CNET reviews Apple’s new 27-inch iMac: ‘Millennial trapped in the body of a Baby Boomer’

“Apple’s refreshed its iMac for 2019 and it looks awfully familiar,” Lori Grunin writes for CNET. “That’s no surprise. The company couldn’t figure out how to bring a charging mat to market because of its dysfunctional obsession with a specific, thin-uber-alles design aesthetic. Meanwhile the design of its larger computing hardware — MacBooks and iMacs — hasn’t significantly changed in years and we’re still waiting for a functional replacement for the trash can Mac Pro.”
MacDailyNews Take: Tim Cook’s Apple so stupidly leads with its chin, that it deserves these punches in the mouth. Speaking of chins, iMac’s Leno-esque lower jaw fairly begs for a shave after years neglect.
“The iMac continues to be a fine system that runs fast given its components thanks to Mac OS,” Grunin writes. “And since the prices haven’t changed while the innards have, the base 27-inch configuration is a good value, if an uninspiring one.”
iMac now delivers up to two times faster performance for a wide range of computing tasks.
 
“The base 27-inch model is a reasonable configuration for the money. If you want something more powerful, I’d suggest a big bump to the Pro 580-based model, with a Core i7 and 16GB memory, at $2,700,” Grunin writes. “For in-between configurations you most likely won’t see significant performance increases that merit spending much more, unless you switch completely to SSD from the Fusion drive or increase the amount of memory.”
“To Apple’s credit, while the air blowing out the back vent got hot — about 105 degrees Farenheit — the surrounding metal never did,” Grunin writes. “I’m not saying Apple should turn the iMac into a big, roomy system. But imagine what Apple could do if it didn’t insist on cramming fast new parts into a thin, stuffy cabinet.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Yes, the new iMacs are fine systems, albeit uninspiring ones. They are very fast and certainly recommended, but a new, improved design would be welcome next time around, for sure. Hopefully that happens sooner than later, but when it comes to the current Apple management and Macs, unfortunately, life is like a box of chocolates.
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