As expected for late October, Apple is rolling out refreshed models of its existing devices. We’ve already seen the OLED-toting iPad Mini and the 14in MacBook Pro with M6. Next on the list from the world’s most successful fruit company is the iMac, now also with M6.
Apple doesn’t say it out loud with this one, but it’s also “the most powerful (insert device category) it’s ever made” thanks to the new M6 chip. The nerds in Cupertino reckon it will provide “[u]p to 2.5x faster performance in apps like Microsoft Excel, compared to iMac with M1.”
iMac it go faster
If it’s AI performance you’re after, and you’re coming from the ancient artefacts that are the Intel-based iMacs, you can expect “up to 18x faster performance”. Although Apple says that’s compared to “the most popular Intel-based iMac.” Our guess would be the 21.5in iMac from 2019. If you’ve still got one of those, this upgrade would make a lot of sense.
You’ll have two SoC options for configuring your new iMac. The M6 chipset can either have ten cores per CPU and GPU, or 12 cores. Both feature the ‘Dual 16-core Neural Engine’ for those on-device AI tasks and to power things like Siri AI and Apple Intelligence. The two SoC options also come with two and four USB-C-shaped Thunderbolt 4 ports, respectively.
Apple is also boasting faster memory speeds, if you’re into that. Supposedly with “up to 2x faster SSD read and write performance.” Not bad, if accurate. We’re sure iMac users will notice Outlook opening 0.5 seconds faster.
The Fruit Company doesn’t say much about the display, so we have to assume it hasn’t seen the same attention as chipset performance. In this case, it’s a 23.5in ‘4.5K’ panel with a claimed 500 nits of brightness.
We’re expecting official local pricing to be revealed in the coming days/weeks. In the US, where the new iMacs are available to pre-order already, the lowest-spec M6 iMac will net you a 10-core CPU and GPU, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, 16GB of unified memory, 256GB of local storage, the stand, and a Magic Mouse and Keyboard for $1,500. That’s just shy of R25,000 if directly converting.
That could climb to R56,330 ($3,380) if you want the extra cores and Thunderbolt ports, 32GB of memory, 2TB of storage, the nano-textured glass, and a Magic Trackpad and full-sized Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and a numpad. More often than not, new Apple devices tend to cost more when they get here. But there’s always the chance that this one bucks the trend, however small it might be.
