When WIRED reviewer Brenda Stolyar last reviewed the Apple iMac, it was introduced with this headline: “This M3-powered all-in-one desktop delivers the same beauty and ease of use as its predecessor, just now with more oomph.”
I was initially tempted to use that language again here, changing only one character: from “3” to “4.” But unlike the latest MacBook Pro update, Apple has put a little more thought into upgrading the user experience, at least behind the scenes and in a few places where it counts. Sure, the design is nearly identical to last year’s iMac, but Apple has listened to most of our gripes and made some key improvements that will benefit almost everyone. That said, as has been the case since the arrival of the M1, Apple’s priority remains unconcerned about design but is rather focused on continuing to boost pure, raw power.
Raw Power
That power comes courtesy of the M4 CPU and it doesn’t disappoint. The new iMac with the M4 cranked out the highest CPU-related benchmarks I’ve seen on an all-in-one computer—including Intel and AMD-based machines—and it had (by far) the best GPU scores among machines with integrated graphics. I don’t have apples-to-apples numbers from the M3-based iMac to compare with, but provided benchmarks suggest the new iMac has 1.7 times the CPU performance and 2.1 times the GPU performance versus the M1-based iMac. That’s not bad, but frankly, I would have expected to see better growth over three years.
Chalk that up to the power of the M1 then. As is the case with the MacBook Pro M4, the iMac is simply suffering from attempts to improve on an already good thing. To mitigate that, in addition to touting a raw performance boost on this fourth trip to the well, Apple is leaning hard on artificial intelligence features in Apple Intelligence, powered by its 16-core Neural Engine and faster unified memory (which you can configure with up to 32 GB). The latter is actually part of a pretty big deal: The base amount of RAM on the iMac has doubled from 8 to 16 GB, a game-changing upgrade for entry-level shoppers.
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So yes, you’ll still be able to use Apple Intelligence features on older iMacs (all the way back to the M1), but on the M4 they’ll be speedier. Officially, three times faster than on the iMac M1.
Design Duty
The iMac has always been built around offering color options to consumers—what other computer brand is available in seven colors? The iMac continues down that road. This year the same seven color options remain (green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, and blue, plus colorless silver), but Apple now calls them “fresh shades,” implying they are different. While they are purportedly a bit lighter, comparing the pink M4 I was sent for review to photographs of pink M3 iMacs didn’t reveal any changes at all that I could readily discern. Perhaps placing an M3 and M4 side by side would reveal more of a difference, but whatever it is, it’s subtle.
Peripherals are (still) color-matched to the unit you buy, right down to the cables—but ending at the invariably white power brick. While we’re on peripherals, a shout-out to Apple for upgrading the Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse (and optional Magic Trackpad) with USB-C ports instead of the Lightning ports that shipped with peripherals on the iMac M3. Finally, everything in the ecosystem is on one cable format and you can use a single wire to charge everything as needed, including additional devices like your phone. (But yes, that still means charging the unchanged and awful Magic Mouse upside-down, in dead cockroach mode.)
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The iMac M4 still features multiple variants, starting with the $1,299 model that includes an 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB of RAM, and 256 GB of storage—and just two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports. (Sorry, there’s no Thunderbolt 5 available on the iMac unlike the MacBook Pro or Mac Mini with M4 Pro.) At least it supports two 6K external displays now instead of one. Note that Apple’s fancier peripherals still cost extra no matter how you configure the machine, including the Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keyboard ($30) and Magic Trackpad ($50).
Tick up the price ladder and you’ll add additional power and storage space, USB ports, a better keyboard (with a Touch ID fingerprint reader), and more. My tested configuration—a full $1,000 pricier at $2,299—included a passel of upgrades comprising a 10-core CPU and GPU, 24 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage, four USB ports, gigabit Ethernet on the power brick, and Apple’s new nano-texture glass upgrade for the 24-inch screen.
This lattermost option alone is a $200 upgrade, but it’s the best of the bunch and the one you should absolutely put on your iMac. Much as I said in my review of the MacBook Pro M4 Pro, it makes the 4,480 x 2,520-pixel display look like a glare-free photograph. It’s hard to imagine using the machine without it—though I’m still baffled as to why the iMac does not feature a touchscreen, which is all but standard among competing all-in-ones smaller than 30 inches in size.
Another notable upgrade is the webcam, which is now an impressive 12-megapixel sensor, up from a lowly 2.1-megapixel version in the iMac M3. The Center Stage feature is effective, auto-centering the frame during video calls, even if you’re moving around. Apple’s new Desk View feature is also in the mix. Designed primarily for education purposes, this lets you add a top-down view of your desk to your video stream so you don’t have to hold things up to the camera lens. It’s certainly a niche feature, but some may find it useful. The three-microphone and six-speaker setup from the iMac M3 hasn’t changed, and they both remain sharp.
There are only two things on my colleague Stolyar’s 2023 iMac M3 “Tired” list that Apple didn’t address with this 2024 release. The first is the lack of screen height adjustability, which I’m willing to give Apple a pass on. Adjustable height is uncommon on 24-inch all-in-ones across the board, and the iMac does at least have a tilt feature, which is about as much as I expect in a machine of this size.
The other issue is thornier: the price. Even at its base price of $1,299, the iMac is expensive compared to other smaller all-in-ones. And with all the bells and whistles, it’s considerably more expensive than many Windows all-in-ones with nearly twice the LCD surface area. That’s a tough challenge to overcome.
If you’ve made it this far in the review, there’s a strong chance you already have an Apple silicon iMac on your desk. That’s another issue. Do the upgrades in the M4 edition merit junking (er, trading in) your old computer to get your hands on this new one? Only your accountant can help you answer that one.
