iMac M1 24" yes or no?

Tom Morris

Power User
Well the new iMac M1 24" in rainbow colors dropped today. Wondering what others feelings are on this design. Personally don't care for the white bezel around the screen but the rest of the design is ok. Hope to see a 32" pro model in the future to put the 24" fisher price model where it belongs.


https://www.apple.com/imac-24/
 
my M1 13" MBP (16 GB RAM) outperforms my 16" i7 MBP in pretty much every way. the M1 really shines. (an M1 13" Air also outperforms my 16" MBP... crazy.)

i would guess this M1 iMac would outperform most Intel iMacs, including most of the 27".

i don't like that the bezel isn't also the color of the rest of the machine - major oversight there.

if you have an older iMac and want better performance, these are great. if you are ok with your current setup but want an M1, i'd suggest waiting for the next M1 chip.
 
I'm sure within a week someone will be selling an exact cut vinyl sticker to cover that white boarder with black. I know that's the first thing I would be doing so upon buying one.
 
No VESA mount. Again. FFS Apple. Some of us like our computers on swivel arms for ergonomics. :(

Overall these looks great. And would be so nice on a VESA monitor arm. But alas...
 
No VESA mount. Again. FFS Apple. Some of us like our computers on swivel arms for ergonomics. :(

Overall these looks great. And would be so nice on a VESA monitor arm. But alas...


https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/imac-vesa

It's there.

Between that, the new iPad Pros, and the Apple TV (or mini) I think my summer just got a bit more expensive. I don't need guitars or gear, so time to replace my 2015 iMac and well as some other goodies...
 
There is no question - Apples entry Into full on silicon is the biggest game changer since x64 in general

m1 with 8gb is more than enough so go for it
 
The only thing I feel like is missing visually, is a small Apple on the bottom bezel. If I didn’t have my 2018 Mac Mini, I would be seriously looking at one for my home studio. However, I may request one for video and audio playback for work! The iPad Pro looks awesome as well! I really like my 2020 iPad Pro, and I’m just waiting for Apple to bring Logic Pro to the iPad so I can fully ditch my old MacBook for portable recording.
 
The only thing I feel like is missing visually, is a small Apple on the bottom bezel. If I didn’t have my 2018 Mac Mini, I would be seriously looking at one for my home studio. However, I may request one for video and audio playback for work! The iPad Pro looks awesome as well! I really like my 2020 iPad Pro, and I’m just waiting for Apple to bring Logic Pro to the iPad so I can fully ditch my old MacBook for portable recording.
That's not going to happen. That is actually, essentially, the conclusion I came to that forced me to trade in my wonderfully powerful iPad Pro for the Mac mini m1 - while the iPad Pro is and will be super powerful, it will never handle Logic Pro as long as Garageband is out there

Plus, IDK if you are aware, but the ultimate DAW for iPad Pro is Auria Pro. I bought that and Cubasis 3, and between the two you have no need for anything more....in fact I find the Au3 units performing as VSTs is awesome, and I was hoping for the wave of the future

however, after STRONG and long, intensive testing with the iPad Pro, you can't beat Auria Pro and again, Logic isn't coming to the iPad Pro anytime soon, maybe never.....but good luck either way
 
That's not going to happen. That is actually, essentially, the conclusion I came to that forced me to trade in my wonderfully powerful iPad Pro for the Mac mini m1 - while the iPad Pro is and will be super powerful, it will never handle Logic Pro as long as Garageband is out there

Plus, IDK if you are aware, but the ultimate DAW for iPad Pro is Auria Pro. I bought that and Cubasis 3, and between the two you have no need for anything more....in fact I find the Au3 units performing as VSTs is awesome, and I was hoping for the wave of the future

however, after STRONG and long, intensive testing with the iPad Pro, you can't beat Auria Pro and again, Logic isn't coming to the iPad Pro anytime soon, maybe never.....but good luck either way
I was mainly hoping for Logic on iPad to not need to spend more money and transfer my sessions super easily back and forth through iCloud, and that all of my work is on Logic both at home and work. I had heard that Logic may come to the iPad, but I feel like that would be after a few more years of Apple chip development. It’s more of a hope than a requirement for me. My iPad has enough benefits through other uses and I have my Mac Mini for most things, which I use as a “semi-portable“ rig.
 
I was mainly hoping for Logic on iPad to not need to spend more money and transfer my sessions super easily back and forth through iCloud, and that all of my work is on Logic both at home and work. I had heard that Logic may come to the iPad, but I feel like that would be after a few more years of Apple chip development. It’s more of a hope than a requirement for me. My iPad has enough benefits through other uses and I have my Mac Mini for most things, which I use as a “semi-portable“ rig.
Right
That’s what I am saying basically - IF it happens it’ll be minimum two years by my humble estimate based off my conjectures off silicon m1 but so far, I was right as it competes with intels most advanced stuff

anyway I love the m1 with Logic pro
Only 3rd party VST I use is XLN addictive drums 2 which runs without Rosetta apparently, unless that isn’t yet, but anyway I have zero lag or issues with Logic and XLN

good luck
 
If I may, and please take this with a grain of salt. I have never been a fan of the iMac.
They are overrepresented in support cases involving USB problems. If it were me, I'd get a MINI and a nice big monitor.
 
I absolutely love my M1 MBP, I don’t think I would love it at all if it was in the new iMac shell.
 
If it were me, I'd get a MINI and a nice big monitor.
+1 to this.

And honestly, the M1 chip has almost erased the Mini <> iMac divide. You don't need to go iMac for a better graphics chip now -- they have the same in-built graphics chip. You don't need to go iMac for more on-board storage -- everything in NVMe and small enough to fit equally well into both units. You don't need to go iMac to get better I/O -- actually, the Mini seems to have better I/O overall now. You don't need to go iMac to get a 4k display now either.

All advantage to the Mini!

Edit: not sure the new touch ID keyboard will work with non-iMacs. It'd be nice if it did, but I suspect it won't.
 
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Edit: not sure the new touch ID keyboard will work with non-iMacs. It'd be nice if it did, but I suspect it won't.
There was a comment in the presentation that the touch ID keyboard "communicate directly with the secure enclave on the M1 chip" so I would actually suspect that they do work with the M1 mini, but not any x86 macs. I'm sure someone will test as soon as they get delivered :)
 
There was a comment in the presentation that the touch ID keyboard "communicate directly with the secure enclave on the M1 chip" so I would actually suspect that they do work with the M1 mini, but not any x86 macs. I'm sure someone will test as soon as they get delivered :)
Ah. Well, another feather in the M1 Minis cap if that turns out to be true! TouchID is awesome.
 
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