeds over to its peripherals as well. The magnetic power cable is color-matched to the vibrant back panel, and the keyboard and mouse have colored highlights to match.

At less than 10 pounds, this desktop is easy to move around. Apple anticipated this with a new magnetic power connector. Users aren"t exactly expected to pop one of these iMacs out at a cafe, but the plug-and-play nature of its power cable means carrying an iMac to and from the office is not only feasible but easy.

Apple increased the resolution to match the size of the new display. Moving from 21.5 inches to 24 inches necessitated an increase from 4K to 4.5K to maintain Retina resolution. It is 4480 by 2520 pixels with a 218 PPI.

Users can enjoy their 4K iTunes content with color-accurate reproduction and excellent sound. Apple has packed six dynamic speakers into the 24-inch iMac monitor. Two pairs of force-canceling woofers are balanced with a high-performance tweeter, which works together to create room-filling sound.

Apple says the new iMac supports spatial audio when playing video with Dolby Atmos. This means that all audio will sound like it"s coming from a specific direction around you, and when you turn your head, you"ll still perceive audio from the correct direction.

Apple hasn"t explained exactly how this will work with the iMac considering all of the speakers are in front of the user. Spatial audio is a feature in AirPods Pro and AirPods Max that creates a 3D sound space within the listening environment. As the user turns their head, it sounds like the audio is still coming from the iPhone or iPad speakers.

Native ARM-based apps and translated Intel apps aren"t the only software users can run either. Thanks to the M1, users can run iPhone and iPad apps natively on the iMac.

There are two versions of the 24-inch iMac — a cheaper one with fewer ports and fewer color options and a more expensive one with slightly better performance. The M1 on the cheaper model has an 8-core CPU and a 7-core GPU and can be configured with up to 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM. The more expensive model has an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU and can be configured with 2TB of storage and 16GB of RAM.

The 24-inch iMac scored 1729 on the single-core metric and 7459 on the multi-core metric. This was achieved with the base 8-core CPU and 7-core GPU M1 processor.

When compared to the 2019 21.5-inch iMac running Intel with an Intel Core i7 processor, the M1 runs 56% faster when compared to single-core performance. The M1 is 24% faster when compared to multi-core.

The ports included with the 24-inch iMac differ depending on which model customers choose. Both models have two USB 4/Thunderbolt ports, but only the more expensive model has two additional USB 3 ports.

There is a headphone jack on the left side of the iMac because there wasn"t enough depth to place it in the back. A headphone jack needs 14mm of space, where the 24-inch iMac has only 11.5mm of depth.

A color-matched Magic Keyboard comes with both iMacs, but only the more expensive model has integrated Touch ID in the keyboard. Customers can upgrade their keyboard or add a color-matched Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad at checkout.

Thanks to the efficiency of the M1 processor, Apple was arguably able to execute the most significant overhaul to its consumer-focused Mac in years. The 24-inch iMac ditches the aging design of its predecessor for a thin and colorful exterior reminiscent of the iPad Pro.

The screen increased from 21.5 inches to 24 inches with a 4.5K display. The entire computer rests in the chin while the rear of the display houses the speaker components.

The thin design doesn"t leave much room for ports, so the usual plethora of ports has been reduced to four USB type-C ports. The two USB 4/Thunderbolt ports are standard on every 24-inch iMac, but the additional two USB 3 ports are only included on higher configurations.

The iMac has a newly designed power cable that uses magnets to keep it in place. This cable runs to a power brick that has an Ethernet port built-in, but it is only included by default on higher-end iMacs. Moving Ethernet to the power brick enables a simplified port configuration on the machine and better cable management for cables that are rarely touched.

There are two variants of the M1 processor depending on which tier of iMac you choose. Both have 8-core CPUs, with the difference being 7-core or 8-core GPUs.

Our testing showed the M1 processor handily beat out the base model Intel-based iMacs in single and multi-core operations. The M1 could not compete against dedicated graphics in the 27-inch iMac, but the score reflects its ability to handle graphics well.

The 24-inch iMac enters the market as an un-upgradable appliance computer. It doesn"t replace a professional workstation like the 27-inch iMac or iMac Pro, but it didn"t need to. To us, it seems this is a desktop targeted at bringing iOS lovers to the Mac.

For most, there"s a lot to like with the first Apple Silicon iMac. At any level, it is an excellent machine that won"t appeal to the most power-hungry or the Intel-bound. For those folks, you probably need to wait it out for another generation or two, as the M-series chip is ultimately incremented, and your Intel-stuck software migrates to Apple Silicon.

And, for the devout, there"s a lot of call-backs to older Macs, like color, white bezels that started on the G4 iMac, and near-silent computing continuing to have a renaissance, after getting left behind more than 15 years ago with the G5 and Intel Macs.

The 24-inch iMac with a 4.5K display ships with a base configuration of an M1 with an 8-core CPU, 7-core GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage for $1,299. Customers can increase the storage up to 1TB, double the RAM, or add a Touch ID Magic Keyboard at checkout.

Specs aside, at first glance this iMac looks alarmingly like an iPad on a stand. If you"ve ever attempted to take apart an iPad, you know why we"re a little hesitant to dig into this narrow slab.

We"ve been doing iMac teardowns a long time, so we"re fairly quick by now—but if you"re impatient, nothing beats an X-ray. Check out this beauty from our friends at Creative Electron.

The bundled Magic Keyboard gets its first update since 2017, now featuring round-er corners, iMac-matching color choices, and reorganized function keys.

We don"t love glued-together desktops—but if you insist, then this sort of split-friendly foam adhesive has been our go-to recommendation since we first encountered it in the 2012 iMac. It carves open easily with our handy-dandy cutting wheel.

Even the "Pro" iMac had all its ports soldered to the logic board. While a desktop is less likely to experience port wear than a mobile device, it"s always nice to have the option to replace.

But wait; there’s more! For the low, low price of zero dollars, we have a whole reference guide full of identified iMac M1 silicon. We didn’t have room for all of it here, so our loss is your gain!

Speaking of air, our mid-tier iMac comes with two small fans (vs. just one in the base model). This marks the first dual-fan setup in an M1 machine—which ought to be more than enough, considering how well the completely fanless M1 MacBook Air seems to perform with the exact same chip.

Best guess: The new iMac design was too thin for a CR2032 on the main board. That"s right—they couldn"t squeeze in the battery from an AirTag. So Apple instead used two half-height CR2016s, and squirreled them away over here for clearance.

The Apple logo on the back may not glow like on those classic MacBooks, but it"s definitely still radiating. Like past iMacs, it has a cutout that acts as a convenient window for a patch antenna.

The display shield features two horizontal slots that hang on corresponding tabs in the case—keeping the display securely mounted. History, but no markings, point to LG Display as a likely maker of this panel.

The stand’s hinge hardware is no longer accessible from the outside, so choose VESA from the outset or forever hold your peace—or an iMac opening wheel.

Two iMacs, one keyboard: once a keyboard is paired to an iMac, it must be unpaired in order to be paired to another iMac. Unpairing a keyboard invalidates the Touch ID profile stored on the iMac, even if it"s re-paired to the same keyboard later on.

Repairability benefits: If the iMac"s power supply dies, you can easily replace it. Plus, the lack of large exposed capacitors inside the iMac itself (like we"ve seen in previous generations) means you"ll have a safer time poking around in there.

The power supply can pump out a healthy 143 watts, but in our testing, the iMac only draws about 60 watts at most. That"s a lot of extra headroom for power-hungry USB-C peripherals.

My wife is an artist and primarily creates art on her iPad Pro, because it"s massively easier than working with physical and a snap to access her work on her phone and share/sell online. She"s been hobbling along on an old MacBook Pro we bought her 10 years ago, but that laptop frequently suddenly shuts off, and has gotten to be quite slow despite upgrades I made to it years ago (more ran, added an SSD). At any rate, it was time to upgrade and I asked my wife if she wanted a MacBook Pro again, and she said she would rather have an iMac.

Sure, there are some other differences between this 24-inch iMac and the 21.5-inch model from 2019 that it’s replacing. There are better microphones and better speakers. There are fewer ports, and some of them have moved around. The screen is bigger and better. The keyboard now has TouchID. But the M1 is the star of the show.

It’s not just the performance increase. It’s not just the fact that you can run iOS and iPadOS apps natively on the system. It’s not just the new advanced image signal processor, which helps create better low-light images than I’ve ever seen from an integrated webcam. It’s also the groundbreaking efficiency with which this processor runs, which has enabled Apple to create a slim, sleek, and quite unique iMac chassis.

Whether you actually get every upgrade here depends on the configuration you choose. The entry-level iMac is $1,299 for 256GB of SSD storage, two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports, 8GB of unified memory, and a seven-core GPU — but that’s only available in four colors and doesn’t come with TouchID. The model I tested bumps the storage up to 512GB and the memory up to 16GB. It has two USB-3 ports in addition to the two Thunderbolt, an eight-core GPU, Touch ID, and a gigabit Ethernet port (which is in the power brick). I also received both the Magic Mouse and the Magic Trackpad with my model. You’d need to pay a total of $2,028 to get everything Apple sent me (and which I’ll be sending back, for the record).

In short, this device costs money. And it’s true that you’d get similar performance and save a few hundred bucks, if you just plugged a Mac Mini into an external display. But this iMac has almost everything that most people need in one package: processing power, sure, but also a camera, speakers, microphones, a keyboard, a mouse, a trackpad, and a display. And they’re all good. This is a computer you can plonk on your desk and never think about again. And for some of the iMac’s target audience, that’s probably worth the extra money. You’re paying for simplicity.

That advantage bore out in our benchmark testing. This iMac model achieved a higher score on the Geekbench 5 single-core benchmark than any Mac we’ve ever seen before — even the iMac Pro. That means if you’re looking for a device for simpler everyday tasks that don’t scale to every available CPU core (and that largely seems to be the demographic that Apple is trying to sell this machine to), there has literally never been a better iMac for you to buy.

These results help illuminate where this iMac fits into Apple’s all-in-one lineup, and where its limitations are. The 24-incher is a significant improvement over the 21.5-inch iMac in both single-core and multi-core workloads. And it’s very comparable in graphics tasks — which is quite impressive, given that the 21.5-inch iMac has a discrete GPU and this one relies on what’s integrated with the M1.

On the other end, these results (with the exception of single-core performance) are not close to what we’d expect from the 27-inch Intel iMac with discrete graphics. In this comparison, multi-core results are more important. They indicate that the 27-inch iMac is going to do much better on the types of tasks that owners (or prospective buyers) are likely to be doing: intense multitasking, computations, design, video work, and other more complex loads that may leverage the GPU.

There are other limitations that may put some workloads out of reach. As is the case with the MacBook Pro and Mac Mini, you can’t configure the iMac with more than 16GB of memory and 2TB of storage; we wouldn’t recommend those specs to anyone who regularly edits 4K or 8K video, for example. The memory and storage are soldered, so you can’t upgrade them after purchase. Only one external display is supported (up to 6K resolution at 60Hz). Ports are also bizarrely limited; the base model has just two Thunderbolt / USB-4 ports and a headphone jack, while more expensive models have an additional two USB-3 ports and Gigabit Ethernet. These all may be reasons Apple is pushing this iMac as a “home and family” PC, even though its processor is clearly capable of all kinds of professional work.

The M1 processor’s efficiency allows the iMac to get away with a thin design and minimal fan noise, and still maintain performance Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

Another way to interpret these numbers is that I was getting effectively the same performance out of this machine as we got from the M1 MacBook Pro and the Mac Mini. That’s completely unsurprising, since these devices all use the same processor. But it’s a good proxy for gauging whether the iMac can handle your work: if you expect you could get a task done with the M1 MacBook Pro, you should be able to do it on this.

More anecdotally, I was able to use my test unit for all kinds of daily tasks, from emailing to YouTube to amateur photo and video work. I was able to hop between over 25 Chrome tabs with Cinebench looping in the background, with no stutter or slowdown whatsoever. If you’re buying the iMac for this kind of thing, I can’t imagine you’ll see too many spinning wheels.

During this testing process, I also got a sense of just how well cooled this chassis is. On thinner laptops that I test often (including the fanless MacBook Air), you’ll see performance decrease if you run heavy tasks over and over again. None of that on this iMac: I looped Cinebench R23 as well as a Premiere Pro 4K video export several times over and never saw scores go down. It took a lot to get the fans going — they were checked out during my daily office multitasking. When they did spin up, mostly while I was working in Premiere, I could barely hear them. They were quieter than the background hum of my refrigerator. That’s quite a quality-of-life improvement over prior Intel iMacs.

The M1’s advantage, after all, has never been raw power; it’s the combination of power and efficiency. We saw much better battery life in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro than we did in their Intel predecessors. Battery life obviously isn’t a concern with the iMac, but efficiency certainly is. Chips are limited by two things: the power available and how well their systems can keep them cool. They vent almost all the energy they use as heat, and because the M1 has such incredibly high performance per watt, Apple doesn’t need a heavy-duty cooling system to keep it from frying itself. Because it doesn’t need that heavy-duty cooling system, Apple has finally been able to redesign the iMac from the ground up.

This iMac is sleek. Even though it has a 24-inch screen, it’s close in size to its 21.5-inch predecessor. Apple reduced the screen’s borders by close to 50 percent in order to squeeze the bigger screen into the compact chassis. This device is also 11.5 millimeters thick, or just under half an inch — which is quite thin as all-in-ones go. Next to the 27-inch iMac, it looks like a tablet on a stand.

Size isn’t everything; this iMac also comes in seven colors. There’s blue, green, pink, orange, purple, yellow, and the boring silver we know and love. I’m not quite convinced that the jazzier models will fit in outside of especially stylish homes and offices. But I will say: I’ve never seen so many of my friends, or so many people on TikTok, as excited about a tech product as they seem to be about the colored iMacs. The hues are a nice change, aren’t obnoxious, and are clearly a hit with certain crowds.

Some traditional iMac touches remain, of course. The bezels are still substantial compared to those of some modern monitors. You can’t raise or lower the display height — the built-in stand only allows tilt adjustments. (You can also buy it with a built-in VESA mount adapter.) And there’s still that pesky chin, though it’s no longer emblazoned with the Apple logo.

Pretty much every other notable part of the iMac has been upgraded in some way. There’s a 4.5K (4480 x 2520) Retina display, a step up from the predecessor’s 4096 x 2304 Retina display (though both have effectively the same pixel density). It has Apple’s True Tone technology, which automatically adjusts colors and intensity based on your surroundings.

But the screen is also another reminder that this iMac doesn’t have “Pro” in its name. Twenty-four inches is on the small side as screens go; most of the best external monitors are 27 inches or larger these days. Professionals on The Verge’s video team also noticed some vignetting on the sides of the screen, which caused issues with off-angle viewing — we had a similar issue with Apple’s Pro Display XDR. Of course, neither of these limitations were a problem for my untrained eye; I thought the display looked great, with sharp details and plenty of room for my Chrome tabs and apps.

I don’t have too much to say about the three-mic array except that nobody on my Zoom calls had any trouble hearing me. But the webcam was a very pleasant surprise. The iMac has a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, which has a higher resolution than the 720p shooter that lives in the 21.5-inch iMac (as well as the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and many other AIOs). The M1 also lends a hand here: its built-in image signal processor and neural engines help optimize your picture in low-light settings.

But all kinds of people use iMacs, from college students to accountants to podcast producers to retired grandparents. And this model has arguably the most widespread consumer appeal of any iMac that Apple has made in recent years. So it’s much easier to figure out for whom this iMac isn’tmade.

It’s not for people who can’t handle dongles and docks; I kept a USB-C to USB-A dongle next to me on my desk while I was testing the iMac, and I used it veryfrequently. It’s not for people who already own a 27-inch iMac, because it would be a downgrade in display size and quality, port selection, upgradability, and raw power. And it’s not for people with serious performance needs.

It’s not for people who are looking for the very best value for their money. Most folks won’t need the specs and accessories that I tested here, but even $1,299, the base price, is certainly more than plenty of people want to spend on a computer. The base Mac Mini is $600 cheaper than the base iMac; plug that into a monitor and some speakers (you can find plenty of good ones for well under $600), and you’ll get the same M1 performance at a massive discount.

And that, right there, is the biggest reason that this iMac, despite its power, is primarily targeting the family market. Because it’s asking you to pay more in order to do less. You’re paying $600 not to have to research and budget out monitors, speakers, webcams, docks, keyboards, and mice. You’re paying not to have to arrange thousands of things on your desk. You’re paying for a device where everything, out of the box, works well. You’re paying to eliminate fuss.

Could Apple have done more with this iMac? Of course. I was hoping to see a 30-inch, 6K iMac with a powerhouse 12-core workstation chip this month as much as the next person. But I have faith that we’ll get one in the future — and in the meantime, I’m glad Apple released this. It’s not earth-shattering in its design; it doesn’t redefine its category. But it’s fun. It improves upon the 21.5-inch iMac to offer a simple, attractive, and very functional device for users across all kinds of categories. It’s not the iMac to beat — but it is the iMac for most people to buy.

First, the elephant in the room: the redesigned 24-inch iMac was not created for photographers and video editors. It"s a family-friendly Mac that"s much more concerned with aesthetic sensibility than Adobe Premiere Pro performance. Despite this, it"s arguably the best starter Mac for anybody who is interested in exploring their creative side.

In terms of photo and video editing performance, the new iMac is on par with every other M1 Mac, meaning: excellent. And Apple has combined that performance with a color-accurate 4.5K Retina display and crammed it all inside an impossibly thin and playfully designed package.

Like very other M1 Mac, it has its frustrating limitations – some of Apple"s design choices have left professionals scratching their heads. But if you view the new 24-inch iMac through the lens of Apple"s intentions for this product, the creative potential of this machine comes into focus and you begin to understand who should (and who shouldn"t) buy this new machine.

The M1 iMac we received for review sits near the top of the configuration spectrum. It features the 8-core CPU/8-core GPU variant of the M1, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage and all of the extra ports and cooling that come along with the higher-end configs.

You canget the 24-inch iMac for as little as $1,300, but this involves a lot of sacrifices. The entry-level price point includes the 8-core CPU/7-core GPU variant of the M1, only 8GB of RAM, a measly 256GB of built-in storage, no ethernet port on the power brick, one cooling fan instead of two and only two ports on the whole machine.

For creative work, we"d recommend stepping up to at least 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM, like our review unit, or possibly going a step further by upgrading the storage to 1TB. That configuration will cost you $2,100, or approximately $800 more than an identical M1 Mac mini. Given the quality and resolution of the iMac"s display, $800 seems like a reasonable price to pay if you"re happy with a 24-inch display.

The first thing I noticed when I unboxed and set the redesigned 24-inch iMac on my desk was just how small it is. Not just thin and lightweight – it genuinely looks like a huge iPad Pro on an aluminum stand – but the screen size itself. I can"t remember the last time I used a display that was smaller than 27 inches, opting for 32 whenever I can, and the downgrade to 24 inches was jarring.

The second and third things I noticed were the white bezels and the classic iMac chin, two characteristics that prompted much mockery on announcement day.

While the 24-inch screen size continued to bother me long after day one, the bezels and chin faded from consciousness almost immediately. Maybe it"s just me, but the idea that white bezels somehow disqualify this computer from being used for photo and video editing seems ridiculous on the face of it. The bezels, especially when placed against a white wall, simply fade into the background as you focus on the content at hand.

As for the chin, it has been an integral part of the iMac"s design language from the very start. I may not love it, but I"m not surprised that Apple has chosen to keep it.

Thanks to the huge chin, the entire space behind the screen was reserved for large air chambers that fill out the sound coming from the iMac"s five speakers. This helps the iMac produce more and better-quality sound than you would expect given its size. At full volume, it can compete with some high-quality Bluetooth speakers.

Speaking of the power brick, in order to keep the iMac as thin as possible Apple has removed the power supply from inside the iMac"s chassis and stuck it inside of an external brick, just like a laptop. The brick connects to the iMac using a color-matched braided cable that ends in a proprietary magnetic connector, which twists into the right orientation all on its own and snaps into place with a satisfying chonk.

Note that it"s not a MagSafe connector. Given the strength of these magnets and the lightweight design of the iMac, you can easily pull the computer off a table using the power cable. Its purpose is to maintain the clean, furniture-like aesthetic of the iMac and to provide one more port (if you go with the high-end configuration).

In order to achieve such a thin design, Apple had to put the iMac"s power supply inside of an external power brick. On the plus side, some configurations use the brick to add a Gigabit ethernet port.

How you react to the design of the 24-inch iMac is largely down to your expectations. If you"re looking for a high-powered creator Mac, this isn"t it. Apple"s focus on aesthetics comes at a cost: too few ports, the relatively thick white bezels, the huge chin and the external power brick, to name the most obvious.

When it comes to performance, the 24-inch iMac is pretty much identical to every other M1 Mac that features active cooling (i.e. an internal fan). You can expect it to perform similarly to the M1 MacBook Pro and the M1 Mac mini.

For this review, we compared the M1 iMac against an Intel MacBook Pro, an Intel-based Razer Blade 15 Advanced and an AMD-based ASUS G14. You can see the specifications of our test machines below:

We also tested an M1 Mac mini with identical specs to the iMac and, as expected, their performance was essentially identical. As such, we"re not including the Mac mini results in the tables and charts below.

This same pattern does not play out in Capture One 21. Unlike Adobe Lightroom, Capture One takes much better advantage of GPU acceleration, giving the ASUS G14 and Blade 15 a significant boost in export performance thanks to the NVIDIA RTX 30-series GPUs packed inside. The iMac held its own when importing and generating previews, but it lost to both PCs in every export test, with the gap widening as resolution/file size increased.

CPU speed and RAM still play a role, which is how the iMac is able to keep up at all, but the benefits of a full-featured PC are much more obvious in a program that"s well-optimized to take advantage of a discrete GPU.

In Photoshop, the speed of the M1 CPU and the Unified Memory once again give the iMac a big boost in performance. Since most Photoshop filters and tools are not optimized to take full advantage of a discrete GPU, the Mac steals the show by winning the Overall, General and PhotoMerge categories.

The iMac"s PhotoMerge score in particular is just staggering. Where the Blade 15 takes about 97 seconds to merge six 45MP Nikon raw files into a panorama, the M1 iMac does this same task in just 69 seconds, which is why its category score is so much higher. No surprise: that task is heavily RAM and CPU dependent.

The iMac is exceptionally fast in Apple"s own Final Cut Pro – no surprise there – but it"s also impressively fast in Premiere. Using the ARM-optimized Beta of Premiere Pro, we clocked render and export times that are within spitting distance of both the Razer Blade 15 and the ASUS G14, both of which feature beefy NVIDIA GPUs that can take full advantage of CUDA hardware acceleration.

For Final Cut, we could only compare the iMac against the Intel-based 13-inch MacBook Pro, since the program is not available on Windows. It won"t surprise you to learn that the iMac is nearly twice as fast overall as its Intel-based sibling:

Interestingly, despite the fact that Warp Stabilize is a GPU accelerated effect, it"s the only category where the iMac was the fastest of the bunch. In rendering and export tasks it fell short of our Intel- and AMD-based PC: approximately 12% slower at rendering and 18% slower when encoding H.264 and HEVC files.

The M1 iMac doesn"t sit at the pinnacle of performance. Of the four computers tested here, the AMD-based ASUS G14 earns that distinction by topping most of our tests, and the Intel-based Razer Blade 15 Advanced has a great showing as well. What"s frankly shocking though is that this consumer-focused iMac can keep up at all.

Remember, this computer features half the RAM, an "entry-level" CPU and an integrated GPU. We should really be comparing it against the 21.5-inch iMac that it replaced, which featured a measly 8th generation 6-core Intel Core i7 processor. Instead, we see it keeping up with high-end gaming laptops that boast flagship laptop CPUs and the latest NVIDIA graphics cards.

In our opinion, the M1 iMac is the best "starter" Mac for aspiring creatives who are looking for a do-everything device that"s just as fashionable as it is functional.

Given its RAM, storage, screen size and port limitations, the M1 iMac will be a no-go for the most demanding professionals, but it"s a very compelling options for beginners and enthusiasts. That"s why we"re calling it the best "starter" Mac for creatives. Thanks to the power of its M1 chip, the quality of its 4.5K display and a price-to-performance sweet spot around $2,000, the M1 iMac is a great all-in-one desktop for fans of the Apple ecosystem.

Savvy buyers will want to consider their priorities first. If you need portability, you may choose the M1 MacBook Pro. If you want a larger screen and more ports, the smarter purchase is an M1 Mac mini and a color accurate 27- or 32-inch display. And of course, if you"re not enamored of the Apple ecosystem, a high-end Windows machine with a dedicated GPU is hard to beat. But if you"re looking for a do-everything device that"s just as fashionable as it is functional, the M1 iMac does not disappoint.

The original flat-screen iMac has been around for so long that it"s easy to forget the impact that its sleek, all-in-one (AIO) design made on the industry, with every subsequent AIO system released by rival PC manufacturers inevitably compared to Apple"s category-defining design. That design hasn"t changed much in recent years -- until the arrival of the first M1-based iMac.

The overall effect is that the screen does feel more spacious and easy on the eye when browsing through web pages or opening documents in software such as Word or Excel. I would never have considered the cramped screen of the old 21.5-inch iMac for office work, but the new 24-inch model is a much better option for business users who are working from home and may not have room for the sheer bulk of the 27-inch version of the iMac. And, with its coat-of-many-colours -- four or seven colours are available, depending on the configuration you choose -- you can bet that the new iMac will find its way into plenty of reception areas and showrooms too.

But the most remarkable aspect of this new design only becomes evident if you look at it from the sides. The highly integrated design of the M1 SoC has allowed Apple to reduce the size of the iMac"s main motherboard and cooling system, so that the screen panel now measures just 11.5mm thick. There"s even room for a new speaker system below the screen that manages to squeeze in six separate drivers -- with a group of two woofers and a tweeter located on each corner for the left and right stereo channels.

Also for video calls and working from home, the iMac"s webcam has been upgraded to 1080p resolution, with an enhanced light sensor for low-light conditions, and a new directional three-microphone array that can focus on the speaker and reduce background noise.

But if the 24-inch iMac reminds us of Apple"s design skills, it also brings the company"s weaknesses back into focus, too. Apple may be also to design a desktop computer that"s 11.5mm thick, but it doesn"t allow you to adjust the height of the screen, or even rotate the stand to adjust the viewing angle. These basic ergonomic requirements are sacrificed, presumably, because Apple didn"t want any unsightly nuts and bolts spoiling that wafer-thin profile.

The new Magic Keyboard is wafer-thin, too. It"s available in a variety of colours to match the iMac itself, and -- on the more expensive configurations -- also includes a TouchID sensor for additional security. However, the lifeless, low-profile keys still feel like a prop designed for a photo-shoot rather than a tool for actually getting some work done. Connectivity suffers too, with the base configuration including just two Thunderbolt 3/USB4 ports. The base model doesn"t even include an Ethernet interface any more. This has now been relocated onto the external power unit and costs £30/$30 extra, or is included as standard with the two more expensive configurations available on Apple"s website.

Additional upgrade options are limited and pretty expensive. The 27-inch Intel iMac still allows users to upgrade the memory themselves, but that"s not an option with the M1-based 24-inch iMac. The M1 processor only allows 8GB or 16GB, so if you want to upgrade to 16GB then you"ll have to pay a hefty £200/$200 at the time of purchase. As mentioned, Ethernet is a £30/$30 upgrade for the base configuration, while 512GB storage costs an extra £200/$200, or you can pay £400/$400 for 1TB, or £800/$800 for 2TB.

The design of the 2021 iMac is outstanding, but it"s still pretty expensive for what"s essentially an entry-level AIO system. The M1-based Mac Mini is less expensive, of course, but its price doesn"t include a display. Even so, the base configuration of the Mac Mini costs just £699/$699 so you could probably still buy a decent monitor to use with it and have some change from £/$1,000. The Mac Mini also has an 8-core GPU in all configurations, and better connectivity too, so you really are paying a premium for the M1 iMac"s eye-catching design.

Unsurprisingly, the new iMac provides very similar performance to its M1-based brethren. In fact, its Geekbench 5 CPU scores of 1,745 (single core) and 7,700 (multi-core) in native M1 mode are virtually identical to those of the Mac Mini. Geekbench can also test performance with the Rosetta 2 translation software that allows you to run older Intel-based software, recording very respectable scores of 1,340 (single core) and 6,040 (multi core).

The iMac wasn"t able to run the Intel-based Cinebench R15 test for graphics performance, or the Unigine Valley test either, suggesting that Rosetta 2 isn"t quite 100% compatible with all Intel software. However, the iMac was able to run the Intel version of Tomb Raider, rendering Lara Croft"s adventures at the same 25fps as the Mac Mini, when running at 2560x1440 resolution with the game"s highest graphics settings. The issue of Intel compatibility isn"t too worrisome, as key apps such as Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Office are already available in M1-native versions.

The M1 iMac can"t exactly be described as a gaming rig, but it"s more than powerful enough to handle productivity software such as Microsoft Office, and even some photo- or video-editing workloads.

The striking design of the 24-inch M1-based iMac will undoubtedly earn it a place in many homes and offices, and the performance of the M1 SoC continues to impress. Even so, the limitations of the design are irksome, given the high price of even the new iMac"s entry-level configuration. My bank manager would probably tell me to buy the Mac Mini instead. But if Apple"s aim was simply to make a splash and prove that it can still out-design its PC rivals, then the company has certainly made its point.

Apple revealed the redesigned iMac in 2021. This overhauled Mac comes in a wide variety of colors and features a futuristic design. More importantly, though, it packs the M1 chipset -- Apple"s in-house Silicon. If you"re planning to get your hands on this 24-inch iMac, especially with a multi-monitor setup, we’ve got some notes for you. Firstly, this iMac supports only one external monitor with up to 6K resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate. If you attempt to use more than one external screen, it"ll just mirror the display. The same applies if you use an adapter/dock. This means that you"re limited to a dual-monitor setup. The iMac also comes with only two Thunderbolt ports. This means that you"ll lose a Thunderbolt port if you plan on connecting a second display. If you"re fine with just one additional display, then here are some of the best monitors for the M1 iMac.

The ASUS ProArt PA279CV is a solid display if you plan on using your new iMac for creative tasks like photo or video editing. It comes with a 27-inch 4K resolution IPS panel that offers 100% sRGB coverage, factory calibrated for Delta E Affiliate Links

The 38-inch LG 38WN95C-W is one of the best ultra-wide monitors on the market. It features Thunderbolt 3 connectivity, so it"s easy to hook up and the panel itself is pretty impressive with VESA DisplayHDR 600 certification, and 98% coverage of DCI-P3. It also comes with a 144Hz refresh rate with 1ms response time for a smooth experience.

The ZenScreen portable monitor from ASUS should be a great companion for the new iMac. Having a compact, portable design, it can be easily installed and moved away from your desk effortlessly. It offers a 15.6-inch IPS panel while a USB-C port ensures a single port connectivity solution.

For its price, the 27-inch LG Ultragear 27GN650-B is a winner if you"re looking for the best 1080p performance. The monitor comes with an IPS panel with support for basic HDR, 144Hz refresh rate, and support for FreeSync and G-SYNC.

Samsung’s latest Business series monitors are actually pretty good for the asking price. The SH850 has a 24-inch panel which makes it symmetrical to the display on the iMac, and while it cannot match up to the resolution, it is still one of the best QHD monitors at this budget. As a bonus, it comes with USB-C connectivity and a 3-year warranty.

The Apple Pro Display XDR is going to be the premier choice with the 24-inch M1 iMac, but it is also one of the more expensive options. If you are a content creator, you would be served decently with the ASUS ProArt Display as well. Alternatively, if you just need a secondary display to throw some chat apps on, then the Samsung Business series will also get the job done just fine.

If you are planning on adding an external monitor to your new iMac, we suggest that you use a Thunderbolt dock so you don"t lose out on a precious Thunderbolt port. We recently listed some of thebest Thunderbolt docks on the market today. Additionally, if you"re interested, we also have a list of some of the best Thunderbolt 3 laptops.