| New iMac specification rumours: Kaby Lake-powered iMac could launch in March
Intel has announced Kaby Lake processors which Apple might use in iMacs, but how long will we have to wait? Here’s everything we know about the iMac 2017 UK release date, price and specification rumours
Intel has announced Kaby Lake processors that we will likely see in Apple iMacs, but how long will we have to wait? A new iMac is hotly tipped for March 2017. Here’s everything we know about the iMac 2017 UK release date, price and specification rumours. Also see: New MacBook Pro
Apple held a special event on 27 October in which it was expected to unveil new Macs. It didn’t, but Best Buy slipped up and listed a Kaby Lake-powered iMac for sale, which of course was quickly removed. General confidence is fairly hight that new iMacs are coming soon – with the next possible release date being March 2017.
This is partly because of Intel’s Kaby Lake processor announcements at CES in January. 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 – we’ll just have to wait and see.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has stated on an internal Q&A session that, “Some folks in the media have raised the question about whether we’re committed to desktops. If there’s any doubt about that with our teams, let me be very clear: we have great desktops in our roadmap. Nobody should worry about that. ”
According to Best Buy, if 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. The 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 10 a prime candidate. It offers improved graphics performance (naturally), plus potential reductions in power consumption and waste heat. More exciting, though, is that these new graphics chips would for the first time bring VR potential to the Mac.
We’ve seen Apple bring the Pro name to its iPad line-up over the past year, and we’re anticipating that the iPad mini will also get a Pro makeover next week. One rumours circulating online is that the iMac will also get Pro treatment, and we could be about to see a sufficiently powerful iMac Pro to replace the Mac Pro.
For more new iMac rumours see our sister site Macworld.
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