Hands-On With the 24-Inch M3 iMac

[Bigalig2003]

Apple doesn’t really seem to be following the prices of the regular PC market anymore. In the early 2010’s pricing was more in line and competitive, whereas now they have seemed to say a high end computer is high end pricing.

I agree and Apple know that even though I am personally disappointed in their direction of travel, I and many others will still stick to the Mac and ecosystem because Windows or any other system for that matter, doesnt even come close to Apple's.

 

[webkit]

Apple doesn’t really seem to be following the prices of the regular PC market anymore. In the early 2010’s pricing was more in line and competitive, whereas now they have seemed to say a high end computer is high end pricing.

Even in the early 2010s, iMacs were on the pricier side. In 2011, for example, the retail price for an iMac with 21.5" display, 4GB memory, and 500GB hard drive was $1,199. You could get comparable "all-in-one" computers for about half that price (give or take), much like you can today depending on sales, discounts, etc.

 

[Bigalig2003]

Even in the early 2010s, iMacs were on the pricier side. In 2011, for example, the retail price for an iMac with 21.5" display, 4GB memory, and 500GB hard drive was $1,199. You could get comparable "all-in-one" computers for about half that price (give or take), much like you can today depending on sales, discounts, etc.

You're quite right of course and I can remember buying my first Macbook Pro and it cost me £1100 way back when. I think its now the price differential and the fact that you cant really expect people to downsize their iMacs - the alternatives are move completely to Windows and that is a definitive No - or pay 2 to 3 times your initial outlay for a closed box system that completely destroys the concept of the all in one larger iMac - Apple are sorely missing Ive and co - you only have to look at the inconistsent approach to peipherals on the new 24' iMac - keyboard & mouse with lightning ports and dont get me started on the iMac's chin and white border - but in this age 24" is just way too small - it appears that Apple are more than happy to disenfranchise a number of their customers (30 years +) - seems to me that the design angle Jobs and Co were famous for is now taking a back seat and money is tim's driving force ( I understand that - we're all capitalists) - I also expect to pay more but 2 to 3 x the cost of one box i.e. the iMac is simply a joke!

 

[Steve121178]

Still think it was a mistake removing the apple logo from the front.

As a M3 iMac owner, I disagree. It would be a distraction & unnecessary.

I spent 11 years looking at the Apple logo on my 2012 iMac and it's 100% the correct decision to remove it. The focus should be the screen, hence the clean lines and removal.

 

[darngooddesign]

You're quite right of course and I can remember buying my first Macbook Pro and it cost me £1100 way back when. I think its now the price differential and the fact that you cant really expect people to downsize their iMacs - the alternatives are move completely to Windows and that is a definitive No - or pay 2 to 3 times your initial outlay for a closed box system that completely destroys the concept of the all in one larger iMac - Apple are sorely missing Ive and co - you only have to look at the inconistsent approach to peipherals on the new 24' iMac - keyboard & mouse with lightning ports

The peripherals are consistently (and unapologetically) Lightning.

and dont get me started on the iMac's chin and white border - but in this age 24" is just way too small - it appears that Apple are more than happy to disenfranchise a number of their customers (30 years +) - seems to me that the design angle Jobs and Co were famous for is now taking a back seat and money is tim's driving force ( I understand that - we're all capitalists) - I also expect to pay more but 2 to 3 x the cost of one box i.e. the iMac is simply a joke!

I agree that there should also be a larger iMac offered, but I like the colors. J Ive designed two-tone iMacs, all white iMacs, even the original iMacs had a whitish bezel with a light colored chin. Apple’s mistake was not offering the new iMac in silver with black bezels.

I do miss the logo on the chin tho.

 

[Burai]

Not here in the UK unfortunately - my base 27" iMac cost me £1800 so similar to the US - to replace it with a Mac Studio depending on RAM and chip configurations minus the monitor is £2,499 for 64Gb Ram approx a 1/3 more than the cost of my original iMAc but minus the screen? I cant match my original Ram config of my base iMac which is 128Gb, unless I move to the Studio Ultra at a cost of £4,200 - I could add a studio display at £1500 to this which gives me a total of £5700 for the Ultra & studio display or the previous model base Mac Studio and display at £4000 so approx 2 or 3 times the cost of my original iMac - these are absolutely insane prices - I know the aruments are more subtle than cost alone, but at the moment I cant see me replacing my iMac anytime soon. As a long standing customer of over 30 years + I've never been so disappointed in Apple, but then again what do you expect when design and quality are severely compromised in order to focus on profit alone which is fine, but how do you balance the two?

You're comparing apples with oranges.

A base 2020 27" iMac specced with 128GB of RAM wasn't £1,800. That was the RRP for the 8GB version. 128GB from the facory would have been way closer to £4,000.

Presumably you bought the 8GB version and added your own RAM for much cheaper, but that isn't an option with any Apple Silicon machine. If there were an M3 27" iMac and you wanted to max out the RAM, you'd have to pay the same premium that you do with the Studio.

 

[darngooddesign]

You're comparing apples with oranges.

A base 2020 27" iMac specced with 128GB of RAM wasn't £1,800. That was the RRP for the 8GB version. 128GB from the facory would have been way closer to £4,000.

Presumably you bought the 8GB version and added your own RAM for much cheaper, but that isn't an option with any Apple Silicon machine. If there were an M3 27" iMac and you wanted to max out the RAM, you'd have to pay the same premium that you do with the Studio.

Here are the US prices for that iMac https://prices.appleinsider.com/27-inch-imac-2020.

 

[WC7]

Will someone PLEASE tell me which docking station can fool this machine into having multiple monitors. TY

Don't know.

 

[dandeco]

I can still definitely see it being a popular choice for school computer labs, ala the iMac G3. And with that big performance gain with the M3, it'd be a solid choice for high schools with digital art and graphic design and audiovisual production classes (like my high school did, but this was still during the Power PC G4 days!)

 

[RealE]

Not everyone needs a larger iMac. Our iMac 24 M1 nicely fits our custom smaller desk. Also we sit close to our iMac and we can see the whole screen without having to turn our heads. We are light users. 8GB of RAM suits us. If I were ordering a new iMac today I would order with more RAM, to decrease boot up time. However our use case does not require it. We are very happy with our iMac 24.

Good for you. But some of us would like a more powerful all-in-one machine with a larger screen. Going from a 27" iMac with 32GB of RAM to a 24" with 24GB* feels like a downgrade. (*A $400 option now that it seems Apple has entirely eliminated user-upgradable RAM.)

 

[RealE]

Apple doesn’t really seem to be following the prices of the regular PC market anymore. In the early 2010’s pricing was more in line and competitive, whereas now they have seemed to say a high end computer is high end pricing.

And sadly for us the competition out there is not fierce, so there's no market pressure on Apple to give us more for less.

 

[WC7]

And sadly for us the competition out there is not fierce, so there's no market pressure on Apple to give us more for less.

I'm pretty good with this base model ... but I understand the need for more, and/or cheaper ... just don't think cheap is the most important criteria for Apple. I like the chin and white border on this version of the iMac so I wouldn't go all into changing much ... but maybe a 26 inch screen? ... because I use the 1600x900 scaled resolution for my poor eyes. However, not many people have my terrible eyesight (I do little driving!).