But i didn’t really have a chance to share a lot of my honest thoughts and opinions and since many of you guys in the comments, seemed to be very unhappy with the new imac for multiple different reasons. I figured i’d address some of the concerns in this video and give you guys my thoughts on if it’s actually worth thirteen hundred dollars, so let’s get right into it, starting with the design, i’ve seen countless comments with people disappointed in the new design, calling it ugly, Mostly due to the white bezels on the front, and especially the fact that apple kept, the chin around david from cnn says that it’s quote ugly as sin richard from techradar says: it’s badly, designed and then ben from 925 max says that the design is inexplicable or Basically, unexplainable due to the chin and, of course, the white bezels, so let me explain why apple made those design decisions and then give you guys my thoughts on the overall design. First, off apple’s main goal was obviously to make it as thin as possible, basically to blow people’s minds and push the entire computer industry towards using arm based chips like their own apple silicon m1 chip and to achieve that level of thinness just 11.5 millimeters. They had to house all of the computer components, including the logic board, the speakers and the fans away from the display, hence why they kept the chin around but that’s. Not. The only reason, like i mentioned in my previous videos, the imac chin – is iconic and it’s instantly recognizable from across even a large room.

But what shocked me the most was that they got rid of the apple logo which, to me doesn’t really make sense. They could have at least etched an apple logo into the glass panel, since it also covers the chin, which would have made for a super clean. Look like we have on the back of the iphone 12 pro now. Some people think it’s because of the vasa mount option that allows you to rotate the display and use it in vertical mode but i’m, not really sure. On top of that, apple of course, chose to make the bezels white instead of black, which is a weird design choice, but i think apple did it for 4 different reasons. First, the original imac that had all of the different colors also had white bezels and same with the imac g4 and the imac g5, so they’re, probably going for that retro look. Second, the white bezels give it a sort of innocent and playful look along with all the color options, which shows that apple is obviously targeting the younger non techie market. Third, the white bezels make the new imac instantly stand out compared to any intel based imac that’s. Currently out there, so if you see an imac with white bezels, you know it’s got apple silicon and fourth, i think that apple simply wanted to shock people with the design making it look as unique as possible, intentionally causing controversy and leading to many people talking about It which is basically free marketing, they did it with the airpods, which many people hated at first, but they eventually went viral.

They did it with the face id notch on the iphone 10, which people hated, but the iphone 10 was the best selling smartphone in the world, and the new iphone 12 models are still the best selling in the world. They did it with the triple camera lenses. On the iphone 11 pro which people called very ugly at first, but they eventually bought it and warmed up to it, like i said, apple likes to shock people and that’s, exactly what they’re doing with the 24 inch imac. Now. As for my personal thoughts, i do think it does look a little bit weird from the front, mainly because they ditched the apple logo on the huge chin which i honestly wish was a little bit thinner. So when we get our 24 inch imac in our office. Next month, we’re, probably gon na stick on one of those apple stickers onto the chin, to make it look a little bit better. However, i think that once people finally get it into their hands and actually get to see and feel how premium lightweight and thin the design truly is people are gon na fall in love with it, and the design is gon na quickly grow on them. So, in my opinion, from a design and marketing standpoint apple absolutely knocked it out of the park and what i love the most about it is the super clean flat back the incredibly good looking stand and the new magnetic power cable, so i’ve got ta admit that The imac is an engineering masterpiece now.

The second thing that people complained about was the fact that the imac gets the same m1 chip that we already have in the other max. So let me give you four reasons for why apple gave the 24 inch imac the m1 chip. First off, we weren’t actually expecting the m1x chip to be ready. Yet since the 14 and 16 inch macbook pros were reportedly delayed until the second half of this year. So it would be really weird to get the m1x and the imac first. Second, if apple would have given it the m1x, they would have had to greatly raise the base price and that’s a problem, because this imac, with all of its playful colors, is obviously meant for the younger average consumer market. Just like the previous 21.5 inch, imac was meant for and, if you think about it, the m1 chip is now being packed into five different apple products, including the ipad pro, which saves apple, a ton of money due to less r d and mass manufacturing, allowing them To keep the price of m1 products low and third, the performance of the m1 chip is actually great. It has by far the best web browsing and common app performance out of any mac out there, even better than our 15 000 intel base mac pro and since the imac is meant for average consumers it’s the best case scenario. In that sense, and even for professionals, the m1 chip fares extremely well against apple’s, much more expensive intel based macs and tasks like photo editing in lightroom, video, editing in final cut pro music production and logic pro, and especially xcode programming, where the m1 is faster than Our mac pro all due to excellent optimization and alongside all of that, the m1 chip also runs incredibly cool silent and it barely uses any power compared to intel chips.

So, in terms of performance, the m1 chip is perfect for the 24 inch imac and the m1x would have honestly just been overkill for most people, and the same thing goes for people complaining about having a maximum of 16 gigs of ram 32 would have been overkill For almost everyone, since apple’s unified memory architecture is incredibly efficient and, in some cases, performs much better than other machines with the same amount of ram and now moving on to the fourth reason, the m1 chip is incredibly reliable, since apple is now controlling the software. The machine and the chip at the same time, so they can optimize the software better than ever before. This means that people will no longer have amd graphics, driver issues or have all of those intel security chip flaws, like spectre and meltdown since the m1 chip is super secure, just like apple’s iphones. The m1 also allows new great features to work like being able to use iphone and ipad games and apps, having probably the best 1080p webcam. You can get thanks to the m1 ship’s isp, the instant wake feature which intel max never had, and especially the new touch id magic keyboard, which only works because of the secure apple silicon chip. So, in my opinion, people buying the 24 inch m1 imac today will be getting an incredibly reliable and fast system, that’ll last for probably 8 to 10 years, without very many issues at all and that’s gon na cause it to hold its value incredibly well now, moving On to the next thing that people complained about, we have the ports.

The base model for thirteen hundred dollars only gets two thunderbolt ports and a headphone jack on the side compared to the old 21 and a half inch imac, which had two of the same ports. But it added four usb: a ports, a gigabit, ethernet jack and an sd card slot. This is extremely disappointing, since you’re much more limited than you previously were, and i honestly believe that apple could have easily added an sd card slot on the side if they really wanted to, but they didn’t. And what frustrates me the most is that a recent leak has basically confirmed that the redesigned macbook pros coming later this year will be getting an sd card slot. So why would apple scrap it on the imac i don’t know now. If you buy the more expensive models or if you buy the upgraded power adapter separately, you do get an ethernet jack built into the power supply, which i think is absolutely genius, because that’s one less cable that you have to route up to the imac. However, the 24 inch imac does not support 10 gigabit ethernet, which is very disappointing, since you can actually now get it on the m1 mac mini. But in my honest opinion, the 24 inch imac also supports wi fi 6, which is actually faster than regular, gigabit ethernet, and these days wi fi is so reliable that the average consumer doesn’t even need a wired connection anymore. In fact, all three of our macs that we use professionally every day in our office are using wi fi six, even though we could easily get them connected using ethernet.

So i don’t think it’s that big of a deal and as far as the limited thunderbolt port situation it’s not that big of a deal for the average consumer. But it definitely sucks for tech enthusiasts. Because, even if you get the more expensive models, you still only get two thunderbolt ports, since the other two that are added are only usb c ports. But luckily there is a perfect solution to this problem and that’s the owc thunderbolt hub, which turns one thunderbolt port into a usb 3.2 port and three full speed, thunderbolt ports, which we proved to work in our review of that hub. So definitely check out that video. If you’re interested and we’re gon na link it down below and finally, there were a lot of people that complained about the thirteen hundred dollar base price, saying that it’s way too expensive, considering the fact that it has the same m1 chip as the 700 mac mini. But in my unpopular opinion, it’s, actually a killer value for everything that you’re getting just think about it, you’re getting a masterpiece of a machine in terms of the design and the premium build quality you’re. Getting a super nice 4.5 k display with excellent color accuracy and 500 nits of brightness, and if you didn’t already know, lg is selling their ultra fine 24 inch display for 700 alone and keep in mind that it’s only 4k and not 4.5 k. On top of that, you’re getting speakers that apple says are better than the ones in the imac pro, which i know are absolutely amazing, since i use that machine every single day for editing apple also says that you’re getting better microphones than on any other mac and You’Re getting a 1080p webcam that’s, also better than any mac ever made.

Of course, you get the color matched magic keyboard and magic mouse included, which i can say for a fact are the most reliable peripherals that i’ve ever used and, yes, they do still use lightning to charge, but the batteries literally last forever. So it’s not a big deal at all and on top of that you’re getting the powerful m1 chip, which has the best web browsing performance you can get while being incredibly secure, feature packed and with reliability. That’Ll last you eight to ten years no problem. So if you add the value of all of those things together, the 24 inch imac is a no brainer for thirteen hundred dollars for a lot of average consumers out there, and even for some tech enthusiasts who want a reliable machine. I can tell you for a fact that you won’t be able to configure a custom windows desktop pc or all in one that matches these specs performance accessories and features for thirteen hundred dollars there’s just no way, especially with the whole chip shortage going on right now. Now, yes, one option is to go with the m1 mac mini, but good luck finding a display in peripherals this nice for less than thirteen hundred dollars total. So, in my unpopular opinion, apple absolutely knocked it out of the park with the new 24 inch imac from the masterpiece of a design and the m1’s performance to, of course, the value and the reliability, and many of the doubters are only gon na realize it when They actually get it and see it in person or read all of the positive reviews that we’re gon na be getting next month.

So there you guys go. Those were my personal thoughts on the new imac and if you totally disagree with me, go ahead and comment. Your thoughts down below, but if you enjoyed it, click that circle about to subscribe for more videos like this one, especially our hands on comparisons with the imac, definitely check out our ipad pro thoughts.