I love surfaces and have owned multiple (my wife still has her Surface laptop) but the creative world no matter what Microsoft spin videos tell you is still 95% Mac other than high end CG and Video games. It's basically anyone that just wants to get on with creating work rather than worrying about whether they have the best current Nvidia card to do that work. While writing this now I have pro tools open in the background with a song with 60 tracks playing. I create and edit TV ads, animations, design brands and record albums fine on a computer with this power. If the label said 8-Core I9 for $1300 I don't think you'd be saying this. Although I personally have an 8 Core i9 MacBook Pro, these iMacs compare evenly to that benchmark wise. In a professional creative environment I can tell you that more than 50% of the machine's bought by agencies and studios I work in are iMacs, the rest being MacBooks and a few Mac Pros for heavy lifting. Usually, this is where I'd say let's see how Microsoft and its partners respond, but it's not even clear that they can, not at this level. And while I'm not fond of the colors, people are going to find it fun. Colleges, boutiques, hotels, trendy artists, and those already steeped in the Apple ecosystem will gladly fork out money for the M1 iMac. The real story is that price, which will give PC makers some heartburn later in May when it finally hits store shelves. The bottom line: do not get distracted with the looks of the new iMac. I believe Qualcomm will have an answer to a desktop M1, but until it is announced and benchmarked, it is just vaporware.

Qualcomm (or even Huawei and Microsoft) could be an option if it has a desktop-class ARM processor waiting in the wings. Either Intel or AMD would need active cooling, which means fan noise and venting in the chassis – both of which the new iMac omits. It is thin and light at 9.88 pounds (4.48 kg), and it looks like something from the future.Įven if Microsoft wanted to create such a PC, the choice of CPU would be a limiting factor. Apple, however, is figuring out a new market with a computer that merges the iPad Pro with a desktop PC. We recently wrote about how there aren't many great AIO Windows PCs – likely a reflection of the market being slow to adopt them. Right now, Apple has this weird lock on outstanding displays and a perfect processor.

Apple imacs on sale