(gentle music)

When we reviewed the MacBook Pro

and the MacBook Air earlier this year,

we were astonished.

They were the first machines powered

by Apple's M1 chip and they were faster,

longer lasting and just better

than any MacBooks we'd ever used before.

So, our biggest question coming

out of that review process was,

"What's next?"

When is Apple going to put this groundbreaking chip

in every product they make?

Well, that day is here.

The M1 is now in the MacBook Pro,

the MacBook Air, the Mac Mini,

and even the iPad Pro.

And today we're finally seeing it

in it's first ever all-in-one desktop form factor,

the new 24-inch iMac.

Configurations start at $1299

for eight gigabytes of memory

and 256 gigabytes of storage.

This review unit here has 16 gigs of memory

and 512 gigs of storage for $1899.

You may pay more depending on the accessories you want.

Those may sound like high prices

but this iMac is really for people

who want to buy an iMac,

set it down, and not think about computers again

for the next five to 10 years.

The most exciting difference is that

it comes in seven colors.

Blue, green, pink, orange, purple

and yellow, as well as boring gray.

Though, you can only get four at the base price.

So, I'm going to be a bit of a grinch about this.

As snazzy as these colors are,

I do think most of them would look odd

and out of place in many home and office settings

unless you have a pretty specific color scheme

but I do like that these fun colors exist

because if you're in the small group of people

who really want a yellow computer,

there aren't too many other options for you.

The new iMac is also sleeker

and thinner than its predecessors.

Even though it has a 24-inch screen,

it's actually pretty close in size

to the 21.5-inch iMac from 2019.

But its volume has been reduced by over 50%.

Apple was able to squeeze in more screen

without increasing the chassis size too much

by shrinking the bezels around the sides.

So, this device is 11.5 millimeters thick

or just under half an inch.

That's startlingly thin for a desktop monitor,

let alone a whole computer.

It's basically a really big tablet on a stance.

Mine is a touch screen, of course.

The reason apple was able to make the iMac so tiny

comes down to the M1 chip.

The fact that the M1 chip runs so well,

while consuming so little power,

means Apple didn't need to pack

a super elaborate cooling system into the device.

Instead, there are just two small fans inside

and they were so silent during my daily workflow

that I didn't even know they were there

but make no mistake,

these small fans are all the M1 needs.

On some thin devices,

you'll see performance decrease

if you're running an intense load

for long periods of time

but we ran Cinebench R23

three times in a row

and the scores didn't decrease at all.

In fact, they actually went up

by a few points between the first and last runs

and I could only barely hear the fans spinning

during this 30 minute process.

We ran a number of other intense tasks as well,

including Geekbench and PugetBench for Premiere Pro.

So, it's difficult to label these results

as good or bad because the iMac doesn't have

a ton of direct competition outside of Apple

and we generally don't review desktop CPU's

here at The Verge.

The useful thing these results tell us

are that this iMac is a significant step up

from the performance of the most recent 21.5 inch iMac

and it's going to be a huge upgrade

over anything older than that.

The scores we got were very similar

to what we saw from the M1 MacBook Pro.

Basically, the iMac is a 13-inch MacBook Pro,

in desktop form.

We also ran the iMac through a

real-world 4K video export in Premiere Pro.

The iMac completed that faster

than the MacBooks did,

and it blows Windows laptops,

with integrated graphics, out of the water.

This isn't a computer that's necessarily

designed to specialize in this stuff

and it's running Premiere Pro through an emulation layer.

So, that's pretty impressive.

But the 27-inch iMac is a better choice

if you'll be doing long form video work

in 4K, or 8K,

or anything that's super graphics heavy.

Again, rule of thumb,

if a 13 inch MacBook Pro

isn't powerful enough for you,

this won't be either.

But if you're just buying the iMac

for everyday family stuff

like emailing, Netflixing, slacking,

that sort of thing,

I can't imagine you'll run into any performance issues.

I was able to use my test unit for all kinds of daily tasks

from email, to YouTube, to amateur photo and video work.

I was able to hop around between

over 25 Chrome tabs with Cinebench looping

in the background with no stutter or slowdown whatsoever.

And if you're worried that your favorite apps

might not be compatible with the M1 processor,

don't be.

Intel based apps run just fine

thanks to Apple's emulation layer called Rosetta 2.

I literally had no idea Rosetta 2 was there.

I couldn't see a performance difference

between translated apps and apps that were running natively.

A big feature of the M1 chip is

that it allows you to run iOS

and iPadOS apps natively on the iMac.

Now, if you've ever read a Chromebook review of mine

you'll know that I generally find the utility

of phone apps on computers to be limited.

It can be confusing to figure out

whether you use app or browser versions of things.

Sometimes the sizing is weird.

Some things just straight up don't work.

But on a system that's meant to be shared among a family,

I can see the appeal a little bit more.

If your kids are used to using iPads for school,

or they have an iPhone,

it could be helpful for them

to have the same apps available

on the computer at home for continuity and familiarity sake.

The assortment of apps available

is still disappointing though.

A lot of the stuff I actually use every day.

So, Instagram, Tik Tok, Snapchat,

still isn't available on the Mac app store.

What I could get was mostly games,

many of which are designed for a touch interface,

and aren't all that fun to play

with a mouse or a track pad

and they're not really optimized

for a screen of this size.

So, we've got our new design

and we've got a new chip.

Here's what else is different from the 21.5inch iMac.

The 2021 iMac has a better camera,

a better speaker system,

a bigger and better screen,

and more microphones.

It also has touch ID in the keyboard

which you can use to sign in and out of the device,

approve purchases,

and swap between user profiles.

And Apple got rid of ports, like,

most of them.

The base model has just two Thunderbolt USB-4 ports

as well as a headphone jack

on the left edge of the screen.

More expensive models have an additional two USB-3 ports

and an ethernet port in the power brick

which you can also put in the base model power brick

for an extra 30 bucks.

Basically, this iMac isn't a good choice

if you hate dongles and docks.

The upgrades to this IMac's display

are more than just its size.

The new iMac has a higher resolution

4.5K retina display,

which also has Apples true tone technology

that automatically adjusts colors and intensity

based on the light around you.

The screen looks great for article reading

and video watching.

It's a noticeable upgrade from the 4K retina display

on the previous model.

That said, it is a step down from the 27-inch iMac,

which has a 5K display.

So, that is a better choice for professional work.

The off-angle viewing isn't very accurate

which does not matter to me

as someone who doesn't do much color work

but it is certainly a problem for many people's workflows.

You also can't get the 27-inch models

fancy nano texture coating on this iMac.

What is a big part of my work is video conferencing

and this iMac is great for that.

Not only is the 1080p webcam higher resolution

than the 720p webcam in the previous iMac

but it also has a larger

and more efficient sensor for low-light performance,

as well as the advanced image signal processor

that comes with the M1.

It really pays off.

In low light,

my face looks pretty processed

but I am still visible.

It certainly loads better than

any MacBook webcam that Apple has ever made,

including this one on the MacBook Pro.

Another boon for video callers

is that the audio is superb.

So, this iMac has a six speaker sound system

with two pairs of force canceling woofers

and high performance tweeters.

- There are a lot more caveats than I anticipated.

So, let's go through them.

- Apple says it's the best speaker system

we've ever seen in a Mac

and honestly, I believe it.

The audio I heard was easily on par

with a good external speaker,

bass is great,

and the percussion sounds like it's surrounding you.

The key to understanding the 2021 iMac is

understanding what it's not.

So, it's not a replacement for the 27 inch iMac.

That is, it's not a professional workstation.

We haven't yet seen the M1 chip

in one of these high powered machines.

We're still waiting on an arm version

of the 16-inch MacBook pro.

If you're one of the people who's been waiting

for a smaller refreshed iMac,

whether for home or work use,

your time has come.

This is the iMac for you.

It significantly outperformed it's Intel predecessor

and you're also looking at a better screen

and better specs across the board

at the cost of some convenient ports.

Now, if you're someone who has

a bunch of monitors and mice lying around,

you will get similar performance

out of the significantly cheaper Mac mini

but the iMac comes with everything in one

and that's valuable to a lot of people.

So, this ultimately wasn't a

super difficult device to review

because it's exactly what it's trying to be.

It doesn't exceed expectations

or change the category entirely.