Evan Rodgers / Engadget
A refreshed line of iMacs -- and the possible introduction of an "iMac Pro" -- were some of the most-teased announcements prior to WWDC. Earlier this year, Phil Schiller, Apple's SVP of Worldwide Marketing, promised that the company would produce iMacs specifically for the professional customer.
The new iMacs are faster, with better displays, in the same enclosure. At WWDC, Apple's VP of Engineering introduced displays that are 500 nits, with 1 billion colors. That's 43 percent brighter than the previous generation. Discrete graphics are now standard on the 4K 21.5-inch. The line is also going to use Intel's Kaby Lake processors and are bumping up to 32GB of RAM on the 21.5-inch and up to 64GB on the 27-inch.
The iMacs also have Thunderbolt 3, like last year's MacBook Pro. Fusion drives will be standard on the 27-inch and high-end 21.5 inch models. They also get the following: Iris Plus 640 on the 21.5-inch and Radeon Pro 555 and 560 on the 4K 21.5-inch. The 27-inch iMac gets Radeon Pro 570, 575 and 580 GPUs. There's also an emphasis on VR creation. These new iMac specs will definitely work for pros, but Apple also announced the iMac Pro, so we'll have to see how they're different from one another.
The standard iMac now starts at $1,099. The 4K 21-inch drops to $1299, and the line tops out at $1,799.
The iMac line was last updated in October of 2015, which included 4K and 5K displays and a redesigned mouse, keyboard and trackpad. Given the lack of an update to iMacs in 2016, some speculated that Apple was neglecting its desktops, but today's announcements should help put that grumbling to rest.
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