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M3 iMac Rant
- Thread starter TrenttonY
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I feel like people who care about the size of the SSD and the amount of RAM aren't going to be interested in an iMac in the first place. They probably buy a Mac Studio or a MacBook Pro.
I bought them for my brothers. Both are not computer enthusiasts but like desktop computers and like using them a lot. For their uses they're pretty good! The 256gb built in SSD is a little bit chintzy, I still agree, but a usb-c/thunderbolt external can easily fix that.
I bought them for my brothers. Both are not computer enthusiasts but like desktop computers and like using them a lot. For their uses they're pretty good! The 256gb built in SSD is a little bit chintzy, I still agree, but a usb-c/thunderbolt external can easily fix that.
The current iMac doesn't.
From iMac marketing page.
"
Only 11.5 mm. Now that’s thin.
..."https://www.apple.com/imac
Apple thinned out the iMac so much can't even put a headphone jack on the back because not enough depth. To a large extent what have here is pragmatically iPad like constraints.
From MBP 14"/16" tech specs
" 14"
- Height: 0.61 inch (1.55 cm)
15"
- Height: 0.66 inch (1.68 cm)
https://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/specs/
The iMac is actually thinner than either one of the MBP laptops.
There is no room for the electronics behind the screen so the pragmatic thermal dissapation zone is just the 'chin' . That is a smaller volume than either one of those two laptops.
If trying to propose dumping loads of heat to the aluminum behind the screen panel. The panel itself needs some cooling and too much heat isn't going to help presentation qualities there. It isn't a good place to dump large amounts of excess heat.
The M series SoC has to fit in the center subset of the chin of the iMac. That's it.
Pretty sure the EU compliance is only for new products.
The products on the "update every 12 months" strategy run into problems because they have to be 'new' every year. Apple doesn't refresh new keyboards every year. ( e.g., for iMac just keep same colors. The iMac already what USB-C only ).
The EU mandate doesn't force things on both sides of a cable to switch over. Just new stuff and the port it presents.
The keyboard is available as a separate product independent from the iMac. It isn't an inherent part of the iMac. ( can work with iPad , Mini , etc. ) Same thing for mouse/trackpad. (sold independently and usable by wide variety of Apple products. )
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Your quote had " ... and secondly because Pencil 2 is the replacement for Pencil 1. ..."
The problem is that the Pencil 1 and Pencil 2 systems are a non intersection in the older legacy iPads.
Things are closer to Pencil 1 is for old stuff that was more affordable and Pencil 2 is for higher end stuff. new USB-C pencil will eventually be more affordable pencil for everything in the actively sold iPad line up. The only quirk now is the iPad Gen 9 is still the low price , volume leader.
The new Pencil is likely the start of Apple selling two options for an Apple brand Pencil and not overly segregating the options. The new Pencil is not a 'replacement for Pencil 1' because it skips that segregation tract.
( It is just cheesy that Apple didn't make the new pencil work with Gen 9. There is likely zero technical reason there for that. If they could make a lighting Pencil 1 work with the iPad Gen 10 via an adapter, then making a USB-C pencil work with an adapter to Gen 9 should not have been a problem. Apple just doesn't want to put money into doing the work. that's it. )
With iPad sales drifting ( and/or sagging) Apple can't afford to get rid of the regular $249-289 Gen 9 specials that run very regularly.
The 'flaw' here is that you are presenting a premise that Apple is going to charge only what they pay.
If Apple made 16GB standard that would very likely just apply the $200 to the entry price and there would be no lower option. That there bill-of-material costs is different... doesn't really matter.
Apple has been selling SSDs at the same $400/TB for years. SSD prices go up / down / and sideways while Apple has dogmatically stuck to the exact same pricing structure. ( They will cut folks a break after get to 4TB since basically sucked out a ton of margin already to up that level. ). It is little to do with price of NAND chips.
There really is no discount for buying standard configuration components. ( the presumption there would be that Apple was pass along that economies of scale savings from the volume of standard configurations sold. .... doesn't really happen. )
The RAM in the iPhone is actually layered on top of the iPhone SoC die. It is inside the SoC package. To do variablity of RAM there would be a pain to produce since done when the dies are being assempled into a physical package for mounting on a logic board. The M-series packages have both an Apple part and RAM vendor part that was soldered to the same miniboard. That is a substantively different set up.
The 2020 iMac 27" had expandable RAM, so not that long..
Schools and institutions don't often want laptops over desktops.
I work for a hospital and you need a personal request from a department head to get a laptop. I have one (Dell Latitude i7, 8gb RAM) with a docking station. Everyone else gets a tiny micro form-factor desktop with a 24" monitor.
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On the question of expandable RAM... with Apple Silicon, the days of expandable RAM are gone across the board. I don't know why that keeps getting brought up as a knock on the new iMac specifically.
It's a £30 add on. You get a different power brick. I think it's good that you get that choice.
Innit. Plus; something some people seem to be missing, is that the 'unified memory' is a lot more efficient than conventional RAM. The whole SoaC is much more efficient than having separate components. It does away with compatibility and hardware connection issues. You can bet that if Apple had continued with conventional user interchangeable RAM, that some nerds would be screaming about Apple being evil for using 80+ year old instead of 21st century technology.
If you want the most up to date, efficient tech, then this is the way forward.My M1 iMac flies through tasks that I've seen Intel Macs with lots more RAM, struggle with. So. 🤷♂️ Getting fixated on RAM is just silly. Unless you want to have 500+ browser tabs open...
As I wrote in reply to another: the Day of the DIMM is over.
And it's not just Apple. As low price tablet-laptop crossovers keep multiplying, they are using lpDDR mounted in place, next to the CPUs.
As I also keep repeating: it is clear that Apple is strategically oriented to serve the mobile device market. Be that phone, tablet, or laptop. And that means any desktop Mac is just going to inherit the design decisions that went into making the mobile devices.
I mentioned upstream the Raspberry Pi and similar small projects that hobbyists like to buy. If that is what someone wants to do then by all means go for it. I did in my day assemble my own PC from subsystems. It was fine for the time, but I really think most people don't really want to do that.
I know people who are afraid to plug in a cable! Something like the iMac is ideal for them.
I know people who pay money to technicians to come out and simply plug in peripherals.
That is typical of most people.
So many people here are just not relating to the bigger world out there. Obsessing over the ins and outs of Apple's choices is not going to be of any relevance outside of a small community of early adopters.
Even using Rosetta my 14” M1Pro MacBook Pro is leaps and bounds better than my 16” Core i9 MacBook Pro that proceeded it. The i9 was hot and noisy. The 14” is quiet and also runs about 150-175% more plugins.
Once the last couple of plug-in manufacturers update their VSTs to AS native and I can FINALLY move away from Rosetta and get a second speed boost.
No way would I go back to my old vacuum cleaner/griddle iron core i9
The fact you still need to use a USB-C to Lightning Cable is the deal breaker for me. I'm sticking with my iMac 21.5 2011 model.
Yeah, that doesn't make sense, laptops walk off easier...
How long have you been using Apple Products? It's been Apple's MO. IMO that they always introduce the latest machines with the lower to Mid configurations so people run out to the apple store and buy that tech THEY HAVE TO HAVE....then 6 months to a year later they bring out the machines everyone really wanted in the first place MARKETING MARKETING MARKETING......Why do you think Tim Cook is SOOOOOOO RICH.....Apple Expects you to replace you Mac every 17 Months....HA HA HA HA. Sure....It's not a $299.00 HP laptop they're hawking...
I don't. All computers should have it, especially desktops to fit existing infrastructure. Not really my point though -- it was just that the base config with no other purchases at all, doesn't have ethernet.
???
A color matched USB-C to lightning cable is included with every iMac. My yellow cable has sat attached to the back of my iMac since I bought it, and is used to occasionally charge the keyboard, trackpad, iPads/iPhones and AirPods. The charging port on the keyboard and trackpad have zero bearing on usability
The base configuration (two ports, one fan, etc) should have been upgraded, I agree. All of the iMacs should have four ports, and additional storage should have been added. Once you start spec'ing the machine up (more RAM/SSD, more ports, extended keyboard, trackpad, etc), it gets to be a $2,000 machine, which isn't cheap. However - a similarly spec'd Mac mini + Apple Studio Display + Keyboard + Trackpad costs well over $3,000, so...
I will probably order a new M3 iMac and will upgrade it to 24GB RAM & 1TB SSD. Not interested in the Mac Studio or MacBook Pro - completely different products.
M3 with 24GB RAM should last me 6-10 years easily. My current iMac is 11 years old and still going. These things are built to last.