The Apple iMac (2021) are renewed: they boast an M1 chip, 1080p webcam, and a surprising and cheerful external design

The new colorful iMac has arrived. It does so by taking advantage of Apple’s M1 chip, but above all surprises with a design that takes a radical leap from the previous model and that stands out for its thinness and its cheerful tones.

The new Apple desktops boast a 24 “screen with 4.5K resolution in which they integrate major improvements like your webcam (1080p at last) and its sound system. There are important news also in the new Magic Keyboard, which for the first time integran el sensor Touch ID.

Data sheet of the new iMac (2021) with M1 chip

The new 24-inch iMac certainly stand out for their design, but its spec sheet is also remarkable.

The clear protagonist is the chip M1, which appears in the two versions we saw in the MacBook Air and the 13-inch MacBook Pros. The difference is in the GPU, which in the basic model it has 7 cores and in the two most expensive models it has 8 cores.

There are also different configurations in terms of connectivity: the base model has two USB-C ports with TB4 interface, while on the top two models two more USB-C ports are added (USB 3, but without specifying version) and the Gigabit Ethernet port, be careful, is not on the back of the screen, but on the power adapter.

A surprising and very, very colorful design

Traditional iMac minimalism gives way to color. It is almost a tribute to those first iMac that changed the course of the company almost 25 years ago, and it certainly poses a remarkable turnaround.

Color dominates everything in that external design that surprises so much for those cheerful tones (seven different) as for its new screen format, much thinner and that it benefits from the powerful M1 chip on which the team is based.

That chip makes it possible to reduce the motherboard to its bare minimum, but that too impacts on cooling, which is now solved with two small fans that still manage to keep all components cool and with only a noise level of 10 dB.

The screen has a only 11.5 mm thick —Most mobile phones on the market are around 7 or 8 mm — and according to Apple, the result of this new design is a volume 50% lower than that of previous models. In these screens we also find a curious support to adjust the tilt of the 24 “screen,

A solvent iMac and well prepared for you to do videoconferencing

The display of these models has a diagonal of 24 inchesBut that new design makes the final size of these iMac only slightly larger than the previous 21.5-inch iMac. The panel resolution is “4.5K”, which raises a fantastic resolution of 4,480 x 2,520 pixels although, yes, it does not reach the 5K screens of previous models.

At Apple they have paid special attention to a key element of our use of this equipment: its video conferencing capabilities. The new iMac make the leap (finally) to a Facetime HD webcam with 1080p resolution, which has a larger sensor and is capable of performing well even in low light conditions thanks to the M1 chip and video processing.

In this area they have also worked on the sound section with a new system featuring six speakers that provide support for spatial audio with Dolby Atmos. In that audio system we also find two woofers and a tweeter on each side.

Inside we find the same M1 chip that Apple already used in the MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13-inch and Mac mini that were presented at the end of 2020. With it, they assure Apple, the iMac is up to 2 times faster than other old iMac and 50% faster than the most powerful 21.5 “iMac they had until now.

As in those computers, the iMac (2021) based on the M1 chips will be able to run both native applications in Big Sur and iOS applications. No touch screen, which will once again be a clear limitation to be able to take advantage of this type of applications and games in all their magnitude.

The new iMac have up to four USB-C ports, two of which have a Thunderbolt interface. The new power cord, they say at Apple, it is easier to connect and has a design as colorful as the rest of a team that of course they have wanted to give a much more cheerful personality.

There is a curiosity in this section: the power adapter is still necessary, but in that adapter we find not only the cables that power the equipment, but with an Ethernet connector, something reminiscent of the optional adapter for Chromecasts with Google TV.

Touch ID fingerprint sensor debuts on Magic keyboards

The news continues with the Magic Keyboard layout, which come in three different variants. One of them is especially remarkable because it has a surprising novelty: un sensor Touch ID in the upper right.

It is especially remarkable that that sensor works on a wireless keyboard and communicates with the M1 chip’s Secure Enclave through an end-to-end encrypted channel. In addition, this sensor allows to recognize different fingerprints and for several users to log in and switch from one to another just using their fingerprint.

The keyboard layout has special access to Spotlight, dictation and “Do not disturb” mode, and even They have a special key to use emojis quickly.

Accompanying the keyboards there are also the Magic Mouse and the Magic Trackpad, that without such drastic changes in its exterior design, they have been infected with the color of the new iMac and have small contours in which the color of the equipment with which we theoretically pair them is reflected.

Price and availability of iMac (2021) with M1 chip

The new 24-inch iMac are available for reservation from April 30, and will arrive in stores in the second half of May.

There will be three different models at the moment that differ in the type of chip (as in the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, there is an M1 with a 7-core GPU and an M1 with an 8-core GPU), but also curiously in its connectivity options, storage and its peripherals.

• M1 (7-core GPU), 8 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, two TB4 ports, Magic Keyboard: 1.449 euros.
• M1 (8-core GPU), 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB of SSD, two TB4 ports + two USB 3 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and Magic Keyboard with Touch ID: 1.669 euros.
• M1 (8-core GPU), 8 GB of RAM, 512 GB of SSD, two TB4 ports + two USB 3 ports, Gigabit Ethernet and Magic Keyboard with Touch ID: 1.899 euros.

Those are the starting prices: these teams will have RAM memory expansion options (up to 16GB) and SSD (up to 2TB), but the prices of these options are not yet known.

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