Thinking about buying an iMac - worth it now?

[hky740]

I moved halfway across the country at the start of the year. I had a newish Windows desktop back where I had been living that I ended up giving to my parents. When I was moving, I was torn between a 16 inch MacBook Pro or a 27 inch iMac. I went with a MBP because it's more portable and takes up less space in an apartment.

The MBP has been great - no complaints with the unit itself. Runs great, runs quietly, outstanding screen. For a laptop, the speakers are amazing.

But I wish I had gotten an iMac instead. I miss having a bigger screen than 16 (my desktop back home was 24 inches and I had considered going bigger) and I miss a dedicated, detached keyboard. Having some 27 inch iMacs at work opened my eyes too.

I've realized I prefer having a laptop as a secondary system, or something I travel with, as opposed to my primary home workstation. The 16 inch MBP is a very, very expensive secondary system, however.

Would you advise buying an iMac right now? There's been rumors of a refresh for a couple months now but no official sign of one yet. I'm likely looking north of $2,000 considering 16 GB RAM and an SSD would be musts (want to avoid spinning hard drives and fusion drives).

 

[Jamesd123]

How about a monitor and keyboard/mouse?

Lot cheaper than an iMac, the 16inch is a great machine, if it does the job not sure what extra you would get out of an iMac, if you just want a bigger screen then get an external monitor, if you have a look on YouTube/Reddit, there are lot's of Mac Set ups where people use a MacBook and monitor rather than having two computers.

r/macsetups

The place for people to share and discuss their Mac computer setups.

www.reddit.com

 

[hky740]

Interesting idea. One issue might be not having enough ports. I think I have 4 Thunderbolt ports on the MBP 16 but would probably need 5 - adapter, ethernet connector, monitor, mouse, keyboard?

 

[Tekguy0]

Interesting idea. One issue might be not having enough ports. I think I have 4 Thunderbolt ports on the MBP 16 but would probably need 5 - adapter, ethernet connector, monitor, mouse, keyboard?

Consider a thunderbolt dock. They're relatively expensive but have all the connections you could need at a high speed. Also consider wireless/bluetooth keyboards and mice. Be careful to get a TB one, not just a glorified USB hub.

 

[Jamesd123]

Consider a thunderbolt dock. They're relatively expensive but have all the connections you could need at a high speed. Also consider wireless/bluetooth keyboards.

100% agree with this, have a look through the MacBook section of this forum and there are plenty of posts about docks and which ones are best depending on the set up and what you require, again Reddit and YouTube will have some info about docks.

 

[hky740]

I'll look into those. If anyone here had to guess, what are the odds the next iMac has 16 GB RAM and a 512+ GB SSD standard on the base 27' model?