The Apple iMac is a display system that can be used with anything other than another Mac, making it an excellent option for those looking to use it with a game console or other non-Apple devices. The 27-inch iMac features a 5k display, which is considered cutting-edge technology and provides exceptional sharpness and color accuracy. Unlike Windows systems, the iMac's interface is optimized for high-resolution displays, making it ideal for tasks such as watching movies, playing games, and navigating through icons.

One of the standout features of the Apple iMac is its 5k display, which offers a resolution that is still relatively rare in the market. However, Mac OS has done an excellent job of handling this high-resolution display, ensuring that all aspects of the interface are clear and vibrant. Pictures appear vivid, movies look amazing, and games look incredible on this display. The color gamut is also impressive, providing a wide range of colors and depth that enhances the overall viewing experience.

In terms of performance, the Apple iMac comes with a Core i5 7500 processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and a one terabyte fusion drive in AMD's Radeon 570 pro graphics. While the processor may not be the fastest available option, it is more than sufficient for everyday tasks and provides a good balance between performance and price. The Radeon graphics also do an excellent job of powering the display, ensuring smooth performance and minimal slowdown.

However, there are some drawbacks to consider when purchasing the iMac. One area where it falls short is in terms of storage, with the fusion drive being a mechanical hard disk that can be slow for large file transfers. In our testing, transferring 3.4 gigabytes of data from the internal drive to an external solid-state drive took over a minute and a half, which is significantly slower than the 15-inch MacBook Pro's solid-state drive, which completed the same task in under 30 seconds.

Another area where the iMac falls short is in its peripherals. The keyboard that comes with the system is small and lacks a numpad, making it feel cramped compared to other keyboards used on Windows systems. The Magic Mouse, which is included as standard, has an ergonomic design that can be awkward to use, especially for those who prefer a more traditional mouse shape. Additionally, the touch gestures used in the Magic Mouse can feel strange and may not appeal to all users.

Despite these drawbacks, the Apple iMac remains an excellent option for those looking for an all-in-one display system. With its 5k display, smooth performance, and sleek design, it is a compelling choice for anyone who wants a high-quality display system without breaking the bank. While the fusion drive may be slow for large file transfers, this can be mitigated by upgrading to a solid-state drive, which would provide significant improvements in performance.

The base model iMac that we reviewed costs $1,800 and comes with the Core i5 7500 processor, 8 gigabytes of RAM, a one terabyte fusion drive, and AMD's Radeon 570 pro graphics. While this may seem like a lot of money, it is actually comparable to purchasing a display system by itself, which can cost over $1,000. When considering the overall value proposition, the iMac appears to be an excellent option for those looking for a high-quality all-in-one display system.

In conclusion, the Apple iMac is a well-designed and feature-packed display system that offers exceptional performance and visuals. While it has some drawbacks, such as slow storage and less-than-ideal peripherals, these can be mitigated by upgrading to a solid-state drive or purchasing additional accessories. Overall, the iMac remains an excellent option for those looking for an all-in-one display system, and its value proposition is hard to beat.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthis is the classic Apple's 27-inch iMac set the standards for all-in-ones when it was introduced but like all classics it has aged time has gone by and some new competitors have come along does Apple's iMac still set the standard or have others deeper owns it now as you might notice this looks like an iMac as it always has the basic design hasn't changed for years even after the 5k update it still pretty much looked like the same system now if it's not broke don't fix it right and this is still a very very attractive all-in-one the use of aluminum throughout the entire body of the system gives it a very solid feel that you don't see replicated with competitors very often that applies also to the stand which is very hefty and keeps the system in place with that said the design does show its age in some respects mainly you might think it looks a little chunky some of the competitors offer thin bezels on their systems and that means that while they have basically the same screen size they are actually much smaller overall now one functional thing to keep in mind with this design is that the base iMac comes with the stand that only adjust for tilt up and down it doesn't do anything with height it doesn't do anything with pivot or anything like that and in fact the base iMac isn't very compatible if you want that there is a version of the iMac that has that you just have to make sure that you buy that particular version when you check out connectivity on the iMac is generally very good you have four USB ports along with two Thunderbolt three ports that can also be used for USB type-c they provide a lot of bandwidth and they can be used for a variety of things including external hard drives and displays and various other peripherals now one small downside you should be aware of is that the system can be used as a display with anything other than another Mac so if you're hoping to use it with a game console or something like that as some people do want to do with all one's that's not an option on the 27-inch iMac now the 5k display on the 27-inch iMac is setting the old news at this point it's been around for a few years but despite that it's still really at the cutting edge of display resolution you don't see a lot of 5k displays around and Mac OS does an excellent job of handling at high resolution it has all of its assets in terms of the icons and the interface designed for that resolution so it's very clear unlike Windows where even with some more modern updates it can still look a little fuzzy at time on certain parts of the interface now aside from the sharpness the color actually in color gamut is also great so pictures look very vivid on display movies look amazing games look awesome everything's this really pops it doesn't really matter what you're doing and that gives it a big edge over a lot of its competitors you will find a lot of 4k displays available in this price point from Windows machines but they just don't quite reach the same level of excellence as the iMac now we review the base iMac which sells for eighteen hundred dollars and I gets you a core i5 7500 processor eight gigabytes of RAM a one terabyte fusion drive in AMD's Radeon 570 pro graphics now generally speaking that's a really attractive package of hardware the core i5 processor performs very well it's gonna be right in line with the windows alternatives they all generally have that line of processor or maybe a Core i7 which will be a little faster but not hugely so the Radeon graphics also do a really good job of power in the display now in Mac OS graphics performance is extremely smooth you're not going to notice any slowdown when you're navigating between windows on this 5k display in games playing at 5k resolution is a little bit much to ask for this particular AMD chip that's a very high resolution and increasing the resolution also ashlee increases the man on the pee-yew with that said you can't play a lot of games at 1080p we tried civilization 6 for example in that plate at 33 frames per second with detail set the medium it looked pretty nice so you are covered as far as gaming goes now the hard drive is where we come to a downside this has a fusion drive and that means a mechanical spinning hard disk with a smaller saw state cache and that does provide good performance in everyday use you'll generally find that applications load quickly although every now and then one might take a few extra seconds than you would expect however if you want to transfer big files around you can notice it getting a little slow we tested a transfer of 3.4 gigabytes of data from this drive to an external solid-state drive and when we did that we found it took a minute and 16 seconds now if you do that same thing on a 15-inch MacBook Pro with its solid state drive which is standard that's gonna take you about 30 seconds that's a pretty big difference that's a difference you're gonna notice and it can be a little bit of an issue that said you can't upgrade the iMac to a solid-state drive if you desire now of course the iMac comes with the magic keyboard in the Magic Mouse and that set of peripherals actually is not so hot the keyboard is small it doesn't have a numpad it definitely feels cramped compared to the keyboard you might be used to using on other systems now that's for the Magic Mouse well we're not such a fan of it it's ergonomic design could be better it's a very flat Mouse so it doesn't really get cupped in your hand very well and it can be kind of awkward to move it around the desk surface we also don't really like the use of the touch gestures that much they feel bit strange some users might actually find it better to purchase Apple's optional touch pad and use that with the i-rack despite its aging design the Apple iMac remains a very handsome very quick system that really benefits from the 5k display this configuration asset earlier is $1,800 which is a lot of money but a 5k display by itself that can run you over thousand dollars anyway so when you wrap up everything together in the total package you're getting here it's actually not such a bad value we would recommend that you look at solid-state drive options if you're going to purchase the iMac consider how much they are they are several hundred dollars and more but in any case the Apple iMac remains a very competitive all-in-one and definitely is worth your time if you're shopping in this marketthis is the classic Apple's 27-inch iMac set the standards for all-in-ones when it was introduced but like all classics it has aged time has gone by and some new competitors have come along does Apple's iMac still set the standard or have others deeper owns it now as you might notice this looks like an iMac as it always has the basic design hasn't changed for years even after the 5k update it still pretty much looked like the same system now if it's not broke don't fix it right and this is still a very very attractive all-in-one the use of aluminum throughout the entire body of the system gives it a very solid feel that you don't see replicated with competitors very often that applies also to the stand which is very hefty and keeps the system in place with that said the design does show its age in some respects mainly you might think it looks a little chunky some of the competitors offer thin bezels on their systems and that means that while they have basically the same screen size they are actually much smaller overall now one functional thing to keep in mind with this design is that the base iMac comes with the stand that only adjust for tilt up and down it doesn't do anything with height it doesn't do anything with pivot or anything like that and in fact the base iMac isn't very compatible if you want that there is a version of the iMac that has that you just have to make sure that you buy that particular version when you check out connectivity on the iMac is generally very good you have four USB ports along with two Thunderbolt three ports that can also be used for USB type-c they provide a lot of bandwidth and they can be used for a variety of things including external hard drives and displays and various other peripherals now one small downside you should be aware of is that the system can be used as a display with anything other than another Mac so if you're hoping to use it with a game console or something like that as some people do want to do with all one's that's not an option on the 27-inch iMac now the 5k display on the 27-inch iMac is setting the old news at this point it's been around for a few years but despite that it's still really at the cutting edge of display resolution you don't see a lot of 5k displays around and Mac OS does an excellent job of handling at high resolution it has all of its assets in terms of the icons and the interface designed for that resolution so it's very clear unlike Windows where even with some more modern updates it can still look a little fuzzy at time on certain parts of the interface now aside from the sharpness the color actually in color gamut is also great so pictures look very vivid on display movies look amazing games look awesome everything's this really pops it doesn't really matter what you're doing and that gives it a big edge over a lot of its competitors you will find a lot of 4k displays available in this price point from Windows machines but they just don't quite reach the same level of excellence as the iMac now we review the base iMac which sells for eighteen hundred dollars and I gets you a core i5 7500 processor eight gigabytes of RAM a one terabyte fusion drive in AMD's Radeon 570 pro graphics now generally speaking that's a really attractive package of hardware the core i5 processor performs very well it's gonna be right in line with the windows alternatives they all generally have that line of processor or maybe a Core i7 which will be a little faster but not hugely so the Radeon graphics also do a really good job of power in the display now in Mac OS graphics performance is extremely smooth you're not going to notice any slowdown when you're navigating between windows on this 5k display in games playing at 5k resolution is a little bit much to ask for this particular AMD chip that's a very high resolution and increasing the resolution also ashlee increases the man on the pee-yew with that said you can't play a lot of games at 1080p we tried civilization 6 for example in that plate at 33 frames per second with detail set the medium it looked pretty nice so you are covered as far as gaming goes now the hard drive is where we come to a downside this has a fusion drive and that means a mechanical spinning hard disk with a smaller saw state cache and that does provide good performance in everyday use you'll generally find that applications load quickly although every now and then one might take a few extra seconds than you would expect however if you want to transfer big files around you can notice it getting a little slow we tested a transfer of 3.4 gigabytes of data from this drive to an external solid-state drive and when we did that we found it took a minute and 16 seconds now if you do that same thing on a 15-inch MacBook Pro with its solid state drive which is standard that's gonna take you about 30 seconds that's a pretty big difference that's a difference you're gonna notice and it can be a little bit of an issue that said you can't upgrade the iMac to a solid-state drive if you desire now of course the iMac comes with the magic keyboard in the Magic Mouse and that set of peripherals actually is not so hot the keyboard is small it doesn't have a numpad it definitely feels cramped compared to the keyboard you might be used to using on other systems now that's for the Magic Mouse well we're not such a fan of it it's ergonomic design could be better it's a very flat Mouse so it doesn't really get cupped in your hand very well and it can be kind of awkward to move it around the desk surface we also don't really like the use of the touch gestures that much they feel bit strange some users might actually find it better to purchase Apple's optional touch pad and use that with the i-rack despite its aging design the Apple iMac remains a very handsome very quick system that really benefits from the 5k display this configuration asset earlier is $1,800 which is a lot of money but a 5k display by itself that can run you over thousand dollars anyway so when you wrap up everything together in the total package you're getting here it's actually not such a bad value we would recommend that you look at solid-state drive options if you're going to purchase the iMac consider how much they are they are several hundred dollars and more but in any case the Apple iMac remains a very competitive all-in-one and definitely is worth your time if you're shopping in this market\n"