Among Apple products, iMac is the longest-running similar design. The apparent design has changed little since 2009.
In the meantime, the DVD drive has been removed and slightly thinner and thinner side views are now available.
The aluminum iMac, which is still familiar to the public, began in 2007.
When Apple unveiled its 2020 iMac last summer, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed with its familiar design. But let's wait and see the new 2021 iMac with the M1 chip and a modern new look.
When will the new iMac 2021 be released?
Apple said it would release new Mac products with Apple processors in November, but there were no plans for new iMacs. It would have been disappointing to expect the new iMac. On the other hand, it is expected that there will be news of IMac 2021 soon.
The new iMac, which will be released since then, wants to introduce a new design and add a much better M-series chip. And according to recent rumors, the iMac 2021 will be equipped with Apple's new product and remarkable performance M1 chip along with its new design.
The picture above is the current iMac, but when the new iMac is released in 2021, there are rumors that the bezel and ultra-slim designs, which are smaller, will be reminiscent of Apple's slim (but ridiculously expensive) pro-display XDR (pictured below), will be the biggest features.
Then when can we see the new iMac?
A report by the China Times in October 2020 announced that the iMac with the M1 chip would be released in the spring of 2021. I think the new iMac will be available as early as this spring.
Apple is rumored to hold an event in March 2021, which is likely to be announced then, but it is also thought to be possible to release it at WWDC 2021 in June while keeping it waiting a little longer.
The needs to launch the new iMac
Finally, I hope that Apple will be able to redesign the new iMac in 2021.
It is not only a redesign of the appearance we are hoping for. MacBook Air already has 13 M1 chips on Apple's M1 chip, MacBook Pro, and Mac mini, and expects new features and performance using M-Series chips within the iMac.
Apple seems to be planning a more powerful processor for the iMac in 2021.
M1 Chip
The M1 was Apple's first chip designed specifically for Macs. It has excellent power efficiency with amazing performance and innovative customized technology. The M1 is a chip designed with the Mac OS Big Sur operating system in mind.
A chip with a huge number of transistors, 16 billion, incorporates CPU, GPU, Neural Engine, I/O, and many other elements.
- It is already detected in MacBook Pro and boasts 18 hours of battery use.
The M1 runs an 8-core CPU consisting of four high-performance cores and four high-efficiency cores.
- The M1 includes Apple's most advanced GPU, with eight powerful cores to run 25,000 threads.
It can be rendered from 4K video streaming to complex 3D scenes without interruption.
New iMac Design
The new iMac can include interesting things other than new processors, which is said to be a general redesign of iMac.
Apple's iMac no longer looks ergonomic, looks backward in design, and is no longer worth bragging about. This is because there has been development of other competitive products. The iMac design that is currently being sold has not actually changed for more than a decade.
What would you like the iMac to be newly designed?
According to Bloomberg News, Apple will make the screen bezel slimmer. The aluminum part of the application section under the screen will also be reduced, and the curve at the back will be flatter.
It is expected to apply slimmer bezel, larger size display, and better display technology.
Rumor has it that the new iMac will no longer make 21.5-inch products and replace them with 23-inch ones.
32-inch and 23-inch new iMac
Apple is likely to release a larger screen by reducing the bezel of iMac. Display technology has evolved to apply smaller bezels, and smaller bezels are likely to be larger screens.
The iMac is still available in 27" and 21.5" sizes, with 5,120 x 2,880 pixels on the 5K Retina display and 4,096 x 2,304 pixels on the 21.5" Retina display. However, IMac's 27-inch display looks relatively small because it has more displays than 30-inch displays now. Therefore, 21.5 inches seems smaller.
If the bezel becomes smaller, it may have an iMac similar to the new Pro Display XDR with a resolution of 32 inches or a 30-inch display with a smaller bezel, resulting in a retina 6K resolution.
Apple Pro Display XDR (Extreme Dynamic Range) : World's Best Professional Display
First Type 32 Retina 6K Display
Up to 1600 Nit Brightness
1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and ultra-light vision angle
More than 1 billion colors with exceptional accuracy
And the dynamic range that will revolutionize professional workflows.
- Citation on Apple's homepage
* XDR: Extreme color representation, display technology that enables extreme image representation with no brightness or contrast.
Ultra High Resolution Display
In addition to 6K ultra-resolution pixels, HDR can also be applied. IMac can already display 1 billion colors, and the new content to be provided by Apple TV+ streaming service is planning to support 4K HDR content. According to some rumors, a mini LED display may be selected for the iMac 2021.
Face ID for iMac
Face ID is already applied to iPads and iPhones. The iMac display has a FaceTime camera. With iMac's camera, more and more people will have video conferences while working from home. However, there is a high possibility that Face ID will be applied along with improvement of resolution to 720p.
Price of the new iMac
The price of iMac 2021 has not been decided yet. However, it is expected to apply the basic price that has been sold so far.
This is because Intel no longer has to pay fees and reduced CPU chip production costs.
The 21.5-inch iMac, which is currently being sold, is starting at 1.44 million won and the 27-inch model is starting at 2.49 million won, and the price of iMac in 2021 is similar, but it will be similar. Maybe it could be a lower price. However, if Samsung Electronics adopts products such as next-generation PCIe 4.0 SSD storage, prices may increase depending on SSD capacity.
Apple's chip instead of Intel's
IMac 2021 can come with A14T Cupertino's Apple chip. The chip is expected to be combined with Apple GPUs with a main processor and graphics accelerator. In other words, the first Mac laptop with an M1 chip is very impressive. Therefore, it remains to be seen whether Apple will apply this technology to iMac and not use Intel chips anymore.
However, the M1 chip does not support external GPUs, so it may be a bit disappointing for those who want to work on games or video rendering.
However, Apple is developing a more ambitious graphics processor. The current M1 chip is equipped with an Apple graphics engine capable of either 7 or 8 core variations. New graphics pipes for next-generation high-end laptops and midrange desktops are being developed in 16 cores and 32 cores. Apple is also planning to develop a more advanced graphics chip with 64 cores and 128 cores with a goal of late 2021 or 2022 or later, so products that do not require external GPUs are expected to come out.
I look forward to meeting the new iMac in spring 2021.