M3 iMac Rant

[Allen_Wentz]

This was going to be my dream machine after a long time of not upgrading. However, the 8/256GB standard, no USB-C accessories, and still charging extra to have Touch ID and a Magic Trackpad really leave a bad taste in my mouth. It seems they just slapped this thing together within the past month, when they had literally two years of planning available.

It should've been 12/320GB, at least for the base model, and 16/512GB for the mid and upper configurations.

They also, at least, could have lowered the price of RAM and SSD upgrades to $100, and not the current stingy price of $200.

Why force granny to buy more than the 8 GB RAM that works fine for her? Just buy what you want, Apple gives choices.

Whining about prices should maybe be a check box on posts so that we would not have to keep wasting time reading the same repeated price whines.

 

[erikkfi]

This was going to be my dream machine after a long time of not upgrading. However, the 8/256GB standard, no USB-C accessories, and still charging extra to have Touch ID and a Magic Trackpad really leave a bad taste in my mouth. It seems they just slapped this thing together within the past month, when they had literally two years of planning available.

It should've been 12/320GB, at least for the base model, and 16/512GB for the mid and upper configurations.

They also, at least, could have lowered the price of RAM and SSD upgrades to $100, and not the current stingy price of $200.

This is what they do: set a low base price but make the base machine untenable for anyone paying attention. If you think about it, it's always been this way, only back then it was a 30GB spinning rust HDD on the base machine and you had to have 60 or 120. Same with RAM. The difference is that Apple has carefully engineered themselves as the only provider of expensive storage and memory upgrades. You can either live with this or you can't -- I suspect you'll teach them a lesson by ponying up for an iMac that costs $1800 or so -- but it's never changing.

 

[Pasha13]

I don’t deem it anything. I just want something that looks awesome. Professional, powerful. I don’t want what looks like a kids toy

They come in a silver metallic shade. MBP flagship models come in various metallic shades... Are they kids toys?

 

[Allen_Wentz]

Current iMac feels and looks like a toy. It feels like a very safe bet from Apple.

We don’t want safe though. What happened to Apple being revolutionary?

Give us at least M3 Pro, 27” or even 32” 6k.

People who buy AIO boxes are not IMO seeking revolutionary. By definition those folks are choosing the IMO hugely limiting inefficient AIO form factor. [edit: but iMacs are admittedly pretty]

People who will be buying Mac Pro and Studio Ultra are seeking revolutionary, and those are the M3 upgrades that I am waiting to see. Even though they exceed my personal needs, which run to MBP Max and Studio Max.

 

[TrenttonY]

Why force granny to buy more than the 8 GB RAM that works fine for her? Just buy what you want, Apple gives choices.

Whining about prices should maybe be a check box on posts so that we would not have to keep wasting time reading the same repeated price whines.

Because it would cost Apple $20 more dollars to give us 16GB standard, while it costs us $200 to upgrade it.

Why does the latest iPhone have 8GB of RAM standard? Why isn’t it configurable to what we need? Oh, that right, Apple actually cares about that product and gives it what it knows it needs.

 

[Gudi]

Before the end of 2024. At least in Europe. The common charger law also applies to keyboards and mice.

For new devices like the M5 iMac 2025.

 

[profets]

It’s better to give everyone laptops - that way nobody needs to be fixed to a desk.

Give every desk a cheap fixed monitor then nobody can complain about needing two screens…

Me personally - I love the 27 inch 5K screens that have been on the bigger iMacs.

I don't disagree with laptops, especially for people that are mobile. My reference is to a healthcare setting with many fixed stations (reception, examination rooms, etc).

 

[sammy2066]

What hurts me the most is that Apple is a truly evil company parading as one which cares so much about its costomers and the

 

[B S Magnet]

What hurts me the most is that Apple is a truly evil company parading as one which cares so much about its costomers and the

Find us a truly, materially, through-and-through benevolent, for-profit company of any scale — whether in tech or otherwise.

I’ll wait.

People who buy AIO boxes are not IMO seeking revolutionary. By definition those folks are choosing the IMO hugely limiting inefficient AIO form factor. [edit: but iMacs are admittedly pretty]

People who will be buying Mac Pro and Studio Ultra are seeking revolutionary, and those are the M3 upgrades that I am waiting to see. Even though they exceed my personal needs, which run to MBP Max and Studio Max.

Nothing now, in 2023 — in desktop computing (modular or AIO), laptop computing (modular or AIO), modular home computing, phones, “phablets”, folding “phablets” or tablets — is “revolutionary”. Glass UI is not revolutionary (if anything, its proliferation everywhere, including where it fails to improve on prior UIs, is a sign of conservative, consensus-motivated implementation). Not even Apple Vision’s VR computing AIO is revolutionary. They’re all constant, iterative, incremental.

Don’t let your iterative familiarity trip you up on the generally recognized understanding of what revolutionary signifies. For real.

If you want to talk sincerely about “revolutionary”, maybe turn to someone who’s bore witness to a couple of computing hardware revolutions (and a few software ones, as well) during her lifetime.

I don't disagree with laptops, especially for people that are mobile. My reference is to a healthcare setting with many fixed stations (reception, examination rooms, etc).

Other companies (Dell, Lenovo, Asus, and so on), as Apple pull away from the iMac form factor, are still filling that demand for office settings just fine.

 

[iBluetooth]

This is what they do: set a low base price but make the base machine untenable for anyone paying attention. If you think about it, it's always been this way, only back then it was a 30GB spinning rust HDD on the base machine and you had to have 60 or 120. Same with RAM. The difference is that Apple has carefully engineered themselves as the only provider of expensive storage and memory upgrades. You can either live with this or you can't -- I suspect you'll teach them a lesson by ponying up for an iMac that costs $1800 or so -- but it's never changing.

There are many schools and institutions that don't require more than the base figuration. So, they need to keep the price low to be competitive in that field. Besides, the memory caching is so fast that the users don't notice that much when they are using memory far beyond 8 GB.

 

[picpicmac]

The intel iMac designs were so incredibly classy looking.

I've been sitting in front of one for 15 years... and do not agree with you. These Intel iMacs look... like a functioning computer in some sort of metal-working shop, but don't look as well in residential interiors.

The colorful iMac 24" is a step up in design.

 

[picpicmac]

Other companies (Dell, Lenovo, Asus, and so on), as Apple pull away from the iMac form factor, are still filling that demand for office settings just fine.

And Dell AIOs start with .... 8GB. So do HP's AIOs. And both company's offerings are not exactly works of art to the eye.

But you are right, those companies offer these things to fill a purpose in an office, or home.

Just like the iMac.

People looking at these computers for some sort of buying-excitement should look elsewhere.

Indeed, if someone really wants to fiddle with specs and hardware, the Raspberry Pi now has many imitators/competitors and one can diddle all day configuring the highest spec in the smallest box. It's a hobby I might have been interested in 30 years ago, but now I just want a machine that works well and looks, if not pretty, at least like it fits in my room.

 

[erikkfi]

There are many schools and institutions that don't require more than the base figuration. So, they need to keep the price low to be competitive in that field. Besides, the memory caching is so fast that the users don't notice that much when they are using memory far beyond 8 GB.

Yeahhhh but schools and institutions could just get the M2 Air. I'm unclear why anyone needs an M3 with 8/256 when the M2 at 8/256 is several hundred cheaper and 90% as good.

 

[ThemePro]

I’ll wager that if Apple didn't include the iMac in the announcement due to not having the USB-C conversion accessories, people would be raging about the iMac still not being updated. When the Magic Mouse is updated, it better not just be exchanging the port but a redesign to move the connection from the bottom of the mouse. In the meantime, I did upgrade and I can cope with the accessories as is.

 

[lowkey]

I’m curious your exact setup implied here. My guess is that to make this work, you would not be buying a monitor with the same (or close) resolution, quality as is included with the iMac. I looked at a 32” Dell that was very high resolution and it was $2,500. A 4K non apple monitor is not going to come close to the monitor in the iMac.

A 4K monitor. No not the same DPI as apple. But it’s a bigger monitor and for the same budget I get 16GB of ram instead of 8, and I get 512gb ssd instead of 256.

For me a 16/512 32” 4K system beats a 8/256 24” 4.5k system.

 

[B S Magnet]

And Dell AIOs start with .... 8GB. So do HP's AIOs. And both company's offerings are not exactly works of art to the eye.

Yes, but neither are offices “works of art” to the eye. They’re sites where the time of labour and experience is exchanged for remuneration.

And as a non-stop user of Macs since 1990 (probably October that year, on an SE/30 or a Plus, as the school’s computer lab had both), Apple stopped being about “it just works” once Federighi stepped up in 2011 and once Ive started to run out of ideas he cribbed from Dieter Rams (during Rams’s years at Braun). The cognitive gymnastics one must now perform to configure Macs to able to run the three supported OSes, without the disruptions, the nags, the phoning home with telemetry, etc., the jailing, is now at the greatest it’s been within my lifetime. And the engineered lock-downs are also getting worse by the generation.

But you are right, those companies offer these things to fill a purpose in an office, or home.

Just like Apple. Just like all of them and more.

Just like the iMac.

Q.E.D.

 

[uller6]

There are many schools and institutions that don't require more than the base figuration. So, they need to keep the price low to be competitive in that field. Besides, the memory caching is so fast that the users don't notice that much when they are using memory far beyond 8 GB.

Not sure about you but I notice immediately when my Mac hits the swap space…

 

[azhava]

I’ll wager that if Apple didn't include the iMac in the announcement due to not having the USB-C conversion accessories, people would be raging about the iMac still not being updated. When the Magic Mouse is updated, it better not just be exchanging the port but a redesign to move the connection from the bottom of the mouse. In the meantime, I did upgrade and I can cope with the accessories as is.

It doesn't matter what Apple does or doesn't do, people will still find something to rage and whine about.

 

[DaveEcc]

I was half expecting an M Pro model, but I guess not. Apple may have made the iMac too thin for that.

If a MBP can get a Pro or a Max, surely an iMac, with so much more heat dissipation area, can get a Pro.

 

[Chuckeee]

If a MBP can get a Pro or a Max, surely an iMac, with so much more heat dissipation area, can get a Pro.

The iMac motherboard (and fans, connectors and speakers) are all squeezed into the chin. The resulting “heat dissipation area” is significantly smaller than the MBP

Inside 24” iMac

M1 iMac motherboard (chip and heatsink on left)

14” M2 Pro motherboard and heatsink for comparison

 

[uller6]

We are gathered here today to finally get the message: iMac is for elder parents, kids, and salon cash registers. This is NOT the productivity machine you seek, and it never will be.

I've used my M1 iMac as my primary work machine since release day. I sold my iMac Pro for the M1, and I've been a very happy camper ever since. But let me tell you how awesome the M1 iMac is for kids: the entire front is a single piece of glass! SO EASY TO WIPE DOWN! Apple designers are genius.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

The OpenCore Legacy Patcher team — and OCLP users — would like to have a word with you…

OCLP is the reason 8GB isn’t enough? (－‸ლ) A 2023 Mac won’t even be a candidate for OCLP for many, many years.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

Because it would cost Apple $20 more dollars to give us 16GB standard, while it costs us $200 to upgrade it.

Why does the latest iPhone have 8GB of RAM standard? Why isn’t it configurable to what we need? Oh, that right, Apple actually cares about that product and gives it what it knows it needs.

The iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max has 8gb. The regular 15 does not.

 

[B S Magnet]

OCLP is the reason 8GB isn’t enough? (－‸ლ) A 2023 Mac won’t even be a candidate for OCLP for many, many years.

It is not beyond question to find, eventually, the OCLP project branching along two discrete paths, as the original mandate has been to run current versions of macOS on unsupported models of Intel Macs; a separate path may, meanwhile, concentrate on supporting the earliest of Silicon Macs once they get excluded (“obsoleted”) by Apple from further macOS support — that is: assuming there is still a “macOS” as we know it once that time arrives.

And yes, people right here on this forum (on MR, that is — not this sub-forum) do well with running OCLP-patched versions of Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, and now, even Sonoma on Macs with as little as 4GB of DDR2-era RAM, and on MacBook Pros whose product roll-outs were at the start of 2008 (or, if making a CPU swap, then as far back as the mid-2007 iMacs). Those came from a time when the max RAM stopped at 6GB — and yet.

So yes, I’m certain the OCLP project team wouldn’t mind having a word with you about the fallacy that “8GB isn’t enough” (to fill our lives with love)…

 

[powerbook911]

Maybe the $1499 model could have had a little more included.

I love my M1 iMac , so it's hard for me to hate on this one.