Live data from Hacker News

27-inch iMac gets a major update

apple.com

171–180 of 611 posts

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#171
post #85

Solid spec bump. Interesting how much emphasis they put on the camera, speakers, and mic; makes total sense in the age of Zoom. I’d also speculate this means iMac won’t be the first computer getting Apple Silicon. I wonder if it will be the last? What’s the consensus guess now? Perhaps a new MacBook Air with good performance but the real “breakthrough” is > 12 hours battery life?

The performance of their chips is good enough that it wouldn't make much sense not to update everything once silicon availability is assured. It would be ridiculous to keep their iMac slower than their Macbook Pro.

MacBooks and iMacs are not direct competitors - one is a laptop, the other is a desktop computer. You can have up to 128 GB of RAM, 8 TB of SSD, and a beefy GPU in an iMac, something I bet won't be available on ARM for some time.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#172

I wish I could use it as an external display. I would buy one as my personal machine and then use the display during the day with my MBP for work. Would be nice in this new world of remote work.

Is Target Display Mode no longer supported on these?

It is no longer supported. See my reply to sibling comment.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#173
post #19
post #15

It just feels wrong to buy anything new from Apple with "Intel Inside" - when they're clearly going to dump it soon, in favor of ARM (excuse me for not using the cringey term Apple Silicon).

Why does it matter? There will be a period where the Intel Macs are still supported and probably more stable, and it could be ~2y before your upgrade is available if it's ARM based. If you have a retina macbook pro from 2014~ it definitely makes sense to upgrade to a macbook pro 16" today. The thing will see you through another 5-6y easy.

> If you have a retina macbook pro from 2014~ it definitely makes sense to upgrade to a macbook pro 16" today.

Not really. Pre-2015 Retina MBP are just as efficient and far more flexible than later models.

Wait for ARM.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#174
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the 12" macbook is my favorite laptop of all time. Mine is the 2016 version and it's starting to feel dated and I'm hoping that they rerelease this on the new silicon first. I'll be smashing the buy button the day it's out.

Mine is a Macbook pro 2012 and it is still phenomenal. 2yrs ago, my screen used to flicker. I contacted everyone and they said 'change motherboard' and Mac support people were like buy a new laptop. so I kept the laptop in cupboard for a few months and I open it to check if it works, had decided to sell it and buy a new one and viola, it was working perfectly fine. ~5yrs with no issues.

[deleted]

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#175
post #18
post #8

When we read "10th generation Intel Core" then we have to go and research whether than means real 10th generation (like i5/i7 MBA, some MBPs) or just another rebadged Skylake (6th gen) derivative.

All 10xxx parts are either Ice Lake (10nm) or Comet Lake (14nm), none are Skylake. I mean, if you want to get technical both are "Skylake derivatives", I guess.

Comet Lake's core µarch is identical to Skylake.

Ice lake uses Sunny Cove cores, which are Intel's first significant core µarch redesign since Skylake.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still using the 7th gen in the base 21" model! (which also comes with a 1080p screen instead of Retina)

The linked article states plainly that the updates to the 21.5" model have not yet been posted online. There's also a very handy "New" indicator on the 27" model that's not yet present on the 21.5". Personally I'd reserve my judgment.

There are no updates for the 21.5" except for different default storage.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#177

I wish I could use it as an external display. I would buy one as my personal machine and then use the display during the day with my MBP for work. Would be nice in this new world of remote work.

Never used it, so I don’t know how well it works, but https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204592 : “With target display mode, you can use your iMac as an external display for another Mac.”

From that same article: "This article has been archived and is no longer updated by Apple."

Because Target Display Mode is no longer supported:

"Make sure that your iMac is using macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 or earlier. You can't use target display mode with later versions of macOS, or with Boot Camp and Windows."

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#178
post #48
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will almost certainly be a low end macbook. In fact, there's a non-pro 'macbook'[0] that already exists which would be perfect, it was discontinued a year ago, but used ultra-low power CPUs. In fact when they were talking about them (prior to release) they thought they would have ARM CPU's back then. They are fanless and have a 5W thermal envelope, which fits in with the current A12X too. The major criticisms of t…

the 12" macbook is my favorite laptop of all time. Mine is the 2016 version and it's starting to feel dated and I'm hoping that they rerelease this on the new silicon first. I'll be smashing the buy button the day it's out.

I recently sold my 2016 Macbook (loved the device, the form factor, it was great — but the thing was becoming horribly slow and was starting to drive me nuts). Got an iPad Pro (2020 + the keyboard) instead. Don’t know what I was thinking... :) Guess I wanted to try it out and see if it could work (and torture myself a bit). The iPad pro is fun, great device for browsing on the sofa, and the keyboard is good for emailing and such. But multi tasking still sucks, apps in the background get killed or take forever to refresh content, etc. I’d go back to a Macbook but one that doesn’t take a second to swap between tabs in Firefox.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#179
post #15

It just feels wrong to buy anything new from Apple with "Intel Inside" - when they're clearly going to dump it soon, in favor of ARM (excuse me for not using the cringey term Apple Silicon).

I guess people who buy Intel Macs now, they know what they're getting into. Plus, Intel Macs will still hold strong for at least another 3-4 years minimum, and it's definitely gonna live a lot longer

I hope Apple makes it easy to install Linux when they withdraw OS support.

Re: 27-inch iMac gets a major update

#180
post #134

“SSDs across the line with quadruple the storage” 1/4 TB of storage in the $1800 model, 1/2 TB in the $2300 one. Ugh. (So before the lower-end one had 64GB? [Edit: Nope, 1 TB Fusion Drive, thanks smnrchrds!] That would be FULL just from installing the one game the press release mentions.) What kind of magic fairy dust SSDs are they using that you can't have a sensible amount of storage space at those prices? Looking…

Can you get your friendly local repair shop to solder on a bigger BGA or are they DRM'd?
Post reply on HN