Apple unexpectedly launched a long-awaited update to the iMac lineup on Tuesday morning. With processors ranging up to the eight-core Core i9, it’s a pretty solid update to Apple’s classic all-in-one. But hidden in the details of the product page, there’s one outdated component Apple is holding onto.<\/b>
\nOn Tuesday morning, Apple announced some long-awaited updates to the iMac lineup. Finally!
It\u2019s nothing game-changing, but it\u2019s just what the iMac needed to keep it a competitive machine. The updated processor options, which now range up to the eight-core Core i9 on the 5K model, will be a big draw for content creators and anyone who needs some extra power. The same goes for the new Vega graphics options.
At first glance, that is.
When you dig into the details, you\u2019ll find that these new iMacs have a shockingly old component on the inside. A spinning, mechanical disk drive. That\u2019s right \u2014 the company that pioneered bringing solid-state drives to laptops is selling a new desktop without an SSD in it.
Instead, Apple has opted to keep its \u201cFusion Drive\u201d as the base storage option for all iMac models, including the $2,699 Core i9 model. Unlike most modern desktops (and laptops), the solid-state option doesn\u2019t come standard \u2014 it\u2019s an add-on. It\u2019s only $100 to swap the Fusion Drive for an SSD of half the capacity, but it only goes up from there. To trade out a 1TB Fusion Drive for a 1TB SSD, it\u2019ll cost you $700. To swap in a 2TB SSD, it\u2019s an extra $1,100.
To be fair, the Fusion Drive isn\u2019t as slow as other mechanical hard drives. It has a small solid-state cache in it that smartly boosts speeds when you\u2019re opening applications or switching between them. Even still, when we tested it, the read and write speeds pale in comparison to a tried-and-true SSD. In large file transfers, you\u2019re going to notice.
More than that, it feels a little misleading. The average iMac buyer might not know the difference, or that types of storage can bottleneck your performance. They might just assume when you spend over $2,500 on a computer, it\u2019ll have the fastest components without having to dive too far into the configurations. In the case of the new iMacs, that\u2019s not necessarily true.
Our recommendation? Well, even if you\u2019re on a budget, you\u2019re better off picking up at least a lower-capacity SSD on your new iMac. That\u2019s especially important given that you can\u2019t upgrade these things in the future. You can always plug in an external SSD for extra capacity down the road.<\/p>\n