I have a 27inch late 2015 iMac that I have used since I purchased it and I am looking for a new computer. Mainly, I cannot screencast from my newer ipads from a workout app that I want to use. Of course I went onto Apple's website and no more 27" imacs for sale. Any alternatives out there that people are happy with?
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Looking for a new option
- Thread starter magallanas
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Lots of people are plenty happy with the new iMac. 4.5k display means it's "Sharper" than most other Mac solutions at the same price point (even using 3rd party displays).
If <27" is a dealbreaker, look at the Mac mini with the Apple Studio Display (ASD). Basic M2 is fine for AirPlay, but still it's going to be considerably more expensive than iMac... the ASD itself costs more than the base config of an iMac, before you even start looking at the Mac mini.
Or, get a TV and an Apple TV for your workouts. That PLUS an iMac for non-workout activities, is probably still cheaper than a mini/ASD combo.
If <27" is a dealbreaker, look at the Mac mini with the Apple Studio Display (ASD). Basic M2 is fine for AirPlay, but still it's going to be considerably more expensive than iMac... the ASD itself costs more than the base config of an iMac, before you even start looking at the Mac mini.
Or, get a TV and an Apple TV for your workouts. That PLUS an iMac for non-workout activities, is probably still cheaper than a mini/ASD combo.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Good suggestions in #2. You could also shop beyond the walled garden and pair a Mac Mini with any third party monitor. ASD is not the ONLY choice- just the only (consumer) choice from Apple. Fans will make passionate arguments for 5K as essential (which conveniently aligns with the one that Apple sells) but a good-to-great 4K monitor at a far lower price will work well. If in doubt, buy the Mini, set it up on anything you can borrow (even a TV), then take it to a monitor retailer and hook it up to a few 4K monitors as see for yourself.
Refurb store on Apple's site for 10-15% off?
Education store on Apple for 10% off?
Bail on Apple and embrace PC, where strong competition for all of the hardware will get you far more tech guts for the same money... or mostly the same tech guts for much less.
And lastly, if that 2015 is on the chopping block because Apple has basically abandoned it for updates, Microsoft hasn't: consider installing Windows on it or on its bootcamp partition and squeezing many more years of life out of it as a relatively up-to-date PC.
Refurb store on Apple's site for 10-15% off?
Education store on Apple for 10% off?
Bail on Apple and embrace PC, where strong competition for all of the hardware will get you far more tech guts for the same money... or mostly the same tech guts for much less.
And lastly, if that 2015 is on the chopping block because Apple has basically abandoned it for updates, Microsoft hasn't: consider installing Windows on it or on its bootcamp partition and squeezing many more years of life out of it as a relatively up-to-date PC.
So basically screen size ≠ screen irresolution and screen size ≠ visual perception. You can have more pixels on a smaller screen and the smaller screen will still seem bigger overall. Most users have realised this by now if you're not over the age of 65 and can actually tell the difference between screen resolution and screen size.
This is one of the reasons why I wish they'd bring back the 11inch MacBook Air with a modern screen and M2 chip...
If you don't understand drag your mouse cursor from one corner of the screen to the other and then realise how much more space most modern monitors give you by comparison. Even my M1 Mac is 3.5k vs my iMac which is 2.5k. Then there is ProMotion which eliminates stuttering through faster frame rates. I.E. 120hz vs. 60hz...
It's not the screen size that makes a monitor bigger its the resolution. Unless you need, for some reason, to have a bigger screen to magnify everything due to vision loss, or whatever, once your eyes adapt to the facts you will realise that the actual desktop space is bigger.
That in itself is why a large percentage of Mac users moved to MacBooks. You can get the same desktop space in a smaller form factor that's portable.
I have a 27" 14,2 iMac that's the same form factor as yours. I don't use it, unless I really want to sit there and watch a movie or something. It has a crummy lower resolution screen with terrible backlighting that to get anything near true blacks requires you to turn the screen brightness down to the point where the picture on the screen is barely visible.
The improvement both in pixel density, liquid retina, and screen brightness while being able to display true colours much closer to ProPhoto RGB are significant reasons alone to move to a newer Mac.
Looking at both of them side by side, unless you have a 5K iMac, well, the screen comparison is not even close. Not to mention the extra desktop space which is the real boon.
This is one of the reasons why I wish they'd bring back the 11inch MacBook Air with a modern screen and M2 chip...
If you don't understand drag your mouse cursor from one corner of the screen to the other and then realise how much more space most modern monitors give you by comparison. Even my M1 Mac is 3.5k vs my iMac which is 2.5k. Then there is ProMotion which eliminates stuttering through faster frame rates. I.E. 120hz vs. 60hz...
It's not the screen size that makes a monitor bigger its the resolution. Unless you need, for some reason, to have a bigger screen to magnify everything due to vision loss, or whatever, once your eyes adapt to the facts you will realise that the actual desktop space is bigger.
That in itself is why a large percentage of Mac users moved to MacBooks. You can get the same desktop space in a smaller form factor that's portable.
I have a 27" 14,2 iMac that's the same form factor as yours. I don't use it, unless I really want to sit there and watch a movie or something. It has a crummy lower resolution screen with terrible backlighting that to get anything near true blacks requires you to turn the screen brightness down to the point where the picture on the screen is barely visible.
The improvement both in pixel density, liquid retina, and screen brightness while being able to display true colours much closer to ProPhoto RGB are significant reasons alone to move to a newer Mac.
Looking at both of them side by side, unless you have a 5K iMac, well, the screen comparison is not even close. Not to mention the extra desktop space which is the real boon.
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I use a M2 Pro Mini with a Dell Ultra Sharp 27" 4K display and am very happy with this combo. Mini from Microcenter was $1,099.00 on sale, Dell 27" was on sale for $259.00. Total $1,358.00
People like making this claim, but whenever I price systems at Dell or HP or Lenovo, the prices are comparable to Apple for similarly spec'd machines.
If you think buying spare parts off of Ali Express, and grabbing some MS Windows key for cheap somewhere, and slapping it all together, and think you are saving money, then you are only looking at the short term. First off, most people will not do that. Secondly, you are on your own, without any tech support.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
So shop stores other than Dell or HP or Lenovo. There are PLENTY of PC stores. Competition is robust outside the wall.
And no, Ali Express is not the sole alternative. If OP would like to go PC instead of perhaps converting the "abandoned" 2015 into a PC to squeeze a few more years out of it, they can easily find a key spec-matched PC for considerably less than the same from Apple... OR put the same money towards one and significantly load it up on key spec items.
And no, Ali Express is not the sole alternative. If OP would like to go PC instead of perhaps converting the "abandoned" 2015 into a PC to squeeze a few more years out of it, they can easily find a key spec-matched PC for considerably less than the same from Apple... OR put the same money towards one and significantly load it up on key spec items.
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Apple doesn't do tech support outside of the 1 year of Apple Care unless you live in a country that enforces consumer law rights anyway, or "right to repair" like the European Union zone countries or Australia.
And even then Tim Cook's Apple is more interested in selling Burberry handbag accessories than computers these days.
Just look at the M2 Mac Pro that's supposedly aimed at video, audio engineers, and 3D design.... Inside of the walled garden you can't even put a video card in that stupid box, and secondly unless you are on a short list of supported hardware, there is nothing available for audio engineers, the PCI-E slots are inherently useless.
And where the covers used to be for upgradable parts such as RAM chips there is nothing left but heat syncs.
If it weren't for the fact PC laptop components are stuck in the year 2008 in terms of heat vs power draw, there wouldn't be a single reason to use a Mac other than the OS. Which, while I like it, has even more limited hardware support than Linux or BSD these days as its two main competitors
And if it were for the fact Photoshop ran on Linux, or there was a decent video editor for Linux I would have opted out years ago.
Oh yeah, hardware support.... go to an Idiot Bar (where the supposed geniuses are) and ask why they wouldn't repair a top case issue with my MacBook because I'm not prissy and fastidious about the way a tool is supposed to look in terms of cleanliness where there is a clear hardware design fault that is known about these very Macs I am speaking of including the M1 and M2 Macbook Pro which they tell you to clean with compressed air rather than admiring its a design fault.
Apple is brilliant my ass.
How to clean the keyboard of your MacBook or MacBook Pro - Apple Support
If your MacBook (2015 and later) or MacBook Pro (2016 and later) has an unresponsive key, or a key that feels different than the other keys when you press it, follow these steps to clean the keyboard with compressed air.
When a $3000 laptop in Australia can be killed by dust there are even more significant issues going on and my current views by now are far from isolated.
If not being able to screencast is your main reason for needing a new computer, there could be a viable software solution.
You can install Mac OS Sonoma on your Mac using OpenCore Legacy Patcher. It is a 2-hour process and a bit fiddly, but there are lots of walkthroughs online, for example this one by Mr. Macintosh, which make it safer and easier. I recommend a clean install, i.e. fully formatting your main disk during the process.
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Screen size makes a monitor bigger as well. You need to consider the size of text/visual elements. Some people have difficulty seeing small objects.
Even if the resolution were indeed the only thing that mattered,
24" iMac is 4480×2520 and
27" iMac is 5120×2880 (Retina displays were introduced in 2014),
so you can fit less information on the 24" iMac's screen.
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That statement is not serious.
You have a long rant but for some reason fail to accept that you are not forced to buy an Apple product. You are free to buy what you want, as an individual.
Some people are part of organizations (such as companies, or schools, or governments) where they are forced to use a particular product. If they don't like said product then it's bad for them, but as an individual you can go shop to your heart's content.
You have a mission that you've assigned to yourself. If that makes your life purposeful than I guess you should embrace it.
But the common angst among some over what in the end are simply luxuries, like buying new computers just because you want them, is a sign about society and and individual in the 21st century, and isn't much about a particular company (in this case Apple) at all.
Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Apple sell the vast majority of products under the "personal computer" (that includes laptops as well as desktops) category.
Your recommendation is a no-go for most people.
A little over three years ago I put together a modest system using a base M1 Mini, 24" 2K Lenovo monitor, and Logitech mouse, keyboard and speakers for under a grand. It still serves me very well for my basic day-to-day usage, though I'm about to wander into the exciting land of upgrades given my decision to get back into photography this year.
Given the M2 Mini base price is even cheaper than my M1 was, I would think you could cobble together an acceptable system for your stated use between that $1000 baseline and the price of a new base 24" iMac, though you wouldn't quite get the screen quality going the Mini route.
Given the M2 Mini base price is even cheaper than my M1 was, I would think you could cobble together an acceptable system for your stated use between that $1000 baseline and the price of a new base 24" iMac, though you wouldn't quite get the screen quality going the Mini route.
If you want a display larger than 24", the iMac is out, of course.
Consider a Mac Mini of some kind. Or even a Mac Studio (but that's more $$$).
I'd suggest an m2pro Mini.
Even the base model comes well-equipped with 16gb RAM and a 512gb SSD.
For $200, you can "bump up" the size of the SSD to 1tb, which DOUBLES the SSD speed.
For a display, either get a 27" 4k display (many available)
or
If you want 5k, either an Apple Studio Display (expensive), or one of the VERY few other 5k 27" displays out there (Samsung, LG), which aren't quite as expensive, but still not cheap.
Consider a Mac Mini of some kind. Or even a Mac Studio (but that's more $$$).
I'd suggest an m2pro Mini.
Even the base model comes well-equipped with 16gb RAM and a 512gb SSD.
For $200, you can "bump up" the size of the SSD to 1tb, which DOUBLES the SSD speed.
For a display, either get a 27" 4k display (many available)
or
If you want 5k, either an Apple Studio Display (expensive), or one of the VERY few other 5k 27" displays out there (Samsung, LG), which aren't quite as expensive, but still not cheap.