Apple’s new iMacs are certainly colourful but most importantly more powerful thanks to the M4 chip and 16GB of unified memory as standard. This doubles the base memory offering which goes up to 32GB.
“iMac is beloved by millions of users, from families at home to entrepreneurs hard at work. With the incredible features of Apple Intelligence and the powerful performance of Apple silicon, the new iMac changes the game once again,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering.
“With M4 and Apple Intelligence, gorgeous new colours that pop in any space, an advanced 12MP Center Stage camera, and a new nano-texture glass display option, it’s a whole new era for iMac.”
The Look
The new iMac comes in seven bright colours.
You can choose from green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue and silver. The back of iMac features bold colours designed to stand out, while the front expresses subtle shades of the new palette so users can focus on doing their best work. Every iMac comes with a colour-matched Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse or optional Magic Trackpad. Thankfully the peripherals are charged via USB-C but when it comes to the mouse – the port is still on the bottom.
The 24-inch 4.5K Retina display is available with a nano-texture glass option that drastically reduces reflections and glare.
Powerful
The M4 chip brings a boost in performance to iMac. Featuring a more capable CPU with the world’s fastest CPU core, the new iMac is up to 1.7x faster than iMac with M1. And with an immensely powerful GPU featuring Apple’s most advanced graphics architecture, iMac with M4 handles more intense workloads like photo editing and gaming up to 2.1x faster than iMac with M1. This also enables a smoother gameplay experience in titles like the upcoming Civilization VII. The new iMac comes standard with 16GB of faster unified memory — configurable up to 32GB. The Neural Engine in M4 is now over 3x faster than on iMac with M1.
— Families, small businesses, and entrepreneurs can fly through daily productivity tasks with up to 1.7x faster performance in apps like Microsoft Excel, and up to 1.5x faster browsing performance in Safari compared to iMac with M1.
— Gamers can enjoy incredibly smooth gameplay, with up to 2x higher frame rates than on iMac with M1.
— Content creators can edit like never before, with up to 2.1x faster photo and video editing performance when applying complex filters and effects in apps like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere Pro compared to iMac with M1.
— Compared to the most popular 24-inch all-in-one PC with the latest Intel Core 7 processor, the new iMac is up to 4.5x faster.
— Compared to the most popular Intel-based iMac model, the new iMac is up to 6x faster.
Apple Intelligence
Apple Intelligence is available in U.S. English with macOS Sequoia 15.1. With systemwide Writing Tools, users can refine their words by rewriting, proofreading, and summarising text nearly everywhere they write. With the newly redesigned Siri, users can move fluidly between spoken and typed requests to accelerate tasks throughout their day, and Siri can answer thousands of questions about Mac and other Apple products. New Apple Intelligence features will be available in December, with additional capabilities rolling out in the coming months. Image Playground gives users a new way to create fun original images, and Genmoji allows them to create custom emoji in seconds. Siri will become even more capable, with the ability to take actions across the system and draw on a user’s personal context to deliver intelligence that is tailored to them. In December, ChatGPT will be integrated into Siri and Writing Tools, allowing users to access its expertise without needing to jump between tools.
Apple Intelligence does all this while protecting users’ privacy at every step. At its core is on-device processing, and for more complex tasks, Private Cloud Compute gives users access to Apple’s even larger, server-based models and offers groundbreaking protections for personal information. In addition, users can access ChatGPT for free without creating an account, and privacy protections are built in — their IP addresses are obscured and OpenAI won’t store requests. For those who choose to connect their account, OpenAI’s data-use policies apply.
12MP Centre Stage Camera
A new 12MP Center Stage camera with support for Desk View makes video calls even more engaging. Centre Stage keeps everyone perfectly centred on a video call — great for families gathered on FaceTime. Desk View makes use of the wide-angle lens to simultaneously show the user and a top-down view of their desk, which is useful for educators presenting a lesson to students, or creators showing off their latest DIY project. Rounding out the unrivalled audio and video experience is the beloved studio-quality three-microphone array with beamforming and an immersive six-speaker sound system.
Connectivity
All four USB-C ports support Thunderbolt and up to two 6K external displays. iMac M4 also supports both Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. And with the advanced security of Touch ID, users can easily and securely unlock their computer, make online purchases with Apple Pay, and download apps. Additionally, Touch ID works with Fast User Switching, so customers can switch between different user profiles with just the press of a finger.
macOS Sequoia
macOS Sequoia includes iPhone Mirroring, allowing users to wirelessly interact with their iPhone, its apps, and its notifications directly from their Mac. With Distraction Control, users can hide items on a webpage that they may find disruptive to their browsing. Gaming gets even more immersive with features like Personalised Spatial Audio and improvements to Game Mode, along with a breadth of exciting titles, including the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Easier window tiling means users can stay organised with a windows layout that works best for them. The all-new Passwords app gives convenient access to passwords, passkeys, and other credentials, all stored in one place. And users can apply beautiful new built-in backgrounds for video calls, including a variety of colour gradients and system wallpapers, or upload their own photos.
The Environment
The new iMac with M4 is designed with the environment in mind, with 100 percent recycled aluminium in the stand, and 100 percent recycled gold plating, tin soldering, and copper in multiple printed circuit boards. iMac meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency, and is free of mercury, brominated flame retardants, and PVC. New this year, the packaging of iMac is entirely fibre-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal to remove plastic from its packaging by 2025.
Price and Availability
Customers can pre-order the new iMac with M4 starting today, October 29, on apple.com/au/store and in the Apple Store app in 28 countries and regions. It will begin arriving to customers, and will be in Apple Store locations and Apple Authorised Resellers beginning Friday, November 8.
- iMac starts at RRP A$1,999 inc. GST and RRP A$1,919 inc. GST for education, and is available in green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. It features an 8-core CPU, an 8-core GPU, 16GB of unified memory configurable up to 24GB, 256GB SSD configurable up to 1TB, two Thunderbolt/USB 4 ports, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad.
- iMac with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU starts at RRP A$2,399 inc. GST and RRP A$2,249 inc. GST for education, and is available in green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver. It features 16GB of unified memory configurable up to 32GB, 256GB SSD configurable up to 2TB, four Thunderbolt 4 ports, Magic Keyboard with Touch ID, and Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad.
- Apple Intelligence is available now as a free software update for Mac with M1 and later, and can be accessed in most regions around the world when the device and Siri language are set to U.S. English. The first set of features is in beta and available with macOS Sequoia 15.1, with more features rolling out in the months to come.
- Apple Intelligence is quickly adding support for more languages. In December, Apple Intelligence will add support for localised English in Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K., and in April, a software update will deliver expanded language support, with more coming throughout the year. Chinese, English (India), English (Singapore), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Vietnamese, and other languages will be supported.