After surprising the world this spring by debuting its latest in-house silicon, the M4 chip, on an iPad instead of the Mac, Apple is finally ready to bring its newest generation of processors to home computers. As the first reveal in what Apple promises as an “exciting week of announcements,” the company this morning confirmed that it’s bringing the M4 chip to the iMac.
Current iMacs use last year’s M3 chip, and while both are built for AI, the key difference between the M4 and its predecessor is the former has a much more efficient neural engine, with Apple promising a sixty times improvement in AI performance since its first neural engine. That’s big news for Apple Intelligence, which Apple confirmed is also releasing across iPhone, iPad, and Mac today.
But the upgrades go beyond AI. Apple claims that the M4 iMac is also 1.7 times faster in productivity apps like Microsoft Excel and 1.5 times faster when browsing in Safari. For more demanding workflows, Apple promises 2.1 times faster performance in photo and video editing in apps like Photoshop and Premiere Pro. The catch? All of these comparisons are made against an iMac running an M1 chip, rather than an M3 chip. More specific numbers will have to wait until testers actually get their hands on the new device.
As for the computer itself, it looks roughly the same, with apparently unchanged bezels and basic design. However, Apple promises slight variations to the current color layout. There are still versions in green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver, but the shades are a little different than on the M3.
There are a couple of non-aesthetic upgrades to consider, including a 12MP Center Stage webcam. Most models also come with two additional Thunderbolt ports (for a total of four). The Thunderbolt standard is also now Thunderbolt 4, which should make file transfers a bit faster. If you’re not sure what Thunderbolt is, it’s basically USB-C (but better). Your USB-C cables will work with it just fine.
The accessories that the iMac comes with also have a slight change, as the Magic Mouse, Magic Keyboard, and Magic Trackpad all swap their Lightning charging ports for USB-C. They still cost the same when purchased separately (like always, you get a keyboard and a mouse included with your iMac), and swapping out your bundled mouse for a trackpad will run you an extra $50.
Maybe the biggest physical upgrade this year, though, is the default 16GB of memory, up from 8GB on the previous model with no extra charge. There’s also an optional “nano-texture display.” While it’s not a replacement for OLED, it should make the 4.5K Retina display a bit less prone to glare or reflections.
The M4 iMac is available to buy now and will start shipping on Nov. 8. It starts at $1,299 for a model with 16GB of memory and 256GB of storage. Upgrades stretch all the way to $2,699, which will give you 32GB of memory, 2TB of storage, and an M4 chip variation with slightly more cores.
