Will I REALLY need the new iMac when released?

[nitecapt]

The rumors keep flying about the new IMac with the M chip in it for release in 2022 and i have been waiting for it to replace my old IMAC because I will have access to a bigger screen and multi screen set up like I have now, but now I am looking at the newest MacBook Pro and seeing that it can run multiple screens, so the question is, what's. the point of waiting? The Mac laptop pro seems to be able to do anything that we might expect from a new IMACs. Do you anticipate some stellar difference between the two that will make the wait worth it.?
Thanks
Ray

 

[Puonti]

Apart from one being a notebook and the other a desktop - which in my mind qualifies as a stellar difference - MacBooks don't appear on my personal shortlist simply because my experience has been that the past few generations have suffered from the keyboard making contact with the screen.

Really.

My 15" work MacBook Pro (2016) did it, my 16" work MacBook Pro (2019) does it, and my partner's 13" MacBook Air (2020) does it. In the 2019 MacBook Pro's case it happens even though I never move the machine around with the lid closed. Simply closing the lid leaves marks on the screen.

I don't want that from something I pay for with my own money, so it's worth it to me to wait for the larger Apple Silicon iMac to replace my old, personal iMac. For my personal mobile computing needs an iPad Pro is sufficient.

 

[theluggage]

Do you anticipate some stellar difference between the two that will make the wait worth it.?

Well, they’ll probably have high quality screens much bigger than 16”.

Nobody really knows what pricing will be but, in the past iMacs have always offered more bangs per buck than MacBooks. It is going to be less clear with M1 since - at least at the lower end - they’ll probably have basically the same innards as the MBPs, whereas the Intel ones had desktop CPUs (one source of the “more bangs per buck” c.f. Intel mobile cpus). However, I’d be very surprised if an iMac with M1 Pro wasn’t significant cheaper than a M1 MacBook Pro plus a comparable large external display.

Also, if you don’t actually need portability, a proper desktop is a much neater setup than a laptop plus large display (plus external keyboard and pointing device if you want to use the external display as the primary)

The iMacs have long been Apple’s best value-for-money if the built in display was what you wanted.

Maybe there will be high-end options (either iMac or headless desktop) with the rumored dual/quad M1 Max chips, but I’m sure those will be reassuringly expensive and not something to buy without a commercial use-case.

 

[nitecapt]

I appreciate very much your input..yes, the smaller screen could constitute an annoyance but then i can carry my photographic work wherever i go. I now have an older iMac with an nec extra screen, i updated it to a 1tb Ssd and uppedthe ram. It runs well. My biggest problem with my MacBook is that i keep hitting the caps lock key. I came here for your wisdom and got it. What brand monitor would you get in the 30” size or so to match with a new iMac?