Discussion: Wait for ARM IMac release or Buy 2019 New IMac Now and Trade In once ARM is released?

[Market_Shifter]

So after reading through post for a few days im getting the feeling there is a fairly large group of people that are stuck between these two options like myself. With Apple really giving no information about pricing, and release date (other than late 4Q20 or 1/2Q21), would this be a good solution?

I understand that i would end up losing some money through the trade in once the ARM IMac comes out but im on a early 2014 Macbook Air and im right on the verge of needing a new computer. Specifically im looking to invest in the larger IMac that is to be released and Apple has not confirmed if they will be releasing both size options or just one of them leaving em even more indecisive.

What i am sure of is that i highly doubt this computer im on now will last into January and if i were to take the option to buy and IMac and trade it in once the ARM IMac is released i would like to order it now being that delivery date for one is in September and would at least like some use out of it before the trade. Again i know i would lose some money in the value of the trade in and im ok with that being for the most part Apple has a very fair value system for that program compared to most other companies.

What is everyones thoughts on this or what other options do you think would be more attractive for someone in this scenario?

 

[bsbeamer]

If you NEED a machine now, buy it now. If you can WAIT for a machine, then wait. There is no timeline for an ARM iMac release, so it could be awhile.

The 2019 27" iMac will be a coveted machine, especially if you get an i9 with SSD. Has easily upgradeable RAM and no T2, which might be the most attractive feature for some in the 4-5 year future.

 

[Market_Shifter]

Thank you i might go with this then. I was planning on fully upgrading to i9, Radeon Pro Vega, 16gb RAM, and a 1tb SSD.

Do you think they will be upgrading the imac 2020 3Q20 before they release the redesign?

 

[jetjaguar]

Who knows. The first imac release will be a 24". The higher end machines I dont think we will see until the end of 2021 or beginning of 2022.

 

[mj_]

Just keep in mind that you're not going to lose some money but pretty much most of it if you decide to trade it in. Apple is notorious for paying ridiculously low prices even for practically brand-new hardware. Just for funsies l did a trade-in estimate on a three month old iMac purchased for $1800 and their offer was $700.

The bottom line is: buy now if you need it now. Don't buy if you can wait. You may also want to consider the possibility of continuing to use said 2019 iMac way past the release of the first ARM iMac. Chances are it'll actually be either slower than the 2017 and 2019 models or a lemon, like oh so many first gen Apple products.

 

[CooperBox]

Imho this is a no-brainer.
Go for the 2019 iMac with SSD (not fusion drive) if you can find one!
If you hold out for a new T2 iMac - I hope you're aware of the practically impossible data recovery from a soldered-in SSD/T2 configuration - you will potentially be hostage to so many of the problems which are often encountered with new gen models. Plus having to return an unserviceable or 'troubled' brand-new model, you will be inconvenienced by possibly being without your new machine for weeks or until such time that the 'teething' problems are resolved.
It's no secret that the public are frequently beta testers with newly produced models, and undiscovered problems during the pre-production testing phase revealing themselves later is potentially the price to pay for those early 'must-be-first-in-the-queue' purchasers - often just to impress their friends or colleagues.
Forewarned is forearmed.
Oh, and when you finally decide to upgrade to a T2 iMac once it has proved it's overall reliability, don't trade in your MacBook Air (or 2019 iMac) as you'll probably be ripped-off. Sell it privately and sensibly recoup some of it's value.

 

[Market_Shifter]

Oh, and when you finally decide to upgrade to a T2 iMac once it has proved it's overall reliability, don't trade in your MacBook Air (or 2019 iMac) as you'll probably be ripped-off. Sell it privately and sensibly recoup some of it's value.

Yeah my plan is if i get the 2019 IMac it would be a 1tb SSD and then when i got the new ARM IMac i would use the Macbook Air with my External Hard Drive and back up what ever i need to off the 2019 IMac to later restore. Though it sounds like your saying that might not work due to the configurations of SSD/T2 did i understand that correctly or would using a external hard drive work with restoring information into an ARM device?

 

[throAU]

If you need now, buy now. Avoiding a "version 1" product is also probably a good idea. There will be bumps in the road during the transition, and software will take a little while to catch up anyway. You'll also lose compatibility with things like boot-camp.

If I needed a machine, I'd buy NOW and then wait for version 2 or 3 of the ARM silicon based machines. An intel iMac you buy today will cover you for a few years no problem. You'll have a machine that will tide you over and be free to evaluate 1 or more generations of ARM based machine without being pressured to upgrade due to your existing machine being too far behind.

 

[Deadeyeshark]

My dilemma with this is, do you buy a finely tuned intel iMac, or go for first generation ARM with all the potential early adopter problems that might bring with it. Early adopting is always a gamble.

 

[zerofour]

Market, I'm in exactly the same space as you (thanks to Azrael for his advice on the other thread). Bizarrely a BTO arrives over a month faster than a base model in the UK at least. I'm torn between keeping a 2013 iMac going by external SSD / extra RAM. The complication is also the possibility of a new Intel iMac (even with a minor upgrade), as well as the risk of early adoption of an ARM model (I won't be upgrading anything until generation 2 of those). We don't even know when ARM is or what models will be released first. I've even considered the reduced MBP 2020 (on offer at Amazon £2399) for an i9 with a screen.

Your situation seems even more urgent than mine so I'd do what you've thought to do!

 

[ceejay]

I'm so glad I read this thread this morning, it gave me the courage to just hit that BUY button at apple.com! My delivery time (Aug 11 - Aug 18) is even closer than when I checked a week or so ago.

The 2019 27" iMac has so many good reviews, and the upcoming model has none so far, plus I have no idea what an ARMED based model means anyway, so I figured why not order it today, I'm way too old to waste more days waiting.

I was so nervous at the Apple site, with my hands shaking and butterflies in my stomach, I almost forgot to check the keyboard with a numeric pad that I wanted, so had to go back and hunt for it. When I was ready to check out again, I saw m total was way over $7,000 -- whoah! I did a double take, and then noticed that when I went to add the keyboard, it also added the whole configuration again - two iMacs, I don't need!

Now I can ignore the mad world outside, with their mask/no mask fights, and get lost in my wonderful new computer playing with my designs and photos in Photoshop and Lightroom.....thanks guys!
Chris

 

[OldCorpse]

Well, I'm going the other way. I have a late 2009 top of the line 27" iMac that I bought in Feb of 2010. It is now old, and can't go higher than High Sierra. It has a slightly flawed screen - a bit of burnin in the top left corner, but not something I notice unless I'm really looking. The worst part is that it's still a spinning HDD, which makes it overall not very fast. In general it's slow in launching apps, a lot of spinning beach balls, it can hardly do two things at the same time as it used to, despite having 8 hyperthreads.

But a lot of the issues that are the worst, are not going to be fixed by buying a new 2019 iMac - namely, the fact that I have 12 external hard drives connected to it, and due to some kind of software bug that Apple has apparently STILL not fixed, the whole computer slows down dramatically when the external hard drive goes to sleep and I need to do something with the Finder. It's a known flaw, and it's been there for years never fixed. Buying a new iMac at this point will not fix it, and that's one of the worst aspects of using my iMac.

The new ARM based iMac - might - *might* - fix that issue, but we'll have to see. What I'm hoping from the ARM iMac is that it'll be the last time I have to hear the fans, which are running almost always on my iMac. To be fair, I suspect that it's due to a buildup of dust inside this old computer, but it's such a bear to open it up that I don't bother at this point.

The bad part, as has been pointed out, in waiting for the ARM iMac is that it'll be quite some time before likely a 27" will come out - I don't want a 21" or 24", since I want to use it for video editing, I need a large screen. Odds are that a 27" one will not come out until 2021 or maybe even 2022. Plus, I agree that the first generation is likely a risky buy. So if I want to wait for the next generation, it might potentially have me wait until 2023. Boy, that's a LOOOONG time to wait, with a late 2009 iMac! I mean, it'll be 14 years old by that time. I'm not sure it'll last that long, frankly.

The other thing one may consider is buying a used iMac just to hold one over, but I'm not sure about the advisability of that.

The other thing to consider is what if the operating system, beyond Big Sur, starts really favoring ARM based Macs - then all of a sudden it's not just a purely hardware issue with the 2019 based iMacs, because you might get a 20% from the ARM hardware plus another 20% boost from the software and that would really leave the 2019 iMac in the dust. You gotta think that Apple is looking to integrate MacOS and the hardware more tightly. So who knows.

But I agree with the other posters - if you can wait, wait. If you need something right now, then buy right now, you really don't have a choice in that case... as I won't have if my current machine suddenly dies - which is completely possible, since it's increasingly harder for me to restart it after a complete shut down... at this point the only way I can bring it back to life is to disconnect all external accessories, hard drives and even pull out the AC plug, and then it takes like 10-15 minutes before it staggers back to life... another 3 years of this?? I don't know, it doesn't look good. YMMV.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

If you need a computer now, get a computer now. The judgement on whether your current Mac will last until ARMistice Day depends entirely on what you're asking of your present Mac and whether it can deliver it.

In my case, my 27" Late 2013 iMac is serving my needs quite well. While it's getting to be time to replace it, there's no rush. I do want a machine that can run the current version of macOS - mine is running Catalina but will not be able to run Big Sur. However, running Big Sur is not so important that I'd buy a new Intel iMac in the next six months.

I am willing to be an ARM guinea pig. I'm excited about the prospects for ARM, and I'd rather have a 1.0 ARM machine now - I've been a beta tester since the 1990s, so "new and unrefined" doesn't scare me. I don't want to wait another six or seven years to have an ARM 5.0, and I definitely would not trade-in a one- or two-year-old computer.

But each of us has our specific needs and concerns. While I'm sure there are some who feel similarly to me, there are plenty who will come to a different conclusion, and that's quite alright.

 

[EugW]

I suspect the 2020 Intel iMac release is imminent...

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1284637955965849600

At this point I would not buy a 2019 iMac (unless it's really inexpensive).

 

[throAU]

I love how "in my dream" = SHIPMENT CONFIRMED

 

[EugW]

I love how "in my dream" = SHIPMENT CONFIRMED

That's just this guy's schtick.

For example, this is how he predicted the April iPhone SE launch date back in March:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1240341319408431104

He was off by a week. It came the third week of April.

As for the iMac, he didn't actually mention that iMac in this tweet, but I personally believe it will be one of the products launching soonest. Remember, it's been almost a year and a half since the last iMac release.

 

[richinaus]

If you need a computer now, get a computer now. The judgement on whether your current Mac will last until ARMistice Day depends entirely on what you're asking of your present Mac and whether it can deliver it.

In my case, my 27" Late 2013 iMac is serving my needs quite well. While it's getting to be time to replace it, there's no rush. I do want a machine that can run the current version of macOS - mine is running Catalina but will not be able to run Big Sur. However, running Big Sur is not so important that I'd buy a new Intel iMac in the next six months.

I am willing to be an ARM guinea pig. I'm excited about the prospects for ARM, and I'd rather have a 1.0 ARM machine now - I've been a beta tester since the 1990s, so "new and unrefined" doesn't scare me. I don't want to wait another six or seven years to have an ARM 5.0, and I definitely would not trade-in a one- or two-year-old computer.

But each of us has our specific needs and concerns. While I'm sure there are some who feel similarly to me, there are plenty who will come to a different conclusion, and that's quite alright.

yeah, I was a guinea pig in the last transition and it was painful.
I will be waiting at least a year before I go on to AS unless I see some compelling reason otherwise, as I know Apple will have all their apps sorted, it is everyone else I would be concerned about!