Apple iMac (Intel Core 2 Duo 3.06GHz; 27-inch LCD; ATI graphics)

By Rich Brown, CNET News.com
Oct 27, 2009

If we could, we'd take points away from this iMac simply because by giving it a 27-inch display, Apple threatens our livelihood. You don't need our input to simply walk past the 27-inch iMac on a store shelf and recognize that it's the largest all-in-one currently available, and that it has a reasonable price tag relative to its size advantage. Look deeper into this S$2,588 (US$1,867.11) iMac and you'll find a desktop that's equal parts compelling and polarizing. Some new features, like the SD card slot, the now standard wireless mouse and keyboard, and the LED backlight have obvious appeal. The glossy screen coating, the limited (for now) bidirectional functionality of the Mini DisplayPort, and the absence of both a Blu-ray drive and a quad-core processor all provide openings for criticism. However, for us and, we expect, for many others, the screen trumps most of our concerns.

Editors' note : This review is based on tests done by our sister site CNET.com. As such, please note that there may be slight differences in the testing procedure and ratings system. For more information on the actual tests conducted on the product, please inquire directly at the site where the article was originally published. References made to some of other products in this review may not be available or applicable in Asia. Do check directly with your local distributor for details.

Design

With this most recent update to the iMac, Apple brings the design of its all-in-ones in line with that of its MacBook Pro laptops. The aluminum and polycarbon body of the old iMac has been replaced with aluminum and edge-to-edge glass over the screen. From an aesthetic standpoint, the new iMac is as strong as ever and maintains Apple's lead over other computer manufacturers. Provided you have the room for it, you should feel no shame putting this iMac in a prominent location in any home or office.

The new screen size makes the iMac the largest ever in Apple's all-in-one line, but only by an extra 76mm in its width. The new iMac measures 648 x 521 x 203mm. The old 24-inch iMac is only 566mm wide, but otherwise has the same dimensions. The extra inches in the display have a more significant impact than the changes in chassis size.

In addition to going to a 27-inch LCD, Apple has also boosted the resolution of the display to 2,560 x 1,440 pixels--up from 1,920 x 1,080 pixels in the old model--which amounts to 33 percent more screen estate. Where the old model couldn't quite accommodate two full-size Safari windows, the new iMac can fit two side-by-side with room to spare.



Along with bringing the MacBook Pro's chassis materials to the new iMac, Apple also incorporated some of the same tricks it uses in its laptops to make the screen appear so vibrant. An LED backlight amps up the brightness to such an extent that the panel in the old iMac seems washed-out in comparison. A glossy coating on the display increases the apparent contrast. Unique to the iMac, though, is a technology to boost the viewing angle range called IPS, short for "in-plane switching". We don't have a quantitative way to measure off-angle color shifting, but anecdotally, we can't say we had off-angle viewing issues on the old iMac. Perhaps the benefit of IPS will be more apparent to digital imaging professionals, but it certainly doesn't do any harm.

The glossy coating on the screen is one of the flashpoints of criticism for the new iMac. Those opposed cite more intense reflectivity and increased glare from environmental light sources. As the iMac is generally a stationary device, you can't necessarily move it to a different spot to avoid glare, as you may with a glossy screened laptop. Unfortunately, Apple offers no way to opt out of the glossy coating on either its laptops or the new iMacs. From a customer service standpoint, however, providing a screen coating option would certainly add an extra layer of complexity for less-savvy buyers.

For now, Apple has taken a stand on glossy screens, gambling that shoppers either prefer it, won't care, or will suffer through and accept it. Your buying decision should hinge on your own preference, of course, and a trip to a retail outlet that carries iMacs will answer any questions you may have in short order.

Features

We have no ideal Windows-based comparisons for the new iMac, as no Windows vendor has an all-in-one with a screen larger than 24 inches. Of the two most recent large all-in-ones we have reviewed, Gateway's One ZX6810-01, makes a better match than HP's TouchSmart 600MM. HP leans heavily toward the home entertainment side of the all-in-one equation, while the Gateway and its quad-core CPU and solid-state hard drive make the One ZX6810-01 more productivity-oriented.

The Gateway boasts a few features the iMac doesn't have, namely a TV tuner, a solid-state hard drive, more video memory, and a quad-core CPU. The Gateway also costs less than the iMac. In Apple's favor, the iMac has the larger screen and a fast 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo chip. The iMac was faster on almost every application performance test, leaving the Gateway with only a TV tuner, lower price tag, and marginally better gaming performance. The Gateway may have an argument to make against the smaller 21.5-inch iMac, but with better performance and its expansive screen, we find the 27-inch iMac provides sufficient benefits over its Windows-based competition to justify its cost.



The screen and the core features out of the way, we can shift our focus to some of the secondary updates to the iMac. The SD card slot is one of the most long-asked-for features in Apple's entire Mac lineup, and its absence thus far has seemed particularly silly given that you can find multiformat media card readers in almost all Windows desktops. Anyone with a digital camera or other SD card-equipped portable device will obviously benefit from the addition of the slot to the iMac. Popping a card in brings up a screen that shows you the media contents. OS X will then chide you if you don't hit the drive eject command before removing the card.

More interesting than the SD card slot is that the Mini DisplayPort on the back of the iMac is now bidirectional. Right now you can find a cable with two Mini DisplayPort connectors which let you use the new iMac as a second display with another Mini DisplayPort-equipped Mac. You can hotswap the cable between different systems without having to shut down, and the display management software is the most intuitive and most flexible we've seen. You can switch between extended and mirrored modes. An icon-based orientation system lets you switch the extended orientation from side to side, up and down, or virtually any other configuration, as long as the two screens border each other. This capability also extends the useful life of the iMac, addressing a long-standing criticism of all-in-ones. Even if you someday demand a faster computer, you can always use the iMac as a secondary display.

Unfortunately, the dual Mini DisplayPort cable from Belkin won't let you input video from other devices. For that you'll have to wait until January. Details on what Belkin's cooking up are scant, so we can't offer much information about the forthcoming adapter other than that it's on the way and it does more than connect two Macs. But given that you can output the iMac over HDMI, DVI, and other formats with the Mini DisplayPort adapter cable, we'd expect that any updated input adapter will include those formats as well. Our hope is that similar to all-in-ones from a variety of PC vendors, the new cable from Belkin will allow you to input video to the iMac from game consoles, cable boxes, Blu-ray players, HD camcorders, and other such devices currently bound to your television. The appeal of such capability should be obvious, but we'll unfortunately have to wait until the adapter hits the market before we can test it out.

The wireless mouse and keyboard are the last major additions to the new iMac. Mostly, we're glad to see Apple switch to all wireless input devices, as the wired versions always seemed to disrupt the clean aesthetics that Apple seemed to be going for with the system itself. Not everyone likes wireless devices because of responsiveness concerns and intense battery demands, but for the responsiveness in general usage we experienced no difficulty.



We'll refer you to our review of the touch-sensitive Magic Mouse for our full opinion of Apple's unique new input device. For now we'll say that we like the design of the Magic Mouse, and we found the basic functions worked well enough. Clicking and scrolling all worked as expected, and we even appreciated the acceleration detection that speeds up scrolling down longer pages. The multifinger gestures were no replacement for dedicated forward and back buttons, let alone lateral scrolling like you find on Logitech and Microsoft mice. We can't feel too disappointed in the Magic Mouse as a bundled mouse with the iMac, however, since it has the basics down. We just find it interesting that for all its attention to design and usability in other products, Apple has never really conquered the lowly mouse.

The last point we'll make regarding the iMac's features has to do with the lack of a Blu-ray drive. Apple CEO Steve Jobs made his feeling about Blu-ray well-known a while back by calling it a "bag of hurt", but various tech bloggers still speculated that Apple may finally introduce Blu-ray in this round of iMac updates. At this price especially, Blu-ray is common among Windows all-in-ones, and we've seen it in midrange desktops. The iMac's giant screen has better-than 1080p resolution, and the iMac's audio output is decent enough that it would certainly do justice to the format.

Mitigating factors include Belkin's forthcoming adapter, if it allows for HDMI input via the iMac's Mini DisplayPort. Of course, in that event, you still incur the added expense of the adapter and a separate Blu-ray player itself. We also understand that you can download HD movies at 720p from iTunes, and we acknowledge that Blu-ray as a format hasn't demonstrated the same rapid adoption that came with the switch to DVD, thus minimizing the level of consumer interest. We don't believe that Blu-ray is a must-have for all computers, and we can think of several features we'd rather have instead. That said, leaving Blu-ray off the new iMac gives Windows-based all-in-ones a selling point. Apple's customers miss out, and would be right to feel disappointed.

Tags: Screen, TV, Belkin Corp., Apple iMac, SD Card

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