iMac

The iMac is Apple's most iconic desktop machine, featuring a 24-inch display and the latest M4 chip. The iMac is currently Apple's only desktop Mac with a built-in display.

Apple last updated the iMac in October 2024, adding a faster M4 chip, new colors, and a handful of other improvements, which means now is a good time to buy the iMac.

Pricing on the iMac starts at $1,299 for the entry-level model with M4 chip. Apple does not have an iMac with a larger display, but there are higher-powered desktop machines available, including the Mac mini, the Mac Studio and the Mac Pro. The Mac Studio and Mac Pro are equipped with faster chips for more intensive system tasks, but they are much more expensive, so the Mac mini may be the best alternative. The Mac mini is priced starting at $599, the Mac Studio is priced starting at $1,999, and the Mac Pro is priced starting at $6,999.

Apple refreshed the 24-inch iMac in October 2024, introducing a faster M4 chip with up to 30 percent faster CPU speeds and 20 percent faster GPU speeds for notable speed and efficiency improvements.

The M4 chip is Apple's next-generation 3-nanometer chip built on a more advanced N3E node. In the iMac, the M4 can be configured with an 8-core CPU and GPU, or a 10-core CPU and GPU. Apple also uses the M4 chip in the iPad Pro, Mac mini, and MacBook Pro. While the 8-core model has four performance and four efficiency cores, the 10-core model features four performance cores and six efficiency cores and a CPU clock speed up to 4.3GHz.

You can get the iMac with up to 32GB unified memory, up from 24GB in the prior-generation model, plus the entry-level model starts with 16GB memory instead of 8GB. Apple added 120GB/s memory bandwidth, an improvement over 100GB/s in the M3 iMac. Apple is also using faster LPDDR5X memory. As with the M3, the M4 includes hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading to provide more accurate lighting and shadows in video games, and to make 3D design faster. There's also a media engine and an upgraded 16-core Neural Engine that can complete 38 trillion operations per second.

Apple made no major external design changes to the M4 iMac. The machine continues to feature a body that is just 11.5 millimeters thick, and there is a slim stand that allows the angle of the display to be adjusted. Apple is selling the iMac in a range of bright colors, including some new shades this time around.

The iMac comes in blue, purple, pink, orange, yellow, green, and silver. While Apple did offer these colors before, some of the hues have been tweaked. The pink is a deeper, more true pink, the blue has less gray in it, the orange is lighter, the green is brighter, and the yellow is more pastel. The front of the iMac features softer, more pastel colors, while the back of the iMac has brighter, bolder matching colors.

Powering the iMac is a magnetic power connector with a color-matched woven cable, and Apple sells color-matched accessories with each model. With the M3 iMac, Apple restricted some colors to the higher-end versions, but even the entry-level model comes in any color this year.

The iMac's 24-inch 4.5K display features a resolution of 4480-by-2520, with 11.3 million pixels, 500 nits brightness, P3 wide color, more than a billion colors, and True Tone to match the color temperature of the display to the ambient lighting for a more natural viewing experience.

This year, Apple is offering nano-texture glass as an upgrade option for the higher-end versions of the iMac, with nano-texture providing a matte look that notably cuts down on glare. With the nano-texture add-on option, Apple also includes a polishing cloth.

Apple's M4 iMac includes a 12-megapixel Center Stage camera with support for Desk View, and 1080p HD video recording. The M4 chip includes an advanced image signal processor with computational video to cut down on noise, improve white balance, and offer better dynamic range.

The iMac also offers three studio-quality microphones and a six-speaker sound system with strong bass and clear mids and highs thanks to force-cancelling woofers, along with support for Dolby Atmos and spatial audio.

There are two Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports at the back of the iMac, along with two additional USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports for the higher-end models. The model with an 8-core CPU and GPU supports a single 6K external display, while the 10-core model supports up to an 8K external display at 60Hz or two external 6K displays at 60Hz.

The iMac has a headphone jack at the side that has advanced support for high-impedance headphones, plus there is a 1Gb/s Ethernet port available in the power adapter for the higher-end model, allowing for a less cluttered cable setup. The iMac has Wi-Fi 6E for fast Wi-Fi performance, it supports Bluetooth 5.3, and it can be customized with up to 2TB of SSD storage.

The iMac comes alongside color-matched accessories with custom colors available for the new USB-C Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, power cord, and USB-C to USB-C cable for charging the accessories. Apple sells the iMac with a matching Magic Keyboard, with or without a number pad, and some models feature Touch ID built directly into the keyboard.

The Magic Keyboard features a wireless Touch ID implementation, using a dedicated security component on the keyboard that communicates directly with the Secure Enclave in the M4 for seamless unlocking or making Apple Pay purchases.

The entry-level M4 iMac is available for $1,299, while an upgraded model is priced starting at $1,499. The M4 iMac is available now from the online Apple Store, Apple retail stores, and other retailers.

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The M4 iMac models can be ordered from the online Apple Store and other retailers, with prices starting at $1,299.

• M3 vs. M4 Chip Buyer's Guide: How Much Better Really Is M4?
• M1 vs. M3 vs. M4 iMac Buyer's Guide: 25+ Upgrades Compared

The iMac didn't receive design updates aside from new colors this year, but reviewers praised the new nano-texture display option, the M4 chip, and the camera upgrades.

CNET said that the matte nano-texture display was "very effective" at cutting down on glare and reflections, working in direct sunlight and bright overhead artificial light. The matte display is overkill if you're going to be using the iMac in standard lighting, though, and it makes more sense for devices like the MacBook Pro that might be in the sunlight.

The iMac has an upgraded 12-megapixel camera that supports Center Stage and Desk View, a feature that can show your physical desktop as well as what's on your screen. Forbes said that the Desk view feature "works very well," and that camera quality is "pristine, clear, and highly watchable."

Apple's M4 chip is the only option for the iMac, and it is 25 percent faster than the prior M3 chip. If you have an M3, it's not worth the upgrade to the M4, but if you have an older Intel Mac, you'll get significant performance improvements going to the M4.

For more opinions on the M4 iMac, check out our iMac review roundup.

The 2024 iMac features the same compact and thin design as the prior-generation iMac, and Apple has not changed the design at all. The body of the all-in-one machine is just 11.5mm thick, and it has a slim side profile as a result.

With the transition to Apple silicon, Apple consolidated the logic board and thermals, facilitating the thin design. The iMac has thicker bezels than most Macs, with a chin at the bottom that houses the hardware. A color-matched stand is included.

The iMac display is 21.5 inches wide, while the base is 5.8 inches wide. The display and stand together are 18.1 inches tall, and the whole thing weighs 9.74 to 9.79 pounds depending on the model.

Color Options

The iMac comes in a range of seven colors, including green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. There are softer colors and thinner borders on the front to allow users to focus on their on-screen content, while the back features a more bold, saturated color. There is also a power connector that attaches to the back of the iMac, along with a woven two-meter-long color-matched cable.

Display

The M4 iMac features a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display with 11.3 million pixels, 500 nits of brightness, a P3 wide color gamut, and over a billion colors, with no major updates to the overall display technology.

The display features True Tone technology, which automatically adjusts the color temperature of the display as the environment changes for a more natural viewing experience. In addition, the 4.5K Retina display features Apple's standard anti-reflective coating.

In 2024, Apple is offering iMac buyers the option to upgrade to nano-texture glass, which cuts down on glare and lessens reflection significantly.

Ports

All of the M4 iMacs include at least two Thunderbolt 4 ports for fast data transfers, giving customers high-performance options to connect to a range of external devices.

The iMac configurations with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU offers two additional Thunderbolt 4 ports and also features a 1Gbps Ethernet port in the power adapter, allowing for a less cluttered desktop.

The power adapter with Ethernet port is available as an add-on option for the lower-end iMac, but there is no option to purchase the additional two ports so the four-port setup is limited to higher-end models.

The lower-end iMac with two Thunderbolt 4 ports and an 8-core CPU/GPU supports full native resolution on the built-in display and one external display at up to 6K resolution at 60Hz. The higher-end models with 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU support two external displays at up to 6K resolution at 60Hz, or a single external display with an 8K resolution at 60Hz.

There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack on the left-hand side of the machine for wired audio, and the headphone jack supports high-impedance headphones.

The iMac is only available with Apple's M4 chip, which offers notable performance improvements over the prior-generation M3 chip as it is built on an upgraded N3E 3-nanometer process. The M4 chip used in the iMac comes in two varieties: one version has an 8-core CPU and an 8-core GPU, while the other has a 10-core CPU and a 10-core GPU.

The model with 8-core CPU has four performance cores and four efficiency cores, while the model with 10-core CPU has the same four performance cores but six efficiency cores.

According to Apple, the M4 iMac is 1.7x faster for daily productivity and up to 2.1x faster for photo editing and gaming compared to the original M1 iMac that came out in 2020.

Like the M3 chip in the 2023 iMac, the M4 GPU supports Dynamic Caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, and mesh shading. Dynamic Caching allocates the use of local memory in hardware in real time, so only the exact amount of memory needed is used for each task. It increases the average utilization of the GPU, thereby increasing performance for demanding pro apps and games.

With hardware-accelerated ray tracing, light looks more realistic as it interacts with a scene, allowing for more physically accurate images. Game developers can use the ray-tracing and mesh shading for more accurate shadows and reflections as well as more efficient geometry processing.

Media Engine

Apple includes a media engine in its Apple silicon chips to speed up video processing while preserving battery life. The M4 offers dedicated acceleration for the ProRes video codec, along with video encode/decode engines and hardware accelerated support for H.264, HEVC, ProRes, and ProRes Raw.

Memory

The M4 uses a system-on-a-chip architecture with unified memory. Prior versions of the iMac started with 8GB unified memory, but the new M4 models start with 16GB. Unified memory is configurable up to 32GB, up from 24GB.

Apple has also increased memory bandwidth to 120GB/s, up from 100GB/s memory bandwidth.

Custom Technologies

There's a more advanced 16-core Neural Engine built into the M4 chip that handles machine learning acceleration and boosts camera performance alongside the custom image signal processor, plus there's a display engine that can drive an external display.

There are also additional integrated Thunderbolt controllers for more I/O bandwidth, and a built-in Secure Enclave provides features like hardware-verified secure-boot and runtime anti-exploitation features.

SSD

The stock configurations of the M4 iMac come with either 256GB or 512GB of storage, but users can configure them with up to 2TB of SSD storage.

Connectivity

The iMac features Wi-Fi 6E connectivity for faster wireless performance and the ability to connect to 6GHz networks. It also supports Bluetooth 5.3, with no change compared to the M3 iMac.

FaceTime Camera

With the M4 iMac, Apple added a 12-megapixel front-facing camera that supports Center Stage, a feature that automatically keeps users perfectly framed during video calls. Center Stage can pan to keep users in the shot as they move around, and it works with FaceTime and other video apps. 1080p video recording is supported as well.

Center Stage was previously a feature limited to iPads and Macs connected to a Studio Display, so the iMac is one of the first machines to get it as a standalone feature.

Speakers

The iMac includes a six-speaker sound system. It has two pairs of force-cancelling woofers placed side by side for good bass response that also cuts down on unintended vibrations. Each pair is balanced with a high-performance tweeter. The overall six-speaker sound system produces a "massive sound stage with strong, articulate bass and crystal-clear mids and highs," and it offers support for spatial audio.

'Studio Quality' Microphones

The iMac features a studio-quality three-microphone array for clearer calls and voice recordings. The mics are positioned to reduce feedback from the rest of the system, while directional beamforming allows them to better ignore background noise and focus on a user's voice.

Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad

The iMac comes with a color-matched Magic Mouse, and users can opt to upgrade to or add the color-matched Magic Trackpad. Apple updated the accessories to use USB-C this year rather than Lightning.

Magic Keyboard

The M4 iMac comes with a Magic Keyboard, with the keyboard that is offered with the mid- and high-end configurations featuring Touch ID. Touch ID on the iMac makes it easier than ever to securely log in, make purchases with Apple Pay, or switch user profiles with the touch of a finger.

Implemented wirelessly, Touch ID uses a dedicated security component on the keyboard that communicates directly with the Secure Enclave in the M4 chip, creating an encrypted channel to protect users' fingerprint data from end to end.

Customers can choose from three models of Magic Keyboard with aluminum enclosures that are color-matched to the iMac, with options including Touch ID and a numeric keypad. The entry-level Mac comes with a standard non-Touch ID keyboard by default, which can be upgraded, while the $1,499 model's price includes the Touch ID keyboard option.

There are four standard configuration 24-inch iMac models available from Apple:

• $1,299 - Apple M4 chip with 8-Core CPU and 8-Core GPU, 16GB memory, 256GB SSD, two Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 ports, and Magic Keyboard.
• $1,499 - Apple M4 chip with 10-Core CPU and 10-Core GPU, 16GB memory, 256GB SSD, four Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.
• $1,699 - Apple M4 chip with 10-Core CPU and 10-Core GPU, 16GB memory, 512GB SSD, four Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.
• $1,899 - Apple M4 chip with 10-Core CPU and 10-Core GPU, 24GB memory, 512GB SSD, four Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4 ports, gigabit Ethernet, and Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.

Build to Order Options

Entry-level 24-inch iMac with 256GB of storage:

• 24GB Memory - +$200
• 512GB SSD - +$200
• 1TB SSD - +$400
• Gigabit Ethernet - +$30
• Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad - +$80

Mid-level 24-inch iMac with 256GB of storage:

• 24GB Memory - +$200
• 512GB SSD - +$200
• 1TB SSD - +$400
• 2TB SSD - +$800
• Nano-texture glass - +$200
• Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad - +$30

Higher-end 24-inch iMac with 512GB of storage:

• 24GB Memory - +$200
• 32GB Memory - +$400
• 1TB SSD - +$200
• 2TB SSD - +$600
• Nano-texture glass - +$200
• Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad - +$30

Top-end 24-inch iMac with 24GB of memory and 512GB of storage:

• 32GB Memory - +$200
• 1TB SSD - +$200
• 2TB SSD - +$600
• Nano-texture glass - +$200
• Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad - +$30

Color-Matched Accessory Options

All M4 iMac configurations come with a color-matched Magic Mouse as standard, but users can opt to upgrade to the Magic Trackpad for an additional $50.

Apple also notes that it is possible to upgrade from the standard Magic Keyboard with the entry-level iMac to the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad for an additional $80. All other stock configurations offer the option of upgrading to the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keypad from the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID for an additional $30.

Apple is working on an iMac with a larger ~30-inch display, but it is in the early stages of development and won't launch until 2025 at the earliest, and it could even come later. Rumors suggest the display will be around 32 inches in size, which would make it Apple's largest display built into a computer to date, and it is said to use mini-LED technology like the Pro Display XDR.

Apple has confirmed that it has no plans to release another 27-inch iMac model, but that does not rule out a machine with a larger display.