The Touchbar could make its way to the iMac in the refresh due later this year. Read the latest rumours on the 2017 iMac specification, price and UK launch date.
Now that Intel has launched its Kaby Lake processors (rumoured to be the most likely choice of processor in upcoming Apple iMacs) and AMD has released its Ryzen chips (the outside bet as the more power-efficient of the two) , the countdown is on for new iMacs (and a new MacBook Pro) to launch in the UK.
Back in March 2017 the Apple Store went down for ‘maintenance’ and reappeared at midday with a slew of new products of the iOS variety – new iPad and iPhone options, but no new Mac products. Though we had been expecting a proper Spring Event as Apple has provided in recent years, this time around the product announcements came without the fanfare. And without the iMacs.
So when can we expect new Apple all-in-ones?
The rumour mill is surprisingly lacking in answers and appears to have slowed right down for the moment. According to Apple, new iMacs will be released later this year.
Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller said at a roundtable event with a few journalists at its headquarters in Cupertino that these new iMacs may even appeal to previous Mac Pro users.
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This is becoming a theme. In October 2016 Apple was expected to announce new iMacs at a special event. It did not. In March 2017 Apple was expected to announce new iMacs at a special event. It did not. So what’s going on?
Apple’s next event is in June 2017, but this is its WWDC developers conference, and it is very unlikely we will see any new Macs here. There should be product announcements in September and October 2017, so it’s possible that updated iMacs could appear then.
There’s little reason to wait so long, though, given that Intel’s Kaby Lake processors were announced at CES in January, and more recently have been followed by AMD’s Ryzen chips. We’d expect to see the S-Series desktop chips (Core i5-7500 / Core i5-7600 / Core i7-7700K) in the 27in iMac, although there is no clear upgrade path for the 21.5in iMac.
According to a Best Buy leak, which may or may not be accurate, a 27in iMac with 32GB of RAM and a 2TB Fusion Drive will cost $3,199.99.
This appears to be slightly higher than the current 27in iMac with 32GB RAM and a 2TB Fusion Drive, though of course we don’ t know exactly what other upgrades this model includes (and whether or not it is merely placeholder text) .
Over in the UK the current 21.5in iMac starts at £899 or £1,199 with a 4K display, while the 27in 5K model starts at £1,449, both direct from Apple. We would expect prices to remain roughly the same.
Following that Best Buy leak, it’s highly likely the new iMac will feature a processor upgrade to Intel’s latest Kaby Lake family, with one blog claiming it’ll feature an Intel E3-1285 v6 processor.
The Best Buy listing also mentioned a 27in 5K display, 32GB of memory and a 2TB Fusion Drive, with the model priced at $3,199.99. It could be placeholder copy, but why bother to update the processor? We’ d really like to see this Fusion Drive rolled out as standard across the range.
Apple could well turn to AMD once again for its graphics solution, with Polaris a prime candidate. It offers improved graphics performance (naturally) , plus potential reductions in power consumption and waste heat.
And since AMD just announced a ‘tweaked’ second-generation range of cards based on Polaris, you could argue the timing is ideal.
More exciting, though, is that these new graphics chips would for the first time bring VR potential to the Mac. This is also backed up by Pike’s Universum which claims that it’ll feature AMD graphics to support VR and Pro users/apps.
We’ ve seen Apple bring the Pro name to its iPad line-up over the past year, and one rumour circulating online is that the iMac will also get Pro treatment – we could be about to see a sufficiently powerful iMac Pro to replace the Mac Pro.
It is thought that when the new iMac arrives its keyboard will feature the same Touchbar as is found on the most recent revision to the MacBook Pro. Recent patent applications reveal a keyboard with adaptive input row, described by Apple thus:
“The adaptive input row may be positioned within an opening of a device and include a cover for receiving a touch and a display that is configured to present an adaptable set of indicia. The adaptive input row may also include one or more sensors for detecting the location of a touch and/or the magnitude of a force of the touch. The adaptive input row may be positioned adjacent or proximate to a keyboard of the electronic device.”
The new iMac coming later this year is also expected to feature fast Intel Optane memory and storage.
Ah yes, the “i Macs may even appeal to previous Mac Pro users” part of Schiller’s quote. Well, this putative “iMac Pro” will have “server-grade” components, so says Apple. And there’s a rumour via DigiTines that the specs will be as follows:
The latter three are obvious: anyone familiar with basic computer specs could guess at the components and capacities. The former is quite specific, though, but in any case the machine won’t be available to buy until the end of the year.
There may well be various configurations on offer, but we’ll have to wait and see.
For more new iMac rumours see our sister site Macworld.
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